Silent Retreat · Erg Chegaga · Morocco
Silence you do not
have to keep
In a seminar house you promise not to speak while the road, the kitchen and the next group carry on regardless. Sixty kilometres past the last village, there is nothing to carry on.
Host Your Silent RetreatWhat the silence is made of
Not a rule the group keeps. The ordinary state of the place.
01
No borrowed noise
No road, no flight path, no farming, no neighbours. Erg Chegaga lies 60 kilometres beyond M’Hamid El Ghizlane, at the end of a track. The only sounds are wind, sand moving under it, and whatever your group brings.
02
One group at a time
The camp is privatised as a whole. There is no second seating, no shared lounge, no arrival of strangers on day three. Eight tent suites, 2 to 18 guests and up to 20 with extra beds.
03
A team that serves without speaking
Our hosts are used to silent weeks. Meals arrive, tents are turned down and fires are lit with gestures, written notes or nothing at all. Nobody will ask how you slept.
04
No wifi, no network in camp
The only usable signal is 4G at the top of the big dune, about twenty minutes there and back on foot. Most guests walk up once, or not at all. The team keeps a satellite link for emergencies, so a group is never out of reach.
05
Bortle 1 skies
The darkest class on the scale. Silence has a night side here: the Milky Way reads as a band of light, and most groups end the day outside without a word. See the stargazing guide.
06
Private bathrooms
Each of the eight tent suites has its own bathroom with hot water. Silence breaks the moment people queue, so nobody does.
If you host the retreat
Teachers, coaches, facilitators
Most silent weeks here are led by someone else. You bring the programme and the group. We bring the setting, the tents, the meals, the team and the logistics from Marrakech, and then we stay out of the way.
You keep your own voice: when silence starts, when it breaks, whether there is sitting at dawn, whether anyone speaks at meals. We do not run a parallel programme and we do not interrupt yours.
Practical things that decide a silent retreat: a covered space usable in the middle of the day, not only a beautiful spot at sunrise; bathrooms that do not make people queue; and the certainty that no other group will be in earshot. All three are the same answer here, because the camp goes to one group at a time.
Capacity. 2 to 18 guests, up to 20 with extra beds, in eight tent suites. No minimum, so a first cohort of six is as welcome as a full camp.
Season. September to June. Closed in July and in August. October to April the days sit between 18 and 28 degrees; December and January, 18 to 24 by day and 2 to 8 at night.
Getting a group here. About 8 hours 45 by road from Marrakech in our own 4x4s with our own drivers, of which 1 hour 30 is piste over the last sixty kilometres. Or 1 hour 40 by helicopter from Marrakech Menara, five or six seats per rotation, landing at the camp.
How it is priced. One rate for the whole camp, set case by case against your dates and what you need, never per person. A written answer within 24 hours, and a 20% deposit confirms.
If you come without a group
Silence without a programme
Not everyone looking for silence wants a guided retreat. Some people want four days where nothing is scheduled and nobody needs an answer. The camp takes guests with no programme at all, and the team is told in advance to leave you alone.
Three nights is the honest minimum. The first day is arriving, and the silence starts to work on the second. Five is better, and by then most people have stopped reaching for a phone that has nothing to show them.
You do not need meditation experience. Silence asks for no technique, only the willingness to spend a few days with yourself and no distraction. If you would rather walk than sit, the dunes take care of that: you can leave the camp on foot in any direction and find no footprint but your own.
If you would rather take a week that is already built, with a guide at dawn and the astronomer after dinner, that is the Silence Retreat, with its dates and its places.
The long read on silence here · Digital detox · Quiet luxury
Questions about a silent retreat
What makes a silent retreat in the Sahara different from a quiet retreat centre? +
Will another group be at the camp during a silent retreat? +
Is there wifi or phone signal at the camp? +
How many nights should a silent retreat last? +
Do I need meditation experience to come? +
How many people can a silent retreat bring? +
When is the camp open for a silent retreat? +
Can a teacher or coach host their own silent retreat here? +
As Featured In
Private buyout
Ask for your dates
The whole camp for your group, from two guests to eighteen. Tell us when and how many of you: a written proposal for the whole camp comes back within 24 hours, with no commitment.
-
2019
Open since
-
4.8★
TripAdvisor
-
8 tents
One group at a time
-
24h
A written proposal, no commitment
