Berber soul Luxury Camp — Hotel in Caïdat de Taouz

I had a pretty horrific experience that I'm still reeling over, many months later. In short, we booked with Booking, the travel agent. We were then messaged on WhatsApp to cancel the booking so that the owner gets $35 back from the fee charged by the agent. We declined that since we would be driving 9 hours to get to a place without a guaranteed booking. The owner's communication was so unclear in this process. When we arrived at the meet up point to get collected, we were given no plan and just had to wait a few hours (which is the least of the issues, it turns out). The owner spoke to me in Arabic and was telling me generalising statements about Arabs that were offensive, completely unprovoked (I was sitting in silence). He also made a comment about why I didn't marry my own people. I didn't realise I needed to check with him my marriage decisions. When we got to the tents at sunset, they'd turned on the lights and let the doors open to invite the moths. I started removing them and the owner kicked up a fuss and just moved us to another tent, then repeated the same thing 😂 Next morning, we were told we couldn't stay at the tent because it's too hot and there's no cooling (though there's a shower so it's not unfeasible to have cooling). It also turns out that we'd be charged $50 for each transfer to and from the camp. We asked why and they said it's because we didn't cancel the booking. This would mean two return journeys at the cost of $200. None of this made sense since $35 doesn't equal $200. We argued with him. He got aggressive with me wife too. Then we paid him for the first night and cancelled the rest of our stay. We left and drove to a hotel 200kms away. When I reviewed the business on the platform, the owner then started to send harassing messages over multiple WhatsApp numbers (including the booking platform too) where he was demanding that I remove my review and he'd give me the money back. I reported him to the booking platform as a result. His staff were wonderful though and the location was beautiful at night (even though there were loads of camps and it was more like a row of rented resorts than an authentic Bedouin experience). Furthermore, the owner clearly treated the European customers with a greater priority than me and my wife. It made me question the authenticity of their reviews everywhere if they come with incentives and it's put me off being in that area of the Sahara ever again. I sincerely hope this business can change but I'm not holding my...

Beautiful location, but run by some not so great hosts. We booked online where the prices for excursions and transfers were listed clearly. One day before we arrived we were contactes and asked to cancel our booking so that they can charge us their own rates and not get charged commission. We didn't cancel as we were driving 500kms and we didn't want to turn up without something written as a confirmed booking. We also were concerned that we'd be charged a cancellation fee as the conversation was just over WhatsApp.

Furthermore, if you were to book two nights like we did, you can't stay there during the day, which may be obvious but unclear. So you either have to book excursions with them or pay an extra transfer of 100 euros to get to and from Merzouga (which is only about 15 minutes away). That's on top of the 100 euros transfer via jeep or 40 for camel that you do anyway. When we asked about whether we'd be charged or not for the extra transfer as it wasn't clear, the owner became aggressive and said that we should have cancelled the reservation like he said. He wasn't listening and just yelled, before proceeding to call me stupid. We cancelled the rest of our stay then and there and left.

Had we cancelled the booking, the website would not charge the owner 35 euros. He promised free transfers if we cancelled and, since we didn't, he was punishing us by charging 50 euro a day (total 150 euros) for not cancelling. It doesn't add up at all and this malpractice is horrible.

The whole experience has left an extremely bitter taste in our mouths about the Sahara and Morocco, especially following the experiences we've had in our 2000km road trip prior to arriving here. The place itself is beautiful and relatively clean but all in all it's really not worth staying somewhere where you're treated so poorly. There's nothing luxury about being treated...

We spent two nights in the Sahara Tour Luxury camp on December 24th 2021, and it was one of the most magical times in our life. I will remember those days forever. The magic of being in the desert I can't compare with anything. A truly magical experience.

The accommodations  were incredible. We got a tent equipped with a king size bed, two night tables with lamps, a heat system, and a bathroom with hot water. The food was delicious and the staff was great. The ride in and out to the camp is a shot of adrenaline. I will recommend taking...