[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"experience-ride-a-camel-across-the-desert":3,"experience-spots-ride-a-camel-across-the-desert":17,"experience-spot-media-ride-a-camel-across-the-desert":161,"experiences-taxonomy":178},{"id":4,"slug":5,"name":6,"shortName":7,"groupKey":8,"categorySlug":9,"iconKey":10,"kind":11,"introMd":12,"heroImageUrl":13,"heroAttribution":14,"sortOrder":15,"spotCount":16},44,"ride-a-camel-across-the-desert","Cross a desert on camelback and sleep in the dunes","Desert camel treks","land","desert-sand","camel","experience","A camel walks at about 4 km\u002Fh, which is slightly slower than you would walk yourself. That is the point. A desert crossing on camelback is not transport; it is the speed at which a sand sea makes sense. You are close enough to see the wind ripples reform, and slow enough that the dunes change colour twice before you stop.\n\nAlmost every trek follows the same shape, because the desert dictates it: leave in the late afternoon when the sand stops burning, ride two or three hours into the dunes, camp, and ride out again after sunrise. The night is the reason people go. There is no light, no moisture in the air, and no sound at all — the silence in a dune field is the kind people describe afterwards as physical.\n\nThe deserts below differ in colour and grain more than in experience. Erg Chebbi is orange and steep, and Wadi Rum is red sandstone with granite towers standing in it. The Thar is pale and studded with villages. The Gobi is cold and grey, and ridden on two-humped Bactrian camels instead of dromedaries. What matters more than the destination is the operator: overloaded animals, short-roped noses and day-long rides in the heat are the marks of a bad one, and they are easy to spot before you book.","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fhero-94ed328a.webp","Yudi Ding · Pexels Licence · Pexels",138,10,[18,37,49,66,78,90,105,122,134,149],{"id":19,"spotName":20,"spotCountry":21,"isSignature":22,"signatureFeature":23,"signatureNote":24,"seasonTrigger":25,"accessMode":26,"difficulty":27,"rank":28,"imageUrl":29,"attribution":30,"place":31},86,"Erg Chebbi — Merzouga","Morocco",true,"The dune field everyone pictures when they picture the Sahara: a 22 km by 5 km sea of orange sand rising 150 m out of flat hammada, with a sharp edge you can walk to from a village. That edge is why it works — you reach real dunes within an hour of leaving the road, instead of a two-day drive, and the sand is fine enough that the crests reform overnight and erase the previous day’s tracks.","Erg Chebbi is an isolated erg, not part of a continuous Sahara dune belt, which is exactly why it is accessible: desert on one side, road on the other.","October to April. Summer daytime temperatures pass 45 °C and treks shrink to a token ride at dusk. December and January nights drop near freezing.","Open desert; every camp in Merzouga and Hassilabied runs treks, from an hour to several days.","Low. Sitting on a camel for two hours is uncomfortable rather than hard; walking up dunes is not.",0,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-86-54914447.webp","Mike Prince from Bangalore, India · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons",{"slug":32,"publicId":33,"name":34,"coverImageUrl":35,"country":21,"region":36},"sahara-merzouga","b35a4dcc6d78","Sahara — Merzouga","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fdestinations\u002F53\u002Fcover.webp","Drâa-Tafilalet",{"id":38,"spotName":39,"spotCountry":21,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":41,"signatureNote":42,"seasonTrigger":43,"accessMode":44,"difficulty":45,"rank":46,"imageUrl":47,"attribution":48,"place":41},87,"Erg Chigaga — M’Hamid",false,null,"The bigger, emptier erg — 40 km of dunes reached by a two-hour 4x4 crossing from M'Hamid, with no village on the horizon and far fewer camps than Chebbi.","October to April, same as Chebbi; the sandstorm season peaks in spring.","Open desert, but you need a vehicle transfer to reach the trek start.","Low, though multi-day crossings here mean three to five hours in the saddle a day.",1,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-87-ab0da5e6.webp","Angela Stefanoni \u002F CC BY 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons",{"id":50,"spotName":51,"spotCountry":52,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":53,"signatureNote":54,"seasonTrigger":55,"accessMode":56,"difficulty":57,"rank":58,"imageUrl":59,"attribution":60,"place":61},88,"Wadi Rum","Jordan","Jordan's highest summit, Jabal Umm ad Dami at 1,840 metres, stands 30 kilometres south of the village, and the 720 km² reserve was listed by UNESCO in 2011 for its landforms and its rock inscriptions together.","Not a dune sea but a sandstone desert: red sand between 700 m rock massifs split by wind, with Nabataean inscriptions on the walls. The scale is architectural rather than geological.","March–May and September–November. Midsummer exceeds 40 °C; January nights can freeze.","Protected area with an entry fee, run by local Bedouin cooperatives; camping is at licensed camps.","Low; most trips combine a short camel ride with 4x4 transfer between sites.",2,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-88-91c3e873.webp","Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons",{"slug":62,"publicId":63,"name":51,"coverImageUrl":64,"country":52,"region":65},"wadi-rum","8140ffbe7d3c","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fdestinations\u002F93\u002Fcover.webp","Aqaba",{"id":67,"spotName":68,"spotCountry":69,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":70,"signatureNote":71,"seasonTrigger":72,"accessMode":73,"difficulty":74,"rank":75,"imageUrl":76,"attribution":77,"place":41},89,"Thar Desert — Jaisalmer","India","The riding country doubles as the last stronghold of the great Indian bustard: about 130 birds survive worldwide, most of them in the Thar around the Desert National Park.","A lived-in desert. The Thar has villages, herders and temples inside it, so a trek here passes people rather than emptiness — and finishes under a fort city built from the same yellow sandstone.","November to February. March onwards is brutal, and the monsoon in July–August brings brief green.","Open desert; treks leave from Jaisalmer to Sam and Khuri dunes.","Low; the popular routes are short and the dunes modest.",3,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-89-9214cf84.webp","Pinakpani \u002F CC BY 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons",{"id":79,"spotName":80,"spotCountry":81,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":82,"signatureNote":83,"seasonTrigger":84,"accessMode":85,"difficulty":86,"rank":87,"imageUrl":88,"attribution":89,"place":41},90,"Grand Erg Oriental — Douz & Ksar Ghilane","Tunisia","A Roman frontier fort stands at the oasis — Tisavar, on the empire's desert border — at the eastern edge of the Grand Erg Oriental, beside a hot spring you can bathe in.","The classic gateway to the Grand Erg Oriental, and one of the few places where a genuine multi-day crossing between oases is still routine rather than staged.","October to April; the Douz festival in December fills the town.","Open desert; treks run from Douz, and Ksar Ghilane has a spring-fed pool to finish at.","Low to moderate depending on length; four-day crossings are common.",4,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-90-0b7baad6.webp","veroyama from Meguro, Japan \u002F CC BY 2.0 — Wikimedia Commons",{"id":91,"spotName":92,"spotCountry":93,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":41,"signatureNote":94,"seasonTrigger":95,"accessMode":96,"difficulty":97,"rank":98,"imageUrl":41,"attribution":41,"place":99},91,"Khongoryn Els — the Singing Dunes","Mongolia","A Gobi dune belt 300 m high covering some 965 square kilometres. You ride it on two-humped Bactrian camels led by the herder families who own them — a working animal rather than a tourist one, in a desert that is cold most of the year.","June to September. Outside that the Gobi runs to −30 °C. Camel-hair cutting and the local Bactrian festival fall in spring.","Gurvan Saikhan National Park; almost always reached on an organised Gobi itinerary.","Low riding; the difficulty is the two-day drive from Ulaanbaatar and the camp conditions.",5,{"slug":100,"publicId":101,"name":102,"coverImageUrl":103,"country":93,"region":104},"khongoryn-els","503d2e25811a","Khongoryn Els","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fdestinations\u002F455\u002Fcover.webp","Ömnögovi",{"id":106,"spotName":107,"spotCountry":108,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":41,"signatureNote":109,"seasonTrigger":110,"accessMode":111,"difficulty":112,"rank":113,"imageUrl":114,"attribution":115,"place":116},92,"Rub’ al Khali — Liwa Oasis","United Arab Emirates","The northern edge of the Empty Quarter, the largest continuous sand desert on Earth. Moreeb Dune rises about 300 m in a single face, and beyond it the sand runs unbroken for 600 km.","November to March. Summer is unsurvivable outside air conditioning.","Open desert reached by road from Abu Dhabi; camel experiences are camp-based.","Low.",6,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-92-380e53a6.webp","JSPhotography2016 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons",{"slug":117,"publicId":118,"name":119,"coverImageUrl":120,"country":108,"region":121},"liwa-desert","c1bd9d9afe66","Liwa Desert","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fdestinations\u002F845\u002Fcover.webp","Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi Emirate",{"id":123,"spotName":124,"spotCountry":125,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":126,"signatureNote":127,"seasonTrigger":128,"accessMode":129,"difficulty":130,"rank":131,"imageUrl":132,"attribution":133,"place":41},93,"Sinai — Nuweiba & the Coloured Canyon","Egypt","Nuweiba is the trailhead of the Sinai Trail — 550 kilometres run as a cooperative by eight Bedouin tribes, each guiding you across its own ground and handing you on at the next border.","Bedouin-run treks out of the Gulf of Aqaba coast into granite mountains and sandstone canyons — desert with walls, and a route culture that predates tourism entirely.","October to April; the coast is hot but bearable, the mountains cold at night.","Treks run by South Sinai Bedouin tribes, including the community-run Sinai Trail.","Moderate on the longer mountain routes, which mix riding and walking.",7,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-93-9a2c55f3.webp","Tanya Dedyukhina \u002F CC BY 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons",{"id":135,"spotName":136,"spotCountry":125,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":137,"signatureNote":138,"seasonTrigger":139,"accessMode":140,"difficulty":141,"rank":142,"imageUrl":41,"attribution":41,"place":143},94,"Siwa & the Great Sand Sea","The oasis sits 19 metres below sea level, watered by about 200 artesian springs pushing fossil groundwater up out of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer.","An oasis 50 km from the Libyan border with salt lakes, palm groves and the Great Sand Sea starting immediately behind it — and fossil coral in the sand, because this was seabed.","October to April. Siwa is remote enough that the road journey is part of the commitment.","Ten hours by road from Cairo; camel rides run one to two hours on the near dunes at either end of the day, while trips into the Great Sand Sea and its overnight camps go by 4x4 with a permit arranged in town.","Low; the remoteness is the effort.",8,{"slug":144,"publicId":145,"name":146,"coverImageUrl":147,"country":125,"region":148},"siwa-oasis","ab7d7059f4ac","Siwa Oasis","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fdestinations\u002F463\u002Fcover.webp","Matruh, Batı Çölü",{"id":150,"spotName":151,"spotCountry":152,"isSignature":40,"signatureFeature":153,"signatureNote":154,"seasonTrigger":155,"accessMode":156,"difficulty":157,"rank":158,"imageUrl":159,"attribution":160,"place":41},95,"Flinders Ranges","Australia","This rock named a period of geological time: the Ediacaran, fixed in 2004 on a golden spike in the bed of Enorama Creek here — the first new period declared in 120 years.","Camels were imported to cross this country in the 1800s and the feral descendants still roam it. Treks here ride through 800-million-year-old ranges and dry riverbeds rather than dunes.","April to October. Summer in the outback is above 40 °C.","Open station country and national park; a handful of long-running operators.","Low to moderate; multi-day rides cover real distance.",9,"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.jouvida.com\u002Fexperiences\u002F44\u002Fspot-95-56c4f1ed.webp","Peripitus \u002F CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons",{"86":162,"87":164,"88":166,"89":168,"90":170,"92":172,"93":174,"95":176},[163],{"url":29,"attribution":30},[165],{"url":47,"attribution":48},[167],{"url":59,"attribution":60},[169],{"url":76,"attribution":77},[171],{"url":88,"attribution":89},[173],{"url":114,"attribution":115},[175],{"url":132,"attribution":133},[177],{"url":159,"attribution":160},{"categories":179,"tags":259,"tagsByExperience":325},[180,185,190,196,202,208,214,220,225,230,236,242,248,254],{"slug":181,"name":182,"color":183,"iconKey":184,"sortOrder":16},"sky-events","Sky events","#9333EA","sky",{"slug":186,"name":187,"color":188,"iconKey":186,"sortOrder":189},"wildlife","Wildlife","#65A30D",20,{"slug":191,"name":192,"color":193,"iconKey":194,"sortOrder":195},"underwater","Underwater","#0E7490","scuba",30,{"slug":197,"name":198,"color":199,"iconKey":200,"sortOrder":201},"waters","Waters","#0284C7","waves",40,{"slug":203,"name":204,"color":205,"iconKey":206,"sortOrder":207},"snow-ice","Snow & ice","#38BDF8","snow",50,{"slug":209,"name":210,"color":211,"iconKey":212,"sortOrder":213},"forest-trees","Forests & trees","#15803D","forest",60,{"slug":215,"name":216,"color":217,"iconKey":218,"sortOrder":219},"seasons","Seasons","#DB2777","bloom",70,{"slug":9,"name":221,"color":222,"iconKey":223,"sortOrder":224},"Desert & sand","#EAB308","desert",80,{"slug":226,"name":227,"color":228,"iconKey":229,"sortOrder":79},"fire-earth","Fire & earth","#DC2626","volcano",{"slug":231,"name":232,"color":233,"iconKey":234,"sortOrder":235},"underground","Underground","#475569","caving",100,{"slug":237,"name":238,"color":239,"iconKey":240,"sortOrder":241},"heights-rock","Rock & heights","#78716C","climb",110,{"slug":243,"name":244,"color":245,"iconKey":246,"sortOrder":247},"in-the-air","In the air","#4F46E5","paraglide",120,{"slug":249,"name":250,"color":251,"iconKey":252,"sortOrder":253},"journeys","Journeys","#0F766E","train",130,{"slug":255,"name":256,"color":257,"iconKey":255,"sortOrder":258},"stay","Extraordinary stays","#C2410C",140,[260,264,267,270,273,277,280,283,286,289,292,296,299,302,305,309,313,317,321],{"slug":261,"name":262,"facet":263,"sortOrder":16},"at-night","At night","when",{"slug":265,"name":266,"facet":263,"sortOrder":189},"once-a-year","Once a year",{"slug":268,"name":269,"facet":263,"sortOrder":195},"seasonal","Season-bound",{"slug":271,"name":272,"facet":263,"sortOrder":201},"year-round","Year-round",{"slug":274,"name":275,"facet":276,"sortOrder":207},"no-experience","No experience needed","how",{"slug":278,"name":279,"facet":276,"sortOrder":213},"training","Training needed",{"slug":281,"name":282,"facet":276,"sortOrder":219},"gear","Gear needed",{"slug":284,"name":285,"facet":276,"sortOrder":224},"guided","Guide required",{"slug":287,"name":288,"facet":276,"sortOrder":79},"multi-day","Takes days",{"slug":290,"name":291,"facet":276,"sortOrder":235},"physical","Physically hard",{"slug":293,"name":294,"facet":295,"sortOrder":241},"watching","You watch, not do","nature",{"slug":297,"name":298,"facet":295,"sortOrder":247},"adrenaline","Adrenaline",{"slug":300,"name":301,"facet":295,"sortOrder":253},"wild-animals","With wild animals",{"slug":303,"name":304,"facet":295,"sortOrder":258},"below-water","Under the surface",{"slug":306,"name":307,"facet":295,"sortOrder":308},"cold","In the cold",150,{"slug":310,"name":311,"facet":295,"sortOrder":312},"heights","Off the ground",160,{"slug":314,"name":315,"facet":295,"sortOrder":316},"wet","You get wet",170,{"slug":318,"name":319,"facet":295,"sortOrder":320},"remote","Far from anywhere",180,{"slug":322,"name":323,"facet":295,"sortOrder":324},"family","Works with kids",190,{"1":326,"3":327,"4":328,"9":329,"17":330,"19":331,"24":332,"35":333,"38":334,"40":335,"41":336,"43":337,"44":338,"45":339,"48":340,"54":341,"61":342,"62":343,"73":344,"74":345,"85":346,"91":347,"92":348,"94":349,"96":350,"102":351,"115":352,"134":353,"139":354,"141":355,"142":356,"152":357,"153":358,"156":359,"161":360,"167":361},[261,268,293,306,318],[278,281,310,297],[284,310,293,271],[281,284,297,314,290],[278,281,303,271],[268,293,300,314],[278,281,310,297],[287,290,274,318],[281,310,290,297],[284,281,271],[281,290,297],[274,290,322],[268,284,287,318],[268,284,293,300,322],[284,290,293,318],[268,306,281],[268,274],[261,271,274,293,318],[265,261,278,281,303],[261,268,293,314],[281,303,306,293],[268,274,293,322],[268,293,274],[261,268,293,318],[268,293,274],[268,293,306,318],[265,268,293,300],[268,274,293,322],[271,274,293,322],[271,274,290,318],[271,314,318,293],[265,306,322,293],[268,306,274],[268,306,284,322],[271,274,293,322],[284,310,293]]