Tataouine & Chenini: Full-Day Guided Tour

About This Experience

The same ground as the jeep tours, driven on tarmac. If a full day of desert track sounds like more than you want — or you are travelling with someone for whom it would be — this is the version that keeps the ksour and drops the off-roading.

A driver collects you on Djerba and the day opens on the old Roman causeway off the island, with a photo stop at Chahbania where the salt flats begin. Tataouine's market is the first long halt: an hour to walk it, and haggling is expected.

Chenini follows, with a local guide who takes you through the oil mill, the mosque, the houses cut into the mountain wall and the granary above them. Ksar Hadada — the mud-brick granary north of town, and the Phantom Menace's Mos Espa slave quarters — is the other set-piece; the hand-painted board at its gate still names George Lucas and July 1997.

Lunch is included. Both the driver and the guide are tourism-office licensed, which on this route is the difference between a commentary and a lift.

Highlights

• A road day rather than an off-road one — same villages, no desert track
• The Chahbania salt flat on the mainland side of the causeway
• An hour in Tataouine's market
• Chenini with a local guide: the oil mill, the mosque and the cliff houses
• Ksar Hadada, the ksar that played Mos Espa's slave quarters

What's Included

• ✓ Air-conditioned vehicle
• ✓ Tourism-office licensed driver
• ✓ Tourism-office licensed guide
• ✓ Local guide at Chenini
• ✓ Midday lunch

Not Included

• Drinks
• Personal expenses
• Tips

What to Bring

• Sunglasses
• Sun hat
• Walking shoes for Chenini
• Cash for the market

Good to Know & Caveats

• This is a surfaced-road itinerary. It does not enter the dune fields or use desert track.
• Chenini is walked on foot and the ground is steep in places.
• The guide commentary runs in Arabic, French, English, Italian or German depending on the group.
• Lunch is included; drinks with it are not.

Meeting Point

Morning hotel pickup from accommodation on Djerba; return to the same address in the evening.