3-day Fes to Merzouga desert tour: camel trek and Erg Chebbi dunes

Most people are up before sunrise on this day, whether they planned to be or not. The camp usually arranges a short walk or a spot on a nearby dune to watch the sky turn from gray to orange over Erg Chebbi.

After breakfast, a 4x4 takes you out to visit a Berber family living on the edge of the desert, one of a handful of nomadic or semi-settled households still around Merzouga. It's a low-key stop, more conversation over tea than anything staged for tourists, though that depends a bit on the guide.

Back at camp for lunch, then the afternoon is built around the main event: the Fes to Merzouga camel trek across Erg Chebbi. The ride out to the overnight camp takes a couple of hours, timed so you're crossing the highest dunes as the afternoon light turns from white to deep gold, right before sunset.

At the second camp, the crew cooks dinner over a fire, and most nights end with Berber drumming afterward, played by camp staff rather than a hired act. Once the fire dies down and the generator switches off, the sky does the rest. There's no real light pollution out here, so the stars alone are worth staying up for.

This one day, more than anything else on the trip, is what people mean when they talk about the Erg Chebbi dunes experience: the camel trek at sunset and a night under more stars than most people have ever seen.

Some people choose a second early start for a short walk across the dunes before breakfast, since the desert looks different again in the first light of morning. Others just sleep in and skip it. Either way, after breakfast you ride back into Merzouga on camelback, closing out the trek.

From there the drive toward Fes begins, with a stop in Rissani on the way out of the desert. Rissani's souk is one of the oldest in the region and a better place to buy dates, spices, or a rug than most tourist shops in Fes, provided you're comfortable with a bit of bargaining.

Heading back, you'll mostly retrace Day 1's route: through the Ziz Valley, past Errachidia and Midelt, and back into cedar forest near Azrou before the final stretch into Fes. Your driver drops you at your hotel or riad by early evening, three days and a few hundred kilometers after you leave.