Guided Morocco's Atlas Mountain Gravel Bike Tour

A guided bike tour includes a professional local guide who rides with you throughout the trip. The guide handles navigation, manages daily logistics, ensures safety, and shares cultural insights. In addition to the guide, you also have a support vehicle that transfers luggage, provides water/snacks, and offers on-route assistance or a lift whenever needed. You simply follow the guide and enjoy a fully supported experience.

Your guides are local cycling experts, fluent in English, with deep knowledge of the region’s history, culture, and food.

On our guided tours, we ensure you begin your ride feeling comfortable and well-supported. Your guide and local team play an active role in getting your bike properly set up. **Before Your Tour** When you book, we ask for your height. This allows our local partners to select the correct frame size and prepare the bike in advance so it’s close to your ideal fit when you arrive. **At the Start of the Tour** You’ll receive a full in-person bike fitting with your guide or local representative. This typically includes: - Adjusting saddle height - Moving the saddle fore–aft (small adjustments to move the saddle forward or back for better balance and comfort) - Fine-tuning handlebar height and reach (where adjustable) - Confirming pedal preference — flat pedals are provided by default. If you bring your own clip-in pedals, our guide will help install and adjust them - A short test ride to check comfort Your guide will ensure everything feels right before the tour begins. **During the Tour** Throughout the trip, your guide will make additional adjustments whenever needed. This is especially helpful if you discover new comfort preferences after a few hours of riding. **What to Expect** Our guided tour bike fitting is hands-on, comfort-focused, and practical, ensuring you ride safely and enjoyably each day. It’s not a detailed workshop-level fit, but it covers all essential adjustments for multi-day touring.

Our support vehicle is always close by to make your ride worry-free. It carries your luggage, water, snacks, and spare parts, and is there if you need a quick lift or just want to rest for a while. You’ll see it at regular intervals along the route and during meal or refreshment stops. The vehicle is also used for scheduled transfers and to ensure safety and comfort along the route.

For guided tours, we do not provide GPX files separately, as navigation is handled by your guide. On certain occasions, if you prefer more independence, we may offer app-based navigation access with the daily routes loaded. However, please understand that this may not always be possible and depends on the specific tour setup.

We've classified our Heart of Morocco Bike and Hike Tour as 'Challenging'. This means it is best suited for people who love challenging uphill climbs and relatively longer cycling distances. Several days on this tour have average elevation gains of more than 700m (2,300 ft) over 40-50 kms (25-31 mi), while on other days we ride down switchbacks. Large sections of the tour are on unpaved surfaces. Some stretches also have dry river beds and loose gravel. The route can be physically and technically challenging at times. For this reason, we recommend this tour only for experienced cyclists who are confident riding off-road.

Airport transfers are not included unless specifically mentioned in your trip inclusions. For airport pickup, we recommend booking directly from the airport upon arrival — most airports have reliable taxi, shuttle, or app-based options. For airport drop, please book a transfer through your last hotel — they can easily arrange it for you.

We focus on delivering exceptional experiences during your tour. For logistical simplicity and flexibility, we do not handle pre- or post-tour hotel bookings. However, we’re happy to share a list of recommended hotels near the starting and ending points of your trip so you can plan your stay independently.

Yes, your trip leader will carry bottled water or RO water in a camper in the support van for guests' use.

The highest elevation we reach on this trip are around 2,000m ( 6,561ft) above sea level. For most people, this is is not likely to cause altitude sickness. However, if you're unsure or coming from sea level, we recommend starting Diamox (Acetazolamide) about three days before arrival to help with acclimatization. If symptoms persist, the best solution is to descend to a lower altitude using our support vehicle.

Yes, we have e-bikes available for this trip. Our e-bikes are Cannondale Motera or of an equivalent brand, and are of high-quality.

Yes, e-bike batteries can be charged at the hotels you're staying in.

Once fully charged, the e-bike batteries can last one full day.

No, but we'll charge the batteries over lunch to ensure glitch-free riding.

Yes, please communicate your dietary preferences to your trip leader and they'll ensure that the food you eat is spiced as per your requirements.

Yes — we do our best to accommodate all dietary requirements. Morocco offers some good vegetarian-friendly options, especially in cities, with dishes like vegetable tagines, couscous, salads, and lentil or bean-based preparations. However, vegan and gluten-free choices may be more limited, particularly in smaller towns and rural regions where dietary terms are less commonly understood. If you follow a strict vegan or gluten-free diet, we recommend carrying a few essential staples to ensure consistency throughout the trip. Please inform your tour guide at the start of the tour, and we will make every effort to arrange suitable meals and assist you in finding appropriate supplies from local markets or supermarkets whenever possible.

We are happy to pass on your room preference for a twin or double setup, and our hotel partners do their best to accommodate these requests. However, room configurations are always subject to availability at each property. On some of our trips—especially those that travel through remote regions or small boutique inns—room types may be limited. In such cases, despite our best efforts, you may need to stay in a double room instead of a twin, or twin instead of a double, depending on what is available. Given the nature of our journeys and the unique places we visit, we kindly ask for your understanding and support if such adjustments are required. We will always inform you in advance wherever possible and work closely with our partners to ensure the most comfortable arrangement for your stay.

We are not medical advisors, and as such are not qualified to dispense medical advice. However, we recommend consulting the resources below for advice on vaccines and medications: 1. [CDC portal](https://www.cdc.gov/) for travelers from the US 2. [NHS' Fit For Travel portal](https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/home) for travelers from the UK 3. [Smart Traveller](https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/) portal or travelers from Australia. In addition to the above, you may also refer to the travel advice issued from time to time by your government. 1. US residents may refer to the State Department's travel and vaccination advice for Morocco [here](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Morocco.html). 2. UK residents may refer to the FCDO's travel advice for Morocco [here](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco). 3. Residents of Australia may refer to Australian government's travel advice including medical advice for Morocco [here](https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/africa/morocco).

Tips are not included in your tour price. As a general rule, you may tip US$ 15-25 per person per day. This figure is for the entire crew including the trip leader, the driver, and other support staff. However, you are not obligated to tip, and you can always tip less or more than the above amount depending on the level of service you received on tour. It is usually the norm to tip the tour guide, who then distributes the amount among the entire crew. However, you can also tip each individual member of the crew if you so desire. In case you want to tip the staff at a hotel such as porters, you may pay them US $2-3 per day.

It is best if you exchange currency upon your arrival in Marrakech. After Marrakech, we head into the Atlas mountains and then into the Sahara desert, which are remote regions with limited infrastructure. The tour ends in Fes which is a major city with good infrastructure. ATMs are available in Marrakech and Fes that accept major international credit cards that have either Visa or Mastercard enabled.

Yes, you may wear riding shorts while riding your bike. When not cycling, it would be advisable to wear comfortable full-length pants. We recommend keeping a pair of comfortable pants handy in you support van.

When visiting monuments, visitors should wear full-length, loose-fitting pants. Holy places of certain religions may also require covering your head. Morocco is an Islamic country, and Islamic etiquette requires visitors to a mosque to cover their heads. Your guide will inform of the dress etiquette required for visiting specific religious places.

The meeting time on Day 1 is mentioned in your travel planner shared with you. You can arrive either on the morning of Day 1 depending on the meeting time, or book a pre-tour night to arrive a day earlier.

We don't have anything planned for the last day, so you are free to depart at your discretion.