Kasbah Tizimi

Six palm-log ceilings shade the rammed-earth rooms of Kasbah Tizimi, set on Route de Jorf outside Erfoud at the edge of the Tafilalt palmery, Morocco's largest date-growing oasis. Thick clay walls hold desert nights out through summer without air conditioning.

A rooftop terrace faces the flat-topped Jbel Erfoud ridge, useful for watching dawn before four-wheel-drive transfers into the Merzouga dunes forty minutes east. The kitchen serves tagines cooked over palm-wood coals rather than gas.

Erfoud's Monday and Thursday market lies ten minutes off, sized for provisioning rather than tourism, and fossil workshops along the Jorf road cut and polish the region's trilobite stone.