Sahara Desert Tour
we booked a 3 day private guide with Morocco Fabulous Travel
Mohamed from Morocco Fabulous Travel is very responsive via email throughout the whole process. He helped us with options on the itinerary and provided several options/quotes for the tour. He is the one that told us about the flight option from Casablanca to Errachidia to save on driving times for the desert tour.
Only complaint we have is the lunches during the 3 day tour are a bit of tourist trap, I guess too many tours on the route the price for lunch (average about $10 USD per person) is overpriced as compared to similar meals in Marrakech.
The drive between Merzouga and Marrakech/Fes is very long with nothing much in between. If visiting both Fes and Marrakech consider doing one way Marrakech – Merzouga – Fes or Fes – Merzouga – Marrakech. If limit in time fly in and out of Errachidia, Errachidia is 2 hours drive from Merzouga. I would not recommend doing the 3 days round trip from Marrakech as most of the 3 days will be spend driving.
Day 1 of 3 day Desert tour started with pickup from our hotel- Écologie oasis tafilalt
Special note about Écologie oasis tafilalt, This is the family home of the host Najib. The home is about 5 mins ride from the ERH airport and the host sent a car to pick us up from the airport. We had the guest room with 5 beds. In the morning we had very nice breakfast at the Riad prepared by Najib’s mother. In the picture below is the Riad with rooms on each side, the guest room, and the host’s family’s rooms.
Ziz Valley
First stop is a quick stop with view of Ziz Valley full of Dates Palm trees.
Rissani Market
The Rissani Market is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. We visited on a Sunday and the market was very busy. Our tour guide is from this area and it seemed like he knew everyone at the market.
The market has EVERYTHING, from spices, food, meat, vegetables to animals (sheep, goat, cow) – yes, animals for sale. It was interesting to walk through the market.
There is a car park as well as a donkey parking area, locals come to the market with donkeys.
Khamlia – Gnawa Music
Next we stopped by small town named Khamlia and listen to Gnawa music played by local from south of Africa.
village of M’Fis
The abandoned village of M’Fis – mines of Galena (used to make Mascara in the old days)
Visit nomadic family
Visit a Nomadic family that lives behind Erg Chebbi Dunes. I can’t imagine living like they do. It’s a hard hard life. The family we visited had 3 young children.
Driving into the desert
Cafe Nora – Berber pizza
Camel Ride to Desert Camp
The Camel ride to desert camp is about 1.5 hours with stops for pictures and stops for sunset. The camel are not very comfortable so be prepared.
Sunset
Watching the sunset at the Sahara Desert was a very special experience. When it was about time for sunset, we stopped and climbed up a dune for sunset view.
Desert Camp
We stayed 1 night at Africa Luxury Camp. After dinner there is camp file with local music and we had hoped to do some star gazing at night. However, it was almost full moon and the moon was too bright for star gazing.
Sunrise
Sunrise was around 7:30am in the morning and it was COLD. Chiming and Abbie also tried a little sand boarding after sunrise.
Camel Ride back to Merzouga
You can choose the ride the Camel back to Merzouga or go with a 4×4 car. We decided to go with the Camel and immediately regretted it a little as we sat onto the camel – our butt was very sore from the camel ride the day before. I guess the other guests that were on the same camel train yesterday choose to take the car back as we were the only ones on our camel train.
Getting on and off the Camel
My least favorite part of the camel ride is the getting on and off the Camel. One time my camel started to stand up before I was sitting properly, and I almost fell off, almost.
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