The Sahara from Hammamet: is the 2-day or the 3-day tour worth it?

The Sahara is not near Hammamet. Every trip that offers it from here is a long drive south, with at least one night down there, mostly in a desert camp, and the real question is how much of your holiday you are willing to spend in a vehicle. The honest answer depends on whether you choose two days or three.

The 2-day express, the one most people book

From Tunis, Hammamet & Sousse: 2-Day Sahara Express Tour costs €94.17 and has 4.7 stars on 1,289 reviews, by a wide margin the most of any Sahara trip. It is also the second most-reviewed trip of any kind among the Hammamet offers we compared.

The first day, per the itinerary, begins with a hotel pickup at 6:00 a.m. The stops are El Jem, with a guided visit of about 40 minutes; the troglodyte village of Matmata, with a stop at the hotel used as a Star Wars location and a cup of tea with locals; a photo stop at the Berber village of Tamazret; lunch; and the desert camp at Sabria in the late afternoon. There is an optional camel ride at sunset, sand-bread baking you can watch, dinner and a campfire.

Day two goes back through the Chott el Jerid salt lake, the mountain oasis of Chebika with a short hike to a waterfall, lunch, and Kairouan, where you see the Great Mosque from outside (the listing says it can be seen before 1 p.m.) and walk a short way in the old medina. Then the road back.

The honest part: the driving

The itinerary for the Tunis departure lists the coach legs: about two hours, three hours, then one and a half and one and a half again on the first day, around eight hours in all. The second day has about an hour and twenty, two hours, and a final leg of a little over three and a half hours: around seven. Starting from Hammamet should shorten the first leg a little, but not the character of the trip.

The operator says as much in its own description: this is “quite a long excursion, with several hours of driving”, and anyone not comfortable with long hours on the road is told to choose the three-day trip, because on day two after lunch it is mostly transfer. Back problems and motion sickness are on the not-suitable list. One recent reviewer wrote that there was a lot of sitting and that the food was not the best; others praise the guide, the camp and the night under the stars. Both are credible.

What the price covers, and what it does not

The listing includes air-conditioned transport, a licensed driver and a multilingual guide, one night in the desert camp, both lunches (drinks excluded), dinner and breakfast at the camp, and the sand-bread demonstration. Not included: drinks, entry fees to archaeological sites and museums, tips, and the camel ride.

The extras are the ones that change the total:

• Single supplement. A solo traveller pays a mandatory supplement of €35.
• Drop-off supplement. If you are picked up in one place and dropped in another between Tunis, Hammamet and Sousse, the listing says there is a mandatory extra charge.
• Entry to El Jem is an extra fee, so is the optional camel ride and sunset activities.
• New Year’s Eve carries a €150 supplement on 31 December.

Guides work in different languages on different days (French and English on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; Italian and German on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; Spanish and Portuguese every day), and the operator recommends booking on those. Check which day suits your language before choosing a date.

The 3-day version

From Tunis, Sousse & Hammamet: 3 Day tour to South & Sahara costs €280 with 4.7 stars on 102 reviews. It adds Tozeur and its mountain oases, a night at the camp in Douz, Matmata and El Jem. The operator of the 2-day trip recommends it for a more relaxed pace. It is three times the price for 50 percent more days, and a fraction of the reviews, so the evidence behind it is thinner.

Cheaper, dearer and different

• 2 Day Express Desert Trip with Tent Overnight, €91.50, 4.6 stars on 22 reviews. El Jem, Matmata, the mountain village of Tamazret, a night in a camp at Douz, then the Chott el Jerid salt lake and Kairouan; Ong Jmal and Chebika are only on the optional 4x4 excursion. The nearest in route to the bestseller, and the cheapest.
• From Yasmine Hammamet/Kantaoui: 2-Day Sahara Tour with Meals, €200, 4.7 stars on 50 reviews. A private jeep tour, camp accommodation and meals included, El Jem and the Temegza waterfall. It starts from Yasmine Hammamet or Kantaoui.
• From Hammamet: 2-Day Sahara Desert Tour with Meals, €147, 3.9 stars on 5 reviews. Adds the Star Wars set at Ong Jmel; the night is in a 4-star hotel rather than a camp.
• Ksar Ghilane: 2-Day Express Tour with Overnight Camp Stay, €144, 4.3 stars on 6 reviews. The oasis with a warm thermal spring, the one trip of these built around a swim. Pickup is only in Sousse and Sfax, not in Hammamet.

The €94 express and the €200 trip both list a camp night and meals. The dearer trip describes itself as a private jeep tour with a camp of its own, while the express goes by coach; that explains part of the gap. Still ask about group size and the standard of the camp before you pay the difference.

Who should not book

Anyone who gets sick on coaches, has back trouble, or cannot spend eight hours seated on each of two days. Families with small children should read the Hammamet with kids page first. And if all you want is a few hours on sand with a camel, the riding and camel tours are a day’s outing, not a two-day one.

Four Sahara trips side by side

Trip	From	Rating	Reviews
2-Day Sahara Express Tour	€94.17	4.7	1,289
3 Day tour to South & Sahara	€280	4.7	102
2-Day Sahara Tour with Meals	€200	4.7	50
2 Day Express Desert Trip with Tent Overnight	€91.50	4.6	22

All of them are on the Sahara tours from Hammamet page.