Almost every message we answer about the Sahara comes down to the same question: when should we come? The honest answer is that the desert is a year-round place. It is simply a different trip in July than it is in January. This is what the year actually feels like on the ground in Zagora, down the Draa Valley and out among the dunes of Erg Chegaga, and how we rebuild the itinerary around it.
The short answer
For most travellers, aim for October to April. Days are mild, the light is long and golden, and a night in a desert camp is genuinely comfortable rather than an endurance test. If you can choose the exact week, we usually point people at mid-October to mid-November and March to mid-April.
That said, there is no month we refuse to travel. Summer is not a worse trip. It is a different one. You work with the heat instead of against it, and you get the dunes almost to yourself.
What the year actually looks like
The figures below are the long-term monthly normals for Zagora, the oasis town we have run our agency from since 2005. The climate is classified as hot desert (BWh), with roughly 60 mm of rain across a whole year.
| Month | Typical high | Typical low | Rain days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20 °C | 4 °C | 1 |
| February | 22 °C | 6 °C | 1 |
| March | 26 °C | 10 °C | 1 |
| April | 31 °C | 13 °C | 1 |
| May | 36 °C | 17 °C | 1 |
| June | 41 °C | 21 °C | 0 |
| July | 45 °C | 25 °C | 0 |
| August | 44 °C | 25 °C | 1 |
| September | 37 °C | 20 °C | 1 |
| October | 31 °C | 15 °C | 1 |
| November | 25 °C | 11 °C | 1 |
| December | 20 °C | 6 °C | 1 |
Those are town numbers, and they are worth reading with two corrections. First, out at the ergs. The great sand seas west of M'Hamid. There is no town, no tarmac and nothing to hold the day's heat. Expect the afternoons to run a few degrees hotter and the hours before dawn to drop lower than the table suggests. Second, these are averages: a single February morning in the dunes can be close to freezing, and a single May afternoon can feel like August.
Winter: December to February
This is the Sahara people don't expect. Under clear skies the days are mild, around 20 °C, perfect for walking and photography. Then the sun goes down and the mercury drops fast: 4-6 °C in Zagora, and often colder on the open sand, where the ground re-radiates its heat almost immediately.
- Pack for the night, not the day. A thermal base layer, a fleece and a windproof shell matter more than anything you wear at noon.
- The camp is warm, your walk to it is not. Blankets are heavy in the tents; the twenty metres between the fire and your tent are not.
- Late February rewards you with almond blossom in the Draa Valley, pink against red earth, the first sign the season is turning.
- Crowds are light, and the light is dramatic.
Spring: March to May
March and April are the sweet spot most of our guests end up choosing. Highs sit at a comfortable 26-31 °C, the nights are cool but no longer punishing, and the desert often carries a faint green from the winter rains.
- April is the busiest month on the whole desert circuit. If you want a specific camp or a private guide, book about two months ahead.
- Spring is the windiest season. April can bring dust and haze; we plan sunrise and sunset outings and keep the middle of the day flexible.
- Early May still works. The first half holds onto April's conditions; the second half is when summer arrives.
Summer: June to August
July is the hottest month of the year, with highs around 45 °C and sand that is too hot to cross barefoot at midday. We do not close. We restructure the day.
- Move to the edges of the day. Camel treks and dune walks happen at sunrise and again after five in the afternoon; the middle of the day is for shade, tea and sleep.
- The evenings are long and warm. At around 25 °C, summer is the one time a camp night needs no blanket at all, the sky is at its clearest and the Milky Way is at its brightest.
- This is the trip for heat-tolerant travellers who want solitude and the lowest prices of the year. It is not the trip for young children or anyone hoping for long midday hikes.
Autumn: September to November
September still carries the summer heat early in the month. Around 37 °C. Before easing, and it can bring the year's rare thunderstorm, a brief downpour that greens the hamada for a few days.
Then October and November arrive, and with them the second great window of the year. Highs fall from 31 °C to 25 °C, the nights turn cool and crisp, and the autumn light turns the dunes a deep, saturated gold. October is tied with April as the most requested month we have.
How the season changes your route
The season does not change where you go so much as when, and the difference is felt hardest at camp, not on the road.
- In the cool months we run the full camp programmes and can afford a relaxed, later start.
- In summer everything shifts to dawn and dusk, with a long, shaded siesta in between.
- On the Zagora-Chegaga tracks, the driving itself is unchanged; it is the hours around it that move.
Concretely: our bivouac night at Erg Chegaga and our camel route across the hamada and erg run all year, with departure times set to the month. Our five-day crossing of the High Atlas to Erg Chegaga is best in the shoulder season, when the Tizi n'Tichka pass and the Draa Valley are at their kindest.
The one thing people get wrong
The night. Almost every first-timer over-packs for the afternoon and under-packs for the camp. Even in April or October the temperature falls 15-20 °C after sunset, and the dunes cool faster than the town. Bring layers, warm socks and a hat for the morning, then a light shirt for the day. Everything else, we can handle.
Sources
- Zagora climate normals (Köppen BWh, mean daily high/low and precipitation), Wikipedia, Zagora, Morocco
- Zagora climate profile and rainfall totals, Climate-Data.org, Zagora
- M'Hamid El Ghizlane modelled climate (30-year hourly data), meteoblue, M'Hamid El Ghizlane
