Douz Desert Tours

Q: Why is Douz called the gateway to the Sahara?

Because the last street of the town ends and the Grand Erg Oriental begins. There is no approach road and no transfer — which is why the tours here are measured in time spent in the desert rather than in distance covered.

Q: How long is the overnight camel trek?

About two and a half hours riding out at sunset, a night at the camp, then a sunrise ride and a final trek back. Guests who have never ridden find the evening leg the harder of the two.

Q: Can you reach a camp without riding a camel?

Yes. Quad, ATV and 4x4 trips run into the same dunes and take about twenty minutes, and several camps will simply drive you in. The camel ride is the experience, not the transport.

Q: What is the camp like?

Permanent, with fixed tents, bedding, a dining area and — on the best-reviewed one — real toilets and showers. Dinner is Berber with flatbread baked in the fire, and the evening is spent round it.

Q: How do you get to Douz?

About two and a half hours east of Tozeur and 80km north of Ksar Ghilane on asphalt. Most visitors arrive on day two of a two-day tour from the northern coast; the Sousse and Monastir itinerary overnights here.

Q: When is the Sahara festival?

The International Festival of the Sahara runs for four days at the end of December, usually somewhere between the 23rd and the 29th, with camel marathons, horse fantasias and sloughi racing. Dates are often confirmed less than a month ahead.

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The Experience

Why Douz Has No Transfer

The dunes start at the end of the town, so every minute you pay for here is spent in the desert rather than driving to it.

Highlights

Ride a camel through the Sahara Desert at sunrise and sunset
Stay overnight at a Berber desert camping
Be accompanied by a cameleer
Enjoy hotel pick-up and drop-off in Douz

What's Included

1 Night Desert Camp Accommodation
Cameleer trek guide (basic communication)
Pick up and drop-off at your accommodation in Douz
Meals (1 Breakfast, 1 Dinner)
Camel for you to ride
Bottled water

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How a Douz Desert Tour Works

Out at sunset, back at sunrise, with nothing in between but sand.

Afternoon Pickup
Overnight treks collect from Douz accommodation in the middle of the afternoon — 3:30pm on the best-reviewed one — so the ride out happens in the golden hour rather than the heat.
Ride or Drive In
Camel treks take two to two and a half hours to reach camp. Quad and 4x4 trips take twenty minutes. The distance is the same; what differs is how you feel at the end of it.
Dinner, Fire, Stars
Bedouin dinner with flatbread baked in the embers, tea, drumming round the fire, and a sky with no light in it. Camps here are permanent, and the better ones have toilets and showers.
Sunrise, Then Back
You are woken for the sunrise ride, then breakfast and a final trek back to town. Total elapsed time is under 24 hours and nearly all of it is in the erg.

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Photo Gallery

The Grand Erg Oriental

Camels, camps and the dune sea that starts at the edge of town.

Vaulted ghorfa cells inside a ruined ksar in southern Tunisia — Ksour: communal granaries of stacked mud-brick cells

Courtyard of a four-storey ksar near Tataouine with rows of granary cells — Tataouine's ksour still stand several storeys high

Camel caravan silhouetted against the sun on a Sahara dune ridge — Sunset over the erg, the reason the camps wake you early

Tunisian flag flying above a whitewashed coastal town — Most desert tours start on the coast, hours to the north

Camels resting in colourful woven blankets beside desert palms — Camel rides at the oases are usually an optional extra

Facade of a Berber granary with rows of arched cells under a deep blue sky — Ksar Hadada played the Mos Espa slave quarters

Desert camp with woven rugs, low tables, candles and a campfire on the sand — A permanent camp: dinner cooked on site, then the fire

Steep orange dune ridge at golden hour in the Tunisian Sahara — The Grand Erg Oriental at the end of the afternoon

Chott el Jerid salt pan shimmering into mirage under a pale sky — Chott el Jerid takes about an hour to cross

Two red four-wheel-drive vehicles crossing open dunes — The last stretch to Ksar Ghilane is a desert track

The Roman amphitheatre at El Jem with a camel resting in front of it — El Jem opens day one of every northern two-day tour

Camels standing in a palm oasis in southern Tunisia — Douz and Tozeur sit in palm groves at the desert's edge

Roman columns and stepped seating at a ruined site in inland Tunisia — Roman Tunisia runs all the way to the desert margin

Sunken courtyard of a troglodyte cave house at Matmata — Matmata houses are dug down, not built up

Stone-built Berber village clinging to a hillside in the Dahar — Chenini and Toujane are still lived in

Berber guide leading a loaded camel train across the dunes — Multi-day treks start from Douz with nomad guides

White four-wheel-drive descending a sand dune in the Tunisian Sahara — Jeeps, not coaches, for anything past the tarmac

Camel, Quad or 4x4 into the Erg?

Same dunes, very different ways of arriving in them.

Feature	MOST REVIEWED IN DOUZ Overnight Camel Trek & Camp	Quad or ATV in the Dunes	Half-Day 4WD Dune Excursion
Time in the Desert	Under 24 hours, almost all of it	2–3 hours	Half a day
Night on the Sand	✓ Permanent camp with facilities	✗	✗
Sunset and Sunrise	✓ Both, from the saddle	Sunset on the late runs	One or the other
Meals	Dinner and breakfast included	✗	Usually a tea stop
Physical Demand	2.5 hours riding each way	Moderate — you drive	Low
Reviews	72 ratings at 4.4 / 5	28 ratings at 4.9 / 5	5 ratings at 5 / 5
Starting Price	From $116/per person	$115 per person	$68 per person
Free Cancellation	✓ Up to 24 hours before	✓ Up to 24 hours before	✓ Up to 24 hours before
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Gateway to the Sahara

What Douz Is For

The one town in Tunisia where the desert needs no transfer at all.

Douz calls itself the gateway to the Sahara, and unlike most towns that claim something similar, it is literally true. The last street ends and the Grand Erg Oriental starts — no approach road, no transfer, no four hours in a minibus. That single fact is what makes Douz different from every other base in this guide.

It also changes what the tours are for. Everywhere else in southern Tunisia, an itinerary is a route between places. Here it is an amount of time in one place.

The overnight camel trek

The signature Douz tour, and the one most worth booking. You are collected from your accommodation in the middle of the afternoon, meet the cameleers at the edge of town, and ride out into the dunes as the light drops — about two and a half hours in the saddle on the best-reviewed version.

Dinner at the camp is Berber, with flatbread baked directly in the fire. The night is in a tent; guests repeatedly mention that the camp has real toilets and showers, which is not a given out here. In the morning there is a sunrise ride, breakfast, and a final trek back.

At $116 it is not the cheapest desert night in Tunisia — the Djerba two-day tour is $48 — but nothing else puts this much of its price into the desert itself.

If you would rather not ride

Not everyone wants two and a half hours on a camel, and Douz has the alternatives.

Quad and ATV tours run out into the same dunes — the Sahara quad biking tour is rated 4.9 from 28 reviews at $115. 4x4 dune excursions take half a day. Horseback overnights exist for anyone who rides properly. And several overnight camps will simply drive you in if you ask.

The desert camping tours page compares the camps themselves rather than how you get to them.

Longer treks

If one night is not enough, Douz is also where the multi-day camel treks start — three days with nomad guides, and at the far end a six-day trek in the Sabria dunes. These are small operations with low review counts, which is what running one departure a week does to a listing rather than a sign of anything else. Read the day-by-day breakdown carefully and check what is carried for you.

Getting to Douz

Douz is about two and a half hours east of Tozeur and 80km north of Ksar Ghilane on asphalt. Most visitors arrive on the second day of a two-day tour from the northern coast — the Sousse and Monastir itinerary overnights here — and then discover that the tours starting in Douz are the ones they wanted. If your trip allows a night in the town, book one of these separately.

When to come

October to April, like the rest of the south. Douz also holds the International Festival of the Sahara at the end of December — usually a four-day run somewhere in the 23rd to the 29th, with camel marathons, horse fantasias and sloughi racing at the edge of the dunes. Dates are often confirmed less than a month ahead, so check them against your own either because you want the crowd or because you do not.

Guest Reviews

What Guests Say About Our Top Pick

4.4/5 from 72 verified guests

Ratings and review counts are the tour operators' live figures on GetYourGuide and may shift slightly day to day.

"We had a wonderful time! The camel ride was just long enough and we got to see the dunes of the Sahara! The food was delicious and the accommodations were so nice!"

"Beautiful hike with dromedaries at sunset followed by a great dinner. The experience of spending the night in a tent is also unique."

"Amazing experience. The organisers contacted us on the day and updated us with any minor time changes. pick up was from our hotel and a short drive to the experience. The guides for the camel rides were very informative, spoke English. Dinner provided. After dinner, make sure to sit with the guides afterwards. when they switch all the lights off, the sky comes alive with stars. 10/10 would recommend to anyone."

"There were 12 of us, and everything went great. Even though we were an hour late, they waited for us and we were able to go on the hike. Fantastic dinner, everyone was super friendly, there are toilets and showers, and the tents are very nice. It was a wonderful experience!"

"The tour guides, the organization. Marwan was spectacular. The guided camel ride was fantastic, and the tent was very comfortable for sleeping!!"

"The 2.5-hour camel hike was really very enjoyable, with a beautiful landscape and a short break to enjoy the desert sand. Very well-equipped camp with a dining room, toilets, and a permanent shower. The tent was very comfortable, and the meal was delicious. I particularly enjoyed baking the sand bread and singing around the fire."

"We had a wonderful first experience in the Tunisian Sahara. Despite the strong gusts of wind and the sandstorms, we decided to go ahead with the tour, and we were right to do so! Sure, we had sand in our eyes, but what a magnificent landscape! Our camel driver, Merzoug, was very kind and took us through a desert of white sand dunes for 2 hours on the back of dromedaries (we had 3 because the 3rd one carried our backpacks). The camp is extremely well equipped, considering it's in the middle of the desert! The tents are individual and decorated in Berber style. There is electricity (we could charge our electronic devices directly in the tent or in the restaurant, where there is a power strip). There are showers (without doors) and WC facilities! The traditional meal was the best we ate during the entire trip! And that famous sand bread is delicious! It's truly a special experience to discover the Sahara and to watch the sunset and sunrise."

"Really great, a great experience, the best of our stay in Tunisia! We had the chance to travel in the desert with Ali, a passionate, deeply authentic, and so interesting man. He shared his entire journey with us, which was so touching! Thanks also to Ahmed, who was great and had a great sense of humor. We laughed a lot! What a nice surprise when we arrived at the camp, beautiful and very immersive, we ate super well (camel!!! very good in the end) and the moments shared, in a very warm and joyful atmosphere, with traditional musicians during dinner and around the fire, allowed us to get to know the other people who slept in the desert and to create very good moments! We totally recommend it! 5 hours of camel riding in the desert. Only downside: the coke sellers... who catch you off guard, forcing you to pay at the end... Don't accept!"

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