Day trip to Sahara
 

Four of us will be traveling early May and have 2 days cruise stop in Casablanca. We have signed up for a one day excursion to Marrakesh. Can anyone recommend a day trip to the Sahara along with guide? Other sites good for a day trip?

Thanks

Does that mean you'll be returning to the ship after your day in Marrakech, then going next day to the desert? I ask because Marrakech is about half-way to the desert so it would make much more sense logistically to do it on your own. Take the train from Casa to Marrakech. Stay overnight in a nice hotel or, better, riad, and take your desert excursion from there with a local tour provider next day. A day trip to the Sahara from Casablanca isn't really doable.

Or, instead of the desert, which may be hot in May and not particularly exciting on a day trip, from Marrakech you could hire a car & driver, a "grand taxi", and use the day to go to Essaouira. I'm assuming in both cases you'll have 2 nights away from the ship. If just 1 night, just go on your own to Marrakech.

Just to give you an idea, it's about 3 hours train or drive to Marrakech from Casablanca, 10 hours drive from Casablanca to M'hamid on the edge of the desert.

This is a good website for estimates of travel times between places by various means: https://www.rome2rio.com/

Firstly, the sand dune areas in Morocco are semi-arid rather than desert and secondly, they are most definitely not the Sahara.

But then there's another problem, to travel to the sand dune areas (Erg Chebbi and Erg Chigaga) you need four days from Marrakech, so something like six days if you are starting from Casablanca.

Mme Perdu's estimate of 10 hours from Casablanca to M'hamid is wildly optimistic, you need more than 10 hours for just the Marrakech to M'hamid stretch, and then there's another 90 minutes by 4x4 to cover the 40km of off-tarmac tracks to Erg Chigaga, so with stops you'd be looking at 16 hours from Casablanca to Erg Chigaga.

The only viable way to see true desert will be to fly from Casablanca to Dakhla in Western Sahara (the Southern Provinces as Morocco calls the area).

And I'm sorry, but a day trip from Casablanca to Essaouira just isn't on unless you have a magic carpet. The bus takes 7 hours 45 minutes each way and even travelling by private taxi won't shave much off. Better to see El Jadida which is only 1.5 hours by train from Casablanca.

But really your best option in all this is to cancel the one-day trip to Marrakech and make your own arrangements for an overnight two-day trip to Marrakech. It's easy to organise, just a simple train ride (3.5 hours, 150 dh each first class) and book a hotel (say 500-600 dh) through booking.com

Oh, and get a Marrakech-specific guidebook, it's worth the investment.

"Mme Perdu's estimate of 10 hours from Casablanca to M'hamid is wildly optimistic..."

I accept your assessment but the point I made remains the same, "A day trip to the Sahara from Casablanca isn't really doable."

"...a day trip from Casablanca to Essaouira just isn't on unless you have a magic carpet."

Regarding Essaouira, you misread my post, the suggestion was to go from Marrakech, not Casa, about 3 hours each way by bus or grand taxi.

But since neither of us have a clear idea of the actual time available, it's hard to make specific suggestions other than what we do agree on, they can easily go to Marrakech on their own. The 2 days mentioned can mean 1 night or 2, very different time frames.

There's a 36 Hrs in Marrakech article in today's NYT travel section. Have a look. You don't have enough time for a trip to the desert. Enjoy Marrakech; that's enough!