Tozeur Desert Tours

Tozeur sits between two different deserts. Behind it, to the north-west, a mountain range holds three oases fed by springs in the rock. In front of it, to the east, lies Chott el Jerid, Tunisia’s largest salt pan, and beyond that the open sand where the film sets are. Almost nothing else in the country puts that much variety within an hour’s drive.

It is also the one town in this guide that most visitors reach as part of a longer tour rather than as a base — which is a shame, because the half-day trips from Tozeur itself are among the best value in southern Tunisia.

The three mountain oases

Chebika is a spring in a cleft of rock with a palm grove below it and the ruins of the old village on the slope above, abandoned after the floods of 1969. Tamerza has a waterfall and the largest of the three ghost villages. Midès sits on the lip of a canyon on the Algerian border, and the view down it is what most people come for.

A private 4x4 covers all three in about five hours and costs $55 per person, scoring 4.9 out of 5 — the best rating on this site from more than ten reviews. Go early: the canyons are shadeless by late morning.

The salt pan

Chott el Jerid takes an hour to cross and turns to mirage by mid-morning — a rust and white plain with a horizon that dissolves. Two-day tours from the northern coast cross it on their second day. From Tozeur it is a short run out and back, usually combined with something else.

The white dome that stood in as the exterior of the Lars homestead in A New Hope is on its edge near Nefta, close to the Ong Jmal track.

The film sets

Mos Espa, the town set built for The Phantom Menace in 1997 and never taken down, sits out on the sand at Ong Jmal on the Nefta side. There is no sealed road to it, which is why it is only ever sold as part of a driven tour — a private full-day from Tozeur at $100 covers it along with Chebika, Midès and Tamerza.

Our Mos Espa page lists every itinerary in the catalogue that actually reaches the set, including the two-day tours from the northern coast that get there on day two.

Reaching Tozeur

From Djerba, two-day tours run to Tozeur and the mountain oases and back — $150 to $197 depending on the operator. From Tunis, Hammamet or Sousse, Tozeur appears on the second day of the standard two-day loop and on most of the three-day itineraries. There is also an airport, which is the fastest way to base yourself here for a couple of nights and use the half-day tours properly.

For the sand rather than the oases, Douz is about two and a half hours east and is the better base for camel treks and camps.