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Atlas Mountain Gites & Camping

Our rating

4/10

Price guide

Highlights

- Very Basic Private Rooms
- Very Basic Shared Bathrooms
- Camping in summer / Gites in Winter
- Sleeping Bag Required

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Overview

The mountain gites can be real gems, but they can also be very basic. Each village in the Atlas Mountains has a gite. The gites are part government funded part locally owned guesthouses and are simple traditional buildings with a number of private rooms and shared facilities.

The rooms in some are little more than Berber salons - bare bones rooms with soft cushions placed around the room, which serve as a dining area for your group and sleeping area. You would typically expect a private room for your group (although in very busy periods, this may not always be the case).

The bathroom facilities are usually bearable but not exactly welcoming, some of the more basic gites may only have squat toilets. Hot showers are sometimes available, the gites do charge 1 or 2 Euros, but we do cover that cost (ask your guide).

The best thing about the gites is that you can usually get a private room for your party (even if there are only two of you), they are situated right in the heart of traditional Berber villages and some have outdoor terraces with wonderful views.

In the summer months, we will typically camp instead of staying in gites. We put on a private camp for you using modern dome tents and a mess tent for dining. There are some fantastic sites available and although few offer any facilities to talk of, except for a mountain stream to wash in, they can be a welcome alternative to sleeping in a crowded dorm room full of other trekkers. It is even possible to camp in the grounds of the Toubkal refuges and avail yourself of the bathroom, kitchen and sitting room facilities in the buildings. Modern dome tents are provided along with roll up sponge mattresses for sleeping on. Meals are served in a mess tent. For toilets, the crew will dig a fresh hole for each visit and put a small toilet tent by way of privacy (toilet roll is provided, but we always recommend taking a roll yourselves as back-up).

If you would rather stay in comfort we can offer a couple of alternatives. You could either base yourself in Imlil at a nice hotel or guesthouse and head out on day treks (instead of a multiday trek), or we can modify your trekking route to take in the Kasbah Du Toubkal 'luxury' trekking lodge and a couple of the newer gites which have private ensuite rooms (very limited availability), this does involve some degree of compromise on the trekking route, but may be worth it if comfort is your priority. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss these options.

If you are climbing Toubkal, then we have to use the Mountain Refuges, such as Neltner Hut and the Lepiney Refuge, both dorm style mountain huts. Anybody tackling Toubkal is going to have to deal with the mountain refuges. You can expect fairly crammed in dormitories, shared bathrooms and plenty of noisy trekkers spoiling your hard earned sleep. So no different really than mountain huts in the rest of the world. In winter and when it is cold, we use the dorms in the refuges, otherwise in warmer weather, we prefer to camp in the grounds of Neltner. That way we can avoid the dorms, but still make use of the bathrooms, dining rooms etc.

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What customers are saying after travelling with Tourdust

Average Rating

based on 536 reviews

(5.00/5)

  • Trip was great and all the arrangements were excellent so thank you for all the help!

    Drivers and transfers were all good - on time and very good service on each trip.

    Accommodation was lovely - Douar Samra was amazing (weather could have been better but lovely regardless). Riad in Marrakesh was also great!

    All in all a great trip and we loved the variety of the mountains, Marrakesh and the coast.

    Thanks you once again!

    MissingHardeep S reviewing Boutique Marrakech & Atlas Mountains on 15 April 2024

  • We had a brilliant trip!
    An amazing experience for parents, children and grandparents alike.
    We are already planning a trip to Vietnam next year

    MissingKate B reviewing Morocco Family Holiday: Kasbahs, Mountains & Souks on 10 January 2024

  • We had a fantastic time. Thank you for all your help, advice and guidance in organising our holiday. As this was not our first booking with Tourdust we were confident that all our transfers would work perfectly and they did - everything ran so smoothly! The riad in Marrakesh was stunning - a truly beautiful oasis of calm in such a busy, bustling city. As you can imagine, we were very grateful for the air conditioning in our room as outside was so hot! I was nervous about walking through the souks at night, but as they were well lit we felt perfectly safe and found our confidence grew in navigating the journey home each time we ventured out. When we arrived at our lodge in the Atlas Mountains we were blown away by the scenery. The views were amazing and the beautiful lodge gardens were the perfect place to sit and relax before taking a dip in the pool. Our day trek was truly amazing - no small thanks to our guide Rashid, who was so helpful and knowledgable. The lunch in the traditional Berber village was delicious and we were were made to feel so welcome. The home owner showed us how to make bread and then cooked it for us in her traditional clay oven. This was a memory we will never forget as we stood surrounded by her chickens and goats watching her use her bare hands to prepare the fire! Our night in the desert was breathtaking. The camel ride at sunset was so incredible and the quad biking the next morning was brilliant fun. I am so glad we added in these extras as they really made the experience! We finally made it to our hotel at the coast, where the surf lessons were a hit and the hotel was a great place to relax and read! Thank you again for all your help. We would definitely recommend Tourdust to all our friends and family. Tanya

    MissingTanya G reviewing Marrakech, Mountains & Coast Family Holiday on 18 August 2023

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