Wayfare Travels
Merzouga, Morocco

Africa · Desert

Merzouga, Morocco

Where the road stops and the dunes start.

4.8(96 reviews)8 daysOctober to AprilFrom $1,740 per person
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01Overview

Where the road stops and the dunes start.

The last village before the Erg Chebbi dunes. We take the long way there through the Atlas and the gorges, and we stay two nights in the sand rather than the usual rushed one.

DesertCultureUnique stays

Key information

Best time
October to April
Trip length
6 to 10 days
Group size
Up to 10 travellers
Getting there
Three days overland from Marrakech
Language
Arabic, Amazigh, French
Nights
Cold in the desert, bring layers

02Things to experience

What a week in Merzouga actually looks like

  • Two nights at Erg Chebbi

    A camp at the base of the big dune, reached on foot or by camel depending on how your knees feel.

  • Sunrise from the ridge

    Forty minutes uphill in soft sand, in the dark, for the best twenty minutes of the entire trip.

  • The Todra gorge

    Three-hundred-metre walls a few metres apart, and a river you can walk in when the day gets hot.

  • Gnawa music after dinner

    Not a performance for tourists. The camp crew play because that is what you do when the fire is lit.

A scene from Merzouga
Merzouga detail 1
Merzouga detail 2

03The route

A suggested itinerary

This is the shape most people travel. Every part of it can be lengthened, swapped or dropped, and private departures run on any date you like.

Adjust this route
  1. Day 1

    Marrakech

    A night in a riad in the medina and an evening in the food stalls of Jemaa el-Fnaa.

  2. Day 2

    Over the Tizi n Tichka

    The High Atlas pass, a stop at Aït Benhaddou, and a night in the Dades valley.

  3. Day 3

    Todra and Tinghir

    The gorge in the morning, palm groves in the afternoon, then east towards the sand.

  4. Day 4 to 5

    Erg Chebbi

    Two nights in the dunes. Sunrise, sunset, and a very long afternoon of doing nothing.

  5. Day 6 to 8

    Back through the south

    The rose valley, a night in Skoura, and a final evening back in Marrakech.

04Where you stay

Three places we book here

Family guesthouses, refuges and restored houses. We have slept in every one of them, and the prices below are what you would pay direct.

Riad ZitounMedina riad

Riad Zitoun

Eight rooms around a courtyard in Marrakech. Cool tiled floors, a roof terrace, and breakfast under the orange tree.

from $95 per night

Erg Chebbi CampDesert camp

Erg Chebbi Camp

Ten tents with proper beds and a hot shower. Rugs, a fire pit, and nothing at all for thirty kilometres.

from $135 per night

Dar SkouraPalm grove guesthouse

Dar Skoura

A mudbrick house in the palmeraie with six rooms, a cold pool, and dinner cooked by the owner's mother.

from $78 per night

An editorial photograph from Merzouga

05From the field

“One night in the desert is a photograph. Two nights is a memory.”

Everybody does Merzouga in a hurry. Marrakech at dawn, nine hours in a minibus, one night in a camp, straight back. It is a waste of a remarkable place. We give the drive three days, stopping in the Dades gorge and the Todra, eating where the drivers eat, and arriving with enough time to watch the dunes change colour for two evenings instead of one. The second night is the one that gets you: the group has thinned out, the camp is quiet, somebody starts drumming, and the temperature drops about fifteen degrees in an hour.

Written by the Wayfare planner who runs this route.

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