Adventure · Imlil, The High Atlas
Marrakech – Atlas Mountains, Imlil & Asni Day Trip
The easiest way to taste the High Atlas from Marrakech is a day in the Imlil valley, the trailhead for Toubkal, North Africa’s highest peak at 4,167 m. In about an hour and a half the road climbs from the plain through the Moulay Brahim gorge to walnut groves, terraced barley fields and villages built from the mountain’s own stone.
Asni on the way
The road passes through Asni, a market town at the mouth of the valley. On Saturdays its weekly souk fills with families from the surrounding villages trading vegetables, spices, tools and livestock — one of the most authentic markets within easy reach of Marrakech.
The walk
From Imlil, at about 1,740 m, your mountain guide leads you up through the orchards to Aroumd, the last village before the Toubkal trail, its houses stacked on an old glacial moraine with the high ridges behind. Walks run from an easy hour to half a day, and a mule can carry anyone who would rather ride.
Lunch
Tagine and bread from the clay oven in a village home, or on a guesthouse terrace looking up at the peaks, with mint tea poured the mountain way — from a height, to raise the foam.
The valley today
Imlil was close to the epicentre of the September 2023 earthquake, and many villages are still rebuilding. Walking with local guides and eating in local homes keeps your spending in the valley — and the welcome is as warm as ever.
When to go
Spring is green and in blossom, autumn is clear and settled, and in summer the valley is the cool escape from Marrakech’s heat. From December to March snow reaches the upper villages, which is beautiful, but walks are shorter.
Our tip
Stay a night instead of a day. A guesthouse in the valley lets you walk at dawn, before the day visitors arrive — and for Brahim, who grew up in the eastern High Atlas, that early light is the best of the mountains.
More about the High Atlas: where to stay, when to go →
When to go
- JanCool
- FebCool
- MarBest
- AprBest
- MayBest
- JunBest
- JulGood
- AugGood
- SepBest
- OctBest
- NovBest
- DecCool
