Desert tour from Marrakech: all 15 trips, sorted by where they end

People start shopping for a desert tour from Marrakech by comparing prices, and that is the wrong end of the problem. Two questions settle the decision; price falls out of them.

How many nights can you give it? Two days means Zagora. Three days means Erg Chebbi near Merzouga, which is the landscape most people have in their head when they picture a trip like this one. Four days means the same dunes with more of the country either side of them, or a run that finishes on the Atlantic coast. The Sahara is a long way from Marrakech, which is why every trip we compare here is a multi-day one.

Where do you want to be at the end? Six listings bring you back to Marrakech. Seven carry on to Fes, which turns the return drive into a transfer you were going to pay for anyway. One ends in Agadir. One starts in Fes and ends in Marrakech, which is the same road read backwards. A route that ends somewhere else is not more expensive as a rule — the Fes routes start at $108, which is inside the range of the loops.

Answer those two and you are usually down to three or four listings. The table below is sorted length first, so you can do exactly that.

Two days. Three listings, and all three go to Zagora rather than Erg Chebbi. That is the honest trade: Zagora is closer, so a two-day desert tour from Marrakech spends less of itself on the road. The cheapest trip on this site is one of them, at $71, with an overnight stay in Zagora and the dunes at sunrise and sunset; the other runs a camel ride at sunset and a Berber camp at $81. The third, at $136, reaches the Merzouga desert in two days and can finish in Fes or back in Marrakech.

Three days. Ten listings, and this is the standard product. Over the High Atlas by the Tizi n’Tichka pass, a stop at Ait Ben Haddou, the Dades or Todra side of the road, then Erg Chebbi for a camel ride and a night in a camp. Six of the ten end in Fes, two come back to Marrakech, one arrives in Agadir on day three at $143, and one runs the whole thing in reverse from Fes. The top of this band is $183.

Four days. Two listings, and both carry the Private label: $435 for a route through Ouarzazate, Ait Ben Haddou, the kasbahs and the palm groves with accommodation and meals, and $550 for a vehicle-based run through Erg Chebbi, local markets and historic kasbahs. Both start and finish in Marrakech.

Our top pick is Marrakech to Fes: 3-Day Luxury Sahara Desert Tour at $150. Of all fifteen listings it is the only one labelled Small group, it includes meals, and it holds 4.8 across 676 reviews. That combination does not repeat anywhere else in the table.

For the largest body of evidence, Marrakech to Fes: 3-Day Sahara Tour, Camel Ride & Camp at $110. It carries 3,675 reviews at 4.8; the next listing on the site has 2,415. It also states its inclusions plainly: 2 nights, 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners.

For two days rather than three, From Marrakech: 2-Day Sahara Tour to Zagora & Ait Ben Haddou at $71. It is the lowest price of any route here that we would put forward, it holds 4.5 across 2,324 reviews, and it is honest about what it is: Zagora, not Erg Chebbi. There is a $45 listing on the site as well, but it sits below the price floor we use for a headline figure, so we quote $71 and let you find the other one in the table.

For a private desert tour from Marrakech, $435 buys the four-day Atlas and kasbah route with accommodation and meals, rated 4.7 across 202 reviews. The $550 alternative is rated 4.9 but on 65 reviews, so it is the bolder choice of the two.