The Unmissables – Glamping in the Agafay Desert, Morocco

Sleeping in a luxury desert camp under the stars. Is there anything more romantic? Helena Beard took a trip to the Agafay Desert to find out.

The vast majority of British tourists arriving at Marrakech airport on a Friday afternoon will reboard on Monday without having left the city. But stay just one more night, and you could add a completely different experience, just 40 minutes’ away, in the Agafay Desert.

Location: Before we start, it’s important to say that this is not the Sahara. If you want to see the spectacular dunes of North Africa’s more famous desert, you’ll need to add another seven hours or so onto your journey. But the Agafay is a desert, nevertheless, and even if the dunes are smaller and the landscape a bit rockier, you can still have a true desert experience here.

The Agafay Desert product is new: developed about five years ago, to provide a feasible day trip or overnight option, easily accessible from Marrakech. Despite the ravages of the pandemic, the idea has survived, and the area is dotted with a mix of glamping resorts and activity centres. Shuttles are provided from Marrakech, or you can drive out independently or with a private driver.

First Impressions: My one previous desert experience was an overnight camel trek and wild camping in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, aged 18. This desert certainly seemed busier. There were lots of activity centres, offering quad bike rides and camel treks. At some, these were augmented by a lunch in a Berber tent.

We had intended to try out the quad biking in the centre next to our campsite, but our driver had other ideas, insisting that there was a better option. To be honest, we didn’t really mind and, although suspecting that ‘better’ was a subjective descriptor based on a commercial agreement, we were happy to go with the flow. We stopped at a fairly large activity centre where we were led to a long, low hanging tent, with a beautiful view of the dunes. Lunch was a set menu of traditional Moroccan salads, bread, chicken tagine and fruit, served on a low table as we sat on floor cushions, pretending to be comfortable. It was very hot inside and we were pleased it was November rather than August.

I vowed in India never to get on a camel again and have honoured that decision for over 30 years. So camels were never going to be on the agenda. I do quite like watching other people riding them, though. And there is something quite magical about a caravan of camels winding through the sand dunes, even if they are topped by giggling tourists rather than nomadic traders.

Instead, we opted for the quad bikes. Having signed our disclaimer, we were let loose after 90 seconds of instruction. The bikes were extremely easy to drive, which was good, given that I spent the first twenty minutes worrying about all the things I’d promised in the disclaimer. We followed our driver up and over dunes, along the road, and through some dips, stopping at the top of one particularly picturesque spot for photographs.

It was fun and I’m glad we went, but I am also glad we opted for the one rather than two hour ride. Afterwards we were approached by young men and ‘hosed down’ with what looked like one of those tyre pressure pumps you get at the local petrol station. This was surprisingly effective at removing the dust from our clothes and was certainly a novel experience, if weirdly intimate!

Accommodation: The Agafay Desert is served by a number of luxury campsites of varying sizes. Ours was YesWeCamp, a large site with luxury tents with ensuite bathrooms, picture windows with views across the desert. The site has a swimming pool, bar, restaurant and is patrolled by discreet security guards who will emerge from nowhere to shine torches to help you find your way back to your tent.

The site was beautifully decorated in an authentic style and the pool area was stunning. Pre-dinner drinks around the pool were somewhat spoiled by a looped tape of Arabic house music blaring out from the bar but, on the other hand, a very good bottle of local wine was accompanied by five (yes, five) bowls of complimentary bar snacks.

Dinner was served inside the open sided restaurant. The food was good. We were entertained by traditional Berber dancers. As the only British guests, we adopted the ‘no eye contact’ rule and allowed our more gregarious European and American neighbours to respond to the invitations to join in.

Best For: Couples, honeymooners, families with older children. I think teenagers would love this experience as long as they are not fussy eaters. Although the food is good and plentiful, there are few choices.

Highs: Lying in bed, with an uninterrupted view of the sun rising over the sand dunes.

Lows: Despite attempts to offer an ‘authentic experience’, we found the lunch in the Berber tent rather touristy and it was certainly too hot to be eating in a tent at that time of day, even in November.

Value for money: The tents at YesWeCamp are around 2000 – 2300 DRH per night for a double room, which is under £200 and includes breakfast. The food and drinks were also very reasonable.

Quad biking was 500 DRH pp for an hour which is around £40 pp and the Berber lunch was 250 DRH pp, around £20 a head. I felt that was a little on the expensive side.

Verdict: If you are planning a trip to Marrakech, stay an extra night and go to Agafay, just to experience a night in the desert. It’s very easy to do, not overly expensive, and an experience not to be missed.

Book at https://www.yeswecampsagafay.com