Chenini and Douiret can be tricky to reach without a car, however it is possible to visit both using local public transport. If you’re planning to do it yourself like us, keep reading for my insider travel tips and advice. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

To get to Chenini and Douiret you first need to travel to Tataouine, this is the largest nearby town and the transit hub for local louages to Douiret and Chenini. The local louages in Tataouine do not run from the main inter-city louage station to the north of town. Instead they can be found parked up on a street near the centre of Tataouine at the coordinates 32.927712, 10.447503. From here louages run to both Chenini and Douiret; just ask the drivers of the parked louages and they will point you to the correct vehicle. The cost for the local louage is just a couple of dinar.

While louages run from Tataouine to both Chenini and Douiret, there isn’t a direct louage or taxi service between Chenini and Douiret. In order to get from Chenini to Douiret or vice-versa you will need to transit by louage through Tataouine i.e. go from Chenini to Tataouine and then take another louage from Tataouine to Douiret. I can’t tell you how often the louage from Tataouine leaves for Douiret as we didn’t choose this option, but the louage from Tataouine to Chenini seemed to leave quite frequently (i.e. every hour or so).

The other, more adventurous option for getting between the two villages is to trek between Chenini and Douiret, which is what we did. Just make sure that you leave enough time to get back if you need to!

Louages tend to run more frequently in the mornings. DO NOT rely on getting a louage from Douiret back to Tataouine after 2pm. There aren’t any, we found this out the hard way! If you are trekking from Chenini as we did and are worried about making it back in time, it might be best to pre-book a room at one of the troglodyte hotels in Douiret just so you know you’ve got somewhere to stay. Don’t get stuck in Douiret – we knocked on the door of a troglodyte hotel in Douiret but no one was there so don’t count on help from them if you haven’t pre-booked.

Of the two villages, Chenini has far more infrastructure. There are a couple of dining options in Chenini; Mabrouk Restaurant, Kenza (a cave hotel that also serves food) and a cafe at the top of the hill which offers great panoramic views over the abandoned settlement of old Chenini, the neighbouring white mosque and valley below.

There are no real cafes or restaurants in Douiret (either the ancient citadel or the new town), so make sure to bring your own snacks and water if you aren’t staying there. If you do book a troglodyte hotel, this will likely be able to provide meals.

You probably won’t be able to hitch-hike from Douiret to Chenini as there is very little traffic on the road between the towns. 

As mentioned, you can trek through the desert landscape between Chenini and Douiret, returning by the same trail if you set off early enough. Simply head for the Mosque of the Seven Sleepers and catch the trail from there. A friendly guide at the Mosque gave instructions on how to get to Douiret but we totally lost the trail and ended up walking as the crow flies, up and down endless rocky hills towards Douiret. We definitely picked the more challenging route but we did eventually join back up with the trail near Douiret. Maybe we were just unlucky and took a wrong turn somewhere. Make sure you have a device with Google Maps/GPS if attempting the trek, without this we would’ve been completely lost and stranded in the desert.

When trekking from Chenini to Douiret, the most important advice I can give is that you need to leave Chenini early in the morning in order to reach Douiret (this should take between 2-3 hours), have a look around (approx. 1 hour) and then retrace your steps back to Chenini, taking another 2-3 hours (depending on how lost you get). We royally messed up as we didn’t reach Douiret until 2pm and by the time we’d looked around it was too late to walk back to Chenini before sunset. We had to rely on a paying a friendly local who took pity on us and drove us back to Chenini – this was a stroke of luck and definitely not something I would count on so make sure you plan thoroughly and leave yourself enough time before attempting the trek!

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