Boutique Hôtel palais Masandoia

Twenty suites fill this five-star kasbah-style palais on the Route d'Er Rachidia, five kilometres outside Erfoud on the edge of the Tafilalt palm grove — a quiet base for travellers staging Merzouga dune trips rather than touring the town itself.

Earthen pisé walls, carved cedar ceilings, and a central courtyard pool set the palais apart from Erfoud's roadside guesthouses. Staff arrange 4x4 transfers into the Erg Chebbi dunes, roughly a 45-minute drive east.

The on-site restaurant serves Tafilalt-grown dates and tagines by the fireplace once desert nights turn cold.