Although not as good as its Gao equivalent, Sahara Passion, close to the Flamme de la Paix monument on Timbuktu's northern outskirts, has rooms with high ceilings and those with private bathrooms are enormous.
Some of the rooms are a bit stark (including the cavernous 15-mattress dorm) but there is a certain old-style character about the place with palm-trunk beams and sand in every corner. The garden at the front has that abandoned air that is so strangely alluring in Timbuktu. Sit here in mid-afternoon or late at night after the city has fallen quietly to sleep and the silence is overwhelming, at once claustrophobic and like a balm for the soul for those of us who come from a more clamorous world. Food is available but you'll need to order a few hours in advance. The owners are eager to help and love to sit and talk if things are quiet, but you get the feeling that they enjoy meeting travellers far more than they enjoy the rigours of maintaining a hotel.