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An unforgettable birthday in the Sahara desert

The reason my husband and I decided to go to Morocco, was to visit the Sahara desert. We started doing a lot of research online to see what is the best way to spend our time in Morocco, like where to stay and what to do in the city, and of course without spending a fortune.

So luckily one day I told a friend of mine, who is also from Morocco, that I will be going soon to Marrakech. I told him what my plans were that I was going to stay in the city for the first half of my trip and the second half at the desert. He gave me amazing tips that I will be sharing with you guys here.

So our trip was basically split into three parts. The first part was spent in a riad in Marrakech, then in the desert and then back to Marrakech for some more. My friend had advised us on how to experience Morocco like a local. Using some of his tips, we decided to stay in Medina for the first part of our trip. But in this post I will be only talking about my experience in the desert and will be putting a link at the end of this post for the rest of the trip to Marrakech.

My friend had told me to litterally forget doing all this research for our desert experience. That we shoud just go there and tour operators will be there on the streets selling the tours at competitive prices. I was a bit reluctant to go just unprepared and nothing booked in advance. BUT GUESS WHAT....

When we got there, on our second or third day, we were just wandering in the Medina and we started seeing advertisements on the walls at every corner. So we went to two or three tour operators and the prices we saw there compared to the ones online were ridiculouly low!! Online, if you prebook, you will be paying 5-10 times higher, guaranteed. What a relief! And you can book with them to go to the desert the day after! Again, what a relief! So basically we were set. We chose the most expensive tour operator, since we were paying a lot less than online, we decided to go with a private tour with better accomodation.

A bit about what they offer...

So basically all the tour operators offer the exact same thing. First, they will ask you if you want private tour or one with a group. Then, they will offer you one night, 2 night, or 3 night tour depending on how long you are staying for. On the one night tour, they usually take you to visit the sand dunes in Zagora. Our tour guide told us Zagora is not the desert to see the dunes, since there are close to none, or very small. Zagora is recommended for those short on time. The 2 night tour takes you to Erg Chebbi, where the sand dunes are the highest, and really impressive. The three night tour takes you to Zagora and continue towards Erg Chigaga, where the dunes are smaller than Erg Chebbi, but it is so far away that it has the most remote feeling for those who just want to feel the remoteness and less tourists around in the desert.

Well we contemplated going to Erg Chigaga, but after meeting the different tour operators, they all said to head to Merzouga (Erg Chebbi) if we are going to the desert for the dunes, and forget all the other options, since Erg Chigaga is far, smaller sand dunes, and more time required. We wanted the remote feeling being in a desert with no one around, but we couldn't choose that over huge sand dunes of Merzouga. So we went ahead with the Merzouga option, 3 night - 4 day private tour, no nasty auberge to stay in but a luxurious hotel on the way back, plenty of stops along the way and lots of pictures were promised to us by our tour operator, for .....HOW MUCH?? It was great!

The reason we chose 3 nights is, the 2 night option is basically really just one night in the desert and the other night, well they make you stay in an auberge on the way to the desert since the desert is really far, they need to make a stopover in between. And we didn't want to go just for one night in the desert, one night is too short and because you never know about the clouds...

So, our driver picked us up from our Riad at 8 am and off we went. It really felt awesome being the only ones on this tour, and literally making as many stops as we want, and where ever we wanted. We were told by our tour operator that the drive to the desert was like really really long, thats one of the reasons we chose a private tour so we dont get to feel the long hours spent the car. And luckily, the drive to the desert was amazing. We got to see small different berber villages along the way and Morocco's amazing landscape. In the following pictures you see Ksar of Aidben Hadou located in Draa Valley where the Gladiator was shot and some other movies, the rest of the pictures are berber villages and more ksars. The drive from Marrakech to Ouarzazate is spectacular to say the least, especially the drive over the Tiz n Tichka Pass at 2,600 metres which you will see in the pictures below.

After having lunch in a cafe in Ouarzazate, we continued our long but exciting journey. We just didn't get time to get bored during the drive, the drive was SO beautiful with a landscape that changes constantly and a succession of colors that make it all the more remarkable along the way. At some points, you can see how crazy and scary the drive was! And seeing how berbers live in small broken down houses makes you see the other side of the world we dont live in, and giving us a little intuition into the berber culture. And look at this even the sheeps kept us entertained!! They are so adorable!! Aren't they?

Then finally passing Ouarzazate and through the Valley of the Roses and the Valley of a Thousand Kasbahs, we finally made it to our hotel late evening in Dades valley. And well, wow, look at this luxurious hotel, it really felt like a 4 star hotel! Something really needed when you had travelled all day in car! The hotel has a beautiful terrasse upstairs in the hotel has a pool and even beds to lie on, it was a bit off seeing such a luxurious hotel in a broken down area, with hoses just made of mud around!

The next morning we had breakfast and we continued our fascinating journey to the desert. Then we made more stops and we got to see Todra Gorge which is a canyon in the eastern part of the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, near the town of Tinerhir.

And finally the moment we all have been waiting for was here!! We finally reached the desert!! The orange sand dunes everywhere continuing endlessly all around us. WOW. We made it.

Then we started making our way to our campiste by camel. And...What an amazing feeling the camel ride was. It took us just less than an hour to reach our campsite. The beautiful orange sand dunes keep you busy throughout the camel ride!!

And finally here we are! at our luxurious campsite! In the panorama picture below you can see how the campsites are spread out. They basically choose a spot for camping where they see a huge dune covering the spot. The second picture below is of our campsite. We reached our campsite late evening, just before sunset.

Then we finally made our way to our tent, which is basically our suite. Just kidding, but it is close enough to being a suite considering we are in the desert! We had electricity, private bathroom, we didn't need much else.

We had just enough time to put our stuff away and then start walking towards the dunes. Looking for the biggest sand dune in fun, but climbing is a different story!

As you can see we got unlucky with the clouds and the sunset was pretty much what you see in the picture below.

We definitely had great service, we compared our tent with other campsites around. Other campsites had to one common bathroom plus the beds didn't look comfortable at all. As soon as you go to your campiste they give you refreshments like mint tea, some cookies etc. It was really nice. Then we made our way to the dining room and had our supper.

Then it was time for the berbers to entertain us, it was a lot of fun, the fire in front of you with sky full of stars and dead silence where all you hear is just the drums and the songs sung by the berbers. It was so peaceful...exactly what we had imagined.

And then...Well I just don't know how to describe this feeling, it was beyond happiness. I have never felt this happy before, it was like a dream come true!! It was truly magical!!!

My husband had told the berbers that it was my birthday and had them arrange a whole birthday party!!! In the desert!! I mean how better can your birthday celebration be!!! And yes the whole trip was a present from my hubby! Just look at the picture and video you will know how much fun it was! My husband made me feel really special on my birthday, he's just amazing. (Sorry about the orientation of the camera guys).

I got the privilege of playing the drums first, what an honour! And then we all took turns. That was also my favourite part, hosting the party, oh every part of the desert felt like home! You can see even in front of the fire we all had a jacket on, since we did go in the winter time, in December.

And, things couldn't get better, we didn't catch a terrific sunset, and we didn't catch the milky way, but just look at what we else we managed to catch at night. Here is what we did, we took some blankets with us, looked for the highest dune, walked to it, and lied on the cold sand with our blankets on. then we just stared and stared at the sky, with some clouds here and there, but mostly clear. And what you are about to see in the video, is very real, we didn't move the camera at all, and the only thing that moved in this video, is litterally the stars! They were just unusally bouncing around, I'm not sure if it can shooting stars. It was kind of scary, pitch black, no sound, vast land of sand dunes, oh I would do anything to go back.

Please let us know what you think this whole thing is about, leave us a comment below!

Our plan was to sleep there on the sand in the middle of the desert, but unfortunately I get cold very easily and even a ton of blankets didn't do for us, so we went back to our tent.

The next morning, we had breakfast, and it was delicious, the fried bread you see in the picture is what I had the most on this trip, once you start on this bread you can't end the eating session very easily! So we started to prepare ourselves for an activity organised by the berbers. They were preparing themselves to take us to a man living at the end of the desert (which means we will get to see the whole desert across, yeah!) for some berber pizza. That sounded nice to our ears! So here we go again, on the camels! And I just had to share this video of getting on the camel with you guys! This method must be for how NOT to climb a camel!

Thought I'd show you what the sunrise looked like for us, we got clouds on each sunset and sunrise...

You can see we had to cross over the whole desert in order to get to this berber's house, leaving the desert just behind us.

So we were at this berber's house for berber pizza. We were told that we will be experiencing the hospitality of the locals. This berber belongs to a Tuareg family and they invite the visitors to taste the famous Berber pizza with its 44 spices. I honestly thought it will be like a real pizza with cheese! In the middle of the desert, it ain't happenin.

Yup, that's his home. We were told he lives with a daughter and a wife that weren't available to meet us, since they went to feed the sheeps. And he had a thing for collecting empty water bottles and filling them with sand, looks like!! As well as camel skulls...I guess you need a hobby in desert, time can get very slow around here!

And you can see I wanted to help this old man for cooking....

And, VOILA!! Hard work pays off...Just kidding!!

After spending pretty much the whole day at this berber's house, and having lunch we started making our way back to our camp.

We came back to the camp, relaxed in the tent and went to catch the sunset, again it was cloudy so we couldnt manage to catch a better sunset than in the pictures below.

After the sunset, we had supper and again we all gathered around the fire and played the drums and sang berber songs. It was so much fun....! The next morning, after sunrise we had our breakfast and we started preparing to leave the desert with our tour guide.

Time to say goodbye to the berber team and the desert...I wish I lived in a desert, don't you guys feel the same when you read about a trip to the desert?

Then, we were headed outside of desert driving back to Marrakech, we made some more stops along the way, such as more kasbahs and the Atlas Studios, the largest and most famous film studios in all of Africa, where so many movies were shot. We passed through the famous Tizi n'Tichka, a mountain pass connecting the South-east part of Marrakech to Ouarzazate through the High Atlas mountains. We also had lunch on the way back, at a café and we had coffee at the Café where a scene from Tom cruise's movie was shot! And then we had reached our hotel late evening.

Picture taken at the cafe where Cruise's movie's scene was shot

How to book the same kind of desert tour as mine

We truly enjoyed every moment of our trip to to the desert. We have many people contacting us all the time about how to book a desert tour for the same kind of experience than ours.

As you can see, the best advice I can give you here is NOT to book in advance, your Sahara desert tour. I say, just head to Marrakech, at the Jmaa Elfnna or anywhere in Marrakech, you will find endless amount of tour operators desperately wanting to sell you a package. We even had a guy come following us at our riad so that we can buy his deal!

We paid just under....and the prices online are easily 5-10 times higher than what we paid. Honestly, these tours online are the exact same as what we went with, except you pay a big premium for booking in advance! I know it is scary to go without anything prepared for a tour as big as the desert in a country like Morocco, but that is the only way to go if you want to save ridiculously A LOT of money!!

So guys, if you need more information, just leave a comment below and I will be happy to help you! I didn't put the tour operator's name, because first of all there are so many of these tour operators that you can choose from, secondly, I wrote this post really just to help my readers on planning a trip to the desert, I have no affiliation with the tour operator, but if you really want to go with the exact same tour operator let me know and I will leave a link to his website in the comments section below.

Otherwise, did you ever take a trip to the desert, let us know, we would love to hear how your experience went!

Have you ever been to the Sahara desert? I would love to hear about your experience there! Scroll down to leave a comment!

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