3 Day Marrakech to Merzouga Desert Tour Camel Rides and Overnight
Dinner and breakfastCamel trek includedSandboarding
From $130 per person
Merzouga Desert Camps: Standard, Deluxe and Luxury
Short answer. Every camp inside Erg Chebbi sells three tiers. Standard is a private tent with a shared washblock. Deluxe adds your own bathroom and a hot shower. Luxury adds better furniture and, at some camps, heating or air conditioning. The tier is chosen when you pay, not on arrival, and the step from standard to deluxe is usually the smallest one in price and the largest one in effect.
This is the decision that most often disappoints people on this road, and it disappoints them because the words are not standardised. One traveller pays the luxury upgrade and finds a trickling shower; another books standard, calls it rustic and has a fine night. Compare every Merzouga desert tour from Marrakech with a clear idea of what you are buying.
What the three tiers actually mean
The ladder is consistent even where the vocabulary is not. What changes as you go up is, in order: whether the bathroom is yours, how good the bed and furniture are, and whether the tent has any climate control.
What does not change is the location, the food, the camel or the sky. Every tier at a given camp is in the same camp, eats the same dinner and watches the same sunrise.
The tiers side by side
| Standard | Deluxe | Luxury | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The tent | Private, canvas, beds and bedding | Private, larger, better furnished | Private, furnished properly |
| Bathroom | Shared washblock in the camp | Private, inside the tent | Private, inside the tent |
| Hot water | Usually, at the block | Yes, in the tent | Yes, in the tent |
| Heating or air conditioning | No | Sometimes | At some camps — ask before you pay |
| Dinner and breakfast | Same for everyone | Same for everyone | Same for everyone |
| Typical step in fare | — | the smallest upgrade on most listings | the largest |
What does a standard tent give you?
A tent of your own with real beds, blankets and a door that closes, in the same camp as everybody else. The washblock is a short walk across the sand and has showers and flushing toilets.
It is genuinely fine for one night, and travellers who booked it and knew what they were booking say so. The complaints come from people who expected something else.
What does deluxe add?
A bathroom in the tent. That is the substance of it, and after a nine-hour driving day and an hour on a camel it is the single change most travellers on this road recommend to the next person.
It usually costs less than the jump from deluxe to luxury, which makes it the best value step on the ladder.
Is luxury worth it?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the camp. At a good one you get proper furniture, a real shower and sometimes climate control. At a weaker one you pay a significant premium for a slightly larger tent and the same trickle of water.
The way to make the decision is to ask what the word covers at your specific camp before you pay, in writing. Several operators here ask you to confirm the booking on WhatsApp anyway, which is the moment to ask.
The word “luxury” is not standardised, and that is the whole problem. One traveller paid the upgrade on a Marrakech trip and found the shower was a trickle and the hotel on the first night worse. Another on a different operator describes a luxury Berber tent with its own shower and toilet as the high point of their time in Morocco. Both are true. Ask what is in it — visiting the Merzouga Desert lists the questions.
Heating, air conditioning and the months they matter
Two months at each end of the year change this from a comfort question to a real one. January and February nights near the erg fall to about 6 °C. July and August days average 43 and 42 °C, with nights near 29.
Camps supply blankets as standard, and they are adequate. What blankets do not solve is a July night, which is where air conditioning earns its premium. The month-by-month page sets out the full year.
Where the camps sit inside the erg
All of them are in the sand rather than in a village. They cluster in two bands: a near band two to four kilometres in, reached in forty-five minutes to an hour on a camel, and a deeper band that takes ninety minutes.
The deep camps are quieter and darker. The near camps are what most three-day trips use, because the group arrives at dusk. The map page sets out the geography.
What every camp has, whatever you pay
- A big communal tent where dinner is served.
- Dinner and breakfast, usually tagine and bread, and mint tea on arrival.
- Drums and a fire after dinner.
- Blankets, whatever the tier.
- A camel or a 4x4 to get you there and back.
Do the camps have wifi?
Some of the near-band camps do, and it is slow. The deeper camps generally do not, and phone signal thins out with them. Treat the night as offline and you will not be disappointed by it.
Charging is the more useful thing to plan for. Camps run on generators or solar and most switch off overnight, so dinner is the window. A power bank matters more here than an adapter does.
What no camp has
- Mains power. Generators or solar, switched off overnight. Charge at dinner.
- A shop or a bar. Bring what you want to drink; alcohol is not served at most camps.
- Reliable signal in the deep band. The near camps generally have it.
- Lighting between the tents. A head torch is worth more than you think.
What dinner is actually like
Broadly the same at every camp and every tier: soup, salad, a tagine of chicken or vegetables, bread, fruit and mint tea, served in a large communal tent with rugs and low tables. Portions are generous and vegetarians are catered for as a matter of course rather than as a special request.
What is almost never included is alcohol, and most camps do not sell it. If you want a drink with dinner, buy it in Erfoud or Rissani on the way in. Drinks are the single most commonly excluded item on every listing on this road.
The night, hour by hour
- Arrival, late afternoon. Mint tea, your tent, and enough time to walk up a dune before the light goes.
- Sunset. Everybody climbs the nearest high crest. This takes about twenty minutes and is harder than it sounds in soft sand.
- Dinner, around eight. In the big tent, with the whole camp.
- Drums and a fire. An hour or so, and at most camps the guests end up holding something.
- The generator goes off. Usually two hours after dinner. This is when the sky arrives, and it is the part travellers write about.
- Before dawn. The camels are saddled in the dark so you are on a ridge when the sun comes up.
Where the complaints come from
Almost all of them trace to one of three things, and all three are avoidable at the booking stage. The first is a tier that did not match the word attached to it. The second is a camp change made in a peak week, which happens most often between March and May and in October. The third is water pressure, which is a function of the camp being supplied by truck rather than by mains.
None of that makes a camp bad. It makes the questions worth asking, and it is why the operators who ask you to confirm on WhatsApp are doing you a favour rather than adding a step.
How the tier is chosen, and when
At booking, on the listing, before you pay. The tiers appear as separate tour options with different names by operator — “Standard Desert Camp Tent”, “Deluxe AC tent”, “Superior Private Tour” and so on. Changing afterwards means changing the booking.
Which tier for which month
- March to May, October, November. Standard is genuinely fine. Deluxe if you want the shower.
- June to September. Pay for air conditioning if the camp has it.
- December to February. Deluxe or luxury, and ask about heating specifically.
The one question to ask before you pay
“Does the tent I have booked have its own bathroom, and does it have heating or air conditioning?” Everything else about these camps is broadly the same. Those two answers are the whole of what you are choosing between.
Merzouga Desert Tours lists which departures publish their tier names, and travel tips covers what to take for a night with no walls.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between standard, deluxe and luxury tents?
Standard is a private tent with a shared washblock. Deluxe adds a private bathroom and a hot shower inside the tent. Luxury adds better furniture and, at some camps, heating or air conditioning. The food, the location and the camel are identical.
Should I pay for the upgrade?
The step from standard to deluxe is usually the cheapest one on the listing and the one travellers most often say was worth it, because it buys a bathroom a metre from the bed. The step to luxury varies far more by camp.
Do the tents have heating?
Some luxury tents do and standard tents do not. Every camp supplies blankets. In January and February, when nights fall to around 6 °C, it is worth asking the operator about heating specifically rather than assuming.
Is there a shower?
Yes at every tier, but standard tents use a shared washblock in the camp rather than one in the tent. Water is trucked in, so showers are short by design.
Can I change tier when I arrive?
Not reliably. The tier is a booking option chosen when you pay, and camps are often full in the March-to-May and October peaks. Decide before you book.
Is there electricity in the tents?
Camps run generators or solar and most switch the power off overnight, so treat dinner as your charging window. A power bank is more use out here than an adapter.
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