Atlas Mountains travel guide

… your idea of luxury is all swimming pools and cocktail lounges. You can stay in beautiful kasbahs leading out to some of the world’s best trekking but you won’t find swimming pools and cocktails. Respecting real mountain and Berber tradition is what the Atlas are all about. And many Atlas holidays involve camping or staying in basic mountain gites. …you want desert heat. There can be snow until April, rain at any time, and the temperatures are significantly lower than the rest of Morocco. …you are more into Michelin Stars than star gazing. Fresh mint tea overlooking the great summit of Jebel Toubkal is the taste you will never forget. And the delicious Berber food is what has kept these guys mountain fit for generations. …you don’t do adventure. Just staying in a remote, stunning kasbah is adventure enough for many travellers, because the Atlas and adventure do usually go hand in hand. Even if they are just an hour from Marrakech or Fes. Canyoning down waterfalls, six-hour treks, cycling through canyons and wild camping on plateaus is the territory you are dealing with here.

These trips are always in small groups with experienced high mountain leaders and porters. Summiting Mount Toubkal is a challenging expedition, especially in winter, with a final climb to the summit of North Africa’s highest peak at 4,167m. It takes three days to complete, depending on the route you take, most starting in the village of Imlil, just over an hour from Marrakech, and yet a veritable portal into another world. Follow ancient mule tracks up to a mountain hut at Toubkal Base Camp (3,207m) and then start the final ascent the next morning. You usually stop at another mountain gite such as Arroumd on the way back down again.

You can climb Toubkal in winter too, with serious alpinism skills needed, although you can get training for this at the beginning of the trip. However, it can snow as late as April or as early as October, so crampons and ice picks can always come into play. Altitude sickness can be an issue, and so you can also spend a week aiming for the summit, taking more time to acclimatise and taking in other peaks and valleys such as the Kissaria gorges.

For the more moderate hikers, there are so many wonderful highlights out there. Most holidays are guided, small group tours with a duration of around a week. And many are centre based, staying in gites such as in the High Atlas village of Tijhza, from where you can do all day loop walks around giant gorges and luscious valleys. Or in a stunning kasbah in the Imlil Valley, chill out for a day, then hike out to the trekking lodge that they have in the Azzaden Valley, with its own private mountain hammam. Hike back down the next day, or take further hikes with the help of their own guides to cols such as Tizi n’Teouti and Tizi n’Tougdalt. If you aren’t centre based, then you will be staying in mountain gites or wild camping along the way.

Mountain biking in the Atlas Mountains is becoming more and more popular, travelling in a small group, and taking on cols and gorges in the High and Anti Atlas. They tend to stay clear of the hot summer months, but the rest of the year is fine, especially as there is generally no snow in the Anti Atlas. Many of the roads are tarmacked in the Atlas Mountains too, making it easier for those who don’t want to go really hardcore mountain biking. You can even stay at a kasbah in Imlil for a couple of days and hire a bike in the village.

Other cycling highlights included pedalling through the cedar forests of Ifrane National Park in the Middle Atlas, or up the (in)famous Tizi n'Tichka Pass at 2,260m in the High Atlas. In the Anti Atlas you have the joys of the Ait Mansour gorges and luscious oases as well as ever welcoming Berber villages and wonderful kasbahs.

There are other ways to enjoy the Atlas Mountains life and landscape other than hiking and biking. Go on a painting holiday to capture the ancient kasbahs, oases and dramatic valleys. Stay in a Kasbah and salute the morning sun as it illuminates the peaks all around on a yoga holiday. The Atlas Mountains are also a photographer’s dream, especially when travelling in a 4X4 with an expert photography guide who knows all the best spots to capture the light.

For those people who love mountains but also like to make a bit of a splash from time to time, small group, guided tours of about a week long are the way to go if you want some fun and adventure. The Middle Atlas are where the waters flow best, particularly around the Ouzoud waterfalls, where the El Abid River and falls provide the perfect features for canyoning and gorge walking. Throw in a bit of wild camping by Bin El Ouidane Lake and you can get a wild swim in, too.