Skoura and the Rose Valley

A Palm Oasis Of Earthen Kasbahs On The Road East Of Ouarzazate, And The Valley Above It Where Damask Roses Are Harvested And Distilled Each Spring Around A Long Running Rose Festival · Skoura, Draa-Tafilalet

Two places on one road east of Ouarzazate. Skoura, about 40 km out on the N10, is a palm oasis with a scatter of earthen kasbahs among the trees, one of them restored and open, and the pleasure is walking or cycling the irrigation tracks between them rather than ticking off a monument. Fifty km further on, the land climbs toward the M'Goun massif into what is marketed as the Valley of the Roses: damask roses planted as living field boundaries around Kelaa M'Gouna and the villages above it, picked by hand at dawn through late April and May, distilled locally, and celebrated at a long-running rose festival that fills the town for a weekend. Beyond the villages the M'Goun gorges open up and the walking is excellent. Honest caveats: outside those few weeks the valley is an ordinary and rather dusty farming district with roses you cannot see, festival prices triple, and Skoura's palmery is so easy to drive past that most visitors never know it was there.

Skoura palmery on the N10 about 40 km east of Ouarzazate, with the M'Goun rose valley around Kelaa M'Gouna a further 50 km east, Skoura, Draa-Tafilalet, Morocco

Both the palmery and the rose valley are open country with no gates and no hours; the tracks, the villages and the viewpoints cost nothing at any time. The restored kasbah at Skoura keeps rough daily hours of about 9:00 to 18:00, shorter in winter and over Friday midday, with a resident guardian who shows you round for a tip. Distilleries and women's cooperatives around Kelaa M'Gouna open on working hours of roughly 9:00 to 17:00 and are busiest in the harvest weeks; several close Sunday. Getting there: Skoura is about 40 minutes east of Ouarzazate on the N10 and Kelaa M'Gouna about 50 minutes further, both passed by the Ouarzazate-Boumalne coaches and reachable by grand taxi; the side road north from Kelaa M'Gouna to the rose villages and the gorge roadheads needs your own vehicle or a local taxi. Book accommodation months ahead for the festival weekend - confirm the dates, which move with the harvest.

Skoura and the Rose Valley on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos