Holidays with nomadic tribes and communities
A caravan holiday with a difference: here’s how our holidays spend time in nomadic communities.
A goat hair tent is a thing of beauty. Spun from their long, black hair, it is a canvas with fantastic properties. The fabric heats up in the sun and draws cool air into the tent in warm weather. Its threads swell and tighten in rain and snow – making a more robust cover when it is inclement. It is, by all accounts, a perfect shelter: as testament, note that its use is widespread to the point of universality across the world’s arid regions.
In autumn, the Ait Atta, one of Morocco’s last nomadic tribes, move their livestock again. They journey from the central High Atlas south to the Saghro Massif, just before the Sahara.
They take with them camels, dogs, and herds of sheep and goats – and, of course, tents. They can also – under carefully managed circumstances – take tourists. Our holidays walking with the Ait Atta tribe accompany them on their transhumance trek. Expect days of walking over rocky mountain terrain. In the evenings, after tending to the livestock, there’s time to sit by the fire, enjoy couscous scooped from a communal bowl and perhaps some music.
A goat hair tent is a thing of beauty. Spun from their long, black hair, it is a canvas with fantastic properties. The fabric heats up in the sun and draws cool air into the tent in warm weather. Its threads swell and tighten in rain and snow – making a more robust cover when it is inclement. It is, by all accounts, a perfect shelter: as testament, note that its use is widespread to the point of universality across the world’s arid regions.
In autumn, the Ait Atta, one of Morocco’s last nomadic tribes, move their livestock again. They journey from the central High Atlas south to the Saghro Massif, just before the Sahara.
They take with them camels, dogs, and herds of sheep and goats – and, of course, tents. They can also – under carefully managed circumstances – take tourists. Our holidays walking with the Ait Atta tribe accompany them on their transhumance trek. Expect days of walking over rocky mountain terrain. In the evenings, after tending to the livestock, there’s time to sit by the fire, enjoy couscous scooped from a communal bowl and perhaps some music.
It takes a village to put up a ger. Everyone grabs a pole, then whack the felt top on… boom! You’ve got a ger up in 20 minutes!![]()
– Sam McManus, from our partner YellowWood Adventures
Spending time with nomadic tribes and communities
In our search for beautiful views and amazing landscapes, our holidays reach places that cannot support large populations of people: high mountain pastures that spend half the year under snow; dry lands where the grazing moves with the rain. Instead of permanent settlements, you’ll often find nomadic communities.
Nomadic ways of life are found all over the world – from the Sámi reindeer herders in Lapland to the Tsaatan (Dukha) reindeer herders found in the northernmost province of Mongolia; from Bedouin people in Jordan and Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara to Qashqai people in Iran; from Kyrgyzstan communities moving herds on horseback to Changpa nomads tending yak and pashmina goats in Ladakh to Romani, Roma and Irish Traveller communities in Europe.
For many nomadic communities, nomadic life is centred around tending to livestock. The word nomad comes from the Greek nomus, meaning pasture, and nomads move with the seasons to find the safest grazing places for their herds – their livelihoods. Semi-nomadic people move less frequently, generally with the seasons, and often cultivate crops at their seasonal settlements.
“Central Asia has unforgiving seasons – if you don’t move you won’t survive,” says Sam McManus, founder of our partner YellowWood Adventures, who run some of our trips there. “Nomadic communities have to move. I think people forget that.” Often, Sam notes, it takes travellers living alongside these nomadic hosts to fully understand what it means. “They see the community penning their cows in at night, and saying, ‘the grass is low – we are going to have to move soon’.” Only then does the full import of the lifestyle finally hit.
Often you are staying with a nomadic community because this is the best and only option for travel in that region: “If you’re seeing snow leopards you’re in the middle of nowhere,” says Sam. You are relying on nomadic communities for shelter; they, in turn, benefit from the supplementary income. It takes longstanding relationships between nomadic communities and tour operators to ensure that needs of traveller and community are reconciled and that the holiday is mutually beneficial.
Spending time with nomadic people can be an example of community-based tourism – albeit one where the community ‘base’ spans hundreds of kilometres. It can be an important source of additional income. “I see sustainable tourism as a lifeline that helps to keep these cultures going,” says Sam. “It’s a tough and challenging way of life living with the elements. If I was a young reindeer herder – it would be tempting to pack it in and move to the city.”
Some communities are facing rising costs associated with maintaining their herds. Hosting travellers can also be a way to make the wider world aware of issues in the nomadic communities – Sámi reindeer herders, for example, invite travellers to witness the annual reindeer migration, not just to provide additional income, but to make people aware of the increasingly difficult move, as climate change affects the grazing land.
Nomadic ways of life are found all over the world – from the Sámi reindeer herders in Lapland to the Tsaatan (Dukha) reindeer herders found in the northernmost province of Mongolia; from Bedouin people in Jordan and Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara to Qashqai people in Iran; from Kyrgyzstan communities moving herds on horseback to Changpa nomads tending yak and pashmina goats in Ladakh to Romani, Roma and Irish Traveller communities in Europe.
For many nomadic communities, nomadic life is centred around tending to livestock. The word nomad comes from the Greek nomus, meaning pasture, and nomads move with the seasons to find the safest grazing places for their herds – their livelihoods. Semi-nomadic people move less frequently, generally with the seasons, and often cultivate crops at their seasonal settlements.
“Central Asia has unforgiving seasons – if you don’t move you won’t survive,” says Sam McManus, founder of our partner YellowWood Adventures, who run some of our trips there. “Nomadic communities have to move. I think people forget that.” Often, Sam notes, it takes travellers living alongside these nomadic hosts to fully understand what it means. “They see the community penning their cows in at night, and saying, ‘the grass is low – we are going to have to move soon’.” Only then does the full import of the lifestyle finally hit.
Often you are staying with a nomadic community because this is the best and only option for travel in that region: “If you’re seeing snow leopards you’re in the middle of nowhere,” says Sam. You are relying on nomadic communities for shelter; they, in turn, benefit from the supplementary income. It takes longstanding relationships between nomadic communities and tour operators to ensure that needs of traveller and community are reconciled and that the holiday is mutually beneficial.
Spending time with nomadic people can be an example of community-based tourism – albeit one where the community ‘base’ spans hundreds of kilometres. It can be an important source of additional income. “I see sustainable tourism as a lifeline that helps to keep these cultures going,” says Sam. “It’s a tough and challenging way of life living with the elements. If I was a young reindeer herder – it would be tempting to pack it in and move to the city.”
Some communities are facing rising costs associated with maintaining their herds. Hosting travellers can also be a way to make the wider world aware of issues in the nomadic communities – Sámi reindeer herders, for example, invite travellers to witness the annual reindeer migration, not just to provide additional income, but to make people aware of the increasingly difficult move, as climate change affects the grazing land.
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Walking with nomads & other holidays
How to travel and stay with nomadic communities on our holidays:
Walk with the Ait Atta, the last remaining nomadic tribe in Morocco. Our eight day small group trip joins them on their migration down from the High Atlas into new grazing lands.
Stay with Tsaatan (Dukha) reindeer herders in Mongolia and learn how to ride a reindeer. Our small group trip goes into the wilderness, staying in traditional Tsaatan teepees and ger camps.
Ride between nomadic communities in Kyrgyzstan using their own routes. Our small group tour is hosted in yurts by local nomadic families, and there’s a chance to watch eagle hunting demonstrations.
Be hosted by Sahrawi people in Western Sahara on the way to wildlife watching in the desert. You’ll be on safari in Sahrawi grazing lands, and if you cross paths, you’re likely to stop and speak – and you may get invaluable tracking information.
Walk the Bedouin Trail through Jordan, led by a guide from the community who knows it well. This trail is 1,200km long in total but you can just stick to a section. The trail was created, and remains maintained by, the Bedouin community.
Walk with the Ait Atta, the last remaining nomadic tribe in Morocco. Our eight day small group trip joins them on their migration down from the High Atlas into new grazing lands.
Stay with Tsaatan (Dukha) reindeer herders in Mongolia and learn how to ride a reindeer. Our small group trip goes into the wilderness, staying in traditional Tsaatan teepees and ger camps.
Ride between nomadic communities in Kyrgyzstan using their own routes. Our small group tour is hosted in yurts by local nomadic families, and there’s a chance to watch eagle hunting demonstrations.
Be hosted by Sahrawi people in Western Sahara on the way to wildlife watching in the desert. You’ll be on safari in Sahrawi grazing lands, and if you cross paths, you’re likely to stop and speak – and you may get invaluable tracking information.
Walk the Bedouin Trail through Jordan, led by a guide from the community who knows it well. This trail is 1,200km long in total but you can just stick to a section. The trail was created, and remains maintained by, the Bedouin community.
A dying art
Nomadic communities are in decline all over the world. Reindeer herders now represent less than 10 percent of the Sámi population. Climate change is leading to a pattern of freeze-thawing that turns snow to ice and makes it impossible for reindeer to dig down to pasture. Reindeer are increasingly trucked at cost, rather than ‘driven’ the traditional way.
In Mongolia, nomads are a decreasing proportion of a society, despite receiving the most tourist attention. In Iran, semi nomadic Qashqai have been subject to assimilation programmes that attempt to settle the communities in one place. Others face persecution and abuse.
Sam notes that Kazakhstan has lost a lot of its nomadic communities. “The USSR tried to stamp out nomadic cultural heritage,” he says. “Kazakhstan flipped from communism to capitalism, has much more modern cities, a stronger economy, more mining – and through that it has lost a lot of that heritage.” In the early 20th century, Kazakhstan lost 80 percent of its livestock under Soviet collectivisation programmes which centralised agricultural production.
“Although a much smaller country than Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan has managed to retain a lot more of its nomadic heritage. You go to Tien Shan mountains and you’ll find that there are people who still grow up in the saddle there,” says Sam. Today, Kyrgyzstan is sometimes called ‘land of the nomads’. It was the original host country of the World Nomad Games, launched in 2014.
In Mongolia, nomads are a decreasing proportion of a society, despite receiving the most tourist attention. In Iran, semi nomadic Qashqai have been subject to assimilation programmes that attempt to settle the communities in one place. Others face persecution and abuse.
Sam notes that Kazakhstan has lost a lot of its nomadic communities. “The USSR tried to stamp out nomadic cultural heritage,” he says. “Kazakhstan flipped from communism to capitalism, has much more modern cities, a stronger economy, more mining – and through that it has lost a lot of that heritage.” In the early 20th century, Kazakhstan lost 80 percent of its livestock under Soviet collectivisation programmes which centralised agricultural production.
“Although a much smaller country than Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan has managed to retain a lot more of its nomadic heritage. You go to Tien Shan mountains and you’ll find that there are people who still grow up in the saddle there,” says Sam. Today, Kyrgyzstan is sometimes called ‘land of the nomads’. It was the original host country of the World Nomad Games, launched in 2014.
Modern nomads
On the banks of the Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan Mountains, eagle hunters display golden eagles with two-metre wingspans to fascinated tourists: the practice lives on despite challenges, and tourism interest helps keep it alive.
Nomadic lifestyles continue to thrive despite the threats of modernity and climate change; indeed survival in hostile environments is in-built to the lifestyle. Communities are practising a way of life that has outlasted whole civilisations. The community assimilates what suits: solar power, plastics, smart phones – all useful tech that has been folded into nomadic life. Sam tells us about visiting a nomadic family in Mongolia who now host their travellers. “I left my portable solar charger there,” he says. He considered it was missing for good, but when he returned to see the family he found they had kept it for him – and that the charger had proved really useful. He now brings solar chargers with him when he visits.
Nomadic hosts are citizens of the world, who have often entertained visiting tourists for a long time. You won’t be the first to visit, nor will you be unveiling an ‘undiscovered’ way of life. But you might discover something about your own way of life. Or, at the very least, appreciate the benefits of a good tent.
Nomadic lifestyles continue to thrive despite the threats of modernity and climate change; indeed survival in hostile environments is in-built to the lifestyle. Communities are practising a way of life that has outlasted whole civilisations. The community assimilates what suits: solar power, plastics, smart phones – all useful tech that has been folded into nomadic life. Sam tells us about visiting a nomadic family in Mongolia who now host their travellers. “I left my portable solar charger there,” he says. He considered it was missing for good, but when he returned to see the family he found they had kept it for him – and that the charger had proved really useful. He now brings solar chargers with him when he visits.
Nomadic hosts are citizens of the world, who have often entertained visiting tourists for a long time. You won’t be the first to visit, nor will you be unveiling an ‘undiscovered’ way of life. But you might discover something about your own way of life. Or, at the very least, appreciate the benefits of a good tent.
What do our holidays entail?
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The crucial point is that the whole community should benefit from tourism income.
Trips that directly benefit the villages, cooperatives and collectives in which they're set.
