What is the drive to the Sahara actually like — is it long and boring?

The fear behind this question is usually 'am I going to spend two days staring at a motorway?' — and the honest answer is no, this is one of the most spectacular drives in Morocco. From Marrakech you climb almost immediately into the High Atlas over the Tizi n'Tichka pass, the highest major road pass in the country, all switchbacks, Berber villages clinging to the slopes, and snow on the peaks in winter. The road was widened and improved in recent years, so it's smoother than the white-knuckle reputation it used to have, though it still twists.

What stops it being a slog is that the landmarks are spaced out as natural breaks rather than a single endless haul. You stop at Aït Benhaddou, the fortified mud-brick ksar you've seen in countless films; at Ouarzazate with its film studios and the Taourirt Kasbah; at the Skoura palm groves; and at the dramatic Dades and Todra gorges, where sheer red-rock walls close in over a river. Each one is a leg-stretch and a genuine sight, so the day feels like a series of arrivals rather than one long transit.

I'll give you the honest hard parts too. The mountain switchbacks make some people carsick, so if you're prone to it, sit in the front, take motion-sickness tablets and ask to stop. The very last stretch into Merzouga, once the mountains flatten into pre-desert plains, can feel long and a little monotonous after the drama of the gorges — that's the bit where people start asking 'are we nearly there?'. And the total hours are real: budget a full day's travel each way, not a quick hop.

The Merzouga-to-Fes leg, if you're doing the one-way classic, has its own character — the lush Ziz Valley with its ribbon of palms, the mining town of Midelt, the cedar forests around Azrou and the Barbary macaques you can stop to see. Fewer postcard-famous sites than day one, so it leans more towards 'transit', but it's still varied and the landscape keeps changing. Go in expecting an expedition with great scenery and frequent stops, not a featureless drive, and you'll enjoy the road as part of the adventure.