This fifteen-day loop through Mauritania is for travelers with patience and a taste for the unusual: people who want the Atlantic coast, the world’s most famous freight train and the Adrar’s caravan towns in one trip, at a pace that leaves room for slow tea rounds and late starts. It runs on shared bush taxis along the coastal highway, a ride on the iron ore train, and hired 4x4s with drivers once you reach the desert. Plan it for November to March, when Adrar days are warm and nights in the dunes turn sharp.
Days 1-2: Nouakchott
Start in
Nouakchott with two nights to adjust to the heat, the dust and the rhythm of a capital that grew from a small settlement in a few decades. Spend your first afternoon at the
Port de Pêche, where hundreds of painted pirogues ride the surf onto the sand and crews pass crates of fish hand to hand up the beach; arrive around 4 pm for the main landing. The next morning, go early to the
Nouakchott Camel Market on the city’s edge, where herders haggle over animals …
read more 👉This fifteen-day loop through Mauritania is for travelers with patience and a taste for the unusual: people who want the Atlantic coast, the world’s most famous freight train and the Adrar’s caravan towns in one trip, at a pace that leaves room for slow tea rounds and late starts. It runs on shared bush taxis along the coastal highway, a ride on the iron ore train, and hired 4x4s with drivers once you reach the desert. Plan it for November to March, when Adrar days are warm and nights in the dunes turn sharp.
Days 1-2: Nouakchott
Start in Nouakchott with two nights to adjust to the heat, the dust and the rhythm of a capital that grew from a small settlement in a few decades. Spend your first afternoon at the Port de Pêche, where hundreds of painted pirogues ride the surf onto the sand and crews pass crates of fish hand to hand up the beach; arrive around 4 pm for the main landing. The next morning, go early to the Nouakchott Camel Market on the city’s edge, where herders haggle over animals in a sandy lot, then cool off in the National Museum of Mauritania, whose prehistoric and ethnographic rooms give useful context for the desert towns ahead.Days 3-4: Banc d’Arguin National Park
Head north up the paved coastal road to Banc d’Arguin National Park, a UNESCO-listed stretch of shallow bays, sandbanks and islands where the desert runs straight into the Atlantic. Two nights is the right amount: one day to arrive and settle into a simple camp near the Imraguen fishing village of Iwik, one full day to sail out on a traditional lateen-rigged lanche to the bird islands, where flamingos, pelicans and huge flocks of wintering waders crowd the mudflats. Motorized boats are banned inside the park, so the sailing trips are slow and silent.Days 5-6: Nouadhibou
Continue north to Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s fishing and industrial port on a thin peninsula shared with Western Sahara. Use one day to recover from the camping and take care of practical things, and the other to wander the harbor or head out to Plage de Cansado for a swim and an evening of grilled fish. More importantly, this is where you organize the next leg: the iron ore train leaves from just outside town in the afternoon.Day 7: Iron Ore Train to Ben Amera
Board the iron ore train toward Choum, either in the basic passenger carriage or, for the brave, on top of an ore wagon wrapped in a scarf and goggles against the black dust. The train, among the longest in the world, crawls east into the Sahara as the light fades. Arrange a driver in advance to meet you when you get off in the small hours, and spend the rest of the night camped near Ben Amera, a granite monolith rising alone from the flat desert. Sunrise on the rock face is the reason to bother with the timing.Day 8: Atar and Tergit
Drive south to Atar, the Adrar’s market town and supply hub, for lunch, cash and fuel, plus an hour in the small Atar Regional Museum with its rock-art and nomadic artifacts. Then continue to Tergit for the night. The Terjit Oasis sits in a narrow gorge where warm and cool springs feed a palm grove, and sleeping under those palms is the best possible recovery from a night on the train.Days 9-10: Ouadane
The next morning is a longer drive across the plateau to Ouadane, at the far edge of the Adrar. The Ksar of Ouadane climbs a cliff in tiers of dry-stone ruins, with a smaller inhabited quarter and palm gardens below. On your second day, take a 4x4 out to the Richat Structure, the vast concentric rings visible from space, and walk part of the Guelb er Richat Trail across its ridges. From the ground the rings are hard to read, which is why a guide who knows the terrain matters here.Days 11-12: Ouadane to Chinguetti Trek
Swap engines for camels on the Ouadane to Chinguetti Trek. The full crossing takes most of a week, so on this schedule you walk a shortened two-night version, with a vehicle covering part of the distance and a guide setting up camp in the ergs. Expect long walks over the dunes, bread baked in the sand under coals, and very cold, very clear nights.Days 13-14: Chinguetti
Walk into Chinguetti and give it two full nights, which the town deserves more than any other stop. The Old Quarter and Friday Mosque of Chinguetti are the heart of it, with stone lanes, heavy wooden doors and the square minaret that has stood over the town for centuries. Spend a morning in the Manuscript Libraries of Chinguetti, family collections where custodians show handwritten Qur’ans, legal texts and astronomy treatises that once traveled with the caravans.Day 15: Amogjar Pass and back to Nouakchott
Leave the Adrar on its most scenic exit, the Amogjar Pass, where the track drops off the plateau through steep cliffs and boulder fields. From Atar it is a long final drive south to Nouakchott, so start at first light and treat this as a pure travel day.
If you can squeeze in one extra night, ask your Atar driver about the oasis of Mhaïreth, a palm grove hidden at the bottom of a deep gorge that few visitors ever reach.v2.webp){kind=logo}
Best Backpacking
