Almost everyone who writes to us about the desert starts from the same three cities, and Casablanca is the one that surprises people. It is the country's biggest city and its main airport, and it sits on the Atlantic, nowhere near the sand. This is what the drive from Casablanca down to the Sahara actually involves, where the road changes character, and how we break it up so it never feels like a forced march.
The two halves of the drive
From Casablanca the Sahara is not one road but two. The first is the motorway south to Marrakesh: about 220 km, mostly flat, fast and tolled. The second is the crossing of the High Atlas and the long descent into the Draa Valley: Marrakesh to Zagora is a further 355 km, around six hours with the pass in the middle. Together, Casablanca to the dunes is most of a day behind the wheel, so we plan it as part of the trip rather than a transfer to get out of the way.
Casablanca to Marrakesh on the A3
The A3 expressway links the two cities along 220 km of toll motorway. That distance is three sections: roughly 17 km of bypass around Casablanca, 57 km from the city to Settat, and 146 km from Settat on to Marrakesh. The road reached Settat in 2002 and Marrakesh in 2007, so it is a modern, relaxed drive rather than an adventure.
Before you leave Casablanca, one detour earns its place. The Hassan II Mosque stands partly over the Atlantic, its minaret rising 210 metres. Among the tallest in the world. And it was completed in 1993. The prayer hall and its grounds together hold around 105,000 people, and the sheer scale of it sets the tone for a country you are about to cross.
Past Settat the plains open into wheat fields, and on a clear day the snow line of the High Atlas appears far ahead. Marrakesh is where the real journey begins.
Over the Tizi n'Tichka
Leaving Marrakesh south, the road becomes the N9 and starts to climb. The high point is the Tizi n'Tichka, at the figure on the sign, 2,260 m, the highest major mountain pass in North Africa. A 2022 GPS survey measured it a little lower, at 2,205 m, but either way it is high, cold and slow: a run of hairpins cut in 1936 along an old caravan trail. In winter the pass can be shut by snow between November and March.
The reward is the far side. The road drops into Ouarzazate through bare brown mountains, with palmeries on the valley floor and the hard, clear light that turned this region into a film-making base.
Down the Draa to Zagora
From Ouarzazate the road follows the Draa Valley, Morocco's longest palm oasis, as it runs southeast towards the desert. At its edge sits Zagora, a town of around 42,000 and the place we call home, marked by the famous sign that points the old caravan road to Timbuktu. Zagora is where the tarmac ends and the tracks begin.
Beyond it, M'Hamid, the last town before Erg Chegaga, is another 95 km or so. About an hour and a half further south. And from there you are on the piste.
Why start from Casablanca at all
If the dunes are your only goal, Marrakesh is the closer start, 355 km from Zagora. But beginning in Casablanca adds the coast and the mosque, gives you the whole sweep of the country from Atlantic to sand, and lines up naturally with flights through Mohammed V airport. Our ten-day tour from Casablanca through Marrakesh to the desert is built for exactly this route, and our full Morocco arc in ten days begins on the same coast before carrying on across the south.
How we break the drive
We almost never do Casablanca to the dunes in one push. The natural stop is Marrakesh, where the road changes from motorway to mountain, or Ouarzazate, on the far side of the pass, so that you reach camp rested and well before sunset. If you would rather see the coast first, our Casablanca guide and our Zagora guide cover what there is to do at each end of the road. After that, all that is left is the sand.
Sources
- Hassan II Mosque: minaret height, completion date and capacity, Wikipedia, Hassan II Mosque
- A3 Casablanca-Marrakesh expressway: length, sections and opening dates, Wikipedia, Casablanca-Marrakesh expressway
- Tizi n'Tichka: altitude, 1936 construction and caravan-trail origin, Wikipedia, Tizi n'Tichka
- Zagora: town on the Draa, population and caravan sign, Wikipedia, Zagora, Morocco
