Is Skoura oasis worth visiting?

Skoura is one of those places I quietly push people towards, because it over-delivers and almost nobody plans for it. It's an oasis — a thick, shady palmeraie of date palms, fig and olive trees laced with irrigation channels — about 40 minutes east of Ouarzazate on the road towards the gorges and the desert. After the dry, open country around it, driving into Skoura's green canopy feels like slipping into a secret garden.

Threaded through the palms are dozens of earthen kasbahs in various states of grandeur and decay, and the celebrated one is Kasbah Amridil — a beautifully preserved 17th-century fortress that featured on the old 50-dirham banknote. You can tour inside it, see the old grain stores, oil presses and living quarters, and climb up for views over the palm sea. It's one of the best places in Morocco to actually walk through a kasbah's interior and understand how these mud-brick strongholds worked.

What makes Skoura special, though, is staying there. The oasis has some genuinely gorgeous boutique riads and guesthouses hidden among the palms, several with pools, and an overnight here is pure tranquillity — birdsong, the rustle of the fronds, sunset over the kasbahs, and the kind of stillness you can't get in Ouarzazate or on the road. It's a favourite romantic and restorative stop, and it slots perfectly into the route between Ouarzazate, the Dades and Todra gorges and the dunes.

My verdict: a clear yes, and one of the south's underrated pleasures. If your itinerary is racing from Ait Ben Haddou straight to the desert, consider giving Skoura a night — it adds real beauty and calm, plus Kasbah Amridil is a worthwhile sight in its own right. Of all the 'is it worth it' stops on this stretch, Skoura is the one I most often wish people had budgeted more time for.