Kasbah Hotel Tombouctou

A large kasbah on the edge of the sand

Kasbah Hotel Tombouctou belongs to the Xaluca group, a family business that has been growing in south-eastern Morocco since 2001. The group also runs Kasbah Xaluca near Erfoud, a hotel in the Dadès valley, a mountain refuge and desert camps in Erg Chebbi.

The hotel stands on a 60,000 m² plot facing the desert. It is built in the traditional style of the south, with natural materials and warm colours; the walls are finished in tadelakt, the polished lime plaster typical of Morocco. The dunes begin as you leave the hotel: you can walk up them for sunset.

It is the largest of the Merzouga addresses in Sabaro's selection, and it works like a hotel: an air-conditioned 200-seat dining room serving Moroccan and international food, bar and lounge corners, a pool bar, and a shop selling souvenirs, crafts and fossils from the region's quarries. The spa has massage rooms, a sauna, a hammam (traditional steam bath) and a jacuzzi, with beauty treatments.

Which room to choose

The 77 rooms fall into three groups. A standard room is fine for one night on a tour; the suites are more spacious. Families who want to stay in a single room take a triple or quadruple, and the Royal Suite, a two-bedroom duplex with a view of the dunes, is the only category that truly separates parents and children.

Our advice: for a family of four, the quadruple room for one night, the Royal Suite for two nights or more.

The hotel, the camp, or both

The group sets up its own camps in Erg Chebbi, which the hotel offers as a complement or alternative to a night in a room. The tents are khaimas made of camel hair or camel skin, like those of the nomads. There are two camps:

• La Belle Étoile, with standard tents and larger deluxe tents;
• Xaluca Luxury Desert Camp, with deluxe tents in camel hair or white "imperial" tents, decorated, with wardrobe and bathrobes.

All tents have a box-spring bed, a duvet and towels; the deluxe tents in both camps have their own bathroom with shower, and the Berber dinner is served in an enclosed dining room.

From the hotel, excursions go out by 4x4 into the desert and its surroundings, by camel for sunset in the dunes, or to meet nomad families.

Sabaro's view

For whom: families, touring travellers and small groups of friends who want a solid room, a pool and the dunes at the end of the garden.

Strengths: the dunes on foot; the pool and spa, welcome after the drive; rooms for up to four and a duplex Royal Suite; camps run by the same group for a night in the sand; 9/10 on Booking.com.

Good to know: with 77 rooms and a 200-seat dining room, it feels like a hotel and is livelier than a guesthouse; room sizes are not published. Some guests report uneven upkeep of the pool and of certain rooms in their reviews: Sabaro suggests asking for a renovated room when booking.