Is Boumalne Dades worth a stop?

Here's the distinction that matters: Boumalne Dades the town is unremarkable, but Boumalne Dades as the doorway to the Dades Gorge is one of the best stops on the whole 'Road of a Thousand Kasbahs' between Ouarzazate and the desert. People sometimes ask whether to bother with 'Boumalne' — and the answer is yes, but for the gorge behind it, not the town in front.

The Dades Gorge is the star. From Boumalne you turn north and drive up a valley that gets more dramatic with every kilometre: rose-coloured rock walls, a green ribbon of palms and almond trees along the river, old kasbahs perched on the slopes, and the bizarre, wonderful eroded formations the guidebooks call 'monkey fingers' (doigts de singe). The showstopper is the tight series of hairpin switchbacks climbing the canyon wall — one of the most photographed roads in Morocco, and genuinely thrilling to drive or be driven up. There are viewpoint cafés right at the bends where you can have a mint tea and take it all in.

My strong recommendation is to not just stop but to stay. The valley has a string of lovely riads and gîtes built into the gorge, and an overnight transforms the experience — you get the canyon in the soft evening and morning light without the midday tour traffic, you can walk a stretch of the river, and it breaks the long drive between Ouarzazate/Skoura and the Todra Gorge or the dunes very pleasantly. Even a single night up the gorge is one of the trip's quiet highlights for a lot of my travellers.

So my verdict: as a town, skippable; as a gateway, a definite stop and ideally an overnight. Pair it naturally with the Todra Gorge an hour east (the two gorges are often done back to back) and with Skoura's oasis to the west, and this central stretch of the south becomes far more than a transit corridor.