Gravel Bike Tours in Morocco

The country is laced with piste — unsurfaced roads that connect villages the tarmac never reached. They are graded for vehicles, so they are consistent and fast, but they carry almost no traffic. That combination is exactly what a gravel bike is for, and it exists here at a scale that is hard to find in Europe.

The Agafay is the clearest example: a stone desert half an hour from Marrakech, hard-packed and rolling, with long sightlines and the entire High Atlas standing on the horizon in front of you. You can ride for hours and see a handful of people.

The Kik Plateau is the other one. A high dirt road at around 1,700m that runs for over 20km along the flank of the range, with the Atlas on one side and the Haouz plain on the other.

We run 40–45mm tyres. That is enough volume for the piste and quick enough for the tarmac links between sections. Anything narrower than 40mm is not enough bike for the Agafay stones.

Sidewall protection matters more than tread pattern here. The surfaces are hard-packed rather than loose, but the stones are sharp and a thin casing will find them. Our hire bikes come set up correctly for this.

If you bring your own bike, bring tubeless with sealant and carry a plug kit. Your guide carries spares, but a puncture in the Agafay in July is a long wait in the sun.

For riders who prefer tarmac, the Atlas has two of North Africa’s great climbs. The Tizi n'Test rises to 2,092m on a road built in the 1920s with switchbacks and drops that are genuinely spectacular. The Tizi n'Tichka tops out at 2,205m on the main road south to Ouarzazate; the summit sign says 2,260m, but GPS and terrain data both put it lower.

Traffic on both is light by European standards, though grand taxis and lorries do use the Tichka. We route around the busiest sections and the support vehicle sits behind the group on the exposed parts.