Agafay Desert Bike Tours

It is not sand. The Agafay is hamada — a hard stony pavement, grey and rolling, about forty minutes from the edge of Marrakech at around 600m. People arrive expecting dunes and find something better for riding: a firm, fast surface with sightlines that run for kilometres and the entire High Atlas standing on the horizon in front of you.

It is startlingly empty. You can ride for hours here and pass a handful of people. The light in the first and last hours of the day is the reason photographers come out, and it is the reason we start early on this terrain rather than at a civilised hour.

Because it is low and dry, it rides when the mountains do not. That is its real value in the calendar rather than a consolation.

December and January are genuinely good here, which is not true of anywhere higher. When the passes above 2,300m are holding snow and the mountain routes cannot run, the Agafay is at its best — cool, dry and fast. It also extends the season at both ends, so it works in the shoulder months either side of the main spring and autumn windows.

Summer is the opposite. There is no shade and no altitude to take the edge off, so from late June we ride it early or not at all.

Gravel bikes on 40–45mm tyres are the right tool. Anything narrower than 40mm is not enough bike for the Agafay stones. The e-bikes handle it comfortably too, and our 2-day Berber valley e-bike tour crosses it on the return leg, which is a good way to see it without building a whole trip around it.

Most people ride the Agafay as part of something larger rather than on its own. The 2-day High Atlas gravel tour opens here and then climbs to the Kik Plateau, which puts stone desert and high plateau in the same trip and makes the contrast the point.

If you are short on time, it is the most riding you can reach from Marrakech in the least travelling — half an hour to the start, against ninety minutes to Imlil.

It is also the terrain we suggest when a group is genuinely mixed. Nothing here is technical, the gradients are gentle, and a strong rider and a nervous one can ride the same route without either of them having a bad day.