L'Auberge de Tamezret

Arriving in Tamezret means climbing narrow lanes lined with old olive-wood doors, into a village whose founding date nobody has recorded. L'Auberge occupies a stone house at its centre, built around an inner courtyard walled in thick local stone. Three rooms make up the whole property: Toumadir, done in red with a double bed and a terrace facing the Grand Erg Oriental; Dahya, cut directly into the rock and cooled by nothing but the stone itself; and Oumema, a suite set inside a former village grocery, with a separate sitting room. Each has a private bathroom, air conditioning and linen bedding, with wifi and a music library available on request. Dinner is served four courses, either in a dining room below ground or on a terrace looking over the surrounding hills, depending on the weather. Cooking courses run on the second weekend of most months, covering everything from market shopping to dessert. It is a compact stay. Matmata, the town used as a backdrop for the Star Wars films, lies 10 miles east, and the Sahara begins not far beyond it. Tamezret itself has stood on this ridge of the Jebel Dahar for centuries, its old oil-presses and hidden caves still part of daily life.