The International Festival of the Sahara is held on the last weekend of the year - please call us for exact dates.

Arriving in Tunis (on an early flight), we will travel directly to Douz by 4x4s and spend the first night at the Paradis Saharien hotel so that, on waking, you will be in the full swing of the Festival. You will have two days to enjoy the shows and crowds of this important cultural and tourist event which attracts around 100,000 visitors every year. It is famous for racing camel (méharis) and Arabian horse races, hunting demonstrations, re-enactments of the traditional marriage ceremony and parade (zeffa), international dance and music performances, art exhibitions and poetry readings. There are also daily street performances and Douz, of course, has all-year round tourist attractions - the Museum of the Sahara, with an interesting collection depicting Bedouin life, the hot spring baths and the souk.

Please note that at this extremely busy time, we cannot guarantee single rooms will be available in the hotel, where we will spend 2 nights in all. After the end of the festival's proceedings, the 4x4s will take us to the desert to meet our guides and camels and we will enjoy our first meal and night there. We will travel in the Sahara for the next few days and celebrate new year under the stars in the company of our Bedouin guides.

Early on our final day in the desert the 4x4s will pick us up and take us to Tozeur - famous for its unique architecture; you will have some time to wander in the town and we will also visit the beautiful mountain oasis of Chebika and Tamerza and Onc Jemal (where the set for the pod race in Star Wars I is still in place).

We will then travel back to Tunis where we will spend the last night of the journey.