Southern Tunisia tour with Star Wars cave village and lunch

This whistle-stop tour is perfect if you want to tick off southern Tunisia's desert sights in one day. You'll head for the hills and the village of Tamazret then visit Tunisia's biggest oasis plus an underground village that featured in Star Wars. Hamdi, one of our local guides, says, ‘In the mountains of the south, you'll find Matmata, a cave village where the houses are hollowed out of the rock. The sandstone is soft enough to dig easily, so first they make a large pit and then dig out caves around the edge, to form underground rooms. Each room opens onto the base of the pit, which becomes a central courtyard.'

First up, you'll make your way to the hilltop village of Tamezret, which is dotted with mudbrick houses. Here, the streets wind upwards to a whitewashed mosque, which gazes over the desert plains. We'll pause here for a coffee stop and a look around. Afterwards, you'll head for Douz, known as the ‘gateway to the Sahara'. Douz is also home to Tunisia's biggest oasis, where more half a million date palms merge into a stretch of dunes.

Take the opportunity to don traditional Bedouin robes and snap up pics of the rolling sand dunes. Then, you'll stop for lunch at a hotel before visiting the troglodyte village at Matmata. Once you see the ingenious and Insta-perfect cave dwellings hewn into the rock, you'll understand why it landed a role as Luke Skywalker's home in Star Wars.