Desert retreats: Morocco, Oman, Jordan, the UAE and Namibia

The word desert covers a remarkable range of places. Some are stony plateaux an hour from a city; others are true sand seas that take the best part of a day to reach. There are sandstone mountains, fog-bound coasts and cool high plateaux where roses grow. What they share is silence, very dark skies and big swings in temperature, which is why timing matters more here than almost anywhere else.

Morocco: the Agafay and the Sahara

The easiest desert escape from Britain begins in Marrakech. The Agafay, under an hour away, has no dunes at all: it is a pale, lunar country of stony hills, with the High Atlas along the horizon. Inara Camp spreads nineteen tents and suites, each with a proper plumbed bathroom, across 21 hectares, with a pool and a spa tent. Evenings are the draw: the mountains turning pink, dinner in the open, musicians round a fire and stargazing afterwards. Indicative rates start around EUR 300 a night, and one or two nights either side of Marrakech is the usual shape.

For dunes, go south. Of Morocco's two great sand seas, Erg Chigaga is the more remote, some two hours by 4x4 across open desert beyond M'Hamid, usually after a journey through the palm groves of the Draa valley and Zagora. Erg Chigaga Luxury Desert Camp sits among the dunes rather than on their fringe, in rug-lined tents with en-suite bathrooms, solar power and no phone signal. Guests climb the dune behind camp for sunrise and ride camels along the ridges. The camp closes for high summer, operating roughly from September to mid-June, with rates from around EUR 320 a night. Spring and autumn are Morocco's strongest desert seasons; winter nights in the south are cold.

Oman: sand and mountain

Oman offers two kinds of desert stay within a few hours of each other. About two hours from Muscat, the Wahiba (or Sharqiya) Sands rise in steep orange ridges where Bedouin families still graze their camels. Desert Nights Camp uses permanent, solid-walled rooms beneath tented roofs, which keeps them cool, and offers a pool, sunset dune drives, camel rides and sandboarding. The last stretch is by 4x4 only, and the camp's drivers collect guests on the fringe of the dunes. It fits neatly into a loop taking in Nizwa, the pools of Wadi Bani Khalid and the nesting turtles of Ras al Jinz, and rates start around USD 280 a night. Visit between October and April; summer heat is severe.

Inland, the Hajar mountains provide the counterpoint. Alila Jabal Akhdar, on the Saiq Plateau, is made from the mountain's own stone, laid so the buildings sink into the escarpment, with a canyon filling the windows and a spa on the cliff edge. Guided walks follow the old falaj irrigation channels to terraced villages growing pomegranates, walnuts and roses. Its cool climate makes it one of the few stays in the region that works in summer, and rates start around USD 420 a night.

Photographs: Wikimedia Commons contributors — select to enlarge for full credits.

Jordan: Wadi Rum and Petra

Wadi Rum is desert as architecture: sandstone and granite mountains rising sheer from red sand, protected and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Memories Aicha Luxury Camp, a short drive from the visitor centre, is best known for its bubble domes, whose transparent roofs let you watch the stars from bed; there are also goat-hair tents and larger tented suites. Bedouin zarb is cooked in a sand oven, and jeep tours, camel rides and dawn balloon flights can be arranged. Rates start around USD 200 a night.

Petra is roughly two hours north, and the two belong together. Movenpick Resort Petra stands almost opposite the visitor centre, so the Siq is a couple of minutes' walk away: you can reach the Nabataean city ahead of the tour groups, then return for the candlelit evening walk to the Treasury. Rates start around USD 180 a night. Aim for March to May or September to November. July and August are dangerously hot in Wadi Rum, and winter nights approach freezing.

The UAE: the edge of the Empty Quarter

The Rub' al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is the largest continuous sand desert on earth, and around Liwa its dunes are among the tallest anywhere. Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara is built as a great ochre fort roughly three hours from Abu Dhabi, with a long pool facing an unbroken sand horizon and villas with private pools in a separate walled compound. Camel treks, falconry, archery and dune drives fill the days, with rates from around USD 320 a night. Go between October and April.

With less time, Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Desert Resort & Spa is under an hour's drive from Dubai, inside the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. Each of its forty-two suites has a private pool facing the dunes, reintroduced Arabian oryx wander past the terraces, and two activities a day are included. It is adults-only, from around USD 850 a night.

Namibia: the oldest desert

The Namib, running along Namibia's Atlantic coast, is often described as the oldest desert in the world. Around Sossusvlei it produces towering apricot and red dunes and the white clay pan of Deadvlei, studded with the blackened skeletons of camelthorn trees. Seasons run opposite to the north: the southern winter, roughly May to September, brings clear, warm days and cold nights, while December to February is intensely hot.

Wilderness Little Kulala has its own private gate into the dune area, putting guests among the dunes before day visitors arrive from Sesriem; its eleven villas have plunge pools and rooftop beds for sleeping out. andBeyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, about an hour's drive from the dunes, has ten stone-and-glass suites with skylights above the beds, and an observatory with a resident astronomer in the NamibRand, which holds formal dark-sky reserve status, a rarity in Africa. Unlike the camps further north, both price per person sharing and fully inclusive, from around USD 930 and USD 1,220 a night respectively, with peak rates from June to October.