Since we began planning for our trip to Morocco, we’ve been dreaming of spending the night in the Sahara Desert.

There are a ton of tour operators offering different options for a Sahara camping experience, and we ultimately decided the very popular 3 day/2 night tour from Marrakech to Fes would be the best fit for our schedule. After hours of research and dozens of email inquiries to operators, we booked our adventure with Marrakech Desert Trips. They were one of the few companies I could find that offered online bookings in advance, and they had solid reviews on sites like TripAdvisor.

Day 1

We were picked up in Marrakech early on the morning of our tour and spent about an hour driving around the city to collect the other folks in our group.  Once the bus was full – we were a group of 20 – we drove a few hours away from Marrakech before making our first stop at a scenic overlook (Tizi Ntichka Pass) in the High Atlas mountains. We stretched our legs, snapped a few photos, and then hopped back on the bus to continue the journey.

We drove a few more hours, stopped for a quick lunch, and finally arrived at Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO heritage site which today is best known as the filming location for many TV shows and movies (including Game of Thrones and Gladiator). The small town is made of traditional mud houses and has incredible views of the Moroccan landscape. We spent about two hours wandering the town and got a tour from a local guide which included a visit inside his family’s home.

We continued our drive in the afternoon, making a few more stops for photos and one stop at some random movie museum, which John and I skipped in favor of a walk around town. We arrived at our hotel in the Dades Valley around 8pm, had family-style dinner with the group, and then went to bed. This first day was long, with about 8 total hours of driving, but we had the opportunity to see some incredible scenery and get to know the other travelers in the group.

Day 2

The following morning, we briefly walked along the river through the Dades Valley which was stunning. There are these massive reddish-orange cliffs towering over the river, and it was just incredible to see.

We also stopped in a Berber village near the valley where we learned more about their traditional way of life for Berbers in Morocco. Our guide took us on a tour of the town, which included a stop at a rug shop to learn more about the rug-making process and the types of rugs families make. John and I knew going into the trip we might like to buy a rug for our new house, so we actually enjoyed this stop and ended up purchasing a beautiful blue rug which is now proudly displayed in our new home!

We made a quick stop for lunch near the gorge before continuing our drive to the desert. After a few more hours in the van, we arrived in Merzouga, a town at the edge of the Sahara, in the late afternoon. The group dropped all of our bags except for some overnight supplies at a hotel and then assembled to begin the camel trek. We were driven in smaller groups a few minutes into the desert where the camels then came to pick us up.

Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for was here – we mounted the camels and started riding into the desert!!! The camel ride was so much fun. We spent about an hour and a half traveling through dunes towards the camp. The group was giddy with excitement, taking selfies and marveling at the sunset over the dunes the whole way.

 

We arrived at the desert camp just as it was getting dark. The camp was larger than we expected, and was actually quite crowded. Several other tour groups were also staying at the same camp, and I’d guess about 100 people spent the night at the same camp we did.

Upon arriving, we were assigned tents. John and I paid about $15 to upgrade to a private tent, which was definitely the move. Others who didn’t shell out for this luxury slept on mats on the floor in a tent of 6 whereas we had two cots. I’m not sure I’d call our experience “private” as our section of tent was cordoned off from our neighbors by a hanging blanket with a hole cut out so we could both access the shared light switch. But, it was a fun adventure!

We had another family-style dinner with our group and spent some time sitting around the campfire enjoying traditional music played by our hosts.

Eventually, we peeled off with a smaller group to check out the stars and ended up spending a few hours messing around with night photography with some of our new friends. We regretted not bringing our own DSLR and tripod, but were lucky some other folks in the crew had traveled with theirs and were able to get some fun shots of the night sky. The stars were absolutely incredible and a true highlight of the visit. The sky is so dark and there is no light pollution at all, so the milky way shone bright and we could see millions of starts. It was so special to be able to see them in such a clear, very dark night sky.

The desert gets COLD at night, so we had a chilly evening, but it was well worth it for the chance to sleep under the stars in the Sahara.

Day 3

We woke up on the morning of our 3rd day in our tent and got an early start on the camels back to the hotel where we had left our bags. Our group started early and was the first to ride out of camp. Nearly all of the ride was in the dark by the light of the stars and the group was silent as we took in the dawn and watched as the stars began to disappear from the sky and the sunrise started. Absolutely beautiful.

We made it back to camp, had breakfast, and then John and I split off from the group with 1 other couple who had also booked the Marrakech to Fes option (most other travelers returned to Marrakech). We shared a taxi, spending most of the day reading and napping in the backseat and stopping occasionally for a nice view or a rest stop. The third day was heavy on the driving, but afforded us another opportunity to see some of the Moroccan landscape.

We definitely recommend this tour to other travelers. The driving days are long, but it’s because the desert is far away from Marrakech and other cities so a visit to the dunes necessitates it. The trip was well-organized, our guides were great, and we were so happy to see the Sahara. We won’t soon forget this journey!