Sep 9, 2024
No one should miss it - This trip was amazing! The guide spoke english, french and german and was always explaining everything in detail. The bus stops several times to toilet and water/coffee. In the first day, you'll visit El Jem and then multiple spots for sightseeing. The camel ride is incredible and really made the day. The day finishes in a hotel where you can use the pool, have dinner, and rest for some (few) hours. In the second day, you'll see the sunrise in the desert by the salt lakes, then go for a 4x4 ride in the desert, also very cool. That's when you'll visit a Star Wars set. The rest of the day is mostly travelling. The whole tour is tiring but for sure worths it.
Review provided by Viator
Sep 7, 2024
Worth it - As most of you have probably done, we read the reviews before booking this trip. Either folk moaning it was too long or others saying it was incredible and nothing in between. Our experience was thankfully the latter.
Our motive for this trip was mostly star wars related. We got to eat lunch at Hotel Sidi Idris, the Skywalker homestead from Episode 4 "A New Hope and episode 2 "attack of the clones" which was incredible. Eat up quickly and get into the main pit before everyone else does! We closed out day 1 with a ride out into the Sahara on quad bikes for half an hour. 80 Dinars per person, around £20 each, or 100 dinars if you share a quad. Better than the alternative camel or horse drawn carriage on offer imo. The hotel is ok but the food was great.
Day 2 is an early start. 4am to be precise. You get to cross the salt flats and watch the sun rise over the Sahara. Pretty special. Then it's a 4x4 ride out to onk jmel and the set of Mos Espa from the phantom menace. I thought we would see Luke Skywalkers exterior home but its further down the salt flats and the tour misses this part out. The drive out to "Tatooine" is amazing but we only got 15 mins there to wander around. Incredible to see, and given the deterioration of the set, don't think it'll be around for many years to come.
Let's get the elephant in the room out the way. This trip is over 1000km on a coach. Not for everyone, although It was air conditioned, comfortable, and had lots of rest stops. We didn't really feel the distance hit us until the final stretch back to our resort in Hamamet. After tatooine there's not a great deal more to see but it was great value for money at £110 a head including your hotel and meals. Bring drinks, snacks and a film / book for the bus and you'll be fine.
Our guide Idah was amazing, knowledgeable and spoke English, French and German. Bring a tip for her and the driver. They are troopers!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 4, 2024
See everything at once - A total of 1200 kilometres are spread over 2 days. It is not for people who cannot sit on the bus for long and especially not for children under 10. Value for money ratio was phenomenal. You can really see the most important spots at once. The hotel in Douz was rather unclean, but for the 9h you stay there ok. You get 2x lunch, 1x breakfast and 1x dinner.
The bus driver took us quickly and safely from place to place. The guide was sometimes a bit pushy and what I didn’t like was that he always stood next to the ATM and pressed the keys, even though it was in English. When entering the pin, he sometimes did not look away. He sometimes told unimportant and boring stories.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 19, 2024
Long but enjoyable - We saw this advertised on our welcome briefing at the hotel off the rep on our first day. Looked good, but the rep didn’t know much about the itinerary. So let me fill in the blanks for you.
What you will need - swimming gear/overnight stuff for the hotel at night. Snacks, pillows, things to keep you occupied on the bus. Plenty of money for souvenirs and stops.
Pick up at your hotel is very early, ours was 0515. You will drive a maximum of and 1 - 1 1/2 hours between stops. Plenty of opportunity to buy snack and water etc.
Places to visit are good and varied, old colosseum, Star Wars set, large mosque, cave dwellings etc.
Good bits - 4x4 race across the dunes, our driver wasn’t as fast as others, so it’s a lottery which one you get. Star Wars set. Swimming pool at the hotel for overnight stop. Watching the sunrise on the salt flats. Lots of free time at stops to go wandering on your own.
Bad bits - lots and lots and lots of driving. Sometimes hard to understand tour guide, but he was very good overall. Lunch/dinner stops, ermmm not exactly amazing.
Overall an experience that had to be done. Just be prepared for a long few days.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 9, 2024
Family friendly and lots of fun! - The only thing stopping this being 5/5 was we sadly didn’t get to visit the Oasis which was one of the parts I was most looking forward to. As with most other reviews there is a lot of coach sitting, so take snacks and plenty of water. Worth buying an e-sim for data access, most places you can get reception and my son was entertained playing Pokémon Go for most of the travelling. There are lots of breaks to use the bathroom and stretch your legs, as a lot of mileage is covered.
Our guide Mo was so knowledgeable and kind, and made us feel very welcome and safe as a woman and child travelling alone. A great mix between adventure, experience and education, personal highlight being the camel ride at sunset, be extra cautious if doing the quads option as one of our group came off hers. Just something to be aware of; if you’re not so into thrill seeking, choose the camels, it also gives you more time to take the whole experience in, in my opinion. My son particularly enjoyed the 4x4 dune adventure to the Star Wars set. Worth the early starts, and great value for money!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 3, 2024
It was a great... - It was a great exprerience, the guide was amazing, i would reccomend this tour to everyone, eventhough it's exausting.
Review provided by Viator
Aug 10, 2024
Intense but worth it! - I will be honest, the trip was intense with the early morning starts and long coach rides. However, it was worth to explore multiple sites and see the sunrise! I paid for quad biking and I had so much fun with it. I was happy with the tour guide, although he could be quite chatty in my opinion. All in all, I definitely recommend this experience!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 26, 2024
Bof - Too many hours by bus to shop. Luckily some nice quad, dromedary Things to do.
The 4x4, we came across an unkind driver who made us do only track!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 17, 2024
Good marketing, poorly executed - This experience is not at all suitable for young travelers seeking an adventure in the Sahara. When we went, the average age of participants was 50+, and the tour is clearly designed with their preferences in mind. For starters, you’re picked up in Northern Tunisia, which means a significant portion of the trip is spent on the tour bus. While the stops are few, some, like El-Jem, are worth seeing. However, the charm of the place is overshadowed when you’re part of a group of stereotypical British/German tourists, who can unfortunately embody the worst traits of the insufferable tourist.
One particularly uncomfortable stop is a visit to what the guide repeatedly described as a “very poor family’s house” in the desert. It’s unclear whether anyone actually lives there or if it’s just a tourist attraction, but the ethics are questionable. Busloads of tourists are brought in to witness this “authentic” household, which feels exploitative.
The first day ends with either a quad or camel ride in Douz. While the quad ride was short but enjoyable, the camel ride, despite seeming fun initially, leaves you feeling uneasy. It’s hard to ethically justify riding animals tethered by ropes attached to sensitive rings in their noses. Afterward, you’ll stay in a very nice hotel for the night.
Day two starts early—3:30 AM, with breakfast at 4, and back on the bus by 4:30. After an hour’s drive, you’ll briefly stop by a salt lake, which, though beautiful, isn’t exactly what you want to be doing at 5:30 in the morning. Lunch follows at 10:30, and while the food throughout the trip is generally good (mostly tourist restaurants), this particular meal was awful. The afternoon features a 4x4 excursion to the Star Wars set, which is little more than a small mock village where locals try to sell you desert roses. After five minutes, it gets dull. The trip ends with an 8-hour bus ride to a final mosque, and that’s it.
The tour is well-organized, but it wasn’t at all what we had expected. Perhaps we should have done more research, but it’s important to be aware of what you’re signing up for.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 16, 2024
Unreliable. Get away. - We booked this tour well in advance and also paid for it in advance before the deadline.
We immediately asked for directions on schedules and pick up. Nothing. No Response.
On the day of pick up appointment between 5.45 and 6.15. We're up very early. 5:00 already on the scene. At 6:20 we get a new pick-up voucher for 6:30. Nobody's coming through.
We had to change everything in a hurry with problems that I won't tell you in order to reschedule with new agency.
I attach the chat with who organizes the tour. Unreliable.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
