Yes, backpacking Western Sahara independently is straightforward along the coast, where buses, grand taxis and guesthouses work much as they do in southern Morocco.
Most travelers fly into
Laayoune or
Dakhla from Casablanca (about 1.5 to 2 hours) and link the two by bus, an 8 to 9 hour ride costing roughly 200 to 260 dirhams (US$20 to 26). Budget rooms run about 250 to 450 dirhams (US$25 to 45). Expect police checkpoints asking for your passport on the main road, so keep it handy. The interior near the berm, including Guelta Zemmur, is military territory and not realistic without special arrangements.
Five days covers the essentials of Western Sahara: one day in Laayoune, one travel day down the coast and three around the Dakhla lagoon.
With only 2 days, fly straight to
Dakhla and add a day trip to
Plage de El Argoub. Three days works well in the north, pairing
Laayoune with an overnight in Smara, about 3 to 4 hours inland. A week lets you add kitesurfing lessons, a night in a lagoon camp and a stop in Boujdour between the two cities, which sit around 540 kilometers apart.
You can get around Western Sahara without a car, since buses and grand taxis connect every coastal town along the N1 highway.
The
Laayoune to
Dakhla bus takes 8 to 9 hours and costs roughly 200 to 260 dirhams (US$20 to 26), while flights from Casablanca reach both cities in under 2 hours. Grand taxis run from Laayoune to Smara in about 3 to 4 hours. Around the Dakhla lagoon, public transport thins out, so for
Plage de El Argoub or a lagoon camp, hire a taxi or driver for the day, typically 400 to 700 dirhams (US$40 to 70).
The must-visits in Western Sahara are the Dakhla lagoon and its quieter far shore at El Argoub, followed by Laayoune for history.
Dakhla deserves at least 2 days for kitesurfing on flat water and cheap oysters from the bay.
Plage de El Argoub, roughly an hour or more by road around the head of the lagoon, shows the water from the mainland side with almost nobody around. In the north,
Laayoune holds the Spanish colonial center, and the
Saguia el Hamra valley leads 240 kilometers inland to Smara and the ruins of Ma al-Aynayn’s zawiya.
If you are short on time in Western Sahara, skip the north entirely and fly straight to Dakhla, where the lagoon offers more in two days than anywhere else in the territory.
The Smara trip along the
Saguia el Hamra eats 6 to 8 hours of driving for a round trip, so drop it unless desert history is your priority.
Guelta Zemmur and the inland Zemmour hills sit beside the military berm and need permissions most visitors cannot arrange, so leave them off a tight plan. The 8 to 9 hour bus between Laayoune and Dakhla is also skippable by flying via Casablanca.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Western Sahara in seconds. Try it out!
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