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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Morocco 2025 Day 6: Fez to Merzouga
Morocco 2024 Day 6: 20th April (Sunday)
Fez (Riad El Yacout)>Imouzzer Kandar>Ifrane>Boulaajoul>Midelt>Er-Rich>Ziz Valley>Merzane>Merzouga (Riad Serai).
This is page 6 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D5: Around Fez | Go to Other Days | D7: Erg Chebbi Desert >
< D5: Around Fez | Go to Other Days | D7: Erg Chebbi Desert >
Route recommendations, here are some tips on travelling to and around Morocco:
1. Traffic Directions!
Driving in Morocco is left-hand drive, and driving is on the right-hand side of the road. Do look to the correct side when crossing roads.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
Speed limits are between 60 km/h within urban areas, 100 km/h outside urban areas, including expressways, and 120 km/h on highways. Do adhere to these limits, as often police are monitoring with radars; our driver-guide was careful about this.
2. Immigration & Customs Requirements
For Morocco, citizens of Malaysia do not need a visa to enter for travel purposes and can stay in the country for 90 days without a visa. Click here for visa requirements for other countries.
3. Getting to and around Morocco.
Morocco is easily accessible by air as most major airlines serve Morocco and have flights to major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech. We flew return via Emirates to Casablanca with transit in Dubai at a fare of MYR4,430 per pax. Do note that Emirates now charges for seat selection.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For ground arrangements, we booked a 13-day guided tour through Tenere Tours at €1,350 per pax. This included stays at comfortable hotels and riads, and a night at a caravanserai luxury camp in the desert. Breakfast was included, and also dinners at the Dades Valley Hotel, Merzoga Riad and Desert Caravanserai Luxury Camp.
The guided tour included a 9-seater van with a driver-guide to take the six of us to/from the airports, and from city to city. And also the camel ride to the desert camp. We paid extra for walking tours at the Fez Medina and Marrakech Medina at €85/group/city.
For out-of-pocket spending, we exchanged Euros to Moroccan dirhams (MAD) at local money-changers in Rabat and Rissani. As a contingency, we brought along our Wise debit cards, do note that this may not be acceptable at many places.
4. Places & Things of Interest
En route were several places of interest, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for a directional map to respective places):
a. Fes El Bali (GPS: 34.06308, -4.97687), the medina of Fez.
a. Fes El Bali (GPS: 34.06308, -4.97687), the medina of Fez.
c. De La Paix Botanical Garden (GPS: 33.52834, -5.10702) at Ifrane.
e. Ziz Valley (GPS: 32.13939, -4.36573) at Achbarou.
f. Lake Al-Hassan Addakhil (GPS: 31.99351, -4.48266) at Errachidia.
g. Tienda de Atman Segaoui Shop (GPS: 31.35571, -4.13509) at Merzane, to buy Moroccan Head Scarf
i. Middle Atlas Mountains (GPS: 33.5000, -4.5000).
j. High Atlas Mountains (GPS: 31.42999, -6.93999).
5. Food
a. Breakfast
Inclusive hotel Western & Moroccan breakfast at Riad El Yacout (GPS: 34.05995, -4.98057) in Fez.
c. Lunch
Restaurant Meteorites (GPS: 32.88913, -4.98469) in Boulaajoul (GPS: 32.88381, -4.95716): Mix salad, Berber Omelet Tajine, Pizza Margherita and Moroccan Chicken Skewers.
d. Dinner
Inclusive hotel dinner at Riad Serai (GPS: 31.13338, -4.01859): 1. Starter of Stuffed Aubergine, potato salad in crispy bowl, & spiced rice, 2. Roasted beef ribs/marrow with stew, 3. Caramelised pudding.
6. Accommodations
7. Dressing
I brought two long pants along and four shorts. In the end, I didn't wear the shorts as the weather can get quite cold in the morning and evenings, especially with stronger winds at the seaside.
When entering mosques, men can wear shorts, but ladies have to cover up their legs and heads. Scarves and long pants are recommended; if wearing shorts, bring a sarong or something to cover one's legs.
8. Communicating with Each Other
When travelling in a group, it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one gets lost from the rest.
Upon arrival at Casablanca Airport, booths selling pre-paid sim cards can be found just before exiting the luggage reclaim area. There were booths selling Maroc, Orange, and Inwi pre-paid tourist phone sim cards. We opted for the Maroc sim card as it provides better coverage even in remote areas, which I found to be true, and it only had poor or no signal at remote stretches far in the hills or desert. We got the 15 Gb card, which is valid for one month for 100 MAD. Should this be inadequate, memory can be topped up at any phone shop.
9. Communicating with Locals
At favourite tourist destinations, markets and medinas, many locals speak fairly good English, some French and Spanish. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English, and our local guide was most helpful in translating for us.
10. Weather
The average day temperatures in Fez were 18°C, at Ifrane, they were 4-5°C, with clear skies. The average day and night temperatures in Merzouga were 26°C and 16°C.
Useful weather forecast sites for Fez and Merzouga are AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.
11. Navigation
I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.
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PRELUDE
A day earlier, we had an interesting guided walking tour of Fes El Bali, the medina of Fez. This was a drive to the Borj Nord Viewpoint for a panoramic view of Fez, followed by a visit to the Art D'Argile Pottery factory to see how beautiful Moroccan Pottery is made.
Today, we take a long (almost 500km) drive to Merzouga, set on the far western edge of the Sahara Desert, to prepare for a desert adventure the following day. En route, we stop for a short visit to one of the coldest places in the country, touted to be the Switzwerland of Morocco.
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DAY 6: FEZ TO MERZOUGA
Small Group (Non-cycling) Tour of Morocco.
Most of the posts below are linked to my Facebook postings during the trip and are embedded here with some comments. (NOTE: Click on respective posts to link to the FB post for more details. If you can't see the posts, please log out of your Facebook first.)
Another day's breakfast of mixed Western and Moroccan spread at Riad El Yacout.
It will be very cold at Ifrane, some friends forgot to bring warm clothing, so we stopped by to get some thermals at Marjane Fès I (GPS: 34.04943, -5.03593)
Along Route Imouzzer, enroute to Merzouga. Our next destination, Ifrane, is somewhere in the
highlands ahead.
At Ifrane, the mini Switzwerland of Morocco. It's very cold here, even close to noon, it's 4-5°C, even though it's not that high up at an elevation of 1,665m above sea level.
Stopped by to enjoy the De La Paix Botanical Garden.
Just to enjoy the mood of the place, we took a coffee break at Café Restaurant La Paix. Although the place looks classy, we're a captive market and our coffee was served in paper cups!
1:30pm - Two and a half hours and 150 km. later, we arrived at Restaurant Meteorites in Boulaajoul for lunch of Mix salad, Berber Omelet Tajine, Pizza Margherita and Moroccan Chicken Skewers. After days of eating and getting bored with tajine-style cooking, we found the Omelet Tajine to be quite good, as it was not as dry as the other tajine dishes that we had previously!
After lunch left my footprint here! One of my "Ah Pek Biker was here!" stickers.
I put these at foodie places, interesting places that I visited and liked.
I put these at foodie places, interesting places that I visited and liked.
Further on, views of the High Atlas Mountains. Although they are quite a distance away, their snow capped peaks still look majestic!
Passing through Midelt, we have left the lush green area and into a dry,
arid region.
This is a sort of halfway point between Fez and Merzouga, and some stop here for a night to break a long journey. But a friend who had done this said that there was nothing much to do here, and it was sort of boring. It was a good thing that we were just passing by only and saved a day.
A short rest stop at a Total Energies petrol station. In the town of Er-Rich. Will we
get er... rich here 😂?
View of the Lake Al-Hassan Addakhil formed by the Hassan II Dam (Sidi Said Dam) at Errachidia. It is a gravity dam on the Moulouya River and is used for potable water, irrigation and the protection of downstream areas against floods and siltation.
Passing Ziz Valley at Achbarou.
Below the gorges carved in the rock by Oued Ziz, this river broadens at Errachidia, giving birth to a vast plain with one of Morocco's largest palm groves.
Below the gorges carved in the rock by Oued Ziz, this river broadens at Errachidia, giving birth to a vast plain with one of Morocco's largest palm groves.
Pit stop at ienda de Atman Segaoui Shop, Merzane, to buy Moroccan Head Scarves for
tomorrow's camel ride.
The scarves are three or four meters long and are cheaper here at 80 to 150 MAD each. At Fez, it's more than double the price!
Ready for some Lawrence of Arabia adventures! 😆😂🤣
The scarves are three or four meters long and are cheaper here at 80 to 150 MAD each. At Fez, it's more than double the price!
Ready for some Lawrence of Arabia adventures! 😆😂🤣
Approaching Merzouga, suddenly the Erg Chebbi sand dunes loomed at us. With soft light from the low sun, they came up majestically rising from the desert floor.
Checked into our desert riad, the Riad Serai.
Surprisingly, even though it's located in the desert region, inside it was quite cool. This is due to the Moroccan Architectural design , which has come up with ways to beat the heat.
It's a beautiful riad, as seen in the above video.
Our room at Riad Serai Merzouga. Surprisingly, it was very big and cosy, with a separate shower, wc; and a large basin area. Can dance even dance inside 🤣! And with such beautiful Moroccan ceiling and wall lamps.
We noticed that the rooms in the riads at the smaller towns are much bigger than those in the big cities.
We noticed that the rooms in the riads at the smaller towns are much bigger than those in the big cities.
The inclusive yummilicious French & Spanish Dinner at Riad Serai Merzouga:
1. Starter of Stuffed Aubergine, potato salad in crispy bowl, & spiced rice, 2. Roasted beef ribs/marrow with stew, 3. Caramelised pudding.
With this wonderful dinner, we will have a good night's sleep and be ready for tomorrow's camel riding adventure!
YIPEE-KAI-EH?
YIPEE-KAI-EH?
'Laqad kan ywman twylan walakina rayean!
(That's "It was a long but wonderful day!" in Arabic)
(For more photos of Day 6, Click Here)
This is page 6 of a 13-page blog. Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D5: Around Fez | Go to Other Days | D7: Erg Chebbi Desert >
< D5: Around Fez | Go to Other Days | D7: Erg Chebbi Desert >
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You are at - Jotaro's Blog /AhPek Biker-Footsteps /Morocco 2025/ D6: Fez to Merzouga | Go to D1/D2/D3/D4/D5/D7/D8/D9/D10/D11/D12/D13-14
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