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Review: Erg Chigaga Luxury Tented Camp, Mhamid, Morocco – Part I

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The Camp Location:

The travel to the camp took place over one day. For more details on that, see my post on Overland Travel from Marrakech to Mhamid, Morocco. The camp is located well off the beaten path in the middle of the desert several miles from the Algerian Border.

On arrival, the wind was blowing absolutely everywhere so we huddled in the camp tent with our new found camp mate friends as we settled into the Erg Chigaga Luxury Tented Camp. We came across a couple from Brazil, a couple from Colorado, USA and a couple from the United Kingdom.

The Camp and its Surroundings:

As soon as the storm arrived, it blew away. After about 20 minutes, it was clear again to be outside. We were able to get our first impressions of the camp as visibility was restored.

Sunset in the Dunes:

We were going to go settle into the tent but sunset was calling. We climbed for about 15 minutes up a nearby dune for a sunset in the sand dunes.

Camp was kind enough to have drinks and snacks brought up to the dunes and we had a picnic under the stars as the day faded to black.

The Room: A Whole Tent!

We walked back to the tent under the stars where we got acquainted with our tent for the next two nights.

The tent was indeed a camp style with a portable toilet and bucket shower (of water scooping variety). Truthfully, it was more camp than luxury…. It was a bit dark in the tent, which was powered by generators during most, but not all of the day. While the fittings had all the style of “glamping”, most of the structures appeared portable and the walkways were all carpets and not concrete; meaning that sand tended to get everywhere both inside and out of the tent.

The tent was spacious and large, with enough room to move around in larger than many hotel rooms.

We’ve been lucky enough to have done two past tented camp experiences at the Fairmont Masai Mara in Kenya and at Sossusvlei in Namibia. Both of those were pretty clean and well maintained. It’s fair to say that although well appointed, our camps wasn’t quite up to that standard. It was a little rougher than our Fairmont Masai Mara experience as the facility was a little more portable than their structures. I am convinced though that this was probably the best that was available for the area. The camp structures are also portable, in that additional units could be created as needed. I ended up fully absorbing the camping experience and didn’t bother to shower or shave for the two days that we were there (the horrors!). Ultimately, I enjoyed the experience where as MrsWT73 was a little less than impressed with the whole sleeping arrangements. She preferred the Fairmont tented camp experience and all the luxury that it entailed.

After sunset, dinner was served communally in a group tent. Dinner was a beef tangine, with vegetables along with fruit for desert. We were pretty happy to have some still time after that long travel day, and slept pretty well at the end of it.

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