Packing for a single-landscape Morocco retreat is straightforward. Packing for a bi-climate arc — four days of Atlantic surf at Tamraght followed by three nights in the Sahara at Erg Chigaga — is a different problem. In the same six-night window the body sees 19°C water and -2°C desert nights, sea salt and dune dust, wetsuit rinses and down-jacket layering. And because the Salt & Stars edition (see [/retreats/salt-stars](/retreats/salt-stars)) uses an Agadir-in / Marrakech-out flight split, every item has to fit in a single carry-on that survives an internal transfer. This is the exact packing list, day by day, with the reasoning behind each item.

Why one carry-on, and why the flight split matters

The Salt & Stars format flies guests into Agadir (Al Massira, AGA) on day one and out of Marrakech (Ménara, RAK) on day seven. The airline economics that make the retreat accessible — Ryanair, EasyJet, Transavia, Vueling routes from most European capitals — also cap most fares at a single 10-kilogram cabin bag unless a checked bag has been added at booking. A checked bag is possible, but two practical reasons argue against it: the 4WD transfer from Tamraght to Erg Chigaga on day four is a full-day drive across the Anti-Atlas, and every kilogram of unnecessary luggage is a kilogram that sits between your knees for eight hours; and the internal luggage handoff between Agadir arrival and Marrakech departure is your responsibility, not the retreat's, so anything you bring travels with you the entire way. One carry-on, packed with intent, is the correct answer.

Days 1-3 · Tamraght Atlantic packing

Tamraght in late November sits at 19-20°C air temperature and 18-19°C water temperature. The Atlantic at this latitude is cold enough to matter and warm enough that a 3/2 mm full wetsuit is the correct thickness. A 4/3 is overkill and slows paddling. A shortie is inadequate for the second hour. Booties are optional in November but recommended: the reef at Anchor Point and the rocky entry at Devil's Rock are unforgiving on bare feet, and 3 mm split-toe booties add a functional layer without compromising board feel. The retreat provides boards, leashes, and a house wetsuit if you prefer not to travel with one, but guests who surf regularly bring their own suit for fit reasons.

The specific Atlantic block list: one 3/2 mm full wetsuit (packed damp-side-out in a mesh bag to breathe), 3 mm booties, two pairs of boardshorts or a bikini and a rash guard, one long-sleeve UPF 50 rashguard for the third session of the day when the sun has done its work, reef-safe SPF 50 stick (cream leaks in a compressed carry-on), one microfibre travel towel that dries in two hours on a riad balcony, one changing poncho or a large sarong for beach changes, and one pair of flip-flops. That is it. The wetsuit is the largest and heaviest single item; everything else compresses.

The transition problem · Day 4 packing logic

The 4WD transfer from Tamraght to Erg Chigaga on day four is the packing crux. Your wetsuit is damp. Your booties have Atlantic salt. Your desert layers are still folded at the bottom of the bag. The solution is a dry bag inside the carry-on: everything that leaves Tamraght wet — wetsuit, booties, boardshorts, rashguard — goes into a 20-litre roll-top dry bag that isolates the moisture and the salt from the desert layers. The dry bag also becomes your camp laundry bag once you arrive. This is the single item that most first-time Salt & Stars guests forget, and the one that most changes the second half of the week.

Days 5-7 · Sahara desert packing

Erg Chigaga in late November delivers 22-25°C afternoon highs and -2 to 2°C dawn lows. That is a 25-degree diurnal swing in a landscape with no thermal mass to absorb it. Layering is the entire strategy. The base layer is a merino long-sleeve top and merino leggings for sleeping — merino because it regulates in heat and cold, resists odour through three days without laundry, and compresses to almost nothing. The mid layer is a light fleece or thermal shirt for pre-dawn breathwork on the dune ridge. The outer layer is a lightweight down jacket, packable to the size of a rolled shirt, that handles the -2°C morning and folds away by 10am. A wind shell over the down is optional but useful on the ridge.

For daytime desert wear: two pairs of loose linen or lightweight cotton trousers (jeans are the wrong choice — heavy, hot, and slow to dry), two long-sleeve cotton shirts, one wide-brimmed hat with rear neck coverage (a cap is inadequate at desert latitude), UV-rated sunglasses with wrap coverage, and a light cotton scarf or *chèche* for the wind on the higher dunes. The camp provides a Berber wool blanket in each tent and a hot-water bottle at bedtime; you do not need to pack for the coldest hour, only for the average one.

Footwear for the desert is one pair of light trail shoes and one pair of open sandals. Trail shoes cover the walking-with-nomads circuit, the sandboarding slope, and the pre-dawn ridge. Sandals cover camp evenings and the sand-to-tent transitions where trail shoes fill with dune sand in three steps. Do not bring hiking boots. Do not bring runners with mesh uppers that dune sand infiltrates within minutes.

The bi-climate wetsuit thickness matrix

For the Salt & Stars November window (Atlantic water 18-19°C, air 19-20°C): 3/2 mm full wetsuit is correct for 90% of guests, add 3 mm booties for reef and rock. A 4/3 is only necessary if you run cold, get cold easily, or are staying in the water longer than the scheduled sessions. For January retreats (water 16-17°C), 4/3 becomes the standard and a 3 mm hood is worth considering. For March-April (water 17-18°C), 3/2 is comfortable again. For September-October (water 20-21°C), a shortie or 2 mm springsuit is enough for most sessions. The camp-provided house wetsuits at the Salt & Stars edition are 3/2 mm, sized S through XXL, and are rinsed and dried between guests — bring your own only if fit matters to you.

The 'both climates in one bag' packing list

The full carry-on list, tested against a 10-kilogram Ryanair cabin bag limit: one 3/2 wetsuit (1.2 kg), 3 mm booties (0.3 kg), two boardshort/bikini sets (0.3 kg), one long-sleeve rashguard (0.2 kg), one microfibre towel (0.2 kg), one changing poncho (0.3 kg), two merino base layers top and bottom (0.5 kg), one fleece mid layer (0.4 kg), one packable down jacket (0.4 kg), one wind shell (0.3 kg), two linen or cotton trousers (0.6 kg), two long-sleeve cotton shirts (0.4 kg), one wide-brimmed hat (0.1 kg), one *chèche* scarf (0.1 kg), one pair of trail shoes worn on the flight (not in the bag), one pair of flip-flops or camp sandals (0.3 kg), one 20-litre dry bag (0.2 kg), one 200-lumen headlamp with spare batteries (0.2 kg), one portable battery pack 10,000 mAh (0.2 kg), reef-safe SPF 50 stick and SPF 50 lip balm (0.1 kg), oral rehydration sachets and a small first-aid pouch (0.2 kg), toiletries in a 100 ml bag (0.5 kg). Total: approximately 6.9 kilograms. That leaves 3 kilograms for a camera, a book, and the argan oil and Berber textile you will buy on the way home.

The Agadir-in / Marrakech-out flight split

The Agadir arrival / Marrakech departure logic is fixed by the retreat geography, not by our preference. Guests fly into Agadir (AGA) on Monday to reach Tamraght in under thirty minutes, and out of Marrakech (RAK) on Sunday because the return from Erg Chigaga to Marrakech (six hours by 4WD) is shorter than the return to Agadir (nine hours). Ryanair, EasyJet, Transavia, and Vueling all publish direct routes to both airports from most European capitals; a multi-city or open-jaw fare is usually within 20 to 40 euros of a return to the same airport, and the time saved on the desert transfer is worth substantially more. Booking a return to Agadir and then adding an internal flight from RAK is the wrong strategy — the price nearly doubles and the schedule adds a full travel day. Book the open-jaw. If your carrier does not offer open-jaw fares, book two separate one-ways.

What to leave behind

The formal clothes you think you might need — you will not. The laptop — this is a retreat, not remote work. The umbrella — a wind shell is superior in every way. The jeans — heavy, hot, slow to dry, and restrictive on trail descents. The full-size camera charger — a portable battery pack charges the mirrorless bodies most guests bring, and USB-C is universal at both the riad and the camp solar setup. The compression stuff sacks marketed for backpacking — a dry bag does the same job and doubles as your laundry bag. The travel iron — nothing in this list needs ironing. Extra shoes — trail shoes and camp sandals is the complete kit.

For photography: if you are bringing a dedicated camera, a 24-70 mm equivalent covers most situations, and a wide prime in the 16-24 mm range is worth adding for the Milky Way over Erg Chigaga. Sensor cleaning swabs matter — desert dust is fine and persistent. A small tripod or GorillaPod handles the long exposures the Saharan sky requires. If you are shooting on a phone, a clip-on wide-angle adapter and a small tripod are the only additions worth carrying.

The 24-hour pre-departure check

The night before you fly: charge the portable battery and the headlamp; put the wetsuit in the dry bag with the booties; pack the down jacket at the top of the carry-on so it comes out first at the Erg Chigaga camp arrival; put the SPF stick and the ORS sachets in the front pocket so they are accessible at the Tamraght riad without unpacking; and print or screenshot the retreat WhatsApp contact and the airport pickup instructions, because signal at Erg Chigaga is zero and screenshots work where live pages do not. The full pre-departure briefing is issued three weeks before the window opens, and includes the specific reef entry conditions at Anchor Point and the current camp temperature range at Erg Chigaga. Applications for the 23-30 November 2026 cohort are at [/retreats/salt-stars](/retreats/salt-stars); the cohort caps at fourteen guests with eight to ten considered the working size.