Morocco is close to perfect gravel country and almost nobody has ridden it. Our gravel bike tours link the Agafay desert piste with the Kik Plateau and the Atlas passes — hundreds of kilometres of hard-packed track with no traffic, no gates and no other cyclists.
Two days to nine, on 40–45mm tyres, with the support vehicle carrying everything.
Gravel bike
2 days / 1 night
Agafay desert piste on day one, the Kik Plateau on day two. The best gravel riding within reach of Marrakech.
From€480 per person
Your choice
Your dates, your length
Almost every tour we run is already private. Tell us your dates, your group and how you like to ride.
From€125 per person
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 reaches 2,260m and was recently rebuilt, so the surface is excellent.
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.
40mm minimum, 45mm more comfortable. The piste is hard-packed rather than soft, so you do not need enormous volume, but the stones are sharp and you want casing protection. Tubeless with sealant is strongly recommended.
Very little. The Agafay piste and the Kik Plateau are effectively traffic-free. The tarmac links between gravel sections carry occasional local traffic and the odd grand taxi, and your guide rides those with the group.
Yes. We build 4 to 6-day gravel routes continuing west towards Ouirgane and Ijoukak, or south over the Tizi n'Test. Tell us how many days you have and roughly how far you like to ride and we will route it around that.
In July and August the Agafay exceeds 40°C and we do not recommend riding it. October to May is comfortable. In the shoulder months we start early and are off the open desert by early afternoon.
Tell us when you are coming and how you like to ride. We will build something around it and tell you honestly whether it suits you.
Or call +212 653 93 6003