The gateway is Atar, the regional hub where most journeys into the Adrar begin and end. Cars run from Atar to Chinguetti for around 2,000 UM per person, but departures are loose; vehicles leave at different times each day, so arriving by 08:00 gives you the best chance of getting out the same morning. Leaving is its own small ritual. Locals heading back to Atar often need to catch onward buses to the capital, Nouakchott, so they set off very early - sometimes 05:00 or 06:00. If you mean to make the connection, be packed and ready before dawn, not after breakfast.

Once you arrive, forget vehicles. Chinguetti is small enough to cover entirely on foot, and walking is the only honest way to see it. The old town is the reason to come: indigenous Saharan architecture of reddish dry stone and mud-brick, flat-roofed houses leaning into lanes that wander toward the ancient Friday Mosque. Time your wandering for the cooler edges of the day. In the heat of midday the streets empty and the stone radiates like an oven; in the gold of late afternoon the whole town softens and comes alive.

Just beyond the houses lie some of the most photogenic dunes in the entire Sahara - clean, sculpted ridges of sand running to the horizon. You can hire a camel and a guide to carry you and your gear out into them, though be warned: this usually means walking alongside the camel rather than riding it. A four-wheel drive is another option. Honestly, the best experience may be the simplest - lacing up your boots and hiking out on your own, far enough that the town drops away and there is nothing but wind, sand, and silence. If someone offers you zrig, accept it; the traveler Michael Palin was served this mix of goat milk, water, millet, and sugar, and it remains a staple of desert hospitality.

Chinguetti has plenty of auberges, with beds going for as little as 1,500 ouguiya, and camping just outside town is popular under a sky thick with stars. But know that tourism here has thinned dramatically. As instability spread across the Sahel, visitors dwindled and many hotels were forced to close - one more pressure on a town already losing ground to the sand. The flip side is a hospitality that can take your breath away. Wander the lanes in the evening and you may well be invited to sleep at a family home, and they will likely refuse any payment. Accept such kindness graciously, and remember you are a guest in a place that has welcomed travelers for a thousand years.