Best time to visit the Merzouga desert
Short answer: October to April. The long answer depends on whether you mind the heat or the cold nights more.
The short answer
The best months for the Merzouga desert are October to April, and within that window March, April, October and November are the pick: comfortable days for walking the dunes and cool but bearable nights.
We close in July. In midsummer the temperatures here are extreme, and we would rather not open than sell a night nobody could enjoy.
Spring: March, April and May
The best season along with autumn. Days sit between 20 and 30 °C and nights around 15 °C. By May the midday heat starts to bite.
It is also the windy season. It is unusual for sand to stop you going out to the dunes, but it can happen, mostly in March and April. If it does, we rearrange the afternoon at the camp and head out as soon as it drops.
Summer: June, July and August
Midday heat can pass 45 °C. July we close. June and August are possible, but the day runs backwards: life happens at sunrise and sunset, and the middle of the day is spent in the shade.
The upside of summer is the night: you sleep well with the air conditioning and the sky is at its clearest.
Autumn: September, October and November
September is still hot, but October and November are among the best months of the year: comfortable days, fewer people than in spring and long, slow sunsets.
Winter: December, January and February
Days are mild and perfect for walking, but nights drop a long way and can approach freezing. This is when the heating in the tent, available from 20:00 to 08:00, earns its keep.
In exchange, the winter sky is the cleanest of the year for stars, and the dunes at dawn with frost on the sand are something very few people have seen.
How to choose your dates
- If you are coming for the dunes and the walking: March, April, October or November.
- If you are coming for the stars: any month, but at new moon and ideally in winter.
- If you are travelling with children: October to April, avoiding the midday heat.
- If price matters more than heat: June or September.
- July: we are closed.
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Tell us your dates and we will advise
We will tell you what the weather is usually like then, and what the moon will be doing.
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Keep reading
- Guide The questions we get on WhatsApp every week, answered properly. Written by people who live here, not copied from another website.
- Tents Ten private tents, from €100 to €425 a night depending on occupancy. All with their own bathroom, a hot shower and air conditioning and heating.
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