Mustapha, and the routes he knows

It started with one car and airport runs. Guests kept asking whether he would drive them further — to Aït Ben Haddou, then to Merzouga, then across the piste to Chegaga — and the answer kept being yes. Somewhere in those years it stopped being a transport service and became what it is now: a tour company that plans the whole journey, books the camps and the guides, and still turns up at the airport itself.

That last part is the difference, and it shows up in small ways. The vehicle is owned rather than hired, so it is clean and it is serviced. The person who planned your route is the person driving it, so nothing gets subcontracted to whoever was free. And because the business began by getting people to the airport on time, it is unusually serious about time — which, on a road where a closed pass can cost you four hours, matters.

Today the journeys run from the Atlantic at Essaouira to the dunes at Erg Chegaga, with everything in between — half-day escapes and ten-day circuits, balloon flights, cooking classes, and nights under canvas in the Sahara. Guests come from France, Spain, Britain, Germany and the United States, and are met in English, French or Spanish.

“I would rather change the plan than deliver a bad day.”