The dunes everybody means
Sam Sand Dunes, and what it is actually like
- 40 km west of Jaisalmer
- No entry fee
- Sunset is the event
Sam is the strip of dune everybody has seen a photograph of, and for one hour a day it earns it. It is also the most heavily worked piece of sand in Rajasthan, which is worth knowing before you plan an evening around it. This page is what is actually there, what it costs if you turn up on your own, and why our own camp is eleven kilometres further north.
What is out there
Forty kilometres west, at the edge of the national park.
Sam Sand Dunes sits about 40 km west of Jaisalmer on the Sam road, at the edge of the Desert National Park. The drive is an hour, less if the road is empty. The dunes themselves are the tallest and cleanest near the city — a genuine dune field rather than the scrub-and-sand you get closer in, which is why every operator in Jaisalmer points at it.
There is no entry fee. Sam is not a ticketed attraction and nobody can charge you to walk onto the sand. What you pay for is a camel, a jeep, a bed or a plate of food, and all four are sold to you individually by whoever reaches you first.
From roughly four in the afternoon the strip fills: coaches, jeeps, camel strings, loudspeakers and a row of camps that runs along the ridge. Between October and March, which is when the weather is worth having, that is a few hundred people watching the same sunset from the same half kilometre.
When to be there
Four to seven, and nothing before it.
The reason to be at Sam is the last hour of light. Get there by four and the sand goes yellow, then gold, then a deep red, and the ridge lines separate out in a way that no photograph taken at noon has ever managed. By seven it is over and the buses start moving.
Sunrise is the other honest answer and almost nobody takes it. The light is as good, the sand has been re-cut by the night wind, and there is no one on it. If you are staying out overnight anywhere near Sam, the morning is the half of the trip you will remember.
Do not plan a midday visit. Between eleven and three there is nothing to see but glare, the sand is too hot to walk barefoot, and every camel man is asleep in the shade.
February brings the Desert Festival to Sam — camel races, folk stages and several thousand more people. Wonderful if that is what you came for, unbearable if you wanted an empty dune.
If you turn up alone
Nothing to enter, and then everything separately.
These are the street rates at Sam. We do not set them, we do not take a cut of them, and they are negotiated on the spot — the first number you are quoted is not the number. They are here so you can tell a fair ask from an opportunistic one.
| At Sam, on the day | Published street rate |
|---|---|
| Walking onto the dunes | Free |
| Camel ride, short | from ₹400 |
| Jeep safari / dune bashing | from ₹1,000 |
| A night at a camp on the strip | ₹1,500 – ₹5,000 |
| Dinner and the folk programme | usually inside the camp rate, sometimes not |
The thing to watch is the last row. A camp quoting ₹1,500 a head is frequently quoting the bed, and the jeep, the camel, the programme and dinner arrive as four more numbers after you have committed. That is the single most common complaint in Jaisalmer and it is why our own prices are written the way they are.
The honest bit
We are not at Sam, and that is deliberate.
Our camp is at Siala and Damia, about eleven kilometres north of the Sam strip and roughly 40 km out of Jaisalmer. It is the same desert and the same drive time. What it does not have is the row of camps, the coach park and the loudspeakers, because the day-tour route does not come this way.
The trade is real and it cuts both ways. At Sam you get the biggest dunes, a choice of forty camps, other people, and something happening at every hour. Out at Siala there is a fire, your group, and the sky, and if you wanted a bar and a DJ next door you have made the wrong booking.
If you specifically want to stand on the Sam dunes, say so when you write to us. It is twenty minutes from the camp and we will run you over for the sunset. We would just rather you slept somewhere quieter afterwards.
The third option nobody mentions is Khuri, about 45 km south-west. Smaller dunes, a real village, far fewer people. If Sam sounds like too much and our camp sounds too far, Khuri is the answer and we will happily tell you so.
Deciding
Go to Sam if, and don’t if.
Sam is right for you if
- You have one evening in Jaisalmer and want the postcard
- You want the biggest dunes within an hour of the city
- You like a bit of noise — music, crowds, things happening
- You are travelling with people who want a choice of camps and restaurants
- You are here in February for the Desert Festival
Look further out if
- You came for quiet and would resent a loudspeaker
- You want to sleep in the open rather than in a marquee
- You would rather one fixed price than five separate ones
- You want a sunrise with nobody else in it
- You are photographing the desert and need clean sand
What we run
Three ways to sleep out there.
Every one of these is picked up in Jaisalmer, goes out about 40 km, and comes back the next morning. The price on the card is the price for one person with everything in it.
Good to know
The things people ask.
Is there an entry fee for Sam Sand Dunes?
No. The dunes are open sand and nobody can charge you to stand on them. You pay only for a camel, a jeep, food or a bed, and each of those is a separate negotiation with whoever is selling it.
How far is Sam Sand Dunes from Jaisalmer?
About 40 km west, roughly an hour by road. Our camp at Siala and Damia is a similar distance out of the city but around eleven kilometres north of the Sam strip.
What is the best time to visit Sam Sand Dunes?
Be on the sand by four in the afternoon and stay until seven. Sunrise is just as good and almost empty. Avoid the middle of the day — there is glare and nothing else. Season-wise, October to March; April to June is genuinely too hot.
Can I do Sam Sand Dunes in one evening without staying overnight?
Yes. A car out at three, the sunset, dinner and a folk programme, and back in Jaisalmer by half past ten is a normal evening and it is what our Sunset Cultural trip does. You miss the sunrise, which is the half most people say they would keep.
Do your trips go to Sam Sand Dunes?
Our camps are north of it, at Siala and Damia, so a night with us is not a night at Sam. If you want to see the Sam dunes as well, tell us when you write and we will drive you over for the sunset — it is twenty minutes away.
Is Sam or Khuri better?
Sam for big dunes, choice and atmosphere; Khuri for quiet, smaller dunes and village life. Neither is wrong. If you want the quiet without going as far south as Khuri, that is the gap our camp sits in.
If that helped
Ask us the thing this page didn’t answer.
A person reads these and replies the same day, in writing, with the price in the message. Nothing is taken online and no card details are collected.
4.8on Google, at the campStill deciding
Tell us who’s coming.
How many of you, which nights, and whether anyone needs a washroom a few steps away rather than a dune. We will tell you which trip actually suits you, including when the answer is none of them.