Top Middle East & Africa Day Trips

Visiting Cairo’s Giza Pyramids and Egyptian Museum is tricky by yourself—you’ll need to haggle with cabs and do your own navigation and research. This private tour eliminates the hassles and provides a personal guide to proffer observations and background. View the museum’s highlights including Tutankhamun’s treasures; and tour the Pyramids, Great Sphinx, and Valley Temple, all with ease and commentary. Lunch, admissions, and hotel transfers make everything seamless.

Journey to Morocco’s Atlas Mountain area and spend the day exploring the Three Valleys with this private, full-day tour. Your guide plans out the whole day for you, including transportation and lunch, so that you can enjoy your explorations without worry. Go on a camel ride, and then stop for a cup of Moroccan tea and cake in Imlil Valley. Visit the home of a Berber family in Ait Souka to learn more about their everyday lifestyles, and end the day in Moulay Brahim near the Asni Valley.

Discover the beauty and customs of the desert on this Dubai desert safari. Leave Dubai in a comfortable 4x4 with a guide, and enjoy an exciting mix of traditional and modern desert adventures. Ride a camel, surf a sandboard down the Dubai sand dunes, and relax at a desert campsite as the sun sets. Get a henna tattoo, watch a ‘tanoura’ folk dance, and top off your trip with a delicious barbecue dinner, including shawrma station, and exotic belly dancing show under the stars as you sit around the campfire.

You don’t have to journey to the Sahara for a Moroccan desert experience—the Agafay Desert is a desert oasis located just outside of Marrakech. On this full-day tour, soak up the scenery as you travel through the High Atlas Mountains, stop to explore the local villages and visit a Berber souk, then mount up for a thrilling camel ride through the rocky desert of Agafay.

Take a dune drive across the red sands outside Dubai while exploring the desert by 4WD vehicle. You’ll experience the thrill of dune bashing, sandboarding, and a camel ride. Upgrade your 4-Hour morning or afternoon adventure to a 7-hour and linger for a scenic sunset, with the addition of a barbecue dinner at a Bedouin-style desert camp. You’re treated like a VIP with belly dancing, henna, and other entertainment.

Venture through the desert by vintage Land Rover and enjoy Arabic entertainments and dinner on this full-day experience from Dubai. Board an open-top Land Rover with a driver, and watch for wildlife as you drive into the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve. See a falconry display and continue to a plush Bedouin-style camp within a royal residence. Here, experience traditional activities, including a camel ride and bread-making demonstration, and enjoy a delicious dinner, live music and dancing displays.

Combine a fast-paced quad bike adventure in the desert with a Middle Eastern-style dinner and entertainment show under the stars. Watch the sunset over sky-high sand dunes, hop a camel for an unforgettable ride across the desert, and chow down on a tasty buffet, plus henna painting, traditional belly dancing, and fire shows. Excursions include door-to-door transfers from any location in Dubai.

Head out into the red Lahab Desert for a luxurious desert safari experience. Bash some dunes and watch the sunset over the red desert as you make your way to the camp. Enjoy a short camel ride and henna painting before sitting down to an exquisite buffer dinner of Arabic food and international cuisine. Watch a traditional Tanoura dance and fire show while you dine under a canopy of stars.

The UAE is about more than Dubai: its capital city, Abu Dhabi, warrants a visit, too. This full-day trip lets you see it with ease, and with just a small group. Traveling between the sights by air-conditioned minivan, it covers all the must-sees, with visits to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Photo stop at Emirates Palace, Etihad Towers, and more. Entrance fees, plus pickup and drop-off at selected Dubai hotels and locations included.

Get to know Abu Dhabi on a day trip from Dubai that lets you explore the largest emirate on a time budget. All transportation is included, saving you the hassle figuring out logistics, and a guide makes the most of your time by taking you straight to Abu Dhabi highlights like Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Emirates Palace and Etihad Towers, and more.

Get to know the UAE’s ultra-modern capital of Abu Dhabi on this day trip from Dubai. Stroll around the white marble masterpiece of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, admire views of the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit and Ferrari World, and visit the Heritage Village to learn about Abu Dhabi’s pre-oil past and Bedouin beginnings. Informative guided commentary, round-trip transport, and Dubai hotel pickup and drop-off are included.

Experience four of the Atlas Mountains’ beautiful valleys and traditional Berber life on this full-day trip from Marrakech. Traveling into the mountains by 4x4 or minivan, discover the Ourika Valley with its waterfalls, the villages of the Oukaimeden Valley, and the orchards of the Asni Valley. Drive along the scenic mountain roads and enjoy lunch at a restaurant, or, if you wish, in a Berber family home. Upgrade to also visit Takerkoust Lake and the high Kik Plateau. Numbers are limited to seven for a more personalized experience.

Explore Africa’s majestic Atlas Mountains on this guided, full-day hiking and riding tour from Marrakesh. On this small-group tour, visit varied landscapes and valleys with spectacular views. Travel through traditional Berber villages, learning about their customs and culture and soak up the atmosphere from one valley to the next. Lunch plus a Marrakesh hotel pickup and drop-off are included.

Drive into the beautiful High Atlas Mountains on a day trip from Marrakech to Ouzoud Falls, the highest waterfalls in North Africa. Travel through a landscape of rolling foothills and olive groves, then enjoy free time to relax by the 330-foot (110-meter) waterfalls. Cross the river on a hand-powered barge, visit cafes at the edge of the water, or check out the Barbary apes that live in the lush river valley. With the convenience of pre-booked transport, this Ouzoud Falls trip is a great day-long escape from bustling Marrakech.

Experience Cairo’s very best on a private, full-day tour that takes in ancient sites, artifacts, and a bustling bazaar. Ride a camel through the sand beside the soaring pyramids at Giza and go toe-to-toe with the enigmatic Sphinx. Pause for lunch before visiting the Egyptian Museum and explore the stunning collection of artifacts, mummies and royal treasures with your guide. Then continue to the Khan el Khalili bazaar to browse vibrant displays of fabrics, handicrafts, and antiques.

Visit Masada and the Dead Sea on a full-day trip from Tel Aviv. Travel by air-conditioned coach through the Judean desert from Tel Aviv to the Dead Sea, and visit Masada on route. Ride the cable car to the mountaintop for a guided tour of the 2,000-year-old ruins, and continue to the Dead Sea to ‘swim’ in its salt-rich waters and, if you wish, take a therapeutic mud bath. The day trip also passes the site of the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan, and ancient city of Jericho.

Enjoy a camel ride in Dubai and an Emirati dinner at a Bedouin-style camp on this desert adventure. Leave Dubai by air-conditioned minivan and head into the desert to meet a camel train. Then, take a camel ride to a royal desert retreat in the rolling dunes. As the sun sets, enjoy a falconry display, watch an Arabic bread-making demonstration, and get a henna tattoo. Finish with a 4-course dinner under the stars accompanied by Arabian dancing and music.

Trade Dubai’s glitz and bustle for an enchanting evening in the desert on this half-day, small-group tour. In the afternoon, set out from Dubai and travel across sand dunes in a 4x4 Land Cruiser. Following a photo break for sunset shots, arrive at the Bedouin-style camp, where you’ll go camel riding, will try henna painting, will listen to local music, and more. Then, enjoy a hearty, barbecue meal, complemented by different dance performances, before returning to the city.

Shift your Dubai vacation up a gear with an exciting afternoon and evening desert adventure. Leave Dubai by 4x4 with a professional driver, and travel to an area of high, golden dunes. Experience an exhilarating dune drive, stop for photos of a luminous sunset, and up the pace with an adrenaline-pumping sandboarding session. Later, enjoy a camel ride and other fun activities at a beautiful desert camp before sitting down to a barbecue dinner and shows from spinning tanoura dancers, belly dancers, and other artists.

See one of the seven wonders of the ancient world on this guided, private, half-day tour. Marvel at the Great Sphinx, a large half-human, half-lion statue, and the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex. Also, take a ride on a camel for a view of more pyramids along the Giza plateau at the edge of the Sahara Desert. All entrance fees plus lunch and a hotel pickup and drop-off are included.

Enjoy bird’s-eye views of Morocco’s deserts and the foothills of the Atlas Mountains on a sunrise hot-air balloon ride from Marrakech. Ride a 4x4 to the launch spot in the early morning and drift through the dawn skies over the desert valleys and hillsides just as the sun casts them in gold, orange and pink. Then, land safely back on ground to enjoy a tasty Berber breakfast and memorable camel ride. A flight certificate to commemorate your balloon ride is also included.

Make the most of your time at Serengeti National Park by adding a sunrise hot air balloon ride to your vacation, which lets you view the plains and wildlife from a perspective many never experience. Pre-book to save time and secure a flight in advance. Then, on the day, take a pre-dawn transfer to the launch site, absorb the aerial views as dawn breaks, and enjoy a post-flight glass of bubbly and scrumptious breakfast under an acacia in the plains.

Book your preferred departure, choosing pickup in Doha from your hotel, the port, or the airport, or from Hamad Port. Your driver-guide will take you south along Qatar’s coast in a private climate-controlled 4x4. Pass oil fields and towns, then head off-road into the deserts that frame Qatar’s border with Saudi Arabia. Enjoy an optional camel ride (own expense) and set off on an exciting dune bash. Carve up huge dunes and slide down the sheer drops sideways as your driver deftly spins the wheel. Continue across desert to the Khor Al Adaid Inland Sea, a vast expanse of turquoise water that forms a natural border with Saudi. Admire this stunning UNESCO-listed body of water before traveling to one of just 3 places in the world where the desert runs into beaches. Enjoy soda at a desert camp here before returning to your starting point.

Ideal for culture connoisseurs, this desert safari features a heart-pounding dune bashing session, a camel ride, live cultural performances including belly dancing, a photoshoot in Arabic costume, and a BBQ buffet dinner. From Dubai, visit an oasis and a camel farm in the Arabian Desert before watching a magical sunset. Learn about Arabian culture at a desert camp inspired by a Bedouin village, try your hand at sandboarding, and let local artists decorate your hands and feet with henna. Dinner, unlimited soft drinks, and hotel pickup and drop-off in central Dubai are included.