What You Should Expect Travelling to the Sahara Desert

As a kid, you learn about the desert: the poisonous animals, the mirages, and the insane desert heat. It seemed like such an unreachable part of the Earth. So you can only imagine how unreal it was to go on an adventure to the Sahara! If you have a similar dream, read along to find out everything you need to know travelling into the Sahara Desert!

Overview

Where to book: We booked our Sahara desert tour with our hostel in Marrakech. There are also many on TripAdvisor, GetYourGuide, and company websites which can be found on google. The trip we booked can be found here.

Cost: Our 3 day trip costed 90 Euros. This included 2 dinners, 1 lunch, the bus trip, accommodation for 2 nights and the camel rides.

Duration: I would recommend doing the 3 day trip. The journey from Marrakech to the Sahara Desert is a LONG journey – around 10 hours of driving – and you don’t stop to see all the wonderful sites along the way.

Trip Itinerary

We only had 10 days in Morocco. Yes, 10 days to visit the whole COUNTRY!

Therefore, we had to choose a trip to the Sahara that suited our time limit.

The 2 day trip seemed too short – we would be riding for 10 hours from Marrakech straight to the Sahara desert. Then, the next morning, we would be doing another 10 hour trip back to Marrakech. It seemed like such a long journey for such a short amount of time.

So, we opted for the 3 day trip. It was filled with ups, downs and all of the arounds! Here we go…

DAY 1 : MARRAKECH – TIZI-N – TICHKA – AIT BEN HADDOU – OUARZAZATE – DADES VALLEY

You get picked up at your hotel/hostel early in the morning to begin the drive at 9 A.M. The first stop is not too far out at a lookout just out of Marrakech. In the distance you can see the snow-capped Atlas mountains. It seems like such an anomaly to witness – the desert heat within driving distance to mountains of snow. It is amazing.

A very twisty, windy, and possibly stomach-clenching journey awaits you through the Tizi-N Tichka Mountain pass for the next few hours. But, believe me, it is ALL worth it!

Within the first 4 hours, you drive through the city of Ouarzazate and stop at Ait-Ben-Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here you will find a town of beautiful red mudbrick that was built 1000 years ago. Due to its ancient beauty, multiple infamous movies have been filmed, such as Gladiator, Game of Thrones and even an episode of The Amazing Race Australia. In order to see this, you have to pay around 7 Euros for a tour through the town, after which, you eat lunch at the connected restaurant.

Moving on, the next stop is the Kasbah Amridile, a fortress from the 17th century. Its importance? Well, take a look at your 50 dirham bill – there it is!

When we got closer to our destination, driving through the Dades Valley in this area was probably one of my favourite parts of the first day. The bright orange rocky formations and, even moreso, the integration of human life in these untouchable areas was so impressive. There were schools and football fields built inbetween the rocks. Morrocan style houses stood, sturdy among the formations. The bright orange colours you are surrounded by all day is just unreal.

Night 1: Hotel in Boumalne Dades

The final destination on your first day of travel is a cute 3-star hotel in Boumalne Dades, where you are welcomed with a sweet mint tea. Surrounded by palm trees, where a beautiful starry night sky is visible, it is quite alright for its 3-star rating. For dinner, you are served a delicious, hot chicken tagine and there is a very miniature, but tasty, desert that comes along after.

• My honest take on the hotel: It was clean, there were no bugs, and they were really accommodating on the rooms. It is a little bit boring there, so make sure to bring some cards, download some games on your phones, or to talk to people also in the hotel! You’re all here for some fun in the sahara desert, so you definitely share some kind of similarities!

DAY 2: DADES GORGE – TINEJDAD – ERFOUD – MERZOUGA

The second day of your travels begins with a breakfast of omelettes and coffee, and then you hit the road again! This time, however, the excitement is only greater as you are just hours away from the Sahara desert!

The first stop of day 2 is the palm grove of Todgha. It is a city located among a forest of palm trees with a view of the Atlas mountains. Here, you are taken on a walk through the palm trees and on a tour through the Berber fortress and introduced to the lifestyle of the Berber people. The Berber’s are the Indigenous people of North Africa. The Berber people make a living in these communities by making carpets, scarves, and many of the things you see in the Morocco souks. Additionally, they are the people that lead the Sahara desert tours. This is probably why you are introduced to them here. You are also shown their working quarters – where they make their carpets and dye scarves – and have the opportunity to buy them to take with you home.

• My honest take on this part of the tour: it was definitely interesting and worth learning more about Morocco’s history and the people who inhabited and built up the country for thousands of years.
• However, this stop in particular felt like a selling strategy as they pressured our group to purchase their carpets
  • Now, I mention this because it was a bit of an uncomfortable situation that made us feel a little bit uncertain about the trip. This could also be because we were tired of all the driving and just wanted to get to the Sahara already.
  • I think part of this feeling was also guilt – we couldn’t buy their carpets, and that probably was a big source of income for the Berber people.
• Overall, just make sure to politely decline if you are not looking to buy a carpet. Also, no matter how you feel leaving this part of the tour, just make sure to bring some positive energy with you for the rest of the trip!

The Gorges of Todgha

Next stop will leave you breathless because it is so beautiful! The gorges of Todgha are river canyons up to 400 metres high. You get to do a small walk down the river and this is great spot for some fun photos!

Lastly, there is just one more stop for lunch before you get to the Sahara desert. You are now very close to Merzouga… woohoo!! You will meet a bunch of tour groups at this lunch spot, so it is really busy, hot and the energy is through the roof.

• You must purchase your water at the shop here, as there will be nowhere else to get it!

Finally… the Sahara desert!!!

You are driving into Merzouga – a small town in the Sahara desert. One second you see this little town, then you are driving past empty lands with a few cacti. Two huge cliffs are in front of you on both sides of the road – it is almost like they are 2 gates opening the way for you into the desert! And at last you see it… the sand dunes rising, you’ve made it to The Sahara.

THE SAHARA DESERT

You arrive to the Sahara just before sunset. Camels are lined up, waiting for you to hop on so they can take you to your campsite for the night.

• At my particular desert tour, we took the camels up a few dunes for maybe 15-20 minutes. Then, we stopped, took some photos in the orange desert sand, and took a 4-by-4 the rest of the way to our site
  • Taking the truck was just as fun, if not more fun than the camels! The tour guides go crazy on the dunes riding up and down – it is like a roller coaster!

At the campsite, you are given a large tent with a shower, toilet and double beds. It really is a form of glamping in the desert!

Once you drop your stuff off, you have free time to roam the dunes! Jump around, run up them, run down them (or ROLL down them!). Take some pictures, play some music, whatever your heart desires, you can do! But most importantly, watch the beautiful sunset over the sand dunes.

As the sun goes down, you are invited for dinner inside the hut. Of course, served are enormous platters of chicken tagine plates of veggies and bread. Once you finish eating, you are taken outside to a crackling fire for some song and dance with the Berber people.

• This will be a highlight of your Sahara night. Join in the dancing, the singing, and when you are given the opportunity to try out their instruments, give it a go. The experience is always only as good as you make it!
• Unfortunately, when we stayed in the Sahara, it was too windy to start a fire. Instead, we did all the same activities within the hut, and the Berber men even had some games for us to play.

DAY 3: MERZOUGA – MARRAKECH

After an incredibly short night, you wake up at 4 in the morning for breakfast of bread, butter and jam. There was even some coffee to help you get adjusted to the early morning! After this, you gather in the 4×4’s in the pitch black darkness, and head to meet up with a Berber family for some mint tea. the sun is rising you head up to a high dune where a few tour groups gather to go sand boarding. This is the most beautiful view of the desert dunes. You see people returning to Merzouga on camels, the red sun slowly rising above the dunes. Within several minutes, you start to feel the heat of the sun pouring down on your face. And then, it’s time to go home.

You return with the 4×4’s down the dunes for one last final ride of a lifetime. You wait for your driver down in Merzouga. And then, it’s time to go home.

This time, you will be driving for almost 10 hours straight back to Marrakech. And it will be a sad one!

TIPS FOR YOUR JOURNEY:

• Pack as much water as possible. We went with 2 L water bottles, and you will probably have to buy them again
• The road you have to take on this journey is an EXTREMELY windy road. I’ve never seen anything like it. If you get motion sickness or have a queasy stomach, take some gravol with you
• It gets very cold at night in the Sahara desert. Make sure to bring some warm clothing for the nighttime!
• Just a warning – once it is dark… it is basically pitch black outside! You really need to be careful on the dunes because you literally cannot see where a dune ends. It would be beneficial to bring a small flashlight
  • To add to this, if you bring any scarves, sweaters, speakers, etc, on the dunes, do not put anything down where you might lose sight of it! It is hard to see your belongings on the dunes. I know this sounds like common sense, but trust me, you will get too excited to be in the desert and may lose sight of your stuff along your dune adventures
• It is recommended you buy a scarf for the desert. While most of the time it may not be needed, if you’ve ever been in a sandstorm, you would know it is necessary – when sand hits your face it really hurts!!!
  • You can haggle a scarf in the souks of Marrakech and pay under 10 euros
  • If you would like some more Morocco travel tips, take a look here.

If you go on the Sahara desert tour, let me know how it goes in the comments below!