The Great Sahara

Overview: 

An Ocean of Sand and beau­ty – the Great Sahara Desert stretch­es for more three and half mil­lion square miles from the red sea to the to the Atlantic Ocean cov­er­ing almost a third of Africa across 12 coun­tries – and is place of not only extreme con­di­tions but immense beau­ty being home to not only a swathe of mirage bust­ing oasis’s, palm trees, towns and cities but the most glo­ri­ous sun­rise, sun­set, stargaz­ing and camp­ing expe­ri­ences on the plan­et.  

 While con­sid­ered one of the tough­est and harsh­est envi­ron­ments on the plan­et, and com­plete­ly devoid of rain, the Sahara is also home to some unique and dead­ly wildlife and the ‘tough­est footrace on the plan­et’ in the Marathon des Sables, a gru­el­ing 250km that chal­lenges explor­ers to cross the Sahara over the course of a 10-day race.  

 The scene of many Hol­ly­wood clas­sics includ­ing Star Wars, the Mum­my and Glad­i­a­tor which all take advan­tage of the stun­ning beau­ty of the Sahara, the won­der is best explored from one of the rel­a­tive­ly safe coun­tries of Alge­ria, Egypt or Moroc­co (or all three if you desire), and offers incred­i­ble Dunes for explor­ers to tra­verse over – either on foot, by camel or by 4x4, which com­bined with the stun­ning oasis’s, vil­lages, sun­ris­es, sun­sets and incred­i­ble stargaz­ing expe­ri­ence help make the vast and immense Sahara Desert a tru­ly unique and incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Where:

Offi­cial­ly the largest hot desert on the plan­et – and third in size only to deserts found in the Arc­tic and Antarc­ti­ca, the Sahara stretch­es across almost a third of the African con­ti­nent and is some three and half mil­lion square miles of stun­ning and vast sand, dunes and moun­tains.  

While Alge­ria, Moroc­co, and Egypt are con­sid­ered the main Sahara access points for explor­ers, the won­der actu­al­ly cross­es some 12 coun­tries — Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mau­ri­ta­nia, Moroc­co, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and West­ern Sahara and stretch­es from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea – and is believed to be grow­ing year­ly.  

Getting there:

Although the Sahara stretch­es across 12 African coun­tries – on account of Ter­ror­ism, acces­si­bil­i­ty and afford­abil­i­ty it is best entered through one of three coun­tries – Alge­ria, Egypt or Moroc­co – and best accessed through an organ­ised tour – to help ensure you have all the nec­es­sary sup­plies, see the main sights and of course don’t get lost in the Desert.  

What we’d rec­om­mend then for get­ting there is hav­ing decid­ed on the part of the great Sahara you wish to see and where you enter from, you book a flight to Algiers, Mar­rakesh or Cairo (or head to these cities by train if inside the respec­tive coun­tries) and then put your­self up in a nice hotel before being col­lect­ed in a 4 x4 by a tour com­pa­ny and being tak­en deep into the won­der of the Sahara Desert.  

For those who tru­ly hate going by tour guide, then your best option is to enter the Sahara from Moroc­co – and get your­self to the town of Mer­zouga which is eas­i­ly reached by bus from inside Moroc­co and which is a great city based with­in the Sahara from which to explore the stun­ning Erg Chega­ga dunes by camel or car.  

Best time to Visit:

We’d advise head­ing to the Sarah between May and Sep­tem­ber – while rec­om­mend­ing going into the desert dur­ing peak sum­mer­time may seem a lit­tle strange, the tem­per­a­tures dur­ing the win­ter months get very cold – and you have dust and sand storms between spring – so by head­ing there between May and Sep­tem­ber it may be a lit­tle warm (30c) – but you’re guar­an­teed an over­all more com­fort­able expe­ri­ence.

Explore: 

The Sahara is vast – in fact it is more than three and a half mil­lion square mil­lions long hot desert and is grow­ing year­ly – with only the deserts in the won­ders of Antarc­ti­ca and the Arc­tic being big­ger in size although ques­tion­ably as to whether they con­sti­tute a Desert.  

While the Sahara is divid­ed into six unique regions and stretch­es across 12 unique and beau­ti­ful coun­tries, ‑tak­ing in incred­i­ble moun­tains, stun­ning peaks, and the beau­ti­ful towns that are spread across the Desert – on account of ter­ror­ism, acces­si­bil­i­ty and prac­ti­cal­i­ty, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend you do your explor­ing in on of the one of Alge­ria, Moroc­co or Egypt (or all three) – with a tour that includes a 4 by 4 and most of the activ­i­ties below — for a much more ful­fill­ing and enjoy­able Sahara expe­ri­ence: 

Algeria

While con­sid­ered less safe in parts than Egypt and Moroc­co, the beau­ti­ful coun­try of Alge­ria has just under 80% of itself cov­ered by the incred­i­ble sand and land­scapes of the Sahara – and for those who wish to go deep­er into the desert and get safe­ly off the beat­en track Alge­ria is the place for you – with the Sahara desert being incred­i­bly eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from the cap­i­tal of Algiers and offer­ing a unique expe­ri­ence to explore not just the sand dunes and peaks of the desert but tru­ly immerse your­self in this incred­i­ble and vast won­der of the world.  

Morocco: 

By far the most pop­u­lar and eas­i­est place to expe­ri­ence the won­der of the Sahara, access­ing the incred­i­ble desert by Moroc­co leave from either the won­der of Mar­rakesh or from the much more scenic and authen­tic Desert town of  Arfoud and Mer­zouga. From any­where in Moroc­co chances are you won’t be far away from an offer to vis­it the desert from local tour oper­a­tors – and a chance to vis­it the incred­i­ble dunes of Erg Chica­ga or Erg Cheb­bi and spend a few nights camel rid­ing, camp­ing and gaz­ing at the stun­ning Saha­ran night sky – while Moroc­co would be our pick to base your­self to vis­it the Sahara just be sure to hag­gle on your tour price and do your research before book­ing a jour­ney into the won­der from Moroc­co. 

Egypt:

Anoth­er great and con­ve­nient and most­ly safe spot to leave for tours into the Sahara, Egypt is offers great access to the red sea area of the Sahara which then comes with stun­ning oasis and the unique black desert – which looks exact­ly as it sounds. It is also a great place to depart for longer tours of the won­der – with most trips that leave from Cairo aver­ag­ing at least 10 days and giv­ing you a chance to roll across the Sahara in a four wheeled dri­ve car com­plete with camp­ing in the stun­ning Beduoin desert camp and night sky view­ing – although the cost at times can be a bit much.  

Whichev­er of the three (or 12 for those who con­sid­er them­selves dare­dev­ils) you choose to explore the great Sahara Desert from, there are cer­tain activ­i­ties and expe­ri­ences that you should not miss out on when explor­ing the vast won­der. Whilst most of these will be includ­ed in any stan­dard mul­ti-day tour we’d rec­om­mend dou­ble check­ing – espe­cial­ly for those who leave from Moroc­co that you are expe­ri­enc­ing at least some of the below – to tru­ly give your­self an authen­tic and mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence in the great Sahara:  

Camping:

First up camp­ing in the Sahara is a tru­ly unique and mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence – although tem­per­a­tures can drop in the win­ter months so you will need to wrap up warm. While the famous Bedouin desert camp – acces­si­ble with most trips from Egypt is unde­ni­ably the peak spot to roll back and take in the desert sky, you’ll find a range of options from slum­ming it to camp­sites that include toi­lets and Wi-Fi to suit all pref­er­ences – just be sure to take part in tra­di­tion­al music, enjoy the camp­fire with smores and immerse your­self in the true camp­ing desert camp­ing – for an expe­ri­ence you will tru­ly nev­er for­get.  

Stargazing

With­out doubt night-time in the Sahara is stun­ning, with the incred­i­ble con­stel­la­tions – unaf­fect­ed by smog of pol­lu­tion – lit up and cre­at­ing a mag­i­cal and dreamy over­head for you to sit back and observe.   

While the Sahara can be vis­it­ed in a day, it’s def­i­nite­ly worth it to go camp­ing just to see the mag­i­cal stars, as the silence – nor­mal­ly bro­ken only by the crack­ling fire, helps add to the mag­ic atmos­phere as you take in the won­ders of the night sky – for a trav­ellers tip we’d rec­om­mend not only com­ing pre­pared with a con­stel­la­tion app – but also invest­ing in an expen­sive cam­era with night gear – as the incred­i­ble night sky tru­ly under­lines the beau­ty of the Sahara and is some­thing that can stay with you for­ev­er.  

 Camel rides:

The post­card and tra­di­tion­al method of explor­ing the Sahara a trip through the Sahara on the back of a bumpy and often hygiene lack­ing camel is some­thing that must be expe­ri­enced – with the Camels often pro­vid­ing the only method of trans­port across some areas of the Sahara. While fun at first, we’d rec­om­mend avoid­ing a trip that is sole­ly camel based – as after a while it does begin to hurt, but the chance and expe­ri­ence to tra­verse over the great Sahara desert on the back of a camel is an enthralling and tru­ly mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence that no trip to the Sahara can be with­out.  

 Sunset and Sunrise viewing:

African sun­sets are always stun­ning, but the chance to watch the sun­rise and set over the Sahara is tru­ly some­thing else, with the beau­ty of the sun­sets over the Sahara — which were made famous in the var­i­ous star wars films – cre­at­ing an stun­ning scene across the vast sand in front of you and chang­ing colour as it either begins your day trav­el­ling across the won­der of brings an end to a hard and enjoy­able day of trav­el­ling – just be sure to bring a high qual­i­ty cam­era to cap­ture the moment.  

Desert Spa:

A strange expe­ri­ence – and one not for those who are scared of mud, as you jour­ney cross the Sahara you’ll come across a series of small vil­lages and for those who trav­el from Moroc­co in par­tic­u­lar you’ll find your­self offered what are billed as Spa expe­ri­ences – where you will invit­ed to sit in a hole in the desert filled with water and kick back, with the Spe­cial Saha­ran water believed not only to be a mir­a­cle in the vast desert but to have spe­cial heal­ing prop­er­ties – while the jury is still out on whether this is the case after hours tram­pling in the desert any kind of spa and bath will be wel­come – so we’d cer­tain­ly encour­age you to try it out.  

 Sand surfing:

One for the thrill seek­ers, the sand surf­ing is exact­ly as it sounds – the chance to surf down vast sand dunes on either a board or a snow­board style sand board – with there being lit­tle chance to con­trol or adjust your speed as you get start­ed – it’s tru­ly a unique and exhil­a­rat­ing expe­ri­ence and makes for a wel­come break from tra­vers­ing across the dunes in a 4 x4 or on a bumpy camel.  

 In addi­tion to the thrilling expe­ri­ences above and along­side the vast oceans of sand that dot the incred­i­ble Sahara, you’ll also some stun­ning Dunes, tem­ples, gar­dens and vil­lages in the Sahara – as well as an incred­i­bly chal­leng­ing marathon.  

Top 8 sights:

While there are many sights to see in the Sahara, the below are our top 8 sights that you can real­is­ti­cal­ly ven­ture to in the Sahara and offer you the best chance to see, explore and expe­ri­ence this incred­i­ble won­der: 

 Marathon des sables:

Start­ing with the most chal­leng­ing the Marathon Des Sables is the tough­est footrace on earth – as par­tic­i­pants jour­ney across 250km of the Sahara in tough con­di­tions – with run­ners required to bring their own food and gear.  

 While some­thing that takes a fair amount of train­ing for, the Marathon Des Sables is one for those explor­ers who want to push the lim­its of both them­selves and the Sahara and usu­al­ly takes place for 10 days in mid-Sep­tem­ber – you won’t find it includ­ed in reg­u­lar tours or be some­thing that you can sign up for on a whim, but where the Marathon Des Sables chal­lenges you in push­ing you to your lim­its – it also offers an incred­i­ble and unique expe­ri­ence to explore and con­quer the unique won­der of the Sahara desert.  

 Chinguetti:

One tru­ly off the beat­en track, Chinguet­ti is small town in the coun­try of Mau­ri­ta­nia and one that is slow­ly being con­sumed by the great Sahara  — so vis­it it while you can ! – in the town, you’ll need to be on your guard but you can see some absolute­ly incred­i­ble mosques and tem­ples, and vis­it one of the libraries where parts of the Quran lie – it’s cer­tain­ly an incred­i­ble and unique place to vis­it and gives you a scope of the impact and sig­nif­i­cance of the Sahara in one of the least vis­it­ed parts.  

Erg Cheb­bi:

The great sand dunes of moroc­co , the Erg Cheb­bi will like­ly be on every trav­ellers Sahara buck­et list and inten­si­ty, with the Erg Cheb­bi dunes which reach over 100 metres high being a pop­u­lar spot for both the spa treat­ment and the sand board­ing – and one where you will get to see one of the most incred­i­ble sun­set of not just the Sahara but arguably in the world – the Erg Cheb­bi is a must see on your trip to the won­der of the Sahara.  

 Erg Chegaga:

the twin of Erg Cheb­bi, Erg Chega­ga is more remote and hard­er to reach – but offers less tourists and greater and grander peaks – with the great dunes dwarf­ing those not just of Erg Cheb­bi in beau­ty but also the small Moroc­can town of  M’Hamid where you can explore the Erg Chega­ga dunes by 4x4, camel or even on foot.  

 A great place for camp­ing as well, and see­ing the incred­i­ble sun­set and starts above you, for those who want to go tru­ly into the Sahara and off the beat­en track for an incred­i­ble view and expe­ri­ence – the Erg Chega­ga is the place for you.   

 Atlas Mountains:

Home to the stun­ning peak of Mount Toubkal, the Atlas Moun­tains will more like­ly be a pas­sage­way then a des­ti­na­tion as you jour­ney across the Sahara and back into Moroc­co – but the stun­ning peaks which rise as high as 4,167 metres pro­vide an absolute­ly incred­i­ble back­drop to the Sahara and you’ll find your­self star­ing in awe at these stun­ning moun­tains which can appear as either sand or snow-capped – as your jour­ney both through them and over them back from the won­der and towards the beau­ty of the town of Ouarza­zate. 

The Hollywood spots:

like all won­ders, Hol­ly­wood has found them­selves using the great Sahara in some of the most suc­cess­ful and memo­r­i­al films of the mod­ern era – includ­ing star wars (Tunisia) Lawrence of Ara­bia, the mum­my and Glad­i­a­tor (Moroc­co).  

The high­light towns are that of Ouarza­zate – an incred­i­ble Moroc­can town that has a unique charm and the famous 19th cen­tu­ry palace known as Taourirt Kas­bah which has been the cen­tre­piece of many films. Although the Star Wars spots for Tatooine are large­ly off lim­its on account of ter­ror­isim – we’d also rec­om­mend a short trip for movie lovers to the place of Maximum’s tri­umph and jour­ney in the film glad­i­a­tor which lies at the spot of Ben Had­dou – and for an over­in­flat­ed price local will take you round the stun­ning set­tings and allow you to recre­ate the famous moments from the film.  

 The Pearl of the Sahara:

For those who seek to explore the Sahara from Alge­ria, you’ll be able to jour­ney to the unique town of Beni Abbes – an incred­i­bly beau­ty town built in the heart of the Sahara and fea­tur­ing some absolute­ly stun­ning archi­tec­ture, palm trees and one of the great sun­sets of Africa.  

Acces­si­ble by Camel, dune bug­gy – or by a detour from the high­way, Beni Abbes is also the stuff of leg­ends, with the tale going that grains of sand here are the essence of pearls – which judg­ing by the incred­i­ble beau­ty of this small town might just be true. 

Siwa:

The best (in our opin­ion) oasis in the whole of the Sahara, the Siwa is a great Egypt­ian oasis water­ing hole in the cen­tre of the Sahara, and is the stuff and inspi­ra­tion of leg­ends, with the great palm trees giv­ing way to a nat­ur­al springs and great lake that is and has been the source of life for gen­er­a­tions.  

Also the source of the great cleopatra’s pool – a lady who needs no intro­duc­tion and who is believed to have fre­quent­ed the pool on reg­u­lar occa­sions, the Siwa is also close to the town of Shali – which makes for an excel­lent place to either launch your Sahara adven­ture or stop off to rest and recu­per­ate for a few days – as you bathe in the waters of one of Egypt’s most well known patrons.  

Bahariya Oasis:

Of the many Oasis’s in the Sahara, our per­son­al favourite is the Bahariya Oasis – for both its beau­ty and its acces­si­bil­i­ty – with the Oasis lying in the ear­ly parts of the Egypt­ian side of the Sahara Desert a few hours away from Cairo, you can expect to stop off here on your way into the Sahara.  

 It’s also a spot of inter­est­ing his­to­ry, with it hav­ing not just Egypt­ian mum­mies on offer, but also once being the home of numer­ous Dinosaurs – which com­bined with the unique beau­ty of the desert oasis makes it a great place to stop off at, before you jour­ney into the incred­i­ble and unique won­der of the world that is the Sahara Desert.  

 How long to stay: 

While you can see the Sahara in a day ‑you’d be miss­ing out on the incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence of camp­ing in the beau­ti­ful desert, and wit­ness­ing both the sun­rise and sun­set and the mag­nif­i­cent night sky, so we’d real­ly rec­om­mend at least 3 days in the desert which will give you enough time to expe­ri­ence the activ­i­ties and sights above at a com­fort­able yet enjoy­able pace and tru­ly explore the great won­der of the Sahara Desert. 

Top Tip:

As touristy as it may sound – the best way to expe­ri­ence the Sahara is through a tour – which will take the wor­ries, has­sle and organ­i­sa­tion out of your expe­ri­ence there and make it as enjoy­able as pos­si­ble ‑just be sure to book one that lets you camp beneath the stun­ning stars of the Sahara and wit­ness the sun­rise and sun­set – for a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

Along­side this, while you can enter and explore the Sahara from any one of the 12 coun­tries that the Sahara occu­pies – owing to secu­ri­ty risks and the occa­sion­al bit of ter­ror­ism we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend stick­ing to one of Alge­ria, Egypt or Moroc­co to explore the great won­der. 

It’s also impor­tant to know, that the occu­pants of the Sahara are main­ly Mus­lim and in all of the 12 coun­tries you’ll be expect­ed to fol­low Islam­ic val­ues – so dress appro­pri­ate­ly and refrain from what may be con­sid­ered inap­pro­pri­ate behav­ior. 

Final­ly it’s impor­tant to note that the Sahara is a nat­ur­al won­der, so come pre­pared as tem­per­a­tures do vary through the day – so bring sun­screen, sun­glass­es and warm weath­er gear as well as some­thing to keep you warm at night – the last thing you want is to catch a cold in the mid­dle of a desert.  

Cost:

While you can explore the Sahara by your­self, it’s high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to go by tour, not just because it makes it eas­i­er but also because you dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduce the risk of dan­ger to your­self, you have mul­ti­ple com­forts and you’re guar­an­teed to see the best spots in the won­der.  

While there are dis­count tours and isngle day tours on offer from with­in Alge­ria, Egypt and Moroc­co – we’d rec­om­mend splash­ing out on a mul­ti-day your that let’s you camp under the stars and takes you to some of the main sights – for which you can expect to pay any­where between $400 usd to $1500 Usd for a true and enjoy­able Sahara expe­ri­ence.  

Fun Fact:

Along­side the Sahara slow­ly grow­ing and con­sum­ing towns on its bor­der – includ­ing the beau­ti­ful town of Chinguet­ti – you’ll find and pos­si­ble recog­nise the unqi­ue won­der of the Sahara from a series of Hol­ly­wood block­busters – with star wars hav­ing been filmed in Tunisia, and the Mum­my films, Lawrence of Ara­bia and Glad­i­a­tor all being filmed on the beau­ty of the Sahara desert.  

Best photo spot:

While the great ocean of sand that makes up the Sahara affords for some stun­ning shots, we’d rec­om­mend mak­ing sure your tour takes in the great dunes of Erg Cheb­bi and Erg Chega­ga for the famous pho­to shots – and then hav­ing invest­ed in good qual­i­ty cam­era be sure to catch sun­set, sun­rise and the night sky for mem­o­ries of this incred­i­ble nat­ur­al won­der that will last a life­time.