Overnight stay in a luxury Berber camps in Sahara Desert, Morocco
Hello my dear followers! Are you planning your trip to Sahara desert in Morocco? Then go ahead and read this article to gain some knowledge of what to expect, how to prepare and what to take with you. I will tell you about my trip there, where we stayed, how did it go and what to expect!
M’hamid village, Zagora region, Morocco
M’hamid is a small oasis town in Zagora region and will be your departure point to Sahara. We drove there from Tafraoute, check my article on my trip to that town here, and it took us all day (8 hours of driving plus 3 hours to stop for lunch and picture taking). It is the same distance from Marrakesh therefore I suggest you to get a hotel and spend a night in M’hamid like we did before hitting Sahara the next day or evening. There are tours in the morning and in the late afternoon, we chose to take afternoon tour because of the sun and spend the night in Berber camps there. But i wont rush with this story i’ll tell you a bit about route to M’hamid first.
We drove from Tafraoute and if you are debating on what route to Sahara to take i can tell you that route from Tafraoute was very picturesque and we were passing by Anti Atlas mountains on the boarder with Algeria for hours that you won’t be able to see much if you take a route from Marrakesh. As well as some very old small towns or big ones like Tata that was an important point for caravan routes back in the days.
Old kazbah in Mezguita, Morocco
No matter where you driving it takes all day to get to M’hamid and we arrived pretty late to that village. We pre-booked beautiful Hotel Kasbah Sahara Services for roughly 40$ per night but had a bad experience with rooms had to switch them because of bugs and also shower pressure was very low. The pool was also dirty and hotel stuff poured chemicals in it to clear it out for use and it smelled of disinfectant all night. Later on we found better hotels in the area therefore i suggest to look at other places to stay in M’hamid. We only stayed there 1 night and departed to Sahara the following afternoon but left our luggage in the rooms that we booked for 3 days that upon arrival from the desert we could shower and eat and depart to our next destination. I can tell you after all that it wasn’t necessary because there were showers in the camp in the desert (!) that had better pressure and we also had breakfast there. Therefore upon arrival from Sahara back to M’hamid we just picked up our luggage and departed. Also there was no electricity in town upon our arrival and apparently it happens often in that village. My suggestion would be not to waste money and ask to leave luggage at hotel reception for duration of stay in Sahara camps.
Hotel Kasbah Sahara Services, M’hamid, Morocco
We booked tour to Sahara camps via reception at hotel because we were on a road trip and didn’t want to have obligations before arriving at town. Therefore i don’t have a link for you guys to share for exact those accommodations, bummer. But to cheer you up there are plenty of tours online with great reviews (it is important to check reviews) mostly departing from Marrakesh (very convenient). The camp that we stayed at is moving from place to place (that’s what we were told as those people are Berbers, people of the desert, and they move around desert). Therefore that particular camp I stayed at might not even be there during your trip.
There were two times to depart to Sahara, in the early morning before sun gets really bad or in the evening but given enough time to get there for sunset. Because we were exhausted from previous day drive we didn’t want to wake up super early and also wanted to check out the village therefore we booked departure for the late afternoon. I recommend late afternoon departure because you will have time to have breakfast, pack for Sahara and check out the village with shops for the cultural outfits for the desert pictures (as you see i’m into this kind of stuff haha). I bought a beautiful red dress that you see on my pictures here and a white Moroccan scarf to make a turban out of it. Sellers and a tour guide will help to make a turban, there are different ways to wear it and it requires practice that i definitely was lacking. Go ahead and try different styles to choose the most appealing one and also pick the most popular for the desert colors such as red or white or blue that would look harmonious with sand color on the pictures.
I suggest to explore the village market for the desert clothes because if you made it that far don’t you want to capture the best possible desert pictures on camels and sunsets/sunrises in local outfits? You will find many outdoor and indoor shops and i suggest to browse through all of them (village is really small) and try outfits and compare prices but most importantly negotiate with sellers! It is expected and accepted to negotiate prices in this country and therefore the initial price is cranked up 2x especially for tourists like us.
Next important question to cover is what to bring with you to the desert? It all depends on the season because yes there are warmer and colder months. Best months to visit Sahara are May, September and October for the best hot sunny weather. December and January are pretty cold and wettest months while February, March and April are known for frequent sandstorms. Therefore pick the month to visit carefully! I visited in May where days were hot and nights were refreshing to sleep outside even and full of stars. Yes the best stars are in the desert and i also counted so many shooting stars and made so many wishes haha. So back to packing, after speaking with receptionist and tour guide it was pretty clear that no warm clothes are necessary for the night in the desert. But the list of things to bring should include: sunscreen (a must), hat or turban, sneakers (best because sand is hot and feet are sinking in it especially on the dunes), toiletries, a towel, knee length pants to ride a camel that you can wear under a dress (check out my photo below), sunglasses, water at least 2 liters per person for the car ride to the camp, but some camps provide it (i drank 1.5 liters during 2 hour ride to the camp because it was so hot and be prepared most cars there are old and don’t have AC oops). That should be all but also depends on how many nights you spending in the desert you might need a spare t-shirt and underwear. Dinner and breakfast was provided at the camp and actually was amazing along with music where Berbers lit a camp fire and beautiful Moroccan lamps and played local songs for us. Knowing now how well maintained the camp was with showers and beds and the kitchen i wish we stayed there longer.
Erg Chebbi, Sahara, Morocco
There is no actual road to Sahara therefore please don’t try to drive there on your own and risk getting lost (also no phone signal there). It took us 2 hours drive to get to the luxury camps in Erg Chegaga where the highest sand dunes are located and desert looks like we usually imagine it to be. Why i say that? Because there are different kinds of deserts and we passed it on the way to Erg Chegaga. First type of desert was stone desert, and it looks exactly how it named. Nothing grows there and it looks like meteoritic site which is actually not far from the truth because there were many meteoritic crashes in Erfoud, Tata and Zagora desert. Over 14,000 meteorites have been found in the Sahara Desert of northern Africa. Many scientists and meteorite hunter searches travelled to Morocco to study meteorite or to get rich by smuggling them out. The most popular meteorite is The Tissint meteorite that fell in Tata Province in 2011 and the 5th Martian meteorite that people have witnessed falling to Earth, and the first since 1962.
After passing stone desert for about an hour we hit the small dunes desert. That desert is finally a sand desert and there you can see signs of life such as grass, palm trees and Berber camps, people actually live there and grow life stock consistent of camels, donkeys and sheep. They make their way to M’hamid village couple times per month for trade and some men work in the village. This desert is pretty flat and sand is dense with a mix of small stones here and there. After maybe 30 minutes were entered Sahara as we know it with soft silky sand and high dunes. We reached the camp shortly and in time for a camel ride to the highest dunes to watch the sunset.
Upon arriving to the camp (you can check out the video of it here) we had 30 minutes to explore and try sand boarding on the near by low dunes ( which we repeated in the morning with higher dunes). When the camels and the tour guide were ready we headed to the highest dunes. Cold water bottles were prepared for us and camel ride took 30-40 minutes and was very smooth and joyful. We were dropped at the bottom of the dune and had to walk up to the top for another half an hour. It was hard because sand there is untouched and kinda fluffy which made our feet sink in it ( don’t worry not like a quick sand) and made walking up harder. That was the reason why camels were left at the bottom of the dune because their legs will be sinking in a fluffy sand too and the ride could be dangerous with a possibility of tourists falling off the camels . Frankly I almost gave up walking/crawling to the top of that dune but i did it and it was 1000% worth it and the view was unbelievable. Check out more pictures from Sahara trip here on my Instagram.
Upon arrival back to the camp we were served dinner with local dishes such as tajine with chicken, olives, couscous and variety of local sweets. There was no alcohol because Berbers don’t drink alcohol and Morocco is a Muslim country therefore majority of people don’t drink alcohol. Green tea on the other hand were plenty to drink and we finished the night by the fire surrounded with Berber’s who were playing local music, signing and telling us stories. We spent half a night star gazing after everyone went to bed and it was the most beautiful sky i’ve seen, cloudless and clear, with millions of stars and so close to us.
We woke up pretty early around 4.30 am to have time to dress up and climb the closest dune to watch the sunrise. Totally worth it and we also spend an hour sand boarding, some tries were successful and some were absolute failure due to the sand sticking to the board and catching it. While we were enjoying our activities Berbers at the camp prepared breakfast which consisted of local fruits with yogurt, msemen (a flatbread made of semolina and flour) with honey, green tea and figs. We took shower at the camp and drove 2 hours back to M’hamid where i like said earlier was nothing to do because village was out of power that day. We packed our bags and checked out from hotel towards the next adventure!
Planning a trip to Morocco? I highly recommend Lonely Planet travel guide below. I buy Lonely Planet guides to every country I visit and build my trip based on their suggestions.
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