Exploring the Sahara Desert
My whole Moroccan trip was originally planned around an excursion to the Sahara desert, but first things first, you need to know that the desert ain't close to any major Moroccan city. Plan at least 8 hours to get there from Marrakech or Fès, more if you're coming from Casablanca or Rabat. Finding a way to get there wasn't easy let me tell you!
Since I wanted to travel around the country, I tried looking at private tours that would take me from Fès (North) to Marrakech (Center) via the desert. I was travelling solo so this excursion was usually very expensive, and I couldn't afford it. I started reading online a lot to know what my options were. Most people book their 3-day desert tour directly at their hotel in Marrakech - that's definitely your cheapest option. BUT, you need to know that if that's the option you choose, you will share your trip with 13 other people, you'll basically be following other vans and buses the whole time. You'll share your dromedary ride with a lot of people - same with your campsite. I'm glad I didn't choose this option. I met a few people in Essaouira who had booked it, and they were all unimpressed. Online reviews were also not really good.
That's when I started looking at "shared tours", and came across Mouhou Tours - a company that offers both private and shared tours all across the country. Bingo! They had a few shared tour options to visit the desert. A shared tour means they arrange a trip for 5-8 people who booked separately, and you split the price. I thus booked a 3-day desert trip from Fès to Marrakech.
One piece of advice: I would not recommend visiting the desert within less than 3 days. Distances are long, you'll basically be spending your whole time in a car. Three days was good, but I felt like four or more would have been even better. On March 27, our driver Mustafa picked us up in Place Jemaa el-Fna (Marrakech main square), that's where I met my travel companions: Evie, Mac, Alejandra and Juan-Antonio. We got along really well from the get-go, and explored the wonders of this journey together. On the first day, we made a few stops to admire different views: mountains, canyons, Aït-ben-Haddou Kasbah, and Dadès Valley. On our second day, we stopped in Todra Gorges and a few other places, and got to the desert around 3pm. We then started our dromedary ride to the campsite, and that's when the magic started. To be completely honest, the road to the desert was long, and since it was high season, we couldn't avoid tourists on our way. Every time we would stop to admire a gorgeous view, there would be tons of other cars, and locals trying to sell us stuff - really annoying. Try to ignore them if you're uninterested, and say a firm "no thank you" and they should leave you alone.
That being said, we were all looking forward to being in the dunes, and we were not disappointed when we got there. The campsite was far away from any other human being. We shared it with 7 other nice people. It took about one hour to get there, and we barely saw anyone on our way. We were all assigned a private tent and a private bathroom (yes, there were showers). We then started exploring, taking photos, sand boarding, admiring the sunset. At night we all shared a delicious home made tagine, and watched our hosts play Berber music around the campfire. That was probably my favourite part as we all discussed together, and learned about the Berber lifestyle, Moroccan history and traditions. I cannot thank our hosts enough, as they made this experience really unique and memorable.
The next morning we woke up to see the sunrise, then had breakfast, and rode the dromedaries back to the desert entrance. We then spent the whole day driving to Fès, where Mustafa dropped each of us at our hotel.
