Is a camel trek in the Sahara worth it?

Let me be honest with you, because most websites oversell this. A camel trek is not a smooth, romantic glide across endless sand the way the brochures imply. A camel sways, lurches when it stands up and sits down, and after about 45 minutes most people are quietly shifting their weight and wishing they had worn looser trousers. The trick is dosage. I book my clients a short trek, usually 30 to 60 minutes at golden hour, just enough to feel it without it becoming an endurance test.

And within that window, it is wonderful. You leave the edge of Merzouga in a single file caravan, the guide walking ahead on foot leading the lead camel by a rope, and the Erg Chebbi dunes rise in front of you like frozen orange waves. The light at that hour is the whole point. The sand shifts from gold to copper to a deep rose, your shadow stretches twenty feet long, and the only sounds are the soft pad of the camels and the wind. People go quiet. It earns the silence.

A few practical things I always tell people. Wear long trousers and closed shoes, not shorts, or the saddle will chafe you raw. Bring a scarf for your face because sand does blow. Hold the front pommel firmly when the camel stands and sits, that is when people get unseated, and lean back as it rises. If you have a bad back or hips, tell me in advance and I will arrange a 4x4 transfer to camp instead with a short photo-stop camel ride, you lose nothing of the experience.

Would I do it again? Every single time. The combination of the camel, the dunes, the dying light and the camp appearing over a ridge with lanterns lit is one of those memories that does not fade. Just go in with realistic expectations: it is an experience, not a comfortable mode of transport, and the magic is in the setting, not the saddle.