Matmata Star Wars Tours

Q: What was filmed at Matmata?

The interior of the Lars homestead in A New Hope, at Hotel Sidi Driss. The set was struck after 1977 and rebuilt completely in 2000 for Attack of the Clones, which is why what you see today looks so much like the film. The exterior dome is 300km west on Chott el Jerid.

Q: Can you stay at Hotel Sidi Driss?

Yes — it is a working hotel, not a museum, and a steady trickle of visitors sleep there. For a day visitor the stop is usually 30 to 60 minutes, and the courtyard used as the homestead is now the restaurant.

Q: Do tours include a visit to a family home?

Almost all of them. The usual arrangement is rosemary tea with homemade bread, honey and olive oil in a family's own underground house, and the visit supports the household directly — tips are expected rather than optional.

Q: Is there a standalone Matmata tour?

Not a useful one, and that is not a gap in the market: the village is four hours from the nearest resort. Matmata is a stop on a longer day, so choose the tour for what surrounds it.

Q: Which tour gives the best Matmata stop?

The small-group 4x4 at $69 pairs Sidi Driss with a Berber family visit and the Ksar Ghilane oasis. From the north, day one of every two-day tour stops here around lunchtime.

Book Your Experience

Check Availability & Prices

Select your preferred date and time. Instant confirmation — free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure.

The Experience

Why Matmata Is on Almost Every Itinerary

It is a living troglodyte village with a film set inside it, and it sits where the coastal road meets the desert one.

Highlights

Enjoy extended free time among the dunes and at the hot spring
Visit traditional cave homes with insight into local desert life
Take a scenic 4x4 journey through less-frequented desert and mountain routes
Discover the Star Wars movie site at Sidi Isdriss Museum
Enjoy a traditional Tunisian meal

What's Included

Small-group 4x4 guided tour from Djerba or Zarzis
Hotel pickup and drop-off
Professional driver/guide
Transport in air-conditioned 4x4 vehicle
Visit to cave homes in Matmata
Scenic desert and mountain route
Extended free time in the Sahara oasis in Ksar Ghilane
Access to dunes and natural hot spring area (free time)
Traditional local tea tasting experience

Check Availability & Book

How a Matmata Tour Works

What you actually see, and how long you get.

Understand What a Troglodyte House Is
Not a cave in a cliff. A pit is dug down into the ground, rooms are tunnelled outwards from its walls, and the courtyard is the open sky at the bottom. Several hundred are still lived in.
Sidi Driss Is a Working Hotel
The Lars homestead interior is now the restaurant of a functioning hotel, so most tours stop there for lunch or tea. The set dressing from Attack of the Clones is still on the walls.
Expect a Family Visit
Almost every itinerary includes tea with a Berber family in their own underground house, usually with homemade bread, honey and olive oil. Tips are welcome and go to the household.
Budget 30 to 60 Minutes
Matmata is a stop on a longer day, not a destination in itself. The visits are short — which is the argument for picking a tour that pairs it with something you also want.

Check Availability & Prices

Photo Gallery

Underground Matmata

Courtyard pits, tunnelled rooms and the hills above them.

Rippled dunes of the Grand Erg Oriental with a lone walker on the crest — The sand sea begins where the Dahar plateau ends

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

Three Ways to See Matmata

It is always a stop on a longer day — the question is which day.

Feature	LONGEST OASIS STOP Small-Group 4x4 from Djerba	Day One of a 2-Day Tour	A 12-Hour Star Wars Day
Sidi Driss	✓	✓ Usually with lunch	✓
Berber Family Visit	✓ Tea, bread, honey, olive oil	✓ On most itineraries	✓ Dinner in a cave house
Also Includes	The Ksar Ghilane hot spring	El Jem, a desert night, the Chott	The Tataouine ksour
Departure	Djerba and Zarzis	Tunis, Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir	Djerba and Zarzis
Time at Matmata	30–60 minutes	Around an hour with lunch	Longer, with a meal
Trip Length	One long day	Two days	12 hours
Starting Price	From $68/per person	$118 per person	$83 per person
Free Cancellation	✓ Up to 24 hours before	✓ Up to 24 hours before	✓ Up to 24 hours before
	Check Availability	See 2-Day Tours	View Options

More Options

Compare Sahara Tours

Different departure towns, lengths, and prices — all with free cancellation and instant confirmation.

MOST REVIEWED

From Djerba: Explore the Ksar Ghilane Desert and Tataouine by 4x4

A full day from Djerba to the Ksar Ghilane oasis by 4x4, taking in the Ksar Hadada film location and the hilltop village of Guermassa on the way.

4.8 (1,671)

10 hours

2-DAY CLASSIC

From Tunis, Hammamet & Sousse: 2-Day Sahara Express Tour

The most-reviewed two-day run south: El Jem, Matmata and the Sidi Driss cave hotel on day one, a desert camp at Sabria, then Chott el Jerid, Chebika and Kairouan on the way home.

4.7 (1,110)

2 days

LOWEST PRICE

Djerba: Sahara 2 Day 4x4 Tour & 1-Night Desert Camp Night

The cheapest way to sleep in the Tunisian Sahara from Djerba — two days by 4x4 through Tataouine, Chenini and Ksar Ghilane with a night at a desert camp.

4.7 (475)

2 days

SUNSET & SUNRISE

From Djerba: Sunset & Sunrise Desert by 4x4 with Tent Night

A late start, a night in a desert tent and both a Saharan sunset and sunrise — with Ksar Hadada, the Chahbania salt lake and the Ksar Ghilane hot spring either side of it.

4.8 (574)

2 days

SMALL-GROUP 4X4

Djerba: Ksar Ghilane & Matmata 4x4 Sahara Guided Tour

A small-group 4x4 day trip from Djerba and Zarzis to Ksar Ghilane, with the Berber mountain village of Toujane and the Sidi Idriss cave hotel at Matmata.

4.6 (325)

1 day

BERBER VILLAGES

From Djerba & Zarzis: Tataouine, Chenini & Berber Day Tour

A day across the Dahar from Djerba: the Chahbania salt lake at first light, the Tataouine market, and the hilltop Berber villages of Chenini and Douiret.

4.6 (289)

1 day

FROM SOUSSE

From Sousse & Monastir: Tunisian Sahara 2-Day Tour

TUI's two-day southern loop from Sousse and Monastir: El Jem, Matmata, a night in Douz, then Chott el Jerid and the Mos Espa film set at Onk Jemal by 4x4.

4.4 (408)

2 days

FROM HAMMAMET

From Hammamet: 2-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour w/ Accommodation

TUI's two-day Sahara tour out of Hammamet, with accommodation, the El Jem amphitheatre, Matmata's cave houses and a crossing of Chott el Jerid.

4.4 (345)

2 days

Underground Tunisia

Matmata, Sidi Driss and What Is Actually There

A film location inside a village that was never built for film.

Matmata is the most-visited Star Wars location in Tunisia, and it is also the one that is least about Star Wars. It is a Berber village in the hills above the desert where houses are built by digging a pit into the ground, tunnelling rooms out of its sides, and leaving the courtyard open to the sky. Several hundred people still live that way.

One of those houses became a hotel. In 1976 a film crew used its sunken courtyard as the interior of the Lars homestead, and fifty years later it is still there.

Hotel Sidi Driss

The set was struck after A New Hope and rebuilt completely in 2000 for Attack of the Clones, which is why what you see today looks so much like the film. The pit where Owen Lars tells Luke he can stay another season is now the hotel restaurant, and most tours stop there for lunch or mint tea.

It is a working hotel, not a museum — you can sleep in it, and a steady trickle of people do. For a day visitor the stop is usually 30 to 60 minutes, which is enough to sit in the room, photograph it and read the wall.

The rest of the village

Tours almost always pair Sidi Driss with a visit to a family still living underground: rosemary tea, homemade bread, honey and olive oil, and a chance to see how the rooms actually work. The arrangement is that visits support the household directly, so tips are expected rather than optional.

The village itself, and the ridge hamlets around it — Tamazret and Toujane — are worth the detour without the film credit. Toujane in particular is a mountain-pass village known for its weaving and honey.

Which tour to book

Matmata is a stop on a longer day, so the question is what it comes with.

From Djerba and Zarzis, the small-group Ksar Ghilane, Matmata and Star Wars tour at $68 pairs the village with a long stay at the oasis. The Ksar Ghilane and Matmata 4x4 at $69 adds Toujane and the Berber family visit. The twelve-hour Sahara Dream Tour at $83 adds the Tataouine ksour.

From the northern coast, Matmata is on day one of essentially every two-day tour — Hammamet, Sousse and Tunis departures all stop there around lunchtime.

There is no useful standalone Matmata tour, and that is not a gap in the market: the village is four hours from anywhere with hotels.

Is it worth it?

If you have seen the films, yes — it is one of very few sets anywhere that you can sit down inside. If you have not, the troglodyte architecture carries the stop on its own. What it is not is a large site: budget an hour, and choose the tour for what surrounds it.

Guest Reviews

What Guests Say About Our Top Pick

4.7/5 from 102 verified guests

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

"Great excursion. Definitely worth it, even though it lasts 12 hours. We would book it again and again"

"I highly recommend this tour with Mr. F. and Mr. Salem. They are very informative, friendly, and always attentive. The tour was excellent, with pleasant and reassuring driving. He was able to explain things to us clearly along the way, which made the experience even more enriching. Thank you to Mr. F for this experience; everything went really well!"

"Great day. Thanks to our guide, Salem, and our driver, Faris."

"I recommend this activity. If you come to Djerba, you absolutely must do it. The guides are fantastic, especially Salim, who explains everything clearly. We visited lots of viewpoints. It was incredible, and it will stay with us forever!! 🫶🏻🇹🇳"

"⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The absolute highlight of our Djerba vacation! A great and incredibly varied one day trip to the south of Tunisia. We were picked up from our hotel right on time at 5:30 AM. The tour was superbly organized from start to finish. A very special thank you to our tour guide Salem. He was incredibly dedicated, personable, and accompanied us throughout the day with a lot of interesting information about Tunisia, the people, the landscape, and the history. You can tell that he does his job with real enthusiasm. Also a big thank you to our driver Hamsa. We felt safe and very well looked after at all times during the long journey. Our absolute highlight was Ksar Ghilane with the impressive Sahara landscape. We also did the quad bike tour there and rode through the dunes to the Roman fort of Tisavar – a fantastic experience and something we would definitely recommend! Matmata and the Star Wars set were also great."

"We had a great day. The team was fantastic!!! and friendly. We visited MATMATA, went quad biking in the desert, visited an oasis, and had a traditional meal, all with the support of a professional and attentive team. A big thank you to our live guide Salem and our driver Faris."

"An unforgettable day!!! A HUGE THANK YOU to Salem (our live guide) and Firas (our pilot 😂) who were great with us, highly professional, and unfailingly kind. Of all the things we did during our stay, this was the most amazing. Definitely not to be missed. Thanks again from the 4 of us."

"Excellent. A wonderful day and adventure. Our live guide Salem was very professional. He takes the time to explain things well, and he is always attentive. A big thank you also to our driver, Firas Bouki, for his explanations and good humor, as well as his impeccable driving. It was great 👍 I recommend it."

Read all 102 verified reviews

See All Reviews

Can't Make These Dates?

Browse More Available Options

Find a tour that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.