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Erg Chebbi & Erg Chigaga
The Sahara
Morocco has two true ergs, and choosing between them decides the shape of your whole journey. Erg Chebbi is reachable, photogenic and busier. Erg Chigaga is two hours of piste from the nearest tarmac and feels like the edge of the world.
The character of the place
What The Sahara is actually like
Erg Chebbi, near Merzouga, rises to about 150 metres and runs for roughly 22 kilometres. You can drive to within sight of the dunes, which is why most itineraries use it. Go in with that knowledge and pick a camp set deep enough into the sand that the road is invisible.
Erg Chigaga is five times the size and reached only by piste from M Hamid. There are no villages, no day-trippers and very little light pollution. It asks more of you – two bumpy hours each way – and gives more back.
When to go
Season by season
The honest version, including the months we would steer you away from.
October to April
The desert season. Warm days, genuinely cold nights; December and January can drop near freezing after dark.
March and April
Our pick. Comfortable both day and night, with the clearest skies of the year.
May to September
Too hot for most people, routinely above 45C. We do not send travellers to camp in July or August.
What we would do
Worth your time in The Sahara
Our picks
A night slept outside the tent rather than in it, which every camp will arrange
Sunrise from a high ridge, which is worth the forty-minute climb in sand
Tea with a nomad family, arranged honestly rather than staged
The silence at three in the morning, which people describe for years afterwards
Where to stay
The kinds of places we book
Private luxury camps
Six to ten tents with proper beds, en-suite bathrooms and a kitchen team. Booked on a private-use basis for our travellers.
Kasbah hotels
On the edge of the dune field, for travellers who want air conditioning and a pool within reach of the sand.
Journeys
Journeys that include The Sahara
Marrakech
Imperial Cities & the Sahara
The journey most people picture when they imagine Morocco, slowed down until it becomes something else entirely. Two imperial cities, a cedar forest, a gorge, and three nights where the road simply ends.
9 days / 8 nights · 2-8 travellers · From 4,850 EUR per person
Berber villages
High Atlas & Desert Edge
For travellers who would rather walk than shop. Three days in the High Atlas staying with families in the Ait Bouguemez, then down the southern slope to a stretch of desert almost nobody visits.
7 days / 6 nights · 2-6 travellers · From 3,650 EUR per person
Essaouira
Coast & Medina
Morocco at sea level. Three nights in Essaouira where the wind never stops and nothing is in a hurry, two in Marrakech, and an argan cooperative in between. The journey we send people on when they want to come back rested.
6 days / 5 nights · 2-8 travellers · From 2,980 EUR per person
Start a conversation
Tell us what you want from Morocco
Every journey we arrange begins with a conversation rather than a brochure. Tell us when you can travel, how you like to move, and what you would rather avoid – we will come back with a route, not a quote.