Camping in the Sahara desert is an experience I have had on my bucket list for years and it well and truly exceeded all of my expectations. Probably the highlight of my travels to date – I cannot recommend adding this to your future adventures enough!
The Sahara experience started with a SUV ride out of M’Hamid El Ghizlane and some of us chose to hop on top of the roofs of the vehicles. This is not for the light-hearted but was by far one of my favourite parts of the Morocco trip, if given the chance you should definitely give it a go!
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On arrival to the campsite we unpacked our luggage into the ‘tents’ (I put this in quotations because this was no ordinary tent… more on that below), then took in our surroundings. The site was in the middle of picturesque towering sand dunes. The deep orange against the vibrant sky was absolutely breathtaking, the entire location was surreal.
Before dinner we took some drinks we had brought with us up to one of the highest dunes to watch the sun set. Pictures do not give this sunset justice, it was a magical.
We were treated to an amazing traditional tagine dinner in the large communal tent followed by Moroccan music played by Berber men by the bonfire. The rest of the night was spent relaxing on the warm dunes, star gazing and taking in the unbelievable surroundings. It was one of those ‘I can not believe I am actually here’ experiences.
To say this campsite was impressive was an understatement. We had large comfy beds, running water for bathrooms and hot showers and warm delicious meals!!
The second campsite we travelled to was a completely different type of desert (shown in the image below) and located outside of Zagora. It was equally as impressive in terms of having warm running water, and large tents with comfy beds.
After arriving at the site via SUV we immediately started the first activity of the day – camel riding! It was a three hour return trip (visiting a local home for lunch) and I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it could get very uncomfortable at times, nevertheless I really enjoyed the experience. I am also a huge animal lover so I really liked meeting the camels 🙂 You could tell the men who ran the service really cared for the animals and they were all in very good condition, this is something I really valued as it is such as animal welfare is such an important factor of animal tourism.
My camel was particularly friendly and loved when I gave him pets – I named him Humphrey 😛
Overall, camping in the Sahara Desert was my absolute favourite part of visiting Morocco and I really hope that if you make it to this amazing country you are able to experience the natural wonder of such a beautiful part of the world. I did this experience through Travel Talk Tours and a full description, price and review of this company, with information on the other aspects of the trip can be found here 🙂
Karen says
The place is os picturesque! Loved the pictures and really would love to visit someday. I have a question, beside the sand dunes and scenery, is there anything else like museums etc?
Chelsie says
Hi Karen! The campsite we stayed at was very remote and it took a good two hours in the SUV to get there, you definitely feel like you are in the middle of nowhere haha. It is just your tour group, several large tents, a kitchen area, the guides and then simply dunes as far as the eye can see! It’s an incredibly special moment to be in such an iconic landscape but not have the ‘touristy’ vibe that usually comes with something so well known but it is definitely isolated (for example, we all bought some snacks and big water bottles the day before we left because nothing could be purchased once there, great hot meals were included however). I am so glad that you plan to visit there some day, as you can probably tell, I can’t recommend it enough 😀
Ashfaq says
Love the desert, how is the temperature in there?
Chelsie says
Hi Ashfaq! While it did get up to 35 degrees during the day it was a dry heat so it was still pretty comfortable (just remember sunscreen!). After the sun set however it got quite cool, so I did change into long pants 🙂
Camel Trekking Marrakech says
Great pictures & nice topic to read thanks a lot 🙂
Chelsie says
Thankyou!!