North Africa is a dream for offroad enthusiasts. Available countries today (2017) are unfortunately only Morocco and Tunisia. If you are primarily looking for desert, Algeria and Libya are the best countries, and although I have seen someone have gone to Algeria in 2016, it’s hard to recommend. Tunisia is a small country, very western oriented and safe to travel in, although there have been some attacks in recent years. The country has exciting culture and lots of sand dunes, mostly with smaller dunes that are fun to drive in. Morocco is much larger and has a much more varied nature. Green to the coast, and high mountains and desert. Both the stone and the sand desert. And exciting cities like Marrakech and Fez. I would recommend Morocco if you do not just want to race around the sand.
It may seem terrible far to drive to Morocko, but it’s actually only 500 kilometers (from Oslo). Assuming you do as I did:
Ferry Kiel – Oslo
Drive Kiel – Hamburg
Car train (Autozug) Hamburg – Bozen (Northern Italy)
Drive Bozen – Genoa
Ferry Genoa – Tangier
Read more about Morocco here: https://www.inditravel.org/nb/marokko-april-2014/
Car train/ Autozug
The Deutsche Bundesbahn runs a car train from e.g. Hamburg to many destinations in southern Europe.
The maximum allowable height of the car varies with where you go. For Hamburg – Bozen it is 207 cm, so you can not have anything on the roof. There are also requirements for roof width so check this carefully.
In 2014, I paid 2,500 NOK (230 Euro) for this stretch, including sleeping car. If you subtract cost of diesel fuel, it’s not much more expensive than the Autobahn.
Travel / organized tours
If you do not have anyone to go with or have no experience with this type of travel, I would recommend going on a “package tour” the first time. There are several English and German operators who arrange trips in these countries for those who want to use their own car. I traveled both in Tunisia and Morocco with a German organizer whom I was very pleased with. You go on your own from home and meet the other participants at a campsite in Genoa. Then you border the ferry to Tangier the following day. The tour operator is driving his own car.
If you choose a German organizer you should be able to speak a little German. All common communication; Information and radio are conducted in German. But many of the participants spoke good English, so you will find someone to chat with at the camp fire in the evening. The price in 2014 was about 10,000 NOK (900 Euro) for 3 weeks. Food, tickets and fuel come in addition.
Those I traveled with: http://www.adventure-offroad.de/
An English Organizer: http://www.4x4adventuretours.co.uk/
Ferry
There are several ferry companies between Italy and North Africa. We traveled with GNV and it was OK. Not exactly the Kiel ferry, but who would prefer that. The police are on board and necessary papers are completed before arrival. Remember to bring your car’s papers up in the cabin.
http://www.cemar.it/dest/ferries_morocco.htm
http://www.gnv.it/en/ferries-destinations/tangier-ferries-morocco.html
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