Tozeur, Nefta and the Jerid

Tozeur is the main town of the Jerid, the oasis region of south-western Tunisia, between Chott el Djerid and the Algerian border. Its international airport has flights from Europe from October to June: Tozeur is a few hours' flight from Europe's main cities, direct or with one stop. Three or four days are enough to see a 14th-century brick medina, a palm grove of nearly 1,000 hectares, the Sufi town of Nefta, the vast salt lake of the chott and the dunes where Star Wars and The English Patient were filmed.

Tozeur, the brick town

Ouled el-Hadef, Tozeur's medina, dates from the 14th century. Its façades are built of clay bricks laid in relief. Around the town, the palm grove covers nearly 1,000 hectares with some 400,000 palms, and is free to visit.

Less than 1 km from the centre, Eden Palm is a date-palm museum and botanical garden, usually open daily from 8 am. Golfers have the Golf des Oasis, an 18-hole course where a round costs TND 88, about €26.

Nefta and its Corbeille

Nefta is about 20 km from Tozeur. Its Corbeille, Ras el-Aïn, is an amphitheatre-shaped hollow that once had 152 springs. The town is a centre of Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, with many zaouias, the shrines of its saints.

Chott el Djerid

Chott el Djerid is a vast salt flat between Tozeur and Kebili, crossed by a 121 km paved road to Douz. Mirages are common. Off the road, the salt crust is unstable.

Ong Jmel and Mos Espa, the film sets

North-west of Nefta, in the dunes, Ong Jmel is a rock whose outline recalls a "camel's neck". It was used as a location for The English Patient and Star Wars. Admission has been charged since 2018, and a TND 132,000 restoration, about €39,000, is under way.

Close by, Mos Espa is the set built for Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace (1999). A crescent-shaped dune, a barchan, is advancing across it by about 15 m a year. A four-hour 4x4 trip combines the Nefta dunes, the chott, Mos Espa and Ong Jmel, from about €80 per person. The Star Wars in Tunisia guide covers every filming location in the country.

Ong Jmel is 24 km from the Algerian border and Mos Espa 22 km: both lie outside the areas advised against by most of the European foreign ministries Sabaro follows. The "Travel advice" table on this page gives the advice for your country.

Metlaoui, Selja and Gafsa

About 40 km north, Metlaoui is the phosphate town. The Selja gorges, a nature reserve and Ramsar site since 2012 (the international wetlands convention), can be seen by train: the Lézard Rouge tourist train has not run since 2017 and has no published timetable for 2026, but the ordinary Metlaoui – Redeyef train runs through the gorges, leaving Metlaoui at 5.10 pm.

Gafsa, 95 km from Tozeur, has Roman pools, two stone basins fed by hot springs, a kasbah and an archaeological museum opened in 1990, with tools of the prehistoric Capsian culture and mosaics.

The mountain oases: an advised-against area

North-west of Tozeur, at the foot of the mountains, Chebika, Tamerza and Midès are oases and canyons on the Algerian border, abandoned by their inhabitants after the 1969 floods. Midès is less than 1 km from the border, Tamerza 3 km and Chebika 8 km.

Several European foreign ministries advise against these oases: depending on the country, the advice covers a strip a few kilometres wide along the Algerian border or the whole border area west of Tozeur, and travel there is advised against unless essential, or outright. Sabaro therefore offers no excursions to the mountain oases. The "Travel advice" table on this page gives the advice for your country, and the Tunisia safety guide sets out the situation.

For the rest of the region, the line beyond which some European foreign ministries advise against travel runs through Tozeur and Nefta: both towns can be visited, but under that advice the desert to the south cannot.

Where to stay: two addresses chosen by Sabaro

• The Mora Sahara Tozeur, formerly the Anantara, renamed on 1 November 2025: 93 suites and villas, many with a private pool and views over the chott, at Mrah Lahwar on the edge of the desert, 6.5 km from the airport. Spa with hammam, and restaurants including SARAB. From about €390 a night for two, breakfast included.
• Dar HI Life, in Nefta on the edge of the Corbeille: an 18-room eco-lodge designed by French designer Matali Crasset, with a traditional hammam, a geothermal hot-water bath and yoga retreats, about 15 minutes from the airport. From about €210 a night.

These prices were found for March 2027, taxes included; the tourist tax is extra, payable at the hotel (TND 12 per person per night in four- and five-star hotels).

Getting to Tozeur

• By air. Tozeur–Nefta Airport (TOE) has seasonal international flights from October to June; Tozeur is a few hours' flight from Europe's main cities, direct or with one stop. Tunisair Express restored the domestic Tunis – Tozeur route in April 2025, with about four flights a week. Flying is the preferred way to reach the tourist areas of the south-west.
• By train. The SNCFT (Tunisian national railways) train leaves Tunis at 7.25 am and reaches Tozeur at 6.30 pm, via Gafsa and Metlaoui; the return leaves Tozeur at 6 am.
• By road. Tunis is 429 km away, about 6 hours 35; Douz is 121 km across the chott, about 2 hours. The Douz and the Sahara region combines easily with Tozeur.

Season and events

Tozeur gets less than 100 mm of rain a year. Average highs range from 17 °C in January to 40 °C in July; winter nights drop to around 7 °C. October, November, March and April are the most pleasant months, with afternoons between 23 and 30 °C.

Autumn is event season: the Ultra Mirage El Djerid, an ultra-trail of 25 to 162 km in early October; the Défis du Chott, three desert races on 24 October 2026; and the Balloons Event Show, with hot-air balloons from 26 to 30 October 2026.