9 Best things to do in Ouarzazate
In November 2022, we made a 16-day Road trip in Morocco going all around and driving over 2 500 km (in a Fiat 500! What an adventure).
Our trip started and ended in Fes, and we made a loop in order to visit this magnificent country. Our itinerary went through the main cities, the Sahara Desert, the seaside and the mountains of Morocco.
We personally rented a car at the airport and did the following: Fes, Chefchaouen, Rabat, Casablanca, Essaouira, Marrakesh, Imlil, Telouet, Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, Tinghir, Merzouga, Ifrane. However, you don’t need to follow it by the dot, you can use it to make your own plan.
Ouarzazate was our 8th stop in Morocco. It was our 12th day in the country. We made a road trip from Imlil/Marrakech to Ait Ben Haddou which is located next to Ouarzazate. This way, we can start the day directly by exploring Ouarzazate and then keep on with our road trip.
Ouarzazate is located in the High Atlas Mountains, known as a gateway to the Sahara Desert. It is also famous for being a modern city, home of the active Atlas cinema studio. But also closed to many kasbah and ksar such as Aït Ben Haddou. And the rocky Todra Gorge.
In this article, we will tell our story going around all the best things to do in Ouarzazate. So, if you too are planning a trip to Morocco and to Ouarzazate, then let ‘s dive in these best things to do in Ouarzazate.
Table of Contents
Here is our complete video from this trip :
Mapping the day
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Getting there
Getting to Ouarzazate is not too hard as it is located 136km from Marrakech. It is a 3h30min ride from there.
If you do not have a car, you can take a bus for 4h30 to 5h. There are a few departures a day. You can check them at CTM. The first choice is anyway to get to Marrakech and from there find your way toward Ouarzazate.
Moving Around
Ouarzazate is quite small, but you will need a car or any mean of transportation to get around. To go from one place to the other required time and driving.
When to Visit
You can visit Ouarzazate all year round but be aware that temperature varies from the extreme 38°C in summer to fresh 4°C in winter at night. Ouarzazate has a maximum of 1 days a month of rain making it a super dry destination.
The touristic season runs from May until October usually, yet since covid-19, November is also more and more visited. That’s when we were there, and the weather was quite pleasant. In beginning of November, it was still warm to be in short and end of November was colder, especially at night.
The best time then to visit Ouarzazate is then from May to June and then September to November. July and August being super-hot as well as the peak season for local.
Where to Stay
We stayed before Ouarzazate, but we would have loved to have a spare day and be able to enjoy Ouarzazate longer.
- (€): Hôtel Riad Dar Daïf
- (€€): Dar Amoudou
- (€€€): Riad Chay & Boutique
What to Eat
Morocco has lots of traditional dishes and quite the tasteful cuisine. Our go-to dishes are:
- Tajine: Named after the earthenware pot in which it is cooked. This dish is basically mixed vegetables cooked for 1h or more inside the tajine pot. It can be only vegetable or with meat.
- Couscous: Made with a base of steamed wheat semolina, topped with vegetables, chickpeas, dry fruits and sauce. Plus, in option meat.
- Harira: soup of tomato, lentils, and chickpeas
- Moroccan Salad: There are lots of recipes. But it mostly includes rice, tomatoes, carrots, green peas…
Those can be found anywhere. So, be ready to go for them for the whole trip 😊
Alcohol cannot be found easily in Morocco, and it can only be drunken in a licensed restaurant or bar (which isn’t many). But you will be able to enjoy the most traditional drink of all: Teas. Mostly Mint tea mixed with green tea. Moroccans drink it at any time and everywhere. It is even for some a real ritual.
We mostly took breakfast and dinner in our accommodations. This was the easiest especially that in November, night would come early. But a good place we would recommend is:
- Jardin Des Arômes ouarzazate
It is a bit fancy restaurant with higher price, but the food is just delicious and the portion HUGE which explain the price.
Best things to do in Ouarzazate
Introduction
To give you the context, we visited Telouet and Ait Ben Haddou on our way to Ouarzazate, we then started this day by visiting Ouarzazate and then went out toward Tinghir which was our next stop.
Atlas Studios
We left for Ouarzazate at 9h. It was 30min drive till the first stop. The Atlas studio (CLA studios are closed). There we took the combined ticket for the studios and the set of kingdoms of heaven for 110dh.
The visit of the studio was really great and lasted almost 1h. You got through many different movies sets with a guide. We cannot do it any other way than with a guide as the studio are active studio and movies are still being recorded there.
The set we saw were the one from Gladiator, Kundun, Black hawk down, Asterix and Obelix…
At the end we left a 10dh tips to the guide and went out to our car where we also gave 5Mdh tips for the parking guys.
Kingdom of Heaven movie set
So, we went around the Atlas studio on our car to the kingdom of heaven set. There we were alone with the guardian who brought us around the complete set. He couldn’t talk much but was nice and took pictures of us. We have him 20dh tips and headed to the city.
I even got the change to try a trebuchet, boy, it was super heavy.
We then drove around the complete set and headed back to the city where we stop for grocery at Carrefour market 112.80dh.
Palais des Congrès & Cour d'appel
After that we went to the city where we withdrew some money. A cool thing is that parking is free is Ouarzazate. Along the road we saw Palais des Congrès & Cour d’appel which have a great design. So, don’t miss them out.
Lunch
We then had lunch at Jardins des Arômes. It was delicious. We had the Moroccan salad and the Lebanese meeze. It was so good and tasteful. It cost more than usual but looking at the dishes, it was totally worth it. It cost 130dh per dish and 25 for a beer. The restaurant is a bit more fancy than usual and has a small garden.
Kasbah Amridil
Next stop was the Kasbah Amridil which is located outside of Ouarzazate. The entrance is 40dh per person (option for guide on site for 50dh). It was a nice place but unfortunately if you want to visit both side you have to pay 2 entrances due to inheritance. The kasbah is separated in two.
From there you can also go in the palm groove walking or by bike. They offered it to us but we refused as we were actually driving in the palm groove and will visit one later in Tinghir.
Dadès Gorges
We hoped back on the car and drove to the Dadès gorge. The gorge is a bit out of the way (25min one way) but really worth it. The rock formation is amazing is so unusual.
Tinghir
And finally, we drove to our accommodation in Tinghir where we had dinner. We arrived at 18h30, check-in and ordered food. We had a soup, berber omelet and rice with vegetables. We then discuss with the waiter about our next day and which route to use. He was super friendly.
Tinghir is a great stop to make as it is located in a palm groove and next to the famous Todra gorge.
PS: if you are on a road trip do refuel your car in Tinghir before going up toward the palm grove.
Here are some places where you can stay:
- (€): Retour Au Calme
- (€€): Auberge Camping Atlas
- (€€€): Auberge Le Festival Todra Gorge
More things to do in Ouarzazate
If you want more things to do in Ouarzazate, you can consider:
- Tifoultoute Kasbah
- Taourirt Kasbah
Those are Kasbah, local old fortress. If you have been following us, we already visited a lot, so we skipped those one. But if you have time, those look quite wonderful as well.
Things to do near Ouarzazate
Telouet
Telouet Kasbah is a fortress along the former route of the caravans from the Sahara over the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech. The kasbah was the seat of the El Glaoui family’s power, thus sometimes also called the Palace of Glaoui. Its construction started in 1860 and it was further expanded in later years. The palace can still be visited but it is steadily becoming more damaged and is slowly collapsing. In 2010, work was underway to restore the property.
Ait Ben Haddou
The site of the ksar has been fortified since the 11th century during the Almoravid period. None of the current buildings are believed to date from before the 17th century, but they were likely built with the same construction methods and designs as had been used for centuries before. The site’s strategic importance was due to its location in the Ounila Valley along one of the main trans-Saharan trade routes.
3-day Ouarzazate Itinerary
Day 1:
- Leave Marrakech
- Visit Anima Garden
- Visit Telouet
- Visit Ait Ben Haddou
Day 2
- Atlas Studios
- Kingdom of Heaven movie set
- Palais des Congrès & Cour d’appel
- Kasbah Amridil
- Dadès Gorges
- Tinghir
Day 3
- Tinghir palm groove
- Todra gorge
- Merzouga
ضرب الحديد ماحدو سخون Strike the iron while it’s still hot. (Take advantage of the opportunity before it passes you by)
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