TREKKINGDemo

Atlas Mountains Traverse

Imlil to Aït Bouguemez · Morocco

Moderate8 daysAfrica~£900 est.

Overview

Cross Morocco's High Atlas from Imlil to the remote Aït Bouguemez valley — the Valley of Happy People — via the Tichka Plateau and a string of Berber villages that have changed little in centuries. The trail climbs through walnut orchards and terraced barley fields, threads high passes where mules still carry salt and saffron, and descends into hidden valleys of rose-pink kasbahs. Accommodation is in traditional mountain gîtes where your host family serves tagine cooked over wood fire and argan oil pressed from trees on the hillside. The route tops out at 3,500 m on the Tichka Plateau, an ancient transhumance pasture where Berber families still bring their herds each summer. This is a trek for those who want to move through a living culture, not past it — unhurried, conversational, with plenty of time to accept tea.