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!
- Related Article: Top 10 Things to See and Do in Morocco
- Related Article: Adventure Morocco Tour with Travel Talk Tours
- Related Article: How to visit the blue city of Chefchaouen, Morocco
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 🙂
