After morning pickup from your Marrakech hotel or riad, board your air-conditioned vehicle with your group of 15 or fewer, and journey toward the Atlas Mountains, North Africa’s greatest mountain range.
En route, hear about the Atlas’ geography from your guide, and learn about the Berber villages that speckle their valleys and slopes. Learn, too, about the Ourika Valley waterfalls, a series of crystal-clear mountainside cascades that provide a lovely counterpoint to the rocky slopes.
As you approach the mountains, enter the lush Ourika Valley, passing stone and adobe-mud villages framed by the snow-capped peaks. Then, arrive at a town near the falls and choose to either relax at the pretty riverside cafes (own expense) or take a guided walk to the falls.
If you opt for the walk, meet a local guide and follow them past orchards up the hillsides. Stop to admire the cascades and take photos of the mountain views that unfurl en route.
Reconvene with your vehicle and continue to an argan oil co-operative. After watching the Berber women extracting Morocco’s precious argan oil here, return to Marrakech where your tour concludes at the starting point.
