How Much Does a 2-Day Zagora Desert Tour Cost?

What a Zagora tour costs

€85 per person, shared, from Marrakech. That is our

2-day Zagora tour, and it is roughly the floor

for a genuine desert night in Morocco - a camel ride, a camp, dinner and breakfast, and

the drive there and back.

Private, from Agadir, the same two days are €223 per person for two, €137 at four

and €103 at six (Agadir to Zagora).

Why it is the cheapest desert trip in the country

Distance. Zagora is around 360 km from Marrakech; Merzouga is 560 km. That difference is

the entire reason one trip fits in two days and the other needs three, and it is most of

the reason the price is what it is.

So the low price is not a warning sign here. It is a shorter drive, a closer camp and a

full minibus. What you should be suspicious of is a Merzouga trip at Zagora money -

that usually means the desert night has quietly become a hotel in Erfoud.

What you get, and what you do not

Included: return transport, the Tizi n'Tichka pass, a stop at

Ait Ben Haddou, the camel ride into the dunes at sunset,

dinner and breakfast, and a night in a Berber tent.

Not included: road lunches (70-120 MAD), drinks, tips.

The honest caveat is the dunes themselves. Zagora's are low, dark and scattered with scrub.

They are real desert and the silence at night is real, but they are not the towering

apricot dunes in the photographs - those are Erg Chebbi at

Merzouga, and they cost a third day.

Who should book Zagora

• Short on time. Two days is two days. Merzouga does not compress.
• On a budget. €85 for a night in the Sahara is genuinely hard to beat.
• Travelling with young children. Half the driving matters more than you think.

Who should not: anyone whose mental image of the Sahara is the big dunes. Pay the

difference and go to Merzouga - you will

otherwise spend the trip mildly disappointed and it is an expensive way to be.

2-day Zagora from Marrakech