What's a good southern Morocco desert loop?

A loop is the way to do the south, because it means you never drive the same road twice and you stitch together every kind of southern landscape. The version I build most often starts in Marrakech, crosses the High Atlas on the Tizi n'Tichka pass — a spectacular climb in its own right — and drops you at Ait Ben Haddou, the UNESCO kasbah village that's starred in everything from Gladiator to Game of Thrones.

From Ouarzazate you head east along the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs: Skoura's palmery, the rose valley at Kelaa M'Gouna, the Dades switchbacks, then the Todra gorge near Tinghir. That string of stops fills two unhurried days and builds beautifully toward the headline — the great golden dunes of Erg Chebbi at Merzouga, where you swap the car for a camel and sleep in a desert camp under the stars. For most people this is the emotional peak of the entire trip.

The clever part is the return. Instead of retracing your steps, you swing southwest through the Draa Valley — Morocco's longest palm oasis, a ribbon of green and kasbahs — to Zagora and the gates of the deep Sahara, then climb back over the mountains to Marrakech via Agdz and the Tizi n'Tichka again, or via Taroudant for variety. That completes the circle.

I usually pace it at five to six days. You can compress it into three or four, but you'll spend most of the trip in the car and feel the dunes for one rushed evening. Give it room and the loop becomes the single most rewarding journey in the country — mountains, oases, gorges and the open Sahara all in one continuous arc.