Nobody can leave. That is the point.
Team weeks in a private camp, sixty kilometres past the last paved road
Why most of it fails
Your team knows when it is being team built.
The rope course, the escape room, the exercise where everyone says something surprising about themselves. Adults recognise theatre instantly, and a team that has been asked to perform closeness goes back to work exactly as it was.
What changes a team is conditions it did not choose and cannot get out of. We do not sell exercises and we do not employ facilitators. We run a camp where four of those conditions happen on their own.
Last reviewed 2026-09-13.
What the desert does
Four conditions, none of them designed
They are properties of the place, which is why nobody can opt out of them.
No signal, and nobody can pretend otherwise
There is no coverage and no Wi-Fi at the camp. Nobody steps out to take a call, nobody half listens with a screen under the table, and the person who always has an excuse runs out of one. A 4G signal returns at the top of the large dune, a twenty minute round trip, which is exactly long enough to make people decide whether the call matters.
One table, every meal, no seating plan
There is one long table and everybody eats at it. No breakout restaurant, no small groups drifting to the bar, because there is no bar. Three days of this does more for who talks to whom than any exercise designed to do the same thing.
Effort that is real rather than staged
Climbing a three hundred metre dune at dawn is genuinely hard and nobody can fake it. The director who trains and the intern who runs arrive at the top in an order that has nothing to do with the org chart, and everybody notices.
Nobody can leave
Sixty kilometres of piste beyond the last paved road. No taxi, no early train, no slipping away after dinner. A team that cannot disperse at six in the evening has the conversations it has been avoiding since March.
A three day shape
Work in the morning, terrain in the afternoon, one table at night
Half the day is deliberately empty. That half is where the week actually happens.
- Arrival day
- Land in Marrakech, cross by 4x4 convoy or fly in by helicopter. Tea on the sand, tents allocated, and a first dinner with nothing scheduled after it. The convoy itself is the first shared moment of the week.
- First light
- The big dune for whoever wants it. Optional and unbriefed, which is why the people who go are the interesting data point.
- Morning session
- Working time in the covered majlis: projector, flip charts, a 120 inch outdoor screen, all on solar power. The natural dune amphitheatre takes the full group for a plenary.
- Middle hours
- Rugs and woven shade on open sand. The desert imposes a flat part of the day and we do not schedule into it. This is where the unplanned conversations happen.
- Afternoon
- Guided buggy raids across the piste, sandboarding, a 4x4 excursion, or walking with the nomad families who move through the erg. Mixed ability by design.
- Evening
- Bread baked directly in the sand, fire, Berber musicians, and guided stargazing with a telescope under a Bortle Class 1 sky.
- Departure
- Out through the Drâa valley, or back by helicopter for anyone on a deadline.
The practical answers
What an HR team needs before proposing this
- Group size
- Up to twenty, taken as one group. Eight canvas suites with private bathrooms, two per tent, extra beds taking a tent to three or four.
- Working space
- A covered majlis for sessions, projector, flip charts and a 120 inch outdoor screen on solar power, plus the dune amphitheatre for a plenary.
- Getting there
- 8h45 from Marrakech in our own 4x4s with our own drivers, of which the last 1h30 is piste. Or 1h40 by helicopter from Marrakech Menara, five to six seats per rotation, landing at the camp.
- Facilitators
- Bring your own, or come without one. We are not a facilitation company and we will not sell you an exercise. What we run is the ground.
- Duration
- Two nights minimum, three is where a team actually settles. One night makes the journey the event.
- Season
- Open from September to June. For a working programme we recommend October to April, and we will tell you so rather than take a booking outside it.
- Medical
- The nearest hospital is at Zagora, about two and a half hours by road. The evacuation plan and drive times are provided in writing before you commit.
- Invoicing
- One company, one written proposal with every line itemised, one invoice. Camp, all meals, guides, activities and every transfer.
We do not publish rates. The season, the length and the shape of the programme change what a week costs to run. Send dates and a head count and the written figure comes back within 24 hours, itemised.
Questions
Asked by whoever has to propose it internally
What makes a desert team building trip different from a normal corporate offsite? +
Do you provide a facilitator or a team building programme? +
Can a team really work with no phone signal? +
How many people can come for a team week? +
What activities actually work for a mixed team? +
How long should a team building trip in the Sahara be? +
How does the team get to the camp? +
When is the best time of year for a corporate team trip to the desert? +
Send the dates and the head count.
You will have a written figure, the itemised inclusions, the evacuation plan and a day by day outline within 24 hours, and you can take that to your board before anyone commits.
Ask for a team proposalRelated: corporate events, board offsites, bringing your own community.
What this is not
Not a desert evening added to your offsite
Most desert programmes sold from Marrakech are an evening in the Agafay, a rocky plateau forty minutes from the city, with the team back at the hotel before midnight. It works as an outing. It leaves the way the group works together exactly as it found it.
Here the desert is the offsite, not an excursion inside it. The camp sits sixty kilometres past the last paved road, takes one group at a time, and holds that group for several nights. There is no mobile coverage except from the top of the dune behind the camp. Nobody is driving back to the city at the end of the evening.
An evening in the Agafay
Several nights at Umnya
Four to five hours, dinner included
Two to four nights, the whole camp yours
A plateau of stone and gravel, no sand dunes
Erg Chegaga, the largest dune field in Morocco
Dozens of camps, most within sight of each other
One group at a time, nothing else in view
Bortle 4 to 5 sky, washed by Marrakech
Bortle 1 sky, the darkest class there is
Phones work throughout
No coverage except from the top of one dune
If you cannot name a week yet, that is the normal case and not a problem. Tell us which months could work on the waiting list and we bring you a week when one opens, before it goes on the site.
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.
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2019
Open since
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4.8★
TripAdvisor
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8 tents
One group at a time
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24h
A written proposal, no commitment
For groups
Other ways to take the whole camp
- Private caravan and celebrations Three days or more, a chef, a butler and a night in the dunes
- Sahara training camps Clubs, gyms and teams, with 4x4 support and a kitchen for athletes
- Bring your community Studios, gyms, clubs and companies selling places to their own people
- Group trips Up to twenty travelling together, with the whole camp to yourselves
- A family buyout Three generations, the whole camp, the sleeping map sent before you book
- Executive offsites A leadership team, two or three nights, no signal and one long table
- Board offsites Confidentiality, close protection and arrival by helicopter
