We booked a 3 day/ 2 night tour from Marrakech-Sahara-Fes with Marrakech Desert Trips. There are so many tours to the Sahara with a wide range of cost, so it was hard to determine what we wanted for our experience. We had received some recommendations for companies to go with but not many options depart from one city and return you to another. We knew we wanted to go to Fes after the Sahara and the other wrench for us was that we were going to be traveling from Todra, not Marrakech. My buddy Kevin did the Marrakech Desert Trip tour last year and had good things to say, so I reached out to them and asked if we could modify our itinerary and get picked up in Todra instead of starting with the group in Marrakech. Luckily Todra is a stop of the tour anyway, so they were very accommodating to our request and we got a discount for not being on the tour for the first day.
The day before we were to join the trip we got in touch with our driver and agreed on a pickup time and spot (right outside our guesthouse) and we joined the other 18 or so other guests in the tour. The potential fun thing about doing a larger tour like this one is that if you find some other folks you enjoy, you get to spend multiple days with them and hangout. On our way to the desert we made a few stops at “panoramic views” and had lunch. We also got to know a few of the other guests in the van and were happy with the group we were traveling with. Once we arrived in the desert confusion and chaos set in.
We made a stop and 5 people got out of the van and into a jeep. We knew taking a jeep into the desert to camp was an option instead of riding a camel, so we didn’t think much of it. But then we made another stop and another, and soon the van was down to 7 people including us. Our driver never said anything to the broader group about why people were getting out and what exactly was happening. Since there was no communication about what was happening, we all thought we’d see everyone at camp later that evening. Jen and I were along up until that last stop. We arrived at this brick hotel and more confusion set in. It felt like the driver was playing a game with us and purposefully withholding information to mess with us. I asked if I should grab our big luggage and was told no and then the only thing the driver said to me was “you’re going to Fes”. We followed him inside the hotel and he handed us off to new workers and bounced from the scene saying he’d be back in the morning and we’d leave at 8:20am. All of us were confused, mad, and dumbfounded.
The workers at the hotel didn’t say much and walked us out of the hotel and towards a group of camels. Once we got to the camel corral, Jen and I were further separated from the 5 others and they rode off together into the desert. At this point it was comical and we were laughing and just trying to go with the flow and take the situation for what it was. Next we realized that the camel ride was over an hour long! We were thinking like 15 minutes….lol Once we got into the desert and away from the road and buildings, we were amazed and in awe of the dunes. It really is a vast landscape and it is very picturesque. Our new guide, leading the camels, was friendly and funny. We learned about camels along the way and the strange noises they make. We also learned how violent they can be to one another and kill in the name of a lady camel. After an hour or so, we took a rest on a nice dune with a vantage point into the deep desert. We found the sand to be very “soft” and a bit different from sand found at the beach. Not only did the sand feel “soft” but it also looks soft to me too. Most of the photos we took during golden hour and sunset are very smooth and warm. The colors of the landscape and the sunset mesh together perfectly for amazing photos.
The wind had kicked up quite a bit by this point, so we didn’t stay on this hill for too long and made our way into camp. We set our bags down in our nice tent, which was basically a studio apartment with real beds and a very comfortable bedspread. We then ventured back out to catch the sunset behind the dunes of our camp and watch some of the others come into our camp and the camp nearby. When it was all said and done, Jen and I were the only two from our 20 person van ride that were staying in our camp. We were just floored and had to chuckle at the situation. Once back in the camp and having tea we met the 6 others staying there for the evening with us. There were 2 French girls that kept to themselves for the evening and a very nice Australian family. We ate our dinner with the Australian family who are on the last month of their 3 month travels to Ireland, Scotland, Morocco, and South Africa. The parents are each taking paid sabbaticals (must be nice) and their two sons were in university and just finished university. We really enjoyed sharing our meal with them and being part of the family for the night.
After dinner, the 5 friends we left at the start of the camel trek joined our camp for the night’s entertainment, traditional music. When the 5 arrived we learned that they were in the standard camp (which they confirmed the next morning was shit) and we were in the deluxe camp (thanks for the pro tip, Kevin!). After their first traditional song; the Australian sons and mom, a guy from Belgium, a guy from Spain, and me & Jen all got up and danced along to the music. Wow, was it hard to dance to music that doesn’t have a common beat with 5 people playing 5 different drum beats! Haha After a few songs with dancing we then tried to learn some of the drumming. I don’t think any of us really got it, but we had a fun time. Louis, the Belgian, then entertained us with some French rapping and I dropped some Queen “Don’t Stop Me Now” on the group for some “Berber Karaoke”. After the music session, the majority of us went outside to stargaze. It was some A+ stargazing! And it was kind of funny because Jen and I were the only ones that could point out any constellations, so everyone was impressed with us. We stargazed for about 20 minutes before the wind and sand in our eyes became too much as we needed to retreat back to our luxury tent.
The next morning we woke around 7:15am for breakfast before sunrise. It has been pretty interesting that the sunrise in Morocco has been around 8am for us. It has been a little trippy the few days we have been up and out before 8am, but it was definitely nice that we didn’t have to get up super early to experience the Sahara sunrise. The temperature was in the 30’s which was also trippy, being on sand and freezing! We then took a jeep back to the brick hotel from the day before and luckily retrieved our large bags without disaster. We said goodbye to the nice Aussie family and went to find our new 20 person van traveling to Fes. We were then shocked to find out that we had a personal taxi, just for the 2 of us, for the 8 hour drive up to Fes. The plot cannot be contained! We settled up, stretched out, and headed north with Mustafa. Mustafa did not really speak English but had wikipedia-like clips saved in his phone that he would play for us in English when we passed different points of interest along the way. He was very good, but his driving was TERRIFYING. We both had to stop looking out the windshield, as it provoked too much anxiety because he was passing so many cars on this two lane road.
About 2 hours outside of Fes we had to cross through a mountain pass of the Atlas Mountains. Jen and I were shocked at the amount of people that were out in the snow and parked along the side of the road. Mustafa then told us that it was a holiday that day (Friday) and a 3 day weekend, and people from all over Morocco come to that mountain town on their vacations. And on top of that it had snowed 1-2 meters the day before, so Moroccans that were more local and maybe not planning on visiting the mountains were doing so too. In the mountains we saw the Barbary macaque, an indigenous monkey of the Atlas, which is endangered, but did not get out of the car because it was absolute madness. During this time of the road trip, we started using Google Translate to have a conversation with Mustafa and ask specific questions to understand why there were so many people, how much it snows there on average, and what type of skiing there is. This was a fun exchange and we were all smiling when we got questions and understood each other. He also said, which was translated to English something along the lines of, “this morning you were in the Sahara desert and now you are in the Atlas with snow, wow how beautiful Morocco is”. We got big smiles on our face and agreed with him. Even Though we specifically went to Todra and knew about the Atlas Mountains, I was not prepared for the beautiful landscape of Morocco, the seemingly endless mountain ranges and the vast greenery. The landscape is a lot more similar to Washington than I would have ever guessed. Also if I had realized this, I would have spent another week in the mountains and countryside rather than the cities. After the mountains we had a short time until we hit the chaos traffic of greater Fes, and we were so ready to get out of the car. Luckily our riad in Fes is close to the edge of the old city and we were able to avoid the main drag and all of its traffic. We hopped out of the car, said our goodbyes, thanked Mustafa and walked the 5 minutes down to our riad.
