Best Places to Visit In The Sahara & When

The Sahara is utterly massive. It’s just huge - at 11 million km2 it is larger than the entire USA. It is by far the largest desert in the world (excluding the polar regions). The sands of the Sahara are filled with history and stories of the past - but this region has also been plagued with instability and poverty. Fortunately, the Sahara also has a number of top ranked tourist destinations and more stable countries to visit.

One of the best ways to explore the Sahara is with a camel ride with the tribal Bedouin - Marrakesh in Morocco is particularly famous for camel rides. The Sahara is far more than just sand and desert - in fact only comparatively small amounts of it is sandy desert. The Sahara is an enchanting place few ever get to fully explore

What Is The Sahara, And Where Can You See It?

The Sahara is a massive desert that covered most of Northern Africa. It extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean south until one reaches the transitional Sahel Zone (the Sahel is a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna to the south).

• Size: 9.2 Million Km2 or 3.5 Million sq miles or 11 million km2 to 4.2 million sq miles (depending on definition)
• One Third: Of Africa's Land Area

Countries that are wholly or partly in the Sahara include: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara (claimed and controlled by Morocco), Sudan, and Tunisia. Naturally, the best time to see the Sahara is in the cooler months before the blistering heat of summer.

Some of these countries are failed states and/or there are travel warning about visiting (like Libya, Chad, and Sudan). Others are safer and for intrepid explorers (like Algeria and Mauritania). The most popular countries to visit the Sahara are Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt - these countries have extensive tourism infrastructure and are comparatively safe.

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