Saudi Arabia
Hisma Desert
Red sandstone towers erupt from golden sand like a landscape sculpted on another planet.
Red sandstone pillars rise from golden sand in formations that shift between geological and sculptural — some narrow at the base like mushrooms, others stacked in towers that seem to defy gravity. The colour palette is Martian: rust, amber, burnt orange against a sky bleached white by heat. Between the formations, the sand is unmarked except by wind.
The Hisma Desert occupies the northwest of Saudi Arabia's Tabuk region, extending towards the Jordanian border. The sandstone formations are the result of millions of years of erosion, with the softer layers weathered away to leave pillars, arches, and natural bridges in hard red rock. The landscape is geologically continuous with Jordan's Wadi Rum, though far less visited and with almost none of its tourism infrastructure. Guided 4x4 outings run from Tabuk, threading between the formations where navigation is still by landmark across the trackless sand.
Solo
The scale of the Hisma rewards solo exploration — hours of walking between formations that never repeat themselves.
Couple
Watching the towers turn from rust to violet at dusk, with nothing else on the horizon, is as intimate as landscape gets.
Friends
4x4 runs through the formation field — navigating by landmark, no set paths — are the adventure groups come here for.
- Red sandstone pillars and arches rise from golden sand — the landscape shifts between Martian and Earthly.
- The Hisma is geologically one landscape with Jordan's Wadi Rum — minus the crowds and the camps.
- Guided 4x4 routes weave between the formations with no set paths — navigation by landmark only.
- The silence between the formations at dawn is so deep you can hear your own heartbeat.
Lunch beneath a sandstone arch's shade — flatbread, labneh and sweet tea brewed over a twig fire by the guides.
Dates and cardamom coffee as the towers turn violet at dusk — the desert's own dessert.
Carretera Austral
Chile
Ferries and gravel carry Route 7 through more than 1,200 kilometres of green Patagonia.
Dunas de Tatón
Argentina
Pale dunes surge against dark Andean foothills where the sand seems to climb the mountains.
Lençóis Maranhenses
Brazil
Thousands of rain-filled lagoons between white dunes stretching to the horizon like another planet.
Knoydart Peninsula
Scotland
No road reaches this peninsula — you arrive by boat or not at all.
Jabal Aja
Saudi Arabia
Red granite peaks rising from the desert like frozen flames, hiding palm-filled clefts and springs.
Edge of the World
Saudi Arabia
A cliff edge where the land simply stops and flat desert stretches to infinity.
Sha'ib Luha
Saudi Arabia
Seasonal waterfalls carving pools into red desert rock, an hour from Riyadh's glass skyline.
Jeddah Al-Balad
Saudi Arabia
Coral-stone towers with carved wooden balconies leaning over spice-scented alleys.