After arrival into Tripoli International airport you will have a private transfer to your hotel in the city centre (approx. 30 mins). After a short break we will take you on a city tour of Tripoli “Oea” (the Medina, souk, Islamic architecture, and the famous triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius).

This is your opportunity to meet your guide/escort for the whole tour and to ask many of the questions you may have had ready about this fascinating and, until recently, relatively unknown country (to "Westerners").

Then dinner in the city at the Al Anthar Restaurant. This is an excellent restaurant built into the grounds surrounding the arch of Marcus Aurelius (see picture >>>).

Breakfast is followed by departure to Leptis Magna, one of the best-preserved cities of antiquity. It was founded by Phoenician merchants around the beginning of the first millennium BC. The great Roman Emperor Severus born in Leptis in 145 AD turned his attention to his native city making substantial changes which developed the city on such a grand scale.

The visit starts with the Arch of Septimius Severus standing at the beginning of the main north-south street, the Cardo Maximus, where this intersects the east west street, the Decumanus Maximus. Dedicated to Severus and built in 203 AD to celebrate the arrival of the great Emperor. Onwards to the Palestra - a place for sports and games - which is parallel to the Baths of Hadrian built in 126-127 AD. We continue to the Nymphaeum and the Street of Colonnades, built under Severus and dedicated to the nymphs, it is a semi-circular construction containing a pool and fountain. We then reach the Severus Forum and the adjoining Basilica which are the major extant large-scale buildings in Leptis. The Harbour, which was originally the natural mouth of the Leptis Valley, is followed by the Old Forum which dates to the beginning of the Imperial Era. The final stop in the morning tour is the theatre.

A stop for lunch is certainly required at this point (there is a lovely restaurant very close to the site for a relaxing air-conditioned break) before continuing the visit with the Museum and finally to the Amphitheatre - built in the period of Nero around the year 56 AD on a natural slope of soft sandstone. It was renovated and enlarged in the 2nd century AD under Severus. Near the Amphitheatre was a small temple of the famous Artemis, or Diana, of Ephesus in Western Asia.

You may well have the whole place almost to yourselves; this is an incredible experience in today's mass tourism and one more reason why this may well be the best site of antiquity you will ever visit. On the way back a significant stop at the Charming Villa Sileen may be possible, depending upon ongoing renovation works.

Drive to Tripoli for dinner at Tripolis Restaurant and overnight at your hotel.

After an early breakfast we will take the road to the south, lunch on the way, to Gasr El Haj to see the incredible storage buildings of the Tuaregs. Then drive through the Nafusa mountains to Nalut where we will visit the old town and the fortress. The road up to Nalut zig-zagging up the mountain-side is an experience in itself and the views across the open country are stunning. The old village of Nalut includes one of the oldest mosques in Libya, a storage fortress of incredible "organic" construction and a reconstructed olive press.

Looking at the old town from down below Nalut seems as if it were built on the roof of the world. Its strategic position was chosen by the Turks as a defence against the invasion (1850), of the Arabs. Nalut‘s town centre has moved three times over a period of four centuries higher and higher up the plateau where today the modern town can be found. What seems to be a castle (the Ksar), is in fact a reinforced granary, where the people of Nalut kept all their food stuff in a safe and secure place when they left the town to take their cattle to graze and during their harvest time when they transferred themselves to the caves built in the rock face.

By late afternoon we will continue our drive south into the Sahara to arrive at Ghadames where you will have dinner and spend the night at your hotel.

A whole day in the "Pearl of the Desert", Ghadames.

After breakfast you will meet your local guide for the day and begin with a visit to the Ghadames museum, followed by a stroll into the old city. This is a fascinating place, even more so when you learn that the last inhabitants moved out only in 1982.

Discover the Saharan architecture through the old town and its labyrinth of little streets and passages. There is a freshness and beauty about the place and we will have lunch during our visit of the Medina. The Medina Museum is part of the UNESCO heritage site.

In the afternoon you will have the opportunity to take a trip into the desert, towards the Tunisian border. There is the incredible sight of a lake (for swimming) followed by a visit to the castle of Rass el Ghool which was defended by the people of Ghadames at the time of the Isalmic conquest of the region. Once you have returned from the summit of the castle it is time to get over to the dunes for terrific views at sunset.

After breakfast we will return towards Tripoli; we will drive through Kabaw and then Ghariane to see the amazing pottery factories. Kabaw holds what is left of an ancient Berber Granary. The granary is situated on the western side of the old town which is today uninhabited. One side wall of the granary is in ruins however the structure is fascinating with the actual container space still intact of where the grain and cereals were kept. In its time Kabaw was an important centre for the Berber resistance against the Arabs.   

Lunch will be en route and dinner at the Essaa Restaurant in Tripoli.

After breakfast, departure to Sabratha which was selected as an Emporium, or trading post, by the Phoenician merchant Sabratha and holds one of the most magnificent and interesting Roman Theatres and one of the most splendid mosaics of the Byzantine period.

Sabratha as we see it nowadays is first and foremost a creation of the Roman genius for building cities. The Romans developed the commercial potential of Sabratha by using the port as an outlet for a trade route running through Ghadames to Central Africa. Ivory, slaves and wild animals constituted the bulk of this traffic. Our visit will include the Mausoleum of Bes, discovered by the Italian Antonio di Vita as late as 1962 and dating back to the 2nd Century BC, to the South Forum Temple dating to 160 AD, to the Basilica of Apoleius known as the Forum Basilica transformed into a Christian church, continuing with the Forum which was the center of the social life, the Antonine Temple built in 90- 95 AD and dedicated to the joint Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Touring the Site we also include the Basilica of Justinian, the Curia, the Baths, the Temple of Isis; sunrise and sunset at Sabratha are solitary and bewitching.

Without watchmen, without tourists, the city breathes deeply and one respects the stillness, finishing with the might of Sabratha’s theatre, the most notable Roman building of Sabratha dated to 175-200 AD; facing the semi-circular triple-tiered auditorium stands the great scaenae frons, 25 m high and composed of 108 Corinthian columns arranged in three storey which follow the gentle curves of the free apses that contain the three doorways familiar from Roman Theatres all over the Empire.

Transfer to Tripoli international airport to have a safe flight back home or back to Tripoli for an extra night.

Extra night and time in Tripoli recommended if your schedule allows. A visit to the City Museum is an excellent suggestion with some time in the souks for some last minute and pretty much hassle-free shopping.

Please request 6 or 7 day itinerary at the time of booking.