Hotel rooms
Eight rooms in total, three of them apartments, all with a private shower room and air conditioning. Breakfast included.
from €50 / night
Merzouga · Erg Chebbi · Sahara
A desert hotel run by the family who grew up in these dunes
Eight rooms, a swimming pool, and our own camp of twenty-two tents out in the sand — one kilometre from Merzouga village, at the foot of Erg Chebbi. Breakfast always included.
Welcome
You arrive as a guest. You leave as one of us.
Dar Tafouyte sits in Takoujte, a small village a kilometre from Merzouga, right where the last stretch of hard ground gives way to the Erg Chebbi dunes.
The house was built by our family, in the way houses have always been built here — mud brick, palm beams, thick walls that stay cool when the afternoon turns to fire outside. We did not import a design. We kept the local architecture, the local colours, the local materials, because that is what we know and it is what works in this climate.
Today it is a hotel with eight rooms and apartments, a pool, a restaurant and a terrace looking out at the dunes. Out in the sand, about forty minutes away by camel, we run our own bivouac camp. Brahim founded it. Atman looks after your stay. Ibrahim, Osman, Hassan and Youssef are all part of it. When you book here, you are dealing with the family — not an agency, not a call centre.
1 kmfrom Merzouga village
11rooms and apartments
150 mtallest Erg Chebbi dunes
5languages spoken
What we do
Five ways to meet the Sahara
Swimming pool
Cold water in the middle of the Sahara. After a morning on the dunes it stops being a luxury and becomes the point.
included for guests
Berber bivouac
Our own camp of twenty-two tents out in the dunes. Every tent has a private shower room and air conditioning. The ride in, dinner and breakfast are all included.
from €100 / tent
4×4 desert tours
Erg Chebbi circuit, the Mfis mines, Khamlia, Rissani and Erfoud, or the Todra Gorges. Shared by up to six.
from €100 / vehicle
Camel trekking
Out into the dunes for sunset, or all the way to the camp for the night. Our own camels, our own guides.
€20 / camel, 1 hour
Half board, always
Breakfast and dinner are in the room price. Tagines, medfouna, bread baked here, and mint tea whenever you want it.
included in every room
The bivouac
Sleep where the map runs out
You ride out in the late afternoon, when the sand has stopped burning and the light goes long and orange. About forty minutes on the camel, over the first ridges, until the village disappears behind you and the only sound is the animals' feet.
The camp is ours. Solar panels give each tent electric light after dark. There is dinner, there is a fire, there is music — the drums are real and so are the people playing them. Then everyone goes quiet and looks up, because out there, with no town for kilometres, the sky does something you will not have seen at home.
In the morning you climb the dune behind camp for sunrise, eat breakfast, and ride back.
Why here
There are many places to stay in Merzouga. There is one Dar Tafouyte.
It is actually a family
Not a brand, not a management company. The people who greet you are the people who own it and grew up here.
The dunes are right there
One kilometre from Merzouga village and directly at the foot of Erg Chebbi. You walk to the sand, you do not drive to it.
We publish our prices
Every rate is on this site. No "contact us for a quote", no seasonal surprise, no commission built in.
Hotel and camp together
Most places sell you one or the other. We run both, so the whole trip is arranged by one family in one conversation.
Rooms
Half board, always included
Every room rate below includes breakfast. Dinner is €12 per person. Rates are per room per night, not per person.
Double or twin
For couples, or for two people who would rather have separate beds. Private shower room, air conditioning, wifi.
€80 / night, breakfast included
Triple
Three separate beds with room to move around them. Popular with small groups and families with one child.
€90 / night, breakfast included
Apartment
Three of our rooms are self-contained apartments with their own entrance — for families who would rather not be split across the house.
from €100 / night, breakfast includedGuest reviews
What guests write when they get home
★★★★★
“Ibrahim, Osman and their team were very helpful and friendly, I highly recommend it. We spent 2 nights at Bivouac Dar Tafouyte and Auberge. The rooms were comfortable and the food excellent.”
Abdellah Sadik · TripAdvisor★★★★★
“There are no words to describe the wonderful time we spent at your place. Thank you so much, Atman and the team, for being such a warm person and making our time unforgettable.”
Silvia Barber · TripAdvisor★★★★★
“Relaxed atmosphere with an exceptional breakfast. The path to the camel routes is quite close. The owner was very courteous. After the camel ride we were looked after properly.”
Alexander Neumann · TripAdvisorGood things to know
When is the best time to come?
October to early December and March to April are the two good windows — warm days, cold nights, clear light. January and February are fine but genuinely cold after dark, so bring a jacket. July and August are very hot; we stay open and the pool earns its keep, but we will tell you honestly that it is hard going in the middle of the day. There is more detail on our best time to visit page.
What does the room rate actually include?
Breakfast, for everyone in the room. Bread baked here that morning, olive oil, jam, eggs if you want them, coffee and mint tea.
Dinner at the hotel is €12 per person and so is lunch — soup, then a tagine or couscous, then fruit. We would rather tell you that here than surprise you at check-out.
Out at the camp it works differently: dinner and breakfast are already in the tent price, along with the ride out and back. Tell us about any allergy or diet when you book — we cook from raw ingredients in our own kitchen, so it is genuinely not a problem.
Is the camp far from the hotel?
About forty minutes by camel from the hotel, out in the dunes. You leave in the late afternoon and come back after breakfast the next morning. You can leave your main luggage in your room at the hotel and take only a small bag to the camp — most people do.
Can you take families and groups?
Yes. We have triple, quadruple and family rooms plus three separate apartments, and the bivouac can take groups. Children are genuinely welcome — this is a family house. Tell us the ages and we will work out the best combination of rooms.
Do I need to book the desert night in advance?
In high season, yes — the camp is not enormous and it does fill. Outside those months a day or two of notice is usually enough. Message us on WhatsApp and you will get a straight answer about what is free.
Which languages do you speak?
English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Tamazight. You are very unlikely to hit a language wall here.
Your Sahara story begins here
Message us directly. You will be talking to the family, usually within a few hours, in whichever of our five languages you prefer.