MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Morocco

For the vast majority of riders who arrive in Morocco, crossing Tizi n'Tichka by motorcycle is the first great rite of passage: the highest paved pass in North Africa, at 2,205 meters above sea level (the official height corrected by 2022 GPS surveys, after decades of being listed as 2,260 m).

Today's road follows an old caravan route that crossed the High Atlas loaded with salt and gold on the way to Marrakech; the French army turned it into a proper road in 1936.

Heading south, the route passes within meters of Aït Benhaddou, the mud-brick ksar declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, where Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and Game of Thrones were filmed — a few-minute detour almost no rider skips.

In 1942, the last known wild Barbary lion was shot near the pass, a fact local guides still tell at the roadside stops.

Climbing the Dades Gorge by motorcycle means facing the most repeated postcard in every Morocco guide: a dozen tight switchbacks carved into a canyon whose walls reach 500 meters high.

The Dadès River runs about 350 km before joining the Draa, and over millions of years it carved these gorges by eroding layers of sedimentary rock that were once under the sea.

Among riders, the stretch is known as the Road of a Thousand Kasbahs for the number of mud-brick fortresses that appear around every bend of the valley, many of them still inhabited.

Past the main viewpoint, the road narrows into a gravel track toward Msemrir — the point where most rental bikes turn around, leaving the crossing to Todra only for those riding properly equipped.

Reaching Erg Chebbi by motorcycle is the final goal of the vast majority of motorcycle trips through Morocco: the country's largest sand sea, rising up to 150 meters above the stony hamada that surrounds it.

The erg stretches about 28 km north to south and 5 to 7 km east to west, right against the Algerian border, built up over centuries by Saharan wind depositing sand over the flat desert rock.

Merzouga, the village at the foot of the dunes, lives almost entirely off motorcycle tourism and camel trekking, and on full-moon nights the orange sand turns silver — the image that shows up on most cover photos of any motorcycle trip through the country.

The wind reshuffles sand across the N13 pavement almost daily, so the final kilometers before Merzouga often have sand-covered stretches that call for slowing down and anticipating the slide.

Entering the Todra Gorge by motorcycle means riding the final 600-meter stretch where the canyon narrows to just 10 meters wide, with limestone walls reaching 160 meters high on each side.

The Todra and Dadès rivers carved this 24 km gorge system in their final kilometers through the mountains, eroding limestone layers that were once under the sea.

In the dry season, the canyon floor is a firm, rideable track between the vertical walls; local records warn that during the rainy season the river's flow can rise massively and cover the canyon floor with a strong torrent, so it's worth checking the water level before riding in.

Crossing Tizi n'Test by motorcycle is the choice of riders who already did Tichka and want a bigger challenge: a narrower, lonelier pass with pavement that deteriorates year after year from rockslides.

The road connects Marrakech with Taroudant and the Souss valley through the heart of the High Atlas, passing near the fortified Tin Mal mosque, built in the 12th century by the Almohad dynasty.

Unlike Tichka, there's almost no truck traffic here and no guardrail along the drop-offs, which made it a cult classic among those looking for the less touristy version of the High Atlas crossing.

Riding down the Draa Valley by motorcycle means following Morocco's longest river, a 1,100 km course that rises in the High Atlas and, when it still holds water, ends in the Atlantic near Tan-Tan.

The stretch between Agdz and Zagora crosses six historic oases (Mezguita, Tinzuline, Ternata, Fezouata, Ktaoua and Mhamid el Ghuzlan), with over 55 earthen kasbahs documented in the Ktaoua section alone.

Past Zagora, the pavement literally ends at M'Hamid el Ghizlane: the last town before the Sahara swallows the road, and the classic starting point for those willing to ride the sand track toward the Erg Chegaga dunes.

The area also hides a little-known geological treasure: the Fezouata formations, Lower Ordovician fossil deposits that paleontologists compare to Canada's famous Burgess Shale.

Riding up to Chefchaouen by motorcycle through the tight Rif curves is the classic finale of Morocco's northern loop, before crossing the Strait back to Spain.

The city was founded in 1471 by Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami as a defensive fortress against Portuguese attacks, and today it's famous for its medina walls painted in every shade of blue, a visual signature that made it one of the most photographed cities in the country.

The origin of the color is still debated among locals: some say it keeps mosquitoes away and carries a spiritual meaning, others that it was a decision by local authorities in the 1970s to attract tourism — what's certain is that the contrast between the blue walls and the Rif stone is the postcard every rider comes looking for.

The approach from Tetouan is pure Rif: tight curves, terraced hillsides and frequent fog in the higher stretches, a landscape very different from the arid south of the country.

Crossing the Ifrane Cedar Forest by motorcycle is the climate surprise of any trip through Morocco: a town of pitched roofs and alpine architecture, founded in 1929 by the French protectorate as a hill station to escape the heat of the plains.

Ifrane sits at 1,665 meters in the Middle Atlas and is known as Morocco's Switzerland for its harsh winters — in fact, in 1935 it recorded the lowest temperature ever measured on the African continent, -23.9°C.

The cedar forest surrounding the road between Azrou and Ifrane is one of the last refuges of the Barbary macaque, an endangered species that approaches the road and the riders who stop to photograph it without fear.

Arriving in Tafraoute by motorcycle means entering the landscape least like the rest of Morocco: a valley surrounded by Djebel Lekest, a pink granite mountain sculpted by erosion over millions of years.

The town, home to barely 6,000 people, is surrounded by olive, almond, argan and fig groves, and serves as a base for visiting the Painted Rocks of Aguerd Oudad, a group of boulders that Belgian artist Jean Vérame painted blue, red and purple in 1984.

The Ameln Valley, at the foot of Djebel Lekest, hides dozens of stone Berber villages built into the mountainside, a terrain of tight curves and dirt tracks that draws riders looking for the least touristy face of the Anti-Atlas.

Riding down the Legzira coast by motorcycle completely changes Morocco's landscape: sand-colored cliffs, Atlantic waves and fishing villages instead of deserts and mountains.

Legzira is famous for its orange rock arches, carved by the surf over centuries, though in September 2016 the southern arch, the more photographed of the two, collapsed from natural erosion — today only the northern arch remains standing, increasingly battered by the sea.

A little further south, Sidi Ifni still shows the art deco layout left by colonial Spain: the town, named Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña in 1476, stayed under Spanish control until Morocco got it back only in 1969, more than a decade after the rest of the country's 1956 independence.

It's the preferred route for riders continuing down toward Western Sahara and Mauritania, the last easy stretch before the landscape turns definitively desert.