Is the Dades or Todra gorge better to visit?

These two gorges sit close together on the road between the kasbah country and the desert, and travellers often ask which to bother with if they can't do both — though honestly, you usually can. Todra is the showstopper: the road runs into a slot where the cliffs soar straight up around 300 metres and the canyon pinches to just a few metres wide, with a stream running through the cool, shaded floor. You can walk right into it, crane your neck at the rock walls, and feel genuinely small. It's a five-minute 'wow' you don't forget.

Dades works differently — its drama is spread over a longer, more varied drive. The valley winds past rose-growing villages, old earthen kasbahs, and the strange eroded rock formations known as the 'monkey fingers', before climbing to the famous Dades hairpins, a tangle of switchbacks that photographers adore from the viewpoint above. It's less a single jaw-drop and more a scenic, evolving journey through Berber country. If you love a great road and changing landscapes, Dades is the richer experience.

On crowds and feel: Todra's narrowest section can get busy with tour buses and stalls at midday, so early morning or late afternoon is far nicer and quieter. Dades, being a longer route rather than a single point, tends to feel more spacious and lived-in, with real villages going about their day. Both have lovely places to stay if you want to overnight rather than just pass through, which I'd gently encourage — the gorges are at their most magical in the soft early and late light.

My honest answer is that this rarely has to be either/or. The classic move is to drive up one gorge and down toward the other on the desert loop, which gives you Todra's cliffs and Dades' switchbacks in a single, spectacular day. If you truly must choose one and want the iconic narrow-canyon photo, go Todra. If you'd rather have the better overall drive and more village life, go Dades. Either way, build in time to stop, walk, and not just photograph from the car.