Erg Chebbi vs Erg Chigaga

Choose Erg Chebbi if…

• You want the tall dunes. Chebbi's are more than twice the height. Those photographs of enormous sweeping ridges are almost always here.
• You have limited time. Paved road right to the sand, no off-road transfer, and you can be on a camel within an hour of arriving.
• You are coming from Fes. The difference is dramatic — around 7 hours versus 11 or more.
• You are travelling with children, or anyone with mobility limits. No two-hour 4×4 shakedown to reach camp.
• You want choice. Everything from €20 rooms to €200 luxury camps, plus hotels with pools, restaurants and actual infrastructure.
• You want more than sand — Rissani's market, the Erfoud fossil beds, Khamlia's Gnawa music, Todra.

Choose Erg Chigaga if…

• Emptiness matters more to you than height. Chigaga is far less visited. You can genuinely be alone there in a way that is harder at Chebbi.
• The journey is the point. The off-road crossing from M'Hamid is an experience in itself.
• You want scale. Chigaga's field is wider, and the sense of an enormous unbroken erg is stronger even though the individual dunes are lower.
• You are already in the Draa Valley or routing through Zagora.

The honest summary

Erg Chebbi is more dramatic and far more accessible. Erg Chigaga is emptier and harder to reach. Most first-time visitors to Morocco, and essentially everybody with less than a week, should come to Erg Chebbi — the extra day of difficult travel to Chigaga buys solitude, and solitude is worth a lot, but not usually at the cost of a quarter of your trip.

If you have been to Chebbi already and want something rawer, go to Chigaga. If it is your first Sahara, come here.