luxury desert tour 3days 2 night fez merzouga ouarzazat marakech

They never showed up. We were at the meeting place early. The caretaker at our riad came by and called them for us when we had been waiting for a while. They said they were on their way, fine minutes. We tried to call again and they said they were on their way, and then hung up. We tried calling again, and they hung up repeatedly. We put our adventure in your hands and were stood up in a cowardly and disrespectful way

You get to see the Atlas, the desert and a couple of kazbahs, but the program is very tight and you end up driving the whole day. We arrived unfortunately late to the desert, at already sunset and did not have time to really get slightly deeper to the desert. The logistics of different groups is caotic and there is lots of confusion how you should refer to your itinerary. The description on Viator does not correspond to what the tour operator describes nor what you get. I think we did not have time for 1/3 of the things described. The desert camping was nice, the group was small, 7 persons, the food at the lunch stops overpriced for the quality, plus it took close to an hour at one place. The hotel in Ourzazat was basic 2star, worn out, but the dinner was very good.

This was one of the best experiences of our Moroccan trip. Seeing the desert up close, watching the sunset from the top of a dune. Even there, feeling the sand it still didn’t look real. The beauty and tranquility is overwhelming in the best way. The desert accommodation was gorgeous and the food was delicious. Stopping at Ait Ben Haddou was really interesting and the views spectacular. Totally worth the time and money

Departure a little disorganized due to the difficult communication with the agency to agree on the pick-up point. Challenging tour due to the numerous hours of travel, but very suggestive for the landscapes and the various stages partly described in the itinerary. The night in the desert was a unique experience, overnight stay in a tent equipped with every comfort (private bathroom with shower). Small unexpected event for the booking of the second night, fortunately resolved by our driver Karim. Karim, as well as being efficient, was very helpful and allowed us to better understand the Moroccan landscapes and culture. Nice, funny and engaging, from a driver he also became our travel companion.

The desert was and amazing but if you are looking for luxury, book with some one else. Other couples had air conditioned tents while we slapped mosquitoes all night. Air conditioned transportation with an English speaking driver…NOPE! A taxi driver who spoke no English, 1 star hotel and then another non English speaking driver who refused to turn on the air conditioning in 100 degree heat. I asked Viator for a partial refund and they refused. Definitely go to the the desert but definitely use some other tour company.

I was hesitant about how I would rate the experience because it was polarized in different ways… The beginning of the journey has been a little confusing since we were unsure if the trip was still happening since if was shortly after the earthquake. We tried to join the company on 4 different occasions and we never got a reply. We had to ask one of our hostess at our hotel to call them to get some answers, but the lack of communication was a first strike. The morning of the trip, Sami texted us as showed up on time to pick us up and drop us at a restaurant in Fes before we went to take a semi-bus type of vehicle with other people. Sami was amazing and took his job very seriously. We were disappointed that he wasn’t our guide for the trip. On the way to Merzouga you stop to see some monkeys, which is nice. The second strike was our first driver. He never introduced himself to us and his driving was absolutely terrible. The worst drive we had in this country, bouncing us from left to right as if the bus had no power steering. He barely communicated with us, never checked if we were comfortable, we had to remind him to turn on the A/C on multiple occasions. He didn’t care at all. One girl almost passed out. Also, the description was “no more than 9 people”. We were 17 on the bus. Luckily, all of them were really nice! The desert was definitely the best part, it’s an amazing experience and you can’t come to Morocco and not go there. It is a must! The berbers were amazing with us, very festive, playing music and relaxing, the food was great and they hd no problem giving me a generous vegetarian meal (upon request). They were great! But if you want A/C in your tent, they will try to charge you an extra. The second part of the trip began as we left the desert to go towards Ouarzazate and Marrakech. We left with a second driver/guide, Soufiane. It was a relief to have him drive us because he was very nice and caring, he drove very carefully and we were comfortable in the vehicle. He showed us many places, he was flexible if we needed to stop for the bathroom/food/coffee/view or anything and he was very pleasant to be around! He have us information on sites and regions and you could see that he takes his job very seriously! He also went out of his way to get our Riad to send someone to pick us up in Marrakech and made sure we got there safe and even offered his help afterwards for the rest of our trip in Morocco :) The hotel in Ouarzazate is La Perle du Sud. The pool is great and all of the public spaces in the hotel are very nice and well decorated and full of beautiful art. The room itself is very basic and the shower was absolutely disgusting. Also you have to shower right next to the toilet and the water splashes everywhere, the floor becomes slippery and there is no towel/mat on the floor. The room’s floor are dirty and dusty (we had ashes on the floor even if it’s a non-smoking hotel) and the TV didn’t work (no big deal there, but all in all the room was very disappointing). The breakfast was good and had some options, but the dinner was not impressive (mostly meat and no vegetarian options). Also weird point, but the one same song played over and over again, every day.

Pros: Our driver Omar was kind and funny Riding camels and the night in the dessert was really fun Very beautiful scenery Lots of interesting places visited Cons: When stopping at the place to buy headscarf’s before the desert the man at the store is a pervert. He offered to help adjust my scarf and pressed his penis against me as he moved around to fix my scarf. I had to tell him to get off me. Then when we stopped in the Berber village and the man who was trying to sell us rugs, was trying to get the solo girls to “stay with him” as we were leaving. One of the women on the tour was rightfully upset by this vendor and told our tour guide who had dropped us off at the rug place and then they got into a verbal altercation. The guide was so mad, it seemed like he was going to leave the whole tour group before we got back to our driver and van. After this trouble the driver asked everyone about the guide and then said they wouldn’t work with him again. Since these two stops are set up through the tour I can NOT recommend this tour for female solo travelers, unless the tour group stops working with these vendors. I did mention this to the driver but I was not sure he understood due to the language barrier. Also many of the stops seemed like they were trying to sell us over priced souvenirs. I had to pay extra since I booked solo, but was asked to share a room with other women at the hotel. I declined and they provided me my own room. Lastly the drop off and pickup to the night in the desert was very confusing, very little communication on who was going where and who would pick them up the next day.

The Sahara portion of this tour including the camel ride and the accomodation & food that night were incredible. That being said , I would opt for the 1 night tour personally if I did it again. The second day is not overly enjoyable. Also we were very lucky 2 of our group members spoke French as the driver spoke no English. Set expectations low and enjoy a great time.

We were treated as guests, friends, travel companions, sharing time, food, emotions, adventure, surprise, amazement, hospitality. Mamood, Sami, the drivers, the camel and tent camp staff, the other Australian, Brazilian and American participants made sure that this experience was the best part of our holiday. Thank you

First and foremost, if you're in Morocco DEFINITELY do a desert tour. This was the best way to get from Fes to Marrakech and cover a lot of ground along the way. Unfortunately, I'm sure there are better tours you can book than this one. Here's goes: Communication: awful! I had not heard from the tour company at all, so 5pm the day before our tour I reached out via Viator to ask what the pick-up and meeting arrangements would be. I got a call on WhatsApp from a man who just said “What is your name?”. As a woman in a foreign country getting a phone call from an unknown number and being asked THAT, I was immediately very uncomfortable with the whole situation. The person on the phone then told me my name and asked if I had booked this particular tour. I said yes. They gave very vague directions about where to meet & what time the next morning. When I asked what type of vehicle I should look for, the man on the phone acted as if no one had ever asked this before and just said “minivan”. So again, was already feeling uneasy about this trip & tour company. Organization: First and foremost, I had booked an English tour. My driver only spoke Spanish & French. Out of 8 people, only 5 could understand him. Our vehicle was far from “luxury”. 8 people were crammed into a minivan with minimal leg room. And there was no Wi-Fi in the car as advertised. No one gave us any information about where we were going, where we were staying, what was happening at some of the stops, or when we would be having lunch. The second day we did not stop for “lunch” until almost 5pm (we’d had breakfast at the camp at 7:30am so needless to say everyone in the car was hangry at this point). My tour advertised we would be staying in the Dades Valley. We did not. Instead they drove all the way to Ouarzazate where we were supposed to go the following day. Again, no communication was given about this. So that made for a frustrating 3 days since we couldn’t ask our driver anything or understand him. The other passengers did speak both Spanish & English and were very nice to translate for the rest of us. It also just made the whole car ride awkward. The Driver: I don’t know where to start. In addition to the fact that he didn’t speak English, he gave us very little info of details. This driver drove like a maniac on the roads. He drove at top speed and was weaving & passing other vehicles on narrow roadways the entire 3 days. There was a point we almost got T-boned on a narrow windy mountainside because he wasn’t paying attention. All the other passengers on this tour felt very unsafe. Our driver also had a terrible cold and was coughing up a storm the entire time. Which is gross when you’re in a small vehicle with this person for 3 days. The last day I saw he was taking a ton of cold meds, which definitely impacted his driving. He was clearly drowsy. The driver also worked out a side deal with another passenger who had a flight to catch in the afternoon. This impacted the rest of us passengers because it meant our schedule the last day got pushed up and rushed to take this person to the airport. We almost missed some of the advertised highlights b/c things weren’t open yet. The upside was that it got us to Marrakech faster and out of the vehicle and away from this driver. Finally, the driver had a heck of a time taking any of us to our hotels. You would think it was his first time in Marrakech. Add in the language barrier and it was a mess. While I enjoyed the experience & sights we saw, I wish I had done more research and booked with another company. This tour company is TERRIBLE and I am shocked by the number of rave reviews people had of this tour.

The first day was a drive with a couple of stops, the problem was that the guides spoke no English (we booked an English tour) and so it was left to google maps to work out where we are and why we were visiting. First night was great, in the Desert with camels and the desert camp. Day two was a long drive with stops for about 10’mins along the way, and so felt like a good sated day (but again as the guide spoke no English we didn’t know where we were) day three we visited a kasbah and the studios which were fun. On the whole okay, but better communication would have made it excellent.

Do you like not knowing what’s going on 75% the time? Are you proficient in google translate? Do you like organising your own paid-for tour? Well we have the tour for you!! Our self-guided tour started off at 11.30pm the night before when we made first contact with the organisers after numerous attempts to get in contact prior. We eventually managed to establish a pick up location for 7.30am the following morning, where we found our “maximum 9 person tour” was in fact a 17-person filled van with limited air-con. The tour got off to a roaring start as we flew through several historic looking sites with no explanation provided. Hopefully they weren’t important. The scheduled stops started strong but eventually declined to erratic and seemingly unimportant stops. The 8 hour drive finished with a topical question from another passenger; “does anyone have any idea what’s going on?”. As we seemingly arrived at our destination we were martialled to an over-packed truck and driven to the camels, saying goodbye luggage and praying it ended up somewhere. Tip for pros: grab all the water you can before you are hussled off the van and for the night otherwise you’ll be paying 20MAD per bottle (apparently this is a good price though?) The camel ride, food and tent accomodation were great, we were only reminded of the organised chaos when we were asked by four different workers if we were going to Fes the next morning. Panic arose as we tried to communicate that we were on a THREE day tour, and given they had organised the tour, we weren’t sure of the details for the next few days. We were then assured with zero reassurance “don’t worry, everything is sorted, but welcome to Morroco!” The next morning as we project managed our own sand boarding and trip for the day, we were met by our lovely taxi driver, who unfortunately didn’t speak english and was as clued up on the plan for the next few days as the camels were. He was lovely however, and thankfully our pigeon French managed to get us by. Although crammed into a small taxi with one passenger in the boute, the next few days continued on a similar theme with no one having any idea what was happening, bar an occasional phone call with an unidentified english-speaking man who consistently ensured us “EVERYTHING IS ORGANISED”. We made the most of it, and thanks to our lovely driver we had a solid two days of driving and some cool sites were seen (no explanation provided of course). Overall, we did see everything that is stated on the tour description, and the Sahara/desert experience is a must-see. However the organisation seriously takes away from the tour and if we hadn’t approached it with a light hearted view you would be extremely disappointed.

The 3 day tour was excellent, Sammy picked us up at the agreed time 7:30 am, the Van we traveled in was very comfortable, it has air conditioning, the Camp we arrived at in the desert was very good, the camels are well cared for and for me that is important as I love and respect the animals, the camp forgiveness and very friendly guides, dinner is not abundant but for me it was very good, breakfast is not very varied, I would have liked them to serve fruit. The group we were with was very chevere, we danced around the campfire while the camp boys beat the drums, it was very enjoyable. We went to see the monkeys and fed them, Sammy makes several stops during the trip so you have the opportunity to meet and stretch your legs or have a refreshment in the places where he makes the stop. We saw the monkeys, we went to the Atlas Mountains where the famous monkey fingers are and cross road, we went to the cinema museum and also to the weekend place have made several films that is protected by UNESCO, we were in a hotel that tigers a wonderful view of the mountains and the pool 24 hours, dinner was very delicious, breakfast could include fruits, the bed was a bit hard. In my option the trip was very pleasant, I really liked the experience so I recommend this tour. Sammy is very friendly, very flexible and very good person, he does his best to please his customers and help them with anything their customers need.

Absolutely amazing experience from start to finish - fun and knowledgeable driver (Emmad), comfortable yurts in the desert, camel rides at sunset, climbing the high dune hills, delicious buffet dinners, sunrise at the dunes, sand boarding & Atv’s over the gorgeous dunes. The drive had fabulous stops along the way - stunning gorge, nomad village and visited inside a kasbah, learned and watched the women make Berber rugs, toured their community vegetable gardens. Plenty of stops for snacks, drinks, lunches. Visited the film museum to see props and costumes from all the movies made in that region - Gladiator, Cleopatra, Aladdin, The Bible, Lawrence of Arabia etc You could touch and get photos of everything. Saw monkeys along the way and were able to feed them directly from our hands. Second night was spent in a stunning hotel in the Atlas Mountains with an infinity pool which was so great!! Definitely one of our best vacations ever - amazing and memorable trip with our family. Do not miss out on this tour if you’re visiting Morocco - we feel as though we have seen and experienced so much that Morocco has to offer - from mountains to desert. Just an amazing and beautiful country. Thank you Emmad for a trip of a lifetime!!!

It was a curiously organized desert tour: a network of small service providers in which you were handed over in changing groups. You never knew what the next step was, but ool the the companies often did not know who would show up or what the agreements were 😎

The tour was amazing, very much recommended. The best part is the desert: once in a lifetime experience. However, don't expect your guide to be very good at the language in which you hire the tour, nor the vehicule to have a powerful A/C functioning most of the trip.

The desert was 1000 percent one of the most amazing sights. I would recommend you definitely do a trip to the desert and stay over if possible. Maybe I was naive, but I thought it would actually be partially travelling through desert but instead you got dropped off essentially at the camp. Did a small camel ride into the desert hung out for a bit and then went back to camp. The remaining of the “tour” was just a long road trip with short stops to take a photo or eat lunch that you pay for. It is a long drive so understandably you can’t stay long if you want to arrive to the destination in time for dinner but you really didn’t get to explore anything. The driver was a driver, not a guide.

Many memorable experiences; Good opportunity to fill the travel from Fes to Marrakesh. I would recommend

A super cultural tour and great landscapes. Impermissible. Various photos to stay recorded in memory. It's worth it.

It was a very memorable experience. A must-do in Morocco. Just loved it. The countryside is so beautiful and the desert camp is unforgettable. We also did sand-boarding. The desert scenery is postcard quality and the night sky with all the twinkling stars was just unbelievable. All the organizers, camp leaders, camel shepherds and drivers were very nice and helpful. Only issue was that drivers on day 2 and 3 were to return to start point on the same day and that put some pressure on us to leave them early. Else we could have spent little more time on intermediate stops. But all in all, it was truly wonderful for us including our two teenagers.