Best time to visit Merzouga

Morocco · Africa

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Merzouga

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Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Feb–Apr — these months score within a whisker of each other; 21C max, 1 rainy day. Oct is the next best.

Plan this trip

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Flights

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Where to stay

Things to do

Car hire

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Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	18°	1d	41%	9.7h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Feb	21°	1d	36%	10.3h	sweet spot	21C max, 1 rainy day
Mar	24°	1d	31%	10.7h	sweet spot	24C max, 1 rainy day
Apr	29°	0d	24%	11.6h	sweet spot	29C max, 0 rainy days
May	33°	0d	20%	12.0h	avoid	extreme heat: 11 days over 35C
Jun	38°	0d	16%	12.4h	avoid	extreme heat: 27 days over 35C
Jul	42°	0d	12%	12.0h	avoid	extreme heat: 31 days over 35C
Aug	41°	0d	16%	11.6h	avoid	extreme heat: 30 days over 35C
Sep	35°	1d	28%	10.7h	avoid	extreme heat: 17 days over 35C
Oct	29°	1d	31%	10.0h	good	29C max, 1 rainy day
Nov	23°	1d	38%	9.5h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Dec	19°	1d	48%	9.4h	goodbusy	busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the village under Erg Chebbi: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from November to January; quietest in May, June and August.

Then and now

Merzouga's July days now average 42.0°C, 1.9°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 6 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	15.9°	19.9°	23.9°	27.6°	31.6°	37.2°	40.1°	39.7°	35.2°	28.4°	21.7°	17.1°
2017–26	17.7°	20.6°	24.2°	28.5°	33.2°	38.4°	42.0°	40.6°	35.3°	29.3°	23.2°	18.6°
Change	+1.8°	+0.7°	+0.3°	+1.0°	+1.6°	+1.2°	+1.9°	+0.9°	+0.1°	+0.9°	+1.5°	+1.5°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Errachidia (ERH), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Errachidia.

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Merzouga is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type C and E plugs at 127 / 220 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Moroccan dirham. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for Morocco: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Still largely cash: cards work in bigger hotels, upscale restaurants and some shops, but markets, cafés and taxis want dirhams. Carry small notes.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — Round up or leave 5-10% in cafés and casual restaurants, 10-15% in smarter ones; give taxi drivers a few dirhams.

Getting around Merzouga

Apps — Rides: inDrive, Yango. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp.

The only way to get around Merzouga is on foot. It's fairly small and easily walkable, but you'll likely want to avoid the midday heat. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Merzouga, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

Emergency — police 190 · ambulance and fire 150.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (16)

Merzouga in pictures

The well in desert merzouga — i

Baca12, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Merzouga Oases — i

Hamza ZIDANE, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brahim FARAJI SAHARA is coming Merzouga Morocco الصحراء قادمة مرزوكة المغرب — i

Brahim FARAJI, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Merzouga desert camp — i

Isabeldianamadrid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Merzouga is like

Merzouga is a village in the Sahara Desert in Morocco, on the edge of Erg Chebbi, a 50-km long and 5-km wide set of sand dunes that reach up to 350 m above the plain and 808 m above sea level. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Sunrise/sunset over the dunes. Folk dances and black G'naui music. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing: Grand Dune. Hike the dune. Sunset on the dune. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Airports around with international flights are in Fez and Marrakech. From there you can take an intercity bus to Merzouga. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: Basically everyone in Merzouga is a tout, trying to sell you a camel, ATV or 4WD tour, or anything else that can be had a commission from. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Merzouga, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Merzouga

Also in Morocco

Nearby

Kind of place

Deserts

Merzouga is in Morocco, Africa. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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