The Ultimate 2-Night Sahara Desert Experience: Camels, Glamping, and Quad Biking
If you are mapping out a road trip through Morocco, the trek down to the Sahara Desert is likely the big bucket-list moment you are most excited about. It definitely was for us.
Let’s be completely honest up front: getting down to the south-east corner of the country requires a massive drive. But despite the long hours in the car, our time in the desert at Merzouga was the absolute highlight of our entire 11-night trip. It was worth every single mile.
🗺️ Planning a family adventure? This guide is part of our comprehensive, step-by-step [Comfortable Morocco Family Itinerary]. Head over to the main guide to see our full road trip route, travel map, and practical survival tips for traveling with teens and pre-teens!
Here is exactly how we structured our two-night Sahara experience to balance unforgettable bucket-list adventures with excellent comfort.
⚡ Quick Look: Where to Stay in the Sahara
To get the full desert experience, I highly recommend spending your first night out in a luxury dunes camp, followed by a second night at a comfortable hotel right on the desert’s edge.
- Night 1 (In the Dunes): Sirocco Luxury Camp – An absolutely beautiful glamping site hidden deep in the sand. You get a massive private canvas tent featuring proper raised beds, high-end linens, and a full en-suite bathroom with a flush toilet and hot shower. It is total luxury in the middle of nowhere.
- Night 2 (On the Desert Edge): Hotel Riad Madu – A stunning, comfortable riad located right where the town ends and the desert begins. The standout feature here is the spectacular swimming pool that looks directly out across the massive golden Sahara dunes.
🚗 The 7-Hour Drive: Fes to Merzouga
The drive from Fes down to Merzouga takes just over seven hours. About an hour outside of Fes, you will pass the Cèdre Gouraud Forest, which is famous for its wild Barbary macaque monkeys. We originally thought about stopping here to see them, but because we had such a massive journey ahead, we decided it was smarter to get further underway with the driving before taking a proper break.
The landscapes on this drive are drop-dead gorgeous. You watch the scenery shift from rolling green plains into dramatic, open rocky gorges, before the golden sand dunes finally appear on the horizon. We found a lovely, tucked-away local restaurant along the route for lunch, which gave us a much-needed break from the car.
🐫 Night 1: Trekking, Glamping, and Stargazing
When we arrived at the desert edge, we met the brilliant team from Sirocco Camp. They took charge of our heavy luggage, loaded it into a 4×4, and handed us over to our local guide who helped the three of us mount our camels.
We rode out into the dunes until the town completely disappeared behind us. As the sun began to lower, we dismounted to watch the most spectacular, glowing sunset over the endless sand.
Back on the camels, we rode on as darkness fell, until the beautiful twinkling lights of Sirocco Camp emerged ahead.
An Unforgettable Evening
Dinner at the camp was fantastic—multiple courses of delicious, traditional Moroccan dishes. My younger son can be a bit of a fussy eater and didn’t love everything, but because there were so many different courses brought to the table, he still found plenty to eat.
After dinner, we sat out around a roaring campfire to listen to traditional music and singing with the guides and staff. While the other families at the camp headed to bed early, the boys and I stayed up with the hosts. We played noughts and crosses in the sand and spent hours chatting, using the best English speakers to interpret between us.
It was an incredibly special evening. The boys absolutely loved laughing and joking with these young Moroccan men whose daily lives are so completely different to their own. Before bed, the guides took us a short distance away from the camp’s lights to see the stars. With zero light pollution, the desert night sky was utterly breathtaking.
🏎️ Day 2: Sunrise, Sandboarding, and Quad Biking madness
The next morning, we woke up early to watch the sunrise paint the dunes pink and orange. The camp provides sandboards (which are exactly like snowboards but for sand), and the boys had a brilliant time racing and carving down the steep slopes.
When it was time to leave camp, they offered us a transfer back to town by either a 4×4 or camels. We chose the camels again. However, after about 10 minutes of riding, my bottom really wished we had opted for the comfort of the 4×4!
Once we made it back to the main office, the camp owner kindly helped us organise a afternoon of quad biking. My original plan was simply to watch from the sidelines and let the boys go off on their own. But at the last second, the organiser suggested I could ride on the back of my younger son’s quad. In a brief moment of madness, I said yes!
I spent the next few hours absolutely terrified as my son raced us over the massive dunes. It was completely amazing, and the boys loved every second of it. The thrill comes from driving up and over super steep crests where it feels like you might almost—but never quite—topple over.
Along the way, the ride offered some incredible cultural insights too. We stopped for traditional tea with some locals and visited a real Bedouin camp out in the desert, which was a fascinating experience for the boys to see.
🐪 A Mum’s Planning Tip:
“If you want to secure your spots before you arrive at the dunes, you can book this exact experience in advance. This highly-rated Merzouga Quad Biking and Sandboarding Safari on GetYourGuide includes all your gear, a local guide to lead the way, and a 24-hour flexible cancellation policy so you can easily shift your times if your road trip plans change.”
⛈️ A Desert Sandstorm and Poolside Views
After the quad biking, we checked into Hotel Riad Madu to settle in for our second night. While driving back into town later in the afternoon, we actually encountered a sudden sandstorm! It made for a few minutes of highly challenging, low-visibility driving, but it felt like a proper desert adventure.
The rest of the afternoon turned a little overcast, but we spent it chilling out by the riad’s pool, taking in the stunning vista of the Sahara dunes right in front of us, before enjoying a lovely dinner inside the riad.
The next morning, it was time to pack up the hire car again and begin our journey west towards the Atlas Mountains.
Where to next on your Morocco road trip?
🐪 The Next Stop: Read our final Guide to Taghazout Bay: Surf Lessons, Luxury Villas, and Coastal Chill.
🗺️ The Master Plan: Head back to the [Ultimate Morocco Overview Guide] to tweak your full travel route.
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