Where to spend extra night; Merzouga or Skoura?

Old Nov 23rd, 2014, 04:27 PM
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Where to spend extra night; Merzouga or Skoura?

I have made all my hotel reservations for a trip to Morocco in March, and now I'm reevaluating one of my night's stay. We are staying one night at Les Jardins de Skoura, one night at Auberge le Festival in Todra Gorge, an overnight in the desert, and then an extra night in Merzouga to relax. In reading reviews for Les Jardins de Skoura, many people regret staying only one night and wish they had done two. I have 4 nights to work with. Which of these 3 options would you choose?

Option A:
Skoura - 2 nights
Todra Gorge - 1 night
Erg Chebbi - 1 night

Option B
Skoura - 2 nights
Erg Chebbi - 1 night
Merzouga - 1 night

Option C
Skoura - 1 night
Todra Gorge - 1 night
Erg Chebbi - 1 night
Merzouga - 1 night

Thanks,
Laurie
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Old Nov 26th, 2014, 01:42 AM
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Sallam 'lekum Laurie,

I've copied the email that I have just sent you, just in case other Fodorites are interested...

Good to hear from you. I returned to Cape Town this past weekend after 5 weeks in Morocco on-tour. We were lucky enough to experience wonderful views of a snow-topped Atlas, and also lucky enough to have missed the terrible floods, see here if you haven't seen already. Hopefully the Tizi n'Tichka pass (Marrakech-Ouarzazate) will be repaired by the time you arrive next year.

I agree that it would be very nice to enjoy two nights in Skoura, but what to trim from your itinerary to do this? Your two choices for achieving this, as I see it, are:
1. Opt for a long day of travel between Skoura and your desert camp, merely visiting Todra Gorge along the way, rather than staying overnight. This will still allow you to stay two nights in the desert/Merzouga.
2. Opt for an even longer day of travel (around 10-11 hours depending on stops en-route) between your desert camp and Fez. This will only give you one night in the desert/Merzouga but will still allow you to stay a night at Auberge la Festival. Just a note with that...Auberge la Festival is located some kilometers past the Todra palmeraie/gorge.

In my humble opinion, I would actually leave your itinerary as is and merely try to arrive at Skoura as early as possible. Both of the above options will require some 'rushing' along the way and personally, I abhor having to rush when I'm exploring. If I was forced into deciding between the above two options, I would skip the night at Todra but make sure that I really explored the Skoura palmeraie as compensation for not having much time to explore the Todra palmeraie.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Darren
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Old Dec 12th, 2014, 08:33 AM
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Erg Chebbi (sand sea Chebbi) is right next to the village of Merzouga, so they are really one and the same.

I've been past, but not in, Les Jardins de Skoura, and I guess people are saying they enjoyed it as a quiet haven. But there's not much to Skoura other than palm trees and piseé architecture, see http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net...read.php?t=195

I wouldn't miss the Dades Gorge en-route, you could visit there, then stay in Auberge le Festival that night, so you see both gorges. Dades: http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net...read.php?t=221 Todra: http://www.morocco-knowledgebase.net...read.php?t=217
TimCullis is offline  
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