Merzouga or Zagora? Choosing your Sahara from Fes

Erg Chebbi's dunes at Merzouga rise to around 150 metres — among the tallest in North Africa. The erg (sand sea) stretches roughly 22 km by 5 km, large enough that twenty minutes' walk from camp leaves you alone in a silence as complete as anything in the Fes medina is crowded. The colour shifts from pale gold at midday to copper and amber at dusk.

The M'Hamid dunes near Zagora — properly called Erg Chigaga — are lower but spread across a broader, flatter expanse. They have a raw, ungroomed quality; fewer groups reach them, and the lack of camel-train infrastructure makes the experience feel more genuinely remote. Expect to reach Erg Chigaga by 4WD, not on foot from the camp.

Merzouga is the natural desert run from Fes — roughly seven to eight hours by private car, dropping out of the Middle Atlas cedar forests around Azrou and Ifrane, through Midelt and Errachidia, then down the Ziz Valley to the dunes. The drive is part of the reward, and many of our Fes guests break it with a night in Midelt or a Ziz-Valley kasbah rather than running it in one push.

Zagora sits on the other side of the country — a five-to-six-hour drive from Marrakech via Ouarzazate and the Draa River's 150 km of date-palm oases, but a far longer haul from Fes. For a Fes-based traveller it only makes sense as part of a wider loop that already runs west through the southern valleys; as a standalone desert excursion from Fes, Merzouga is the clear choice.

Merzouga has a wide choice of refined desert camps. Several operators offer private ensuite tents with proper beds, private terraces, warmed floors for cold nights and cooks who turn out four-course dinners. Premium camps are all-inclusive, and we quote the camp together with the rest of your trip.

Zagora's M'Hamid has fewer camps, but a handful of well-run boutique operations match that comfort — with the appeal of being far less photographed. The 55 km of piste out to Erg Chigaga adds a genuine adventure element that Merzouga, sitting directly at the dune edge, does not.

Merzouga sits among extraordinary neighbours: the Todra and Dades gorges, the great Tafilalet palm grove, and the ancient ksar town of Rissani with its caravan-era market — all easy to fold into a Fes-to-desert routing.

Zagora's Draa Valley is itself a destination: kasbahs, mudbrick villages and archaeological sites line the river road, and M'Hamid is the frontier town from which longer camel treks of two to five days set out. See our southern desert tour options here.