There are a few luxury travel experiences in the world: staying in an overwater villa or travelling in international first class on a long-haul flight.
Adding to this list is experiencing the sand dunes of Africa. I’ll be honest - the very reason Morocco was on my bucket list was definitely the Sahara Desert! Being the desert lover that I am, visiting the largest hot desert in the world was always something I was very eager to check off.
This post is one chapter on our trip to Iceland, the United Kingdom and Morocco. This trip was redeemed through Alaska Mileage Plan and enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here.
The Journey to Erg Chigaga
When we began planning our trip to Morocco, I found that in many of the articles I read, a visit to the Sahara Desert was highly recommended. The only catch? The true desert was not an easy trip from Marrakech.
The travel to the camp took place over one day. For more details on that, see my post on Overland Travel from Marrakech to Mhamid, Morocco.
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Most people visit Marrakech and drive out to the stone desert (Agafay) just about an hour away from the city. But if its the unreal golden sand dunes that you want to see, you must be prepped to make the scenic 10 hour drive out all the way to the town of Merzouga.
The two main dune areas here that are popular to camp at are - Erg Chebbi and Erg Chigaga.
Your journey begins with your personal driver picking you up at your riad or hotel in a 4×4. The driver is with you the entire trip and acts as a guide/resource for you as you journey to the desert. Our driver, Jamal, was wonderful.
Typically the words camping and my name are not associated with one another. As a reference point, I have never camped. I have never slept in a tent. I have never slept outdoors. Well, it turns out that there are countless luxury desert camps that cater to tourists who want to see and experience the Sahara Desert without “roughing it”.
I highly recommend doing a package tour with the camp as they take care of everything right from picking you up from Marrakech, taking you to the camp and then dropping you back to your next destination (Fes, Marrakech, etc). In the tour, everything is customizable; when you contact them you can let them know how many days you are interested for, where you would be picked and dropped from and you can also choose to make the entire 10 hour journey to the desert or you can even choose to split your journey along the way at one of incredible locations you would be passing. The total price would depend on how your particular itinerary looks.
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Example Itinerary:
- Day 1: Pick up in Marrakech and 10 hour drive to Merzouga. We stopped at a bunch of locations along the way including Ait Ben Haddou at Ouarzazate and lunch at a kasbah in Draa Valley.
- Day 2: Full day in the desert - sunrise walk, camel rides, sandboarding, etc.
- Day 3: 10 hour drive from Merzouga to Marrakech.
We were picked bright and early from Fairmont Marrakech by our driver Hassan. He was extremely knowledgeable, professional, courteous, patient and also catered the tour towards how we wanted it (based on where I wanted to make pitstops for all the photos!). Ten hours might seem like a long drive, but with such a picturesque roadtrip time really flies! direct route towards Ouarzazate. It is a spectacular and dramatic road that presents astonishing views of the snow topped peaks of the Atlas as well as many Berber villages along the way.
During the first day of your trip, you travel through the Atlas Mountains, all the way to the small village of Agdz, which acts as both a halfway point and location for an overnight stay. Along the way to Agdz, you will see Aït Benhaddou, drive along the Tizi n’Tichka pass, and take in the beauty of the Ounila Valley.
One place I was super particular to stop along the way is the incredible ksar of Ait Ben Haddou at Ouarzazate. This “ksar” or fortified village is an ancient traditional pre Saharan habitat made from earthern clay and is filled with beautiful kasbahs ( merchant houses ). Ait Ben Haddou is now a UNESCO world Heritage site and also a popular location for many movies and shows including Game of Thrones!
After this we passed the town of Ouarzazate to then cross the gorges and reach Agdz, where the palm grove of the Draa Valley lines. This is the longest river valley of Morocco that is lined with never ending date palm trees.
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On the second day, you travel through the Draa Valley and Zagora before finally reaching the desert! Before reaching our destination, we stopped at a pottery shop in Tamegroute where we saw workers creating clay pieces by hand during the heat of the day.
Additionally, we made a pit stop to pick up our very own cheches. These are colorful head scarves to wear in the desert, as they protect against the sun and sand (they came in major handy during our camel ride!).
Before we knew it, we had reached M´Hamid El Ghizlane, the last village before the desert. It’s hard to picture but the road literally ends and all of a sudden, you are driving a.k.a off roading on only sand for miles, miles, and miles. From that last point of civilization, it’s another two plus hours before you reach the camp and let me tell you, it’s very bumpy!
justice.gc.caErg Chebbi vs. Erg Chigaga
There are also two parts of the desert that host these camps - Erg Chebbi and Erg Chigaga. I spent countless hours researching the different camps, reading reviews, and getting price quotes. From what I learned during my nighttime googling sessions, Erg Chebbi is the more commercial of the two deserts.
There are many more camps set up around this area as well as actual hotels close-by. While there are picturesque high dunes, the experience is much more generic and the camps are always crowded with tour groups. Erg Chigaga, on the other hand, is less developed with camps and the overall trip is more adventuresome because that part of desert is still widely untouched.
Both deserts are far from Marrakech and all the camps are similarly priced and are very much glamping experiences. My feeling was if we are going to do it, we should do it right and go all in.
Arrival and First Impressions
On arrival, the wind was blowing absolutely everywhere so we huddled in the camp tent with our new found camp mate friends as we settled into the Erg Chigaga Luxury Tented Camp. As soon as the storm arrived, it blew away. After about 20 minutes, it was clear again to be outside. We were going to go settle into the tent but sunset was calling.
Desert Luxury Camp is set in a beautiful remote spot between sand dunes and gives the impression of being alone in the vast African desert while living like a nomadic king/queen! They also have a private camp and royal Camp option if you wanted something even more private/luxe.
At sunset, we hiked (it was deceptively hard!) to the highest dune to watch the beauty of the day fade into the desert. The color reflecting off the dunes was pure magic! It was truly incredible that all we could see for miles were dunes. I had to pinch myself that it was real.
After lunch we made the drive straight to the desert and reached right after sunset to have an early dinner, entertainment by our very friendly camp hosts and then gaze at the ah-maz-ing night sky WOW! Nothing compares to the millions of stars, silence and peacefulness of the Sahara.
It was sitting on the sand dune, looking south over the endless sands of the Sahara, that I finally “got” why people come to the desert. From my sandy perch near Erg Chigaga, the largest dune in Morocco and only an hour from the south east border with Algeria, hundreds of smaller dunes stretched to the horizon and the silence was total.
“This is why people come to the desert,” I mused. “This is why so many of the great religions have periods in the wilderness mentioned. To find themselves. The solitude. The silence. To look deeply into themselves.
Although the camp was great, it sure took a tremendous amount of time and effort to get there to appreciate those views. For those able to travel, there are similar experiences near paved roads and hotels that are easily accessible near the Liwa Oasis in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
On one hand, there is solar power electricity for lights and charging and on the other, you have to do your business in a chemical toilet, flush it by pouring water down the hole, and then dispose of your toilet paper in a trash can next to it. There’s also no shower. You use two buckets (one with hot water and the other with cold water) to cleanse yourself. Let’s just say, my first activity back at our riad in Marrakech was a shower!
Accommodation and Amenities
The tent was indeed a camp style with a portable toilet and bucket shower (of water scooping variety). Truthfully, it was more camp than luxury…. It was a bit dark in the tent, which was powered by generators during most, but not all of the day.
Our luxury canvas tent was is what glamping dreams are made of!
Camping in Morocco: We Slept in the Sahara Desert (and LOVED it!) 🇲🇦
We’ve been lucky enough to have done two past tented camp experiences at the Fairmont Masai Mara in Kenya and at Sossus Dune Lodge in Namibia. Both of those were pretty clean and well maintained. It’s fair to say that although well appointed, our camps wasn’t quite up to that standard. It was a little rougher than our Fairmont Masai Mara experience as the facility was a little more portable than their structures. I am convinced though that this was probably the best that was available for the area.
The camp structures are also portable, in that additional units could be created as needed. I ended up fully absorbing the camping experience and didn’t bother to shower or shave for the two days that I was there (the horrors!). Ultimately, I enjoyed the experience where as MrsWT73 was a little less than impressed with the whole sleeping arrangements.
Activities and Experiences
After sunset, dinner was served communally in a group tent. Dinner was a beef tangine, with vegetables along with fruit for desert. We slept in as our first activity was not scheduled until 10 AM. We had a breakfast of yoghurt, museli and fruit, along with coffee. We were also able to more fully situate ourselves as sunset came pretty quick the day before.
Our first activity of the day was a camel ride into the desert. All the activities were included with the lodging fee. The camels that the resort had access to were very pleasant and mild tempered.
At around 4 PM, we left the oasis. We were one hour back in the car to the desert camp. Once back at the camp, we set up in the full sun to relax. Another sunset this time, we headed up top the dunes a little bit late as the sun appeared to disappear quickly.
With a guide leading the way, our camel caravan traveled up and down the dunes of the Sahara Desert, and it was amazing. To escape the heat of the day, we later took a drive to a shady oasis about 40 minutes from our camp to enjoy lunch, drinks, and relaxation.
We trekked about 45 minutes into the desert along with our Brazilian camp mate friends. I’ve been fortunate enough to ride camels on 4 earlier occasions in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Most of these rides have been from opportunistic camel minders at the bottom of the pyramids of Giza.
All of these have been for short periods of about 15 minutes; you pretty much get what you pay for after you bargain. When you go for a camel ride that is an hour in length, there is a certain muscle group on your body that gets used that you don’t typically get used. Needless to say, I was walking a little funny for the next forty eight hours.
We hopped in the SUV’s which had been driven up and drove to a nearby oasis that was about 30 minutes drive away, or about 15 kilometers from the camp. The camp was run and occupied by a nomad that had experience in living in the desert. We had lunch there of Moroccan salad (tomatoes, onion) and brochettes of chicken and beef. We spent a lot of the afternoon at the oasis under tents as it was shady and pleasant.
MrsWT73 and I had each brought a book with us which helped pass the time with great comfort.
I went and tried sand boarding for the first time. It was pretty neat to try and I managed to only crash down once at the first start. With the sun coming down, we walked down the hill using cell phone flashlights and for the rest of the evening, had some time next to a cracking camp fire.
In the evening, we also tried our hand at sandboarding and boy it was such a freakin blast!
It was a pleasant and interesting day of life in the middle of nowhere.
My husband, Lyle, had his heart set on doing an ATV excursion in the dunes, so we left the camp again to explore the dunes by four wheelers.
At sunset, we once again hiked up the dunes and reflected on our final day in the Sahara Desert. The sky was so engulfed with stars that it almost looked fake!
One of the things that had bothered me when I arrived at the camp was ‘what on Earth am I going to do?’ If you are looking for sedate activities then there is chess, backgammon and Scrabble, as well as a well stocked bar in the lounge tent. But what you’ll find yourself doing at the camp most of all is just enjoying the feeling of being in a totally different environment.
That night I sat by an open fire, eating a tasty tagine and bread that had been cooked in the sand by Bobo’s cousin, while Bobo sang and drummed by candle light. The stars hung impossibly large over my head and the moon was incredibly bright.
Nothing compares to the millions of stars, silence and peacefulness of the Sahara.
Unexpected Weather
If you did follow me on stories you might have also seen that we were unfortunately also caught amidst a freak sandstorm + thunderstorm that evening and it was crazy (check out my Morocco story highlights on IG!) The zip to our tent gave way at one end and Anush and I held it down to avoid any sand/water from coming in. The tent next door actually flew into the desert in the camp too, so it was a scary adventure to say the least.
I must note that the staff on the camp responded very quickly and immediately to make sure everyone was safe at the moment when the storm hit. I did get a ton of DM’s when I shared this on stories and so I had to share this here on my blog too.
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tags: #Morocco
