Marathon des Sables stage maps and checkpoints

Places go in the order people register, and both 2027 offers were sold out when this page was checked. You can join the waiting list on the event page, though it doesn't guarantee a place.

The Classic offer is €3,990 with two hotel nights in Ouarzazate after the race, and the Superior offer is €4,390 with the two nights at the Berbère Palace. Both include the bib, eight nights in the bivouac, water, medical support and postponement insurance. Cancellation is free until August 31, 2026, then costs 25% of the fee through October and 50% through December. After December 31 there's no refund, but you can still postpone free until March 26, 2027.

Minors can't enter. You'll need the organizer's medical certificate and a resting ECG with its tracing, both originals, dated no more than 30 days before the start.

Everyone gathers in Ouarzazate. You can fly there directly, though there are fewer flights, or into Marrakech, where the organizer runs transfers to Ouarzazate on the mornings of March 31 and April 1, 2027. That drive is five to six hours. Arrive no later than April 1, and book your nights in Ouarzazate before the race yourself.

On day 1, buses take you into the desert to the first bivouac. After the last stage they bring you back to Ouarzazate for two hotel nights and the gala. The return buses to Marrakech leave at 6:00 AM on April 12, so book a flight home from Marrakech after 2:00 PM.

The organizer gives you water and a place in an open-sided eight-person Berber tent, grouped by country. Everything else is on your back. Checkpoints come roughly every 10 km and hand out water. At the end of each stage you get 5 liters, which has to last the evening and the next morning until the first checkpoint. Water from anywhere else is banned.

Carry at least 2,000 kcal for each race day, 12,000 in all for 2027, repacked with the calories written on it, because it's checked. Gas stoves are not allowed. The mandatory kit includes a sleeping bag, a 400 lumen headlamp with spares, 1.5 liters of water capacity, a compass, a signalling mirror, a survival blanket, a knife, two stock cubes per race day, 50 ml of sunscreen, your passport and €200 or 2,000 dirhams. With food, your pack has to weigh between 6.5 and 15 kg, not counting water.

The nearest long-term normals are for Errachidia, the provincial capital north of the 2026 course, a town at 1,009 m. In April it averages highs of 26.1°C and lows of 13.0°C (NOAA, 1991 to 2020), and its hottest April day in those 30 years reached 34.9°C. The 2026 bivouacs and finish sat lower, at 630 to 710 m, so expect it warmer on the course.

The regulations warn of heat, cold nights, wind and sand. Pack for both ends: something warm for the bivouac and protection from the sun all day.