What is the Sahara desert like in January?

January in the Sahara surprises almost everyone. People picture relentless heat, and instead they meet a high desert in deep winter. Out at Erg Chebbi, where I guide most of my January travellers, the days are genuinely lovely — sun on your face, a sky scrubbed clean, daytime air sitting around 16–19°C. You can walk the dune crests in a fleece and feel completely comfortable. It is the nights that catch the unprepared.

Once the sun drops behind the erg, the temperature falls fast. By the small hours a January camp can be sitting at 1–5°C, and on the coldest clear nights I have watched the thermometer flirt with freezing and seen a brittle skin of frost on the canvas at dawn. The good camps know this and pile on heavy Berber blankets, hot water bottles and a roaring central fire; the cheaper ones do not, which is exactly why I tell people to book carefully for winter nights.

What you trade that cold for is, honestly, the most beautiful Sahara of the year. January air is bone-dry and dust-free, so the stars are staggering — the Milky Way reads like a smear of chalk across the sky — and the low winter sun rakes the dunes with long shadows that photographers dream about. There is barely anyone out here either; you often get a sunrise on the dunes entirely to yourself, which in high season is impossible.

My honest advice for January: come, but pack like you mean it. Thermal base layers, a proper insulated jacket, a hat and gloves for the camel ride at dusk, and warm socks for the tent. Days are for shirtsleeves and tea in the sun; evenings are for huddling by the fire under a sky full of stars. Handled right, it is one of my favourite months out here.