Every Sahara Desert Morocco travel guide that I came across made it sound like this far away place. And it is. I just never thought I’d actually see it. Ashlee and I decided to add this to our Lisbon, Marrakech, and Porto itinerary after some close friends visited and raved about the experience.
Ashlee covered the Sahara in extensive detail in her Morocco blog post if you’re looking for even more information. I mentioned this in the Marrakech travel guide but we had no idea what we were in for. Riding camels through the Sahara desert? Staying in a traditional camp with local Bebers? What does that even mean?
It’s important to reiterate that the Sahara desert did not feel like a vacation. This is certainly an exploration-style trip. The local Beber people who ran the camel operation and camps were extremely friendly. In addition, we never felt unsafe. The entire experience was something I’ll never forget.
Best Credit Cards to Use in the Sahara Desert
We paid cash for our Sahara desert trip and rarely used credit cards. In fact, I’d recommend that you bring cash with you. Not all places that we stopped at accepted credit cards. If you do bring credit cards, it’s helpful to have ones that have high earn rates in bonus categories where you spend money.
The American Express Gold, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Citi Prestige are cards I’d bring with me to the Sahara desert Morocco. The Amex Gold earns 4X on dining, the Sapphire Reserve earns 3X on dining and travel, and the Citi Prestige earns 5X on airfare and dining.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred and Marriott Bonvoy Business are 2 cards business owners should check out. You’ll earn 3X on travel with the Ink Business Preferred and 4X on dining with the Bonvoy Business. Marriott is also a transferable point program like Amex, Chase, and Citi that allows you to book award flights with its points.
In short, earning transferable is the way to go. These points are what will allow you to book award flights and hotels. I’ve personally found the most value using points to book business class award flights with American Express, Chase, and Citi points.
How to Travel to the Sahara Desert Morocco
Marrakech Menara Airport (RAK) and Fes Sais International Airport (FEZ) are the 2 airports we considered leaving from to drive to the desert. We flew TAP Portugal from Lisbon to Marrakech and then headed out to the desert from there.
The close friends that I mentioned earlier recommended using Morocco Countryside Tours to drive us to the desert. Our driver Ali and guide Hassan could not have been nicer. These guys made the experience incredible and always made sure we were taken care of.
In hindsight, we should have used Morocco Countryside Tours for our entire Morocco trip. This company offers customized Morocco trips, which would have been great for our time in Marrakech. Both Ali and Hassan were knowledgeable and fun people to be around for 3 days.
The drive to the desert was broken up into 2 days on the way out and 1 day on the way back. We drove for 9-10 hours each day, which made the return trip a long day of driving. However, it was totally worth it and I’d recommend this trip to anyone!
Where to Stay in the Sahara Desert Morocco
Morocco Countryside Tours arranged our lodging for the Sahara desert. With respect to the tents we stayed in, we were completely blown away. As Ashlee put it, this was more of a “glamping experience.” The desert tents have electricity, outlets, running water, and wifi.
Best Things to Do in the Sahara Desert Morocco
On the drive to the Sahara desert, we stopped in a number of cities and towns. Morocco Countryside Tours created the itinerary making it easy for us. Again, I’d use this company to book your entire Morocco trip, not just the Sahara desert itinerary because of the convenience factor.
Day 1 in the Sahara Desert:
We left the Le Méridien N’Fis at 8 AM and made the drive towards the Atlas Mountains. The drive requires you to cross this mountain range on narrow and windy roads. If you get car and/or motion sickness, you’ll want to bring some meds with you. There’s also road construction everywhere, which doesn’t help the driving conditions.
After seeing a few mountain overlooks, we stopped 4 hours in for lunch in Ouarzazate. Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage site built during the 17th century, was next on our list. It’s a group of clay homes where families still live today and is also where movies like Gladiator and TV shows like Game of Thrones were filmed.
Our itinerary took us back to Ouarzazate, also known as the Hollywood of Morocco, to see Atlas Studios. This wasn’t a must-see but it was entertaining to see pictures from American movies like Home Alone. From there we headed to our hotel at La Perle du Dades and relaxed by the pool.
Day 2 in the Sahara Desert:
The Todra Gorge is where Day 2 started. We absolutely loved this spot! It was incredible to see the magnitude of the mountain walls in the gorge. Our next stop was in a Berber town. The women running the local shop that we stopped at dressed us in traditional Berber clothes for photos, which was super fun!
We jumped back into our van after lunch to make the 4-5 hour drive to the Sahara desert at Erg Chebbi. This is where we started the camel ride portion of the itinerary. It was so wild seeing these massive orange dunes rising from the ground on our way into the desert.
Ali got us to the Sahara desert late afternoon. Hassan then helped coordinate our camel ride with the local guide who would bring us to the desert camp. The camel ride took roughly an hour with our guide letting us take pictures and stop to climb an Erg (dune) as the sun was setting.
After walking down from the Erg, we jumped back on the camel and made our way to the camp. As I shared earlier, this tent was more in the glamping category, which was fine by me. We were welcomed with a traditional Berber dinner that was followed by Berber music around a campfire.
Day 3 in the Sahara Desert:
Ashlee snapped some incredible sunrise pictures outside of our camp to start the third day. On the way out, we had the option to ride a camel back through the desert or hop in the van with Ali and Hassan. With a 10-hour drive ahead of us, we opted for the 20-minute drive in the van out of the desert.
On our way out, Ali drove us to Rissani. The city has one of the largest souks in all of Morocco. We had a blast seeing the locals interact and how the souks are run. Hassan was great about exposing us to the local produce, blacksmith, and spice vendors to see how the market all worked.
Our time in the desert finally ended after a 10-hour drive back through the Atlas Mountains. We arrived back at the Le Méridien around 7 PM to gear up for the final part of our trip in Portugal. It was time well spent in the desert, however, we were ready to get back to a more vacation.
Where to Eat & Drink in the Sahara Desert Morocco
The package we booked with Morocco Countryside Tours included most of our meals. This made took one more thing off our plate after landing in Morocco. We paid cash for lunch to/from our way to the desert with dinner included in our travel package. The first night we had dinner at La Perle du Dades and the second night dinner was at our camp.
Conclusion on this Sahara Desert Morocco Travel Guide
I’m so glad we chose to add the desert to our Morocco itinerary. It was fun recapping the experience in this Sahara Desert Morocco travel guide that will hopefully provide value when you book a trip. Our time in the desert is an experience that I’ll never forget.
What about you? What would make your Sahara Desert Morocco Travel Guide list? Have you been to the Sahara? Please let me know in the comments or by sending me an email on my contact page.
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