North Africa Round-up by Barnaby Rogerson

Earlier this year there was a fright story from Tunisia, claiming an armed cross-border incursion by 20 Algerian fundamentalists in mid-May. A fire-fight resulted in five deaths. The prominence given to this story has as much to do with internal politics as anything else. Tunisia remains a haven for quick and easy travel while the mass-market beach resorts keep flight tickets competitive. Fortunately there has also been a steady growth in the number of small, distinctive and isolated hotels.

The Dar Dhiafa is now open for business. It occupies two menzel farmhouses on the edge of one of the central villages in the island of Jerba. It has just 10 bedrooms, two small pools and a scattering of Tunisian antiques to enliven the sparse Puritanism of the traditional courtyard houses of the island. There is a bar, a restaurant, a hammam, room-service breakfast and a commitment to calm that is a world away from the package tour hotels of the Jerban coast.

The Pansea tented hotel is set amongst the palm trees and sand dunes of the oasis of Ksar Ghilane. The remains of a Roman frontier fort are a 40-minute camel ride away while it is also possible to mount a week long expedition to cut across the dunes of the Great Eastern Erg and ride into Douz. There are no bedrooms at Ksar Ghilane, just constellations of stretched pale canvas tents. Despite the pleasing minimalism of the bedroom furnishings, each tent actually sits on a solid floor and houses an immaculate self-contained bathroom tucked behind a canvas screen. Traditional killims on the floor, a linen internal lining, a double zip door, air conditioning and fan heating (the desert nights are as cold as they are clear) complete the European levels of luxury. For style there is a viewing tower, a domed bar, a barrel vaulted dining room and a large pool all created from local stone and with a fine eye for indigenous architectural forms. Getting there is part of the fun though an added expense. From Jerba airport you need to hire a driver and a four wheel vehicle for the 250 km journey about half of which is over rough tracks. Bookings can be made via Wigmore Travel, 9 Kingsway, London WC2B 6YF, t: +44 (0)20 7836 4999, f: +44 (0)20 7836 4500, e-mail: info@aspectsoftunisia.co.uk

Libya, once a great blank on the travellers' map of North Africa, is now rapidly expanding into a major resource. The ruined cities of antiquity on the Libyan coast: Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Apollonia and Ptolemais are amongst the wonders of the world and are still empty of tourists. This will change soon, though the disadvantages of travel in Libya; the comparative expense, the complete lack of alcohol, the rubbish strewn highways and an erratic system of granting visas, will no doubt keep it pure from the worst forms of tourist exploitation. At the moment it is only possible for individual travellers (from the UK) to get a tourist visa in a group of three, or more, on an established itinerary. You will probably be assisted on your trip around Libya by a guide and/or a driver and possibly watched over by a man from security. Due to the quiet charm and tactful respect of the average Libyan this can turn into rather more of an advantage than an impediment. My last security-man started off very gloomy with toothache but responded magnificently to medication and began to sing songs. Some other friends, also travelling in Libya this October, reported by fax that they were delighted by their 'Brilliant dragoman speaking very good English.' Other groups, even a well organised Page & Moy cultural tour, failed to get their visas in time. Business men, formally invited by a Libyan company, can usually get a visa in next to no time. Personal relationships are a vital part of Libyan life. If you need any visa advice you can e-mail me direct at barnaby@inglebert.demon.co.uk

The Libyan desert is also opening up to tourism, especially in the Fezzan oasis. There will soon be half a dozen tented or hut-hotel encampments in the Fezzan as well as an efficient three-star hotel at Germa. Of the existing encampments, the one run by Africa Tours, is the best sited. It sits at the foot of the Oubari Sand Sea, beneath one of the few ‘gates’ through the massive wall of sand dunes. The great goal of travel in this sand sea is the chain of near miraculous lakes, like that at Gabroun, that exist like the perfect image of an oasis fringed by palms and surrounded by vast crescents of sand. There is a hut-hotel run by Wynzrik tours beside the lake at Gabroun presided over by a traditional herbalist doctor of the Tuareg. This is a perfect base for a wallow in the waters of the lake (saline on the surface, hot in the central depths though unaccountably sweet when tapped by a nearby well) or an afternoon siesta, though at night you should camp on the high dunes to avoid the insect life.

Algeria still remains effectively closed to tourism, especially amongst the populated cities near the Mediterranean. Security conditions are however steadily improving as the government emerges as the clear victor after the bloody 10-year war. A steady trickle of journalists and documentary film companies are returning to report on the country while in the far south, in the Tuareg country of the deep Sahara, the first entrepid travellers are returning. At the moment it is possible to make a three or four-day round-trip into the Tassili Ajer mountains from Ghat in south-western most Libya.

Morocco is continuing to enjoy its well-deserved boom in up-market tourism. The growth in superb, characterful hotels in the old city of Marrakech and its surrounding suburban palmery continues apace. There can now be few cities in the world that can hope to match Marrakech's stock of stylish, ancient courtyard Riads. As well as steering friends to these I have also been pushing the rival attractions of Fez where you can stay in one of the two upstairs suites above the Maison Bleue restaurant in Fez el Bali's Place de l'Istiqlal, (t: and f: +212 574 1843). The celebrated five-star Bab Jamai hotel has also just been overhauled but if you don't like the price here check out the four-star Menzel Zalagh which though further removed from the old city has a fine view and has also just been renewed. Kudu Travel are the first of the British high-cultural travel agents to take the plunge and book seats for Fez's Spiritual Musical Festival this June. More details from Windover House, St Ann Street, Salisbury SP1 2DR, t: +44 (0)1722 349009.