A practical guide to Merzouga and Erg Chebbi

October to April is the comfortable season. Days sit somewhere between pleasant and warm, and the light on the dunes in the late afternoon is at its best.

May, June and September are hot but very manageable if you ride early or late. July and August reach the mid-forties in the middle of the day — we still ride, but only at sunrise and in the last hours before sunset.

Winter nights are genuinely cold in the desert. If you are staying at a camp, bring a warm layer even in a week of blue skies.

Closed shoes, long trousers, a long-sleeved top and sunglasses cover almost everything a day in the sand asks of you.

Add sunscreen, a scarf for your face, a refillable water bottle and a warm jacket between November and February.

Keep cameras and phones in a bag or a zipped pocket while riding. Fine sand finds every opening.

The nearest airport is Errachidia, around two and a half hours away. Ouarzazate and Fes are the more common arrival points, with Fes roughly eight hours by road.

Buses run daily from Fes, Meknes and Marrakech to Merzouga, usually arriving early in the morning.

If you are driving, the road is sealed all the way to the village. Do not attempt the dune tracks in a rental car.

A camel trek at sunset and a night in a desert camp is the classic pairing with a quad tour — one gives you speed, the other silence.

Khamlia, a few kilometres south, is the home of Gnawa music, and an afternoon session there is worth the trip on its own.

The fossil workshops around Erfoud and Rissani, the old ksour and a Todra Gorge day trip fill out a longer stay nicely.

If you want to cover ground, yes. In an hour on a quad you see more of Erg Chebbi than a half-day camel trek reaches, and you get to ridges the tour buses never see.

It is also the easiest desert activity to fit around everything else: an hour at sunrise leaves your whole day free.