Everyone who is planning a trip to Morocco several days will have indicated in red spend a night in the desert. This is one of the experiences that must be done at least once in a lifetime. And in Morocco you can meet it twice! Because this country has two dune areas where a few camps have been installed in which to sleep: Erg Chigaga Y Erg Chebbi. If you only have time to visit one of the two and do not know which one to choose, we will compare both to help you answer the question “¿what desert to visit in Morocco?”.
Our experience in Erg Chebbi
It's not really that there are two deserts in Morocco. Both are part of the huge Sahara desert... but how is it possible if they are so far from each other? We have a wrong idea of what a desert is. Not all are large sand dunes, but the desert is formed by stretches of stony, very arid plains, called hammada, and sand dune areas, called erg.
If you have chosen to visit the Erg Chigaga desert, you will quickly realize that to reach the dunes (the erg) you will have to cross a flat land with pebbles (the hammada).
The two deserts are located in the southeast part of Morocco, near the border with Algeria, but separated by 260 km in a straight line (by road 400-500 km). So to visit them you will have to do it from different places:
- Erg Chigaga: from Zagora or Mhamid
- Erg Chebbi: from Merzouga
The biggest difference is that the beginning of Erg Chigaga It is about 40 km from Mhamid, and about 65 km from Zagora, so to get there you will have to hire a package with jeep transport (they usually include some intermediate stops, such as Berber camps, oases, etc ...). This tour is usually done in 2 hours.
Conversely, Erg Chebbi It is a step (literal) from Merzouga and Hassilabied, so you can walk to some medium dune from the accommodation itself, or go to the jeep camp, but in a much shorter route (obviously there is also the option of the dromedaries, but we discard it).
Than consequences do you have this
Erg Chigaga is located in a much more remote area, many km away from the nearest villages, so the feeling of isolation is greater, and this gives it a special charm.
Erg Chebbi is the most tourist desert of the two, being more accessible. It is the one that is usually included in packages of several days in Morocco and this helps to have best camps and that is more organized (but there are more people).
Visiting the Erg Chigaga desert is more expensive (about € 80), since it is further and the costs are higher. One night at an Erg Chebbi camp can be over € 50.
As for the size, Erg Chigaga is larger, with an approximate length of 25 x 15 km. Erg Chebbi reaches 20 km long by 10 km wide.
In second place is the dune height. Before going we insisted on which of the two deserts had the highest dunes, but the information we found was not very accurate. Apparently, the height of the highest dune of Erg Chigaga is 300 meters, by 150 meters of Erg Chebbi. However, when we visited both deserts, we realized that it is not something to become obsessed with either. The important thing is to choose a camp that is close to a group of dunes with a certain size. For this we recommend using Google Maps or Google Earth and locate the camp where you will stay that night. If you see that the nearby dunes are quite shade, you have succeeded. You can also use the distance measuring tool, and look within a radius of about 500-700 meters from the camp, beyond that it is a bit heavy for walking.
Finally, the sand color It is different in both deserts. In Erg Chigaga the sand is yellow, while in Erg Chebbi you have more reddish hues. We personally liked this second color more.
Although none of these three are decisive factors to choose a desert or another, it is good that you consider it.
The most important thing is your Location: the camps by law cannot be installed inside the desert itself, so they will be within its limits. This happens in both deserts, so it is key that the chosen camp is very close to a set of dunes of a certain size, to be able to walk to the top of one of them and enjoy the panorama. Always keeping in mind that we are NOT going to join any tour to see in sunset with dromedary.
As we anticipated before, you will have to locate the exact location of the camp in Google Maps (satellite version) or Google Earth and see if in a radius of 500-700 meters it has considerable dunes. Walking more than 1 km ascending dunes can be too much. This is the same for both deserts.
Then you have to opt for a standard camp or a luxury camp. The biggest difference is that some have private bathrooms inside the store, while the others are shared bathrooms. Also change the type of food, whether or not you have electricity in the store, if you have fan, details and more luxurious decoration ... But no store has air conditioning (and thanks, remember that you are living an experience in the desert!). The camps usually have between 8 and 16 private stores, obviously the smaller, the better.
These camps are hired within a package, which usually include food, transportation, some activity and dance show and songs at night, in addition to the night in a private shop (of greater or lesser category). These packages can be hired in different ways:
- Negotiate directly in the nearby cities with local agencies.
- Online on the websites of these agencies, or through pages such as booking, Airbnb or Civitatis (here is an example).
- Within a larger package of several days in Morocco.
The camps are similar in both deserts, although we do have the feeling that they are more prepared in Erg Chebbi, with nicer stores and better facilities. Being a much more accessible site, maintenance is not that complicated. However, at Erg Chigaga's camp they let us take out the beds outside the tent and sleep in the open (top experience!).
Before traveling and with all the information we had, we were convinced that the experience would be more special in Erg Chigaga. Basically for being in a more remote place, for being a larger desert, with higher dunes and for being much less touristy. And all these premises were fulfilled.
In Erg Chebbi the camp was much better, but all the shops were occupied and other camps were surrounded just as full. There is no interaction with the other camps, but there is no real feeling of being in a remote place.
But as for beauty, both deserts are extremely beautiful. The experience you are going to live will be just as spectacular as you choose the desert you choose.
We will summarize in our opinion, which of the two deserts wins in different factors:
- Feeling of being in an isolated place: Erg Chigaga
- Less tourist circus: Erg Chigaga
- Dune size and landscape: the two
- Camp quality: Erg Chebbi
- Price: Erg Chebbi
- Ease of arrival: Erg Chebbi
If you have enough time and the route you are planning on your trip through Morocco does not alter you, we would opt for Erg Chigaga. But if you can only visit Erg Chebbi or it is much easier to include it in your trip, you can be calm because the experience will be just as wonderful. We cheated and when we visited we both got rid of messes 😉
We hope that after seeing the differences between Erg Chebb and Erg Chigaga now you can decide on what Desert visit in Morocco. And you, have you been to either? What is your favorite?
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