Tataouine Star Wars Tours

Tataouine gave the planet Tatooine its name, and that is the smallest interesting thing about it. The town sits at the centre of the Dahar, the stone plateau running south from Matmata, and the country around it holds the ksour: fortified communal granaries built of mud brick and palm beams, their storage cells — ghorfas — stacked three and four storeys around a courtyard.

Several are still standing. One of them has a film credit.

What you actually visit

Ksar Ouled Soltane, south of the town, is the best preserved and the one most people photograph: two courtyards of vaulted cells, the upper storeys reached by stairs pegged into the wall. Ksar Hadada, to the north, is looser and more village-like, and it is the one that played the Mos Espa slave quarters in The Phantom Menace — the courtyard where Qui-Gon Jinn talks with Shmi Skywalker.

Chenini is the other half of the day and the part reviewers praise most. It is a Berber village built in tiers up a steep ridge with a white mosque on the crest and granary cells cut into the rock above the houses, and people still live in it. The climb is genuine; wear something with grip.

Several itineraries also take in Douiret or Guermassa, half-abandoned ridge villages of the same kind.

Which tour to book

All of these are day trips from Djerba or Zarzis — there is no meaningful accommodation base in Tataouine itself for short-stay visitors, and the town is four hours from the island.

The Tataouine, Chenini and Berber day tour at $57 is the best-reviewed at 289 ratings: a 7am start, the Chahbania salt lake at first light, free time in the market, a guided walk through Chenini and a traditional lunch.

The guided Tataouine and Chenini full-day tour at the same price is the coach-based alternative for anyone who would rather not spend a day in a jeep, with 157 reviews.

The most-reviewed desert tour in our catalogue at $69 includes Ksar Hadada and Guermassa on its way to Ksar Ghilane — the right pick if you want a ksar and the Sahara in one day rather than the ksour in depth.

The twelve-hour Sahara Dream Tour at $83 pairs Tataouine with Matmata, which is the fullest single day available from the island.

Two things worth knowing

The ksour and Chenini charge admission, and tours differ on whether it is included. On a $57 day trip that difference is worth more than the fare gap between listings.

And the Star Wars content here is real but narrow. Ksar Hadada is a genuine location; Ksar Ouled Soltane is not, though it is frequently photographed as though it were. If the sets are your reason for coming, read the filming-locations guide before you pick — and note that Mos Espa is 250km west.