North & West Africa · The Sahara
Is it worth it, is it safe, and how many days you need – for the iron-ore train, the Eye of the Sahara, and the desert that makes both possible.
Tested by Paulius Pikelis · 140 countries
Mauritania was the country nobody in our rally convoy expected anything from, and it became the favourite of the whole trip. The first local we met who spoke English called it "the best country in the world" – and though it took a currency mix-up for that to feel literally true for an afternoon, the verdict held. This is the Sahara with no resort layer over it: real desert, real towns, real work, and visitors so rare that nothing has been rebuilt to face them.
What you actually do: ride on top of a three-kilometre iron-ore train through a desert night, stand in the centre of a crater the rest of the world only knows from satellite photos, walk stone caravan towns that emptied centuries ago and have no ticket booth, cool off in an oasis wedged into a canyon, and watch painted pirogues land through the Atlantic surf. Between all of it runs the emptiness itself – mesas, dunes and long straight tarmac – which is not the gap between the sights but half the reason to come.
The honest caveats: this is a hard-travel country, not a comfortable one. Parts of it are under Western travel advisories and the paperwork runs at a human pace; comfort tops out at a good guesthouse; and the desert is indifferent to your plans – heat, sand, fuel and distance are the real daily risks. None of that is a reason to stay away. It is the reason the train, the Eye and the ruins still feel the way they do.
Winter, clearly. This trip is the Sahara, and the Sahara decides: November to February is the season when every part of it works.
November to February
The season. The Sahara at its most humane – warm days, cold clear nights, and every part of the trip workable, from the coast to the deep desert.
March, April and October
The shoulders. The heat is building or fading, and the trip tilts toward dawn starts and long shaded middays – doable, but the margins shrink.
May to September
Honestly, no. We crossed in late May and the interior was brutal by mid-morning; summer only deepens it. The desert's flip side holds all year – the night we rode the ore train was genuinely cold.
What I would pick
December or January for full days in the desert, accepting holiday-season flight prices; late November if I wanted the same weather cheaper and quieter, accepting a small risk of the last warm spell. Either way the desert sets the clock: early starts, shade at noon.
Mauritania scales cleanly: the Adrar is the core, the train and the Eye are the reasons to stretch, and the full coast-to- border crossing is its own kind of trip.
Three to four days
The capital plus the Adrar: the oasis canyons, the caravan-town ruins, desert nights. Enough to understand why people fall for the country – not enough for its two signature rides.
Five to seven days
The right amount: the Adrar and the Eye of the Sahara on a hired 4x4, and the iron-ore train ridden once, in one direction. Both need slack built around them – neither runs on your schedule.
Two weeks or more
The overland crossing – in from Morocco, out to Senegal, the way we did it as part of a rally. A different, magnificent trip that is mostly about the driving, the borders and the distance.
The ocean edge of the Sahara: fishing beaches where painted wooden pirogues land through the surf and the catch moves up the sand in donkey carts, and the road south running between dunes and water. Both cities – Nouadhibou and Nouakchott – live off this coast, and Nouakchott's Port de Pêche at landing hour is the best free theatre in the country.
Mauritania's heart: a plateau of mesas and canyons holding the oases and the old caravan towns. Terjit's palms fill a crack in bare rock, Ouadane's stone ruins stand above a belt of green, and the roads between them are the country at its most beautiful. A first trip should spend most of its days here.
Beyond the last tarmac the Sahara starts properly: dune fields, black-rock plains, and the Richat Structure – the 40 km 'Eye of the Sahara' famous from orbit. Nothing out here is casual; the ground eats ordinary cars, and every visit runs on a local driver's judgment. Which is exactly why you will have it to yourself.
Zouerat, Choum and the railway that hauls the country's economy to the sea – up to three kilometres of open wagons per train, and the ride on top of the ore that people now cross the world for. The towns exist for the mine and the line; the emptiness between them is the point.
First light on the road south
Fly into Nouakchott – Paris is the main gateway, nonstop or via Casablanca – or arrive overland from Morocco in the north or Senegal in the south, the way the overlanders do. Most Western passports can get a visa on arrival; verify the current rules against an official source close to travel, and budget patience at every border.
On the ground the country splits in two. The tarmac spine – the coast road and the highway up into the Adrar – is normal driving in a normal car. The deep desert is not: the Eye of the Sahara and the ground around it run on a hired 4x4 with a local driver, and the train ride starts wherever the train decides to stop. The practical shape of a good trip is a normal car (or shared transport) for the spine, plus hired capability for the days that need it.
The rules that matter everywhere: carry cash and know which ouguiya a price is quoted in; fuel up whenever a working pump appears, because whole stretches can be dry at once; and stay on driven tracks near the northern border, where old ordnance remains a real hazard off them. None of these complicate the trip once you plan around them.
Getting there is the only big unavoidable line: return flights from Europe run about €700. That is what reaching Mauritania costs, not what the trip costs – because on the ground this is one of the cheapest destinations on this site. Most of what you come for is free to stand in front of; the rest is a decision:
| Style | What that looks like |
|---|---|
| Lean | Simple guesthouses, eating where the drivers eat, shared seats in the desert, and the free sights – which in Mauritania is most of them |
| Core | Proper guesthouses and auberges, a hired 4x4 with driver for the desert days, and the train ridden with the right kit |
| Splurge | Mauritania barely sells luxury. The ceiling is a better guesthouse, a private car and driver, and someone cooking for you – comfort here is bought in people, not in stars |
The line with real range is the hired 4x4 and driver for the desert days – it is also the line most worth paying, because the driver is the difference between visiting the deep desert and being stuck in it. Beds are modest everywhere and never the budget's problem.
Know which money you are being quoted.
Mauritania knocked a zero off its currency in 2018, and plenty of people still quote prices in the old ouguiya – ten times the real figure. Ask which one you are hearing and do the division before agreeing to anything. We learned this the memorable way; the full story is further down this page.
The train is real, and so is the ore.
The iron-ore train keeps no timetable you can plan around, there is no carriage, and the only warm thing aboard on a desert night is the ore itself. It is the best thing we did in the country and it rewards exactly the preparation it demands – ride it on tested information, not on a forum thread.
The advisory is the current document.
Western governments mark eastern Mauritania near the Mali border as do-not-travel and most of the tourist west as check-first. Read your government's travel advice before booking and again before flying – and wherever you drive, stay on the driven tracks. Off them, the desert is nobody's guarantee.
How a currency mix-up made Mauritania almost free
A local called it the best country in the world – for half a day, he was right.
Crossing the Mauritanian desert on old rally coordinates
An old rally's checkpoints, three street cars, and a race that went wrong in a minute.
The iron-ore train across Mauritania, at night
Five hours on the ore through a cold Sahara night – the world's great freight ride.
Morocco to Mauritania: crossing the minefield border
A few kilometres of no-man's land, one rule: drive where other cars have driven.
Nouakchott's fish market, when the boats come in
An ordinary working day at the port – boats, fish, and tourists distinctly in the way.
Ouadane, the old caravan city above the palms
Fourteen people, one Hilux, and a preserved stone town with nobody in it.
The Eye of the Sahara
Famous from orbit, almost empty on the ground – standing inside the 40 km rings.
Terjit, the oasis in a desert canyon
Palms in a crack of bare rock, reached at dusk on a near-empty tank.