DESERTS · CITIES · WARM SEAS
Where the sun never really clocks off.
Desert safaris out of Dubai, the Sahara from Marrakech, the Pyramids and the Red Sea, Cape Town’s mountain and the glittering skylines of the Gulf. The tours and day trips worth your time, from the souks to the sea.
The big three
Three things this part of the world does best.
Beaches and city tours turn up in every destination on earth. A camel ride over the dunes at sunset, a skyline you ride a lift to the top of, and the Pyramids in the same week - those belong to this stretch of sun and sand.
Sand & stars
The desert safari
Drop the tyre pressure, crest the dunes by 4x4, ride a camel into the last of the light and eat under the stars. One experience threads the whole region - the red sand outside Dubai, the Agafay outside Marrakech, the Sahara at Merzouga, the Inland Sea in Qatar.
- 1 Dubai: Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride & Al Khayma Camp
- 2 Dubai: Desert Safari, Quad Bike, Camel Ride and Sandboarding
- 3 Marrakech: Agafay Desert Sunset, Camel Ride, and Dinner Show
Steel & glass
The view from the top
Half these cities rose out of the sand in a single generation, and they built upward. The Burj Khalifa, the View at the Palm, the Museum of the Future, the towers of Doha and Cairo - the lifts that put a whole skyline under your feet.
- 1 Dubai: Burj Khalifa Levels 124 & 125 Entry Ticket + Options
- 2 Dubai: Burj Khalifa Sky Level 148, 124, & 125 Entry Ticket
- 3 Dubai: The View At The Palm Observatory Entry Ticket
Stone & time
Where it all began
On the same trip you stand in front of the only ancient wonder still standing. The Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza, the painted tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the temple halls at Karnak and Luxor - five thousand years, and still here.
- 1 Hurghada: Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
- 2 Cairo: Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride
- 3 Tour to Giza Pyramids and The Egyptian Museum
Start with the standout
The one the whole world books.
More travellers book this one than any other tour. If you only do one thing, make it this.
The classics
The trips that need no introduction.
The Burj Khalifa, the Dubai dunes, the Agafay sunset and the Valley of the Kings. The handful of experiences travellers book again and again.
However you travel
Dunes, skylines, old stone or open water?
Sand for the safaris and the camels. Towers for the views. Old stone for the Pyramids and the Nile. Decks for the yachts and the dhows. Mountains for the Atlas. Reefs for the warm, clear water.
By region
Four countries that feel nothing alike.
The Gulf for the skylines and the dunes. Morocco for the medinas and the mountains. Egypt for the Pyramids and the reefs. The Cape for the mountain that meets the sea.
Sand & silence
The desert is the whole region’s back garden.
Wherever you land, the dunes are an afternoon away. Red sand and dune-bashing 4x4s outside Dubai. Sunset camel rides across the rocky Agafay near Marrakech. The towering Sahara at Merzouga, the camp fires and the Inland Sea in Qatar. It is the one experience they all share, and the bit most travellers remember longest.
The best desert safaris in Dubai →Reefs & lagoons
Warm, clear water, all year round.
The same sun that bakes the dunes warms a coastline of reefs and lagoons. Snorkel the coral off Hurghada and Sharm, cruise the Dubai Marina by yacht, dive the wrecks of the Red Sea, or drift over the glass-clear shallows of Mauritius and Zanzibar. No wetsuit, no season to wait for.
Red Sea reefs & boat trips →Steel out of sand
The cities that grew straight out of the desert.
A lifetime ago, much of this coast was fishing villages and open sand. Now the Gulf throws up the tallest towers on earth, islands shaped like palms, and skylines that switch on at dusk. Ride a lift to the top of the Burj Khalifa, sail the Marina by yacht, or watch Doha and Abu Dhabi light up from the water.
Towers, decks & the Marina →Ancient Egypt
The oldest sightseeing on earth.
Stand in front of the only wonder of the ancient world still standing. The Pyramids and the Sphinx rise straight from the edge of Cairo; south at Luxor lie the painted tombs of the Valley of the Kings and the vast temple halls of Karnak. Most tours run as a day trip or a Nile cruise, and most start from Cairo or the Red Sea coast.
- 1 Hurghada: Luxor Valley of the Kings & Tutankhamun Tomb Trip
- 2 Cairo: Pyramids & Great Sphinx Private Tour with Camel Ride
- 3 Tour to Giza Pyramids and The Egyptian Museum
By pace
How full-on do you want the day?
Some days you wander a souk and drift home on a dinner dhow. Some days you climb the Pyramids and cross the dunes. And some days you point a quad bike at the nearest hill and open it up.
Slow & easy
Wander, browse, drift.Old-city souks and medinas, a hammam, a museum morning, a dinner dhow gliding past the lit-up skyline.
The big days out
The trips you came for.Desert safaris, the Pyramids, a Red Sea reef and the observation decks - the days a whole trip gets built around.
Full throttle
Sand, speed and air.Dune buggies and quad bikes across the red sand, jet skis off the Marina, a skydive over the Palm.
The flagship
If it’s your first time, it’s probably Dubai.
More first-time travellers start in Dubai than anywhere else, and it is easy to see why: red-dune safaris and the world’s tallest tower, a marina full of yachts, an aquarium inside a mall and a beach for every afternoon. The simplest first trip to plan, and the most popular.
See all 139 Dubai tours →By destination
So, where to first?
Dubai for the dunes and the skyline. Marrakech for the souks and the Atlas. Hurghada for the Red Sea. Cairo for the Pyramids. Cape Town for the mountain and the coast. Doha for the Gulf at its quietest.
More places
And plenty more corners of the sun.
Abu Dhabi’s mosque and museum, the medina at Fes, the reefs off Sharm, the temples at Luxor and Aswan, the beaches of Agadir and the old towers of Baku. The smaller stops worth building a day around.
Start planning
Three trips worth the flight.
Not sure where to point first? Three ways to spend a week in the sun, each an easy first trip into its corner of the map.
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