What is the Bou Tharar / valley of roses area like?

The "valley of roses" is one of those names that sounds like marketing until you arrive in early May and the air actually smells of roses. It runs up the M'Goun river valley from Kelaa M'Gouna, the rose-trade town on the kasbah road, into the mountains toward the village of Bou Tharar and beyond. For centuries the people here have grown thorny pink Damask roses along the irrigation channels and field edges, and the petals are harvested at dawn and distilled into rosewater and precious rose oil — the valley's signature crop and a real part of its economy.

The magic window is late April into May, when the bushes flower and the whole valley turns fragrant. Kelaa M'Gouna holds its famous Rose Festival around then — petals showered over the crowd, a rose queen, music and dancing, and souks full of rosewater, soaps, creams and dried buds. It is touristy in the best sense: a genuine local harvest festival that visitors are warmly folded into. Even outside festival time, the cooperatives and shops sell the valley's rose products, and the terraced fields and old kasbahs make for lovely gentle walking.

Bou Tharar, deeper up the valley, is where the rose country meets serious trekking country. It is a small Berber village strung along the river, and one of the main launch points for treks into the M'Goun massif and the spectacular M'Goun gorges, where the trail wades through the river between soaring rock walls. Even a half-day walk up the valley from Bou Tharar — past gardens, walnut trees, mule tracks and kasbahs, with the High Atlas peaks ahead — gives a real taste of mountain life, and there are simple gîtes if you want to stay and go further.

I recommend the valley of roses to people who want a soft, fragrant, scenic pocket of the south rather than another big-ticket sight — it slots beautifully onto the kasbah road between Ouarzazate and the Dades or Todra gorges. Come in rose season if you possibly can, but be honest that it is a short bloom; outside it, the draw is the gentle walking, the rose cooperatives and the gateway-to-M'Goun trekking. It suits walkers, romantics and anyone who likes their travel to come with a scent.