LOCALOffline map ( / fax 0535 57 50 42; Pl al-Massira al-Khadra; s Dh80, d Dh140-160; )Located near the bus and grand-taxi station for late/early arrivals, with clean, air-conditioned
rooms and cramped en-suite bathrooms, plus a downstairs restaurant featuring a hearty kalia .
Chez M’Barek $
Offline map ( 0667 50 16 58; 7 Rue Moulay Ali Chrif, Rissani; breakfast Dh15, set menu
Dh40) If you’re passing through at lunch, you might call ahead and reserve kalia or well-spiced
madfouna big enough for three (Dh80) to enjoy in the cool basement or breezy terrace.
Information
There’s a post and phone office at the northern end of the medina walls, and a Banque
Populaire with an ATM opposite the souq.
Getting There & Away
Buses leave from the gare routière 400m from the square on the road to Erfoud. There are
services to Fez (Dh130, 13 hours, two daily) via Meknès (Dh140, nine hours) and Marrakesh
(Dh180, 10 hours, one daily), plus an evening run to Casablanca (Dh200, 15 hours, one daily).
Buses run occasionally to Zagora (Dh90, five hours) and Tinerhir (Dh50, six hours); check
station for departures. There are six buses a day to Er-Rachidia (Dh20, three hours) via
Erfoud.
CTM Offline map ( 0666 36 70 06; Pl de la Marche Verte) has an office in the centre of
town, and runs one bus a day at 8pm to Fez/Meknès (Dh145, eight to nine hours) via Er-
Rachidia (Dh30, 1½ hours).
Grands taxis run frequently from opposite the Hôtel Sijilmassa to Erfoud (Dh7), Er-Rachidia
(Dh25), Tinerhir (Dh70), Merzouga (Dh12) and occasionally Taouz (Dh30).
You can also reach Merzouga by camionette (minivan; Dh10), which leaves hourly from
outside Chez M’Barek.
Merzouga
When a wealthy local family didn’t offer hospitality to a poor woman and her son, God was
offended, and buried them under the mounds of sand 50km south of Erfoud called Erg Chebbi
. So goes the legend of the dunes rising majestically above the twin towns of Merzouga and
Hassi Labied – but reality is even more unbelievable. Shape-shifting to reach heights of 160m,
Erg Chebbi glows a stunning shade of rose gold, until afternoon sunlight tints the dunes orange,
pink and purple.
This is perhaps the best area in Morocco for spotting many desert bird species , including
desert sparrows, Egyptian nightjars, desert warblers, fulvous babblers and blue-cheeked bee-
eaters – all worth seeking, if only to put a face to those eccentric names. Sometimes in spring
a shallow lake appears northwest of Merzouga, attracting flocks of flamingos and other
waterbirds.
Purists lament the encroachment of hotels flanking the western side of Erg Chebbi from the