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When you are visiting Marrakech, you can't miss Ait Benhaddou! This old village has routes dating back to the 11th century. With its strategic positioning, Ait Benhaddou used to be an important stop on the former caravan route between Marrakech and the Sahara desert. Ait Benhaddou is a prime example of Moroccan clay architecture, which ultimately led it to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987! It has even been featured in some very famous films from The Mummy to Lawrence of Arabia. In fact that iconic entranceway or gate you see in photos of Ait Benhaddou isn’t original. It was actually constructed for the Gladiator film and then never deconstructed.
It doesn’t take loads of time to explore this old village, so you either decide to just take a day trip to Ait Ben Haddou from Marrakech or stay overnight. I guess the more complicated decision is how to get to Ait Ben Haddou from Marrakech. In this blog, I’ve outlined the four main ways to get there from taking a bus to going on an Ait Benhaddou day trip with a reliable tour company. The options cover a wide range of budgets so you’re guaranteed to find the best way for you!
This post covers Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou.
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How to Get to Ait Benhaddou From Marrakech
Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou Tour
For those who have a busy job/life and can only take limited time off work to travel, booking a tour is a great option – it’s honestly changed the way I travel. Whichever destination I’m travelling to nowadays, I always look up GetYourGuide and Viator to see what activities they offer in the country I’m visiting. You can usually find some really unique and exciting classes, day trips, and tours from cooking experiences to camel rides, and everything in between. I went on a hot air balloon just outside Marrakech through GetYourGuide, an activity that I’ve always wanted to do but just had never included in any of my previous travel itineraries. It was a really incredible and very memorable experience!
Booking a tour through a reliable company will save you so much time in planning, they are usually reasonably priced for what is included, they allow you to see the things you want to, and are well organised. Plus if you are a solo traveller, it’s a great way to meet people!
To visit Ait Benhaddou, you can take a day trip from Marrakech to Ait Ben Haddou, which is a good way to fit the UNESCO World Heritage site into a short itinerary, or a 3-Day Merzouga and Sahara Desert Tour is perfect for those with a longer itinerary. Try and incorporate a tour in your next travel itinerary, trust me you’ll get hooked!
Driving from Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou
If you feel comfortable driving in Morocco, then hiring a car in Marrakech and driving to Ait Benhaddou is one of the best options. Driving gives you so much freedom to explore a country and experience a more authentic version of it. That way you can stop off wherever you like along the way. You can also visit other areas in the region including Fint Oasis or Ouarzazate, or if you’re looking for a full-blown adventure, go on a road trip through Morocco from Marrakech to Merzouga stopping off at Ait Ben Haddou. The latter is exactly what I did and I absolutely loved it - in fact, driving was one of the highlights of my full trip!
According to Google Maps, driving from Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou is only supposed to take just over 3 hours. I found that driving in Morocco usually takes much longer than stated on Google Maps due to numerous factors from stopping off to see the sights to getting stuck behind a slow vehicle in a no overtaking zone.
Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou Bus
One thing I noticed when I was planning my own Morocco itinerary was that the public transport wasn’t that great, especially for the route that I wanted to take from Marrakech to Merzouga. Don’t get me wrong there are buses between the bigger cities, but if you want to visit anywhere that was a bit off the beaten track like Dades Valley or Todra Gorge, it became increasingly difficult to do using public transport.
Taking the bus is the cheapest way, but definitely not the easiest. Also, navigating the windy roads in the Atlas mountains on a bus might not be a very comfortable experience. Plus, you’ll not be able to stop off at any viewpoints or sights along the way. However, it’s a good option if you’re on a budget!
Taking this option to Ait Benhaddou means you’ll need to get a bus from Marrakech to Ouarzazate, a town about 30 minutes from Ait Benhaddou. From there, you’ll need to take a taxi the rest of the way to Ait Benhaddou. The two bus companies that go to Ouarzazate are Supratours and CTM. Supratours travels to Ouarzazate four times per day between 8 am to 3.30 pm and CTM travels to Ouarzazate five times per day between 12.30 am and 4.15 pm. This journey takes between 4-5 hours. Supratours costs 100 dirhams one-way (about £8/€9) and CTM costs 95 dirhams one-way (about £7/€8). If you were doing a day trip using public transport, you’d want to get an early morning bus from Marrakech to Ouarzazate and then, an evening bus back to Marrakech to really make your trip worth it.
Some tips for taking the bus from Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou:
- You can only buy your tickets online using a Moroccan credit card. Otherwise, you’ll need to buy your tickets in advance from the Supratours and CTM bus company terminals next to the Marrakech train station.
- As you are getting on the bus, make sure to inform the driver that you are planning on going to Ait Benhaddou, they should then drop you off at the crossroads 19km from Ouarzazate. From here, there are taxis that can take you to Ait Benhaddou.
- Don’t plan your journey to arrive in Ouarzazate at night for safety reasons.
- Make sure you have a Moroccan SIM in case you need to phone a taxi or contact someone. Using data on your home SIM might cost you £££. If you want to sort your Moroccan SIM card before you get there, get a Yesim international electronic SIM. Their eSIM offers a stable internet connection in 150+ countries worldwide, and it’s pay-as-you-go! It also means you don’t have to fiddle about trying to physically swap your SIM cards over and praying you don’t lose your original one. You simply just have to select the country you are in, and it’ll all be sorted electronically.
Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou Taxi
If you don’t fancy driving or going on a busy tour or public bus, then your only option will be getting a private taxi or driver from Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou. This is obviously the most expensive option on the list. A private transfer from Marrakech to Ait Benhaddou typically costs about £70 one-way.
If you aren’t planning on staying overnight in Ait Benhaddou, then you could book a private tour of Ait Benhaddou and Ouarzazate. At least then you’ve got both transfers to and from Marrakech included and you’ll also get a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site from a knowledge guide. The beauty of this option is you can get your driver to stop off at any tourist sights or viewpoints along the way.
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This post is about How to Get to Ait Ben Haddou From Marrakech. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog, it’s much appreciated!
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