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Rally motorcyclist on a desert dune in evening light with a dust trail

Dakar 2027 starts in Portugal and crosses Morocco

Published by Thomas Menzel on 30. October 2026

Series: Dakar 2027

The 49th Dakar begins in the Algarve and ends in Marrakech. Organiser A.S.O. presented the replacement route for the edition moved from Saudi Arabia on Friday, 30 October 2026: a prologue and first competitive stage in Portugal, followed by eleven stages in Morocco. The rally is scheduled to run from 9 to 23 January 2027. According to the organiser, the dates are still subject to approval by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).

Why the Dakar has to move

Only on Sunday, 25 October 2026, had A.S.O. announced that the 2027 rally would not take place in Saudi Arabia. According to Portugal Resident, the organisers described it as an exceptional, one-off decision resulting from recent developments in the region. According to the AFP report on Free Malaysia Today, the edition had originally been planned for 1 to 15 January 2027. The 50th Dakar in 2028 is planned to return to Saudi Arabia, where the rally has been held since 2020.

The Dakar thus returns to Africa for the first time since the 2007 edition. The rally planned for 2008, starting in Lisbon, was cancelled for security reasons, as Rallye Magazin summarises.

The schedule in Portugal

The starting point is the Algarve Stadium in Loulé-Faro, which holds around 30,000 spectators. The Portugal round of the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) of the Automóvel Club de Portugal (ACP) already finished there in April 2026. According to the organiser’s statement published by MFE Live, the schedule is as follows:

  • Tuesday, 5 January 2027: service park opens in Loulé-Faro
  • 6 to 8 January: administrative and technical scrutineering on site
  • Saturday, 9 January: prologue
  • Sunday, 10 January: first competitive stage, followed by a transfer to the port and an overnight ferry crossing to Nador in Morocco
  • Monday, 11 January: liaison stage to the first Moroccan bivouac in Bouarfa

These dates are likewise only provisional while WMSC approval is pending. Media coverage also contains differing information: an early version of the MFE Live editorial gave 8 January as the start date, and the Motorsport.com report published on Yahoo Sports gave 7 January. According to the organiser’s statement, racing begins with the prologue on 9 January.

Rally motorcyclist riding through sand dunes under a blue sky at the 2026 Dakar
Archive photo: motorcyclist at the 2026 Dakar in Saudi Arabia. Photo: A.S.O./F. Gooden/DPPI, via Portugal Resident

Route through Morocco to Marrakech

From Bouarfa in north-eastern Morocco, the route runs along the Atlas Mountains via Zagora to Agadir, where a rest day is planned. In the second week the rally heads deep into the south: Smara is a stage town, and according to the organiser the southernmost point is almost at Dakhla. Both places lie in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, whose status under international law is disputed. The route then leads back through Smara to the north and along the Atlantic coast to the finish in Marrakech.

The key figures according to A.S.O.:

  • one prologue and twelve stages, of which one is in Portugal and eleven in Morocco
  • total distance: 7,824 kilometres
  • of which competitive stages: 4,341 kilometres
  • six different bivouacs
  • most competitive stages between 350 and 500 kilometres long

The 2027 Dakar is also the opening round of the 2027 FIA and FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. According to the organiser, Dakar Classic, Dakar Future Mission 1000 and the Dakar Saudi Next Gen programme are moving too.

Castera: “a real Dakar” despite the short deadline

Only a little over two months lie between the cancellation of the Saudi Arabia edition and the planned start. Dakar director David Castera defends the result: “Despite the shortened timeframe we had to cope with, we have designed a real Dakar,” he said, according to MFE Live (translated from French). The organiser’s statement promises a Dakar “without compromises”. Whether the Moroccan route can match earlier editions in sporting terms is an expectation of the organiser and will only become clear in January.

According to Castera, 350 participants have already entered. A breakdown by class, for example for the motorcycles, is not yet available. Castera also announced that the Dakar will be broadcast in more than 190 countries as usual.

Rally motorcyclist on a dune in evening light with a dust trail
Archive photo: Tosha Schareina (Monster Energy Honda HRC) on stage eight of the 2026 Dakar on 12 January 2026 near Wadi Ad-Dawasir, Saudi Arabia. Photo: A.S.O./F. Gooden/DPPI, via dakar.com

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