Merzouga ( Golden Dunes)

Merzouga is a village in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, on the edge of Erg Chebbi, a 50km long and 5km wide set of sand dunes that reach up to 350m high. Most people are here to take a camel safari into the dunes, and to get a taste of remote (tourism-influenced) Berber life.

Winter months (November to February) are cool but sunny, with daily high temperatures only slightly over 10 C, and cold nights. Spring until April is pleasant, with temperatures from 25 C up to 30 C in the afternoons, and with cool nights. Summer months are hot. In winter and spring there is occasional short rain or drizzle (a couple of days per month, on average), but heavy rain is unusual. Best time to visit Merzouga is February to April.

See the Sunrise/sunset over the dunes. Folk dances and black G'naui music. Visits to villages near 

Merzouga inhabited by Senegalese musicians and dancers such aKhamlia can be arranged with some guides, ask at your hotel.

• Animals – see the ducks, and in early spring, flamingos, on the Dayet Srji salt lake, just west of Merzouga. There are many other species of birds (ruddy sheldrack and Kittllitz's plover during the spring migration, Tristram's desert warbler, the Egyptian nightjar, the arabian buzzard and falcons), and the desert sparrows are unique to this region and can be seen all year round. There are also reptiles (Algerian sand lizards, Berber skinks and snakes), mammals such as gerbils, desert hedgehogs, field mice and desert foxes, and scarab beetles. In the morning, you can often see their tracks in the sand. Brown scorpions can occasionally be seen, but they come out at night and tend to avoid humans.

Best activity is walking on the dunes on foot.

Other activities include off-road driving with 4x4, motorbike, or camels. Camel safaris include overnight stays on permanent "nomad" settlements in the middle or the other side of the dunes (as visible on aerial photos of Merzouga).

Birding is possible in spring when the lake next to Merzouga village fills with water, with migrating birds stopping by.

• Meditation, yoga & dance retreats (meditation, dance, yoga retreats in Morocco), [2]. Every winter you can go out into the sand dunes of the Erg Chebbi with 20 other travellers for a week of meditation, dance, storytelling and music.  edit

• Go for a camel safari[3] Easy and properly planned.

• Join a Camel Trek and nights in desert[4] Ride camels into the sand dunes, spend 1 - 4 nights in desert camps.