Merzouga

Most travelers spend one night in a desert camp, arriving in the afternoon for a sunset camel trek and leaving after sunrise the next morning. If you want time to also visit Khamlia village for Gnawa music, go sandboarding, or add a quieter second night in Erg Chebbi, plan for two nights.

Merzouga sits at Erg Chebbi, Morocco's tallest and most photogenic dune field (up to 150m), and it's the only major desert access point reachable on well-established routes from both Marrakech and Fes. Zagora's dunes are smaller and reached mainly from Marrakech; Agafay is a stony desert an hour from Marrakech with no real dunes — convenient, but not the Sahara.

Yes. Merzouga is a small, tourism-dependent village and violent crime is rare. The main things to plan around are heat (avoid midday sun May–September) and choosing a licensed camp or guide rather than an unlicensed street tout, since camel-trek and camp scams are the most common complaint, not safety incidents.

Yes — almost nobody reaches Merzouga directly. Most itineraries include Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, and the Dades or Todra Gorges from Marrakech, or Ifrane and the Ziz Valley from Fes, turning the drive itself into part of the trip rather than a transfer.

Yes, with a private driver or rental car, though most independent travelers still book the desert-camp night and camel trek locally, since access to Erg Chebbi camps is on unpaved tracks that require a local 4x4 or a camel.