Budget Sahara Desert Disaster in Morocco

After spending 3 days on a Desert Tour, I asked myself “Is a Budget Sahara Desert Tour in Morocco Worth it?” Unfortunately, the answer for me was no.

When I thought of a Sahara Desert Tour, I pictured the following things:

• Climbing sand dunes to watch the sunset
• White tents with beds
• The possibility of a proper toilet (as many travel bloggers claim to have received, according to their social media feeds).
•  Cute chairs to sit on while enjoying home-cooked tagine.

The description above is what the American company’s website that we purchased the tour from portrayed, so one would expect to receive such accommodations, right?

This is what I imagined:

Quite the contrary to what we received.

Now, let’s understand that I knew we were not going to get a 5-star experience in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

However, I expected to receive what we were sold. And after talking to a few other travelers, this is not the first time a Desert Tour company has scammed their guests.

I have decided to leave out the name of the American Company that we purchased the Sahara Desert tour, as we did receive a refund in the end.

I wrote this post to warn fellow travelers to be prepared to receive the same accommodations whether or not they book the tour in advance.

7 Issues I encountered by booking a tour with an American Company:

1. Lack of communication

I found this to be a common theme in Morocco. From where we were getting picked up, to how long it would take to get to each location, to what we needed to pack in our overnight bag for the desert, the entire 3 days was a guessing game.

The website promised our bus driver, who doubled as our tour guide, would speak English. He only spoke Arabic and French so you can imagine how that could be a problem.

2. The hotel on the first night was a one-star hotel at best

The company claimed it would be a 3-star, however, there was no air conditioning as promised and it was 105 degrees.

The floors in the hotel rooms were filthy and the breakfast offered was bread and water. Bread and water are not our ideas for breakfast at a 3-star hotel, I didn’t sign up for a prison tour.

3. The van broke down on the last leg of the journey getting to the desert

Without an English-speaking driver, you can imagine the confusion. The van that picked us up had no air conditioning and 16 people sat on top of each other for the remaining 45-minute drive.

We missed seeing the sunset in the desert due to the lost time.

4. Activities promised were not delivered

Since we were late arriving at the camp, there was no option to participate in the sand boarding, something we wanted to do.

A drum party (also promised on the website) was never offered. When I requested these activities the guides just laughed at us.

5. The campground didn’t have enough beds

I use the term bed loosely; there were thin mattresses for half of the group and blankets in the sand for the other half. To sleep at least on a mattress, a few of us trekked in the pitch black to another campground, forcing us to separate from the rest of our group.

Since it was too hot inside of the tents we dragged the blankets outside.

6. The bathroom for 30 people was the sand

I kind of assumed this would be the case, as we were in the middle of the Sahara desert, but there was no designated area to relieve yourself, nor a heads up to bring toilet paper in our overnight bag.

Picture people tip-toeing around the Sahara desert trying to avoid stepping in people’s urine while digging holes to relieve themselves.

I didn’t sign up for a roughing-it tour, a simple designated area would have been nice.

And finally, one thing happened that is so unacceptable and is the main reason why we received a refund:

And finally, one thing happened that is so unacceptable and is the main reason why we received a refund:

7. The campground was covered in camel feces

Our options to sleep were either inside tents in 105-degree heat with no ventilation (unless you wanted to suffocate), or you had to sleep outside.

The problem was that the ENTIRE campground outside of the tent was COVERED in camel shit!

You can’t expect people to lay in feces animal or human, and call it an experience. If this was in the USA, the campground would be shut down immediately.

With all the shit around us and no place to wash our hands, we can only assume the guides also prepared our dinner with their filthy hands covered in feces as well, which opens Pandora’s box on getting people severely sick.

Missing the sunset, digging holes in the sand to create toilets, and rolling around in feces are not my idea of an adventure.

Looking back, €149 is very cheap for 2 people to go on a 3-day excursion in the Sahara Desert. But the images on the company’s website were the typical white tents, functional beds, and clean sand.

My experience was not normal.

We hope that more people are not taken advantage of when they book their Sahara Desert tours in Morocco.

Some day I look forward to returning to the desert, to a clean campground filled with beds, sandboarding and fingers crossed…. a toilet (as so many other bloggers have supposedly experienced).

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