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Morocco Cycling Vacation Ride Profiles

The ride profiles here will help you know what to expect and how to train for the routes on our adventure cycling tour in Northern Morocco.

Route 1: Chefchaouen to Akchour Falls & Return

Easy day one ride with a few small climbs to get your legs warmed up. This is one of the few exceptions where I have planned a photography session mid-day. The support vehicle will carry your photography gear. Be sure to pack ND filters for photographing the falls. We will have two evenings and two mornings to photograph in Chefchaouen as well.

Route 2: Ouezzane to Volubilis

This is the most relaxed day of the tour. Restrain yourself from stopping every 15 minutes to take a photo. We have a great photo location waiting for us at the end of the day during blue hour.

Route 3: Meknes to Fes

We photograph at the Moulay Ismail Stables and Tombs in the morning and then have a lazy day ride into Fes. If we arrive into Fes early enough we can photograph a sunset over the city.

REST DAY AND END OF THE SHORT TOUR

These first three routes and photography days will take us five days to complete. Some guests may choose to leave the tour after Fes if they have only a short time for vacation and travel. For everyone else riding on the full 12 day tour, continue on to Route 4: Ifrane to Midelt.

Route 4: Ifrane to Midelt

The ride south into the Atlas Mountains from Ifrane is green and beautiful. There are also the wild monkeys at the top of the pass that most people want to stop and photograph. We will stop for lunch at Atlas Lake Inn which is roughly 70km / 45 miles into this ride. After this point it's nearly all downhill to our evening accommodations. At that point we will decide if we continue riding or get in the vans and transport to Midelt for the evening.

Route 5: Midelt to Erfoud

This ride takes us through the Ziz Valley and ends in the Sahara Desert. We will drive about an hour south from Midelt and start the ride roughly from Kerrandou. We will stop in Erfoud, shower and then visit the fossil mines briefly before heading to our Bedouin camp in the Erg Chebbi dunes for the evening.

REST DAY AND BEDOUIN CAMP IN THE DESERT

On Day 8 of the tour we will be photographing in the Erg Chebbi Dunes all day. All bikes and bike gear will stay with our cycling guide. You only need a change of clothes and photography gear for this day.

Route 6: Draa Valley

We will transfer in our vehicles about 2.5 hours from Rissani to Tamnougalt so we don't have to ride across the desert in the heat of the day. After reaching Tamnougalt we will have a late afternoon ride south into Draa Valley. This is planned to be an easy ride and we will spend some time photographing each other on the bikes.

Route 7:Tamnougalt to Ben Haddou

If you're in good shape this will be a fun day starting out with some tough climbing followed by beautiful landscapes and some smaller climbs. If you're worried about your legs having enough stamina to climb Tizi n'Tichka the next day then we'll drive you to the top of the first long climb and you can ride the remaining 65km / 40 miles from that point.

Route 8:Ben Haddou to Tizi n'Tichka

There are two options here and we will decide on the route the day of. The route north out of Ben Haddou that goes through Telout is the suffer option. If you're prepared for it, this is a difficult but thoroughly enjoyable ride. See below for option B.

Option B would take us west through Agouim and requires a lot less climbing.

END OF TOUR IN MARRAKECH

We wake up in Marrakech on day 12 of the tour and spend all day photographing in Marrakech. We plan to photograph early morning in the medina, spend time on photo review and editing, and then have a farewell dinner overlooking the medina for some sunset photos.

Morocco Cycling Vacation Ride Profiles

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