Best of Egypt's Western Desert: Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, Kharga & the White Desert - A 2026 First-Person Guide
Browse more guides: Egypt travel | Africa destinations Best of Egypt's Western Desert: Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, Kharga & the White Desert - A 2026 First-Person Guide TL;DR I have spent more than five separate trips crossing Egypt's Western Desert, and every single time I come back I want to write the same warning at the top of the page in big bold letters: this is not a casual holiday region. The Western Desert covers roughly 700,000 square kilometres, which is around 70 percent of Egypt's entire landmass, and yet the vast majority of foreign tourists who fly into Cairo never set foot on any of its sand. They go to the Pyramids, they go to Luxor, they go to a Red Sea resort, and they leave. Meanwhile, the real magic of this country is sitting quietly out west in five chained oases (Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga), the unreal chalk landscape of the White Desert National Park, and the Berber-Amazigh culture of Siwa town, which sits only 80 kilomet...