Sometimes even great adventure seekers need to add some health benefits to an adventure quest. A desert vacation gives an awe-inspiring adventure with these extra health benefits.

Dry Air may heal respiratory infections

The lack of moisture in the air means that there’s a lot less mold in the desert. Mold can be a major cause of respiratory infections.

High Air Quality

Deserts tend to have a much lower population density than other areas, meaning that there’s less air pollution.

Reduced Time to Heal

That dry air means that when you have a wound there’s less likelihood of infection and the growth of bacteria.

Sunshine

Sunshine puts us in a good mood, just as grey skies can put a damper on how we’re feeling. The sun also provides vitamin D. Vitamin D delivers which does many things for your health simply by shining down on you. Among its wonders, it increases calcium absorption which creates stronger bones and teeth. Even better, Vitamin D also helps with better eyesight.

Lower Stress

Desert life is humming at a slower pace with lower population density that means less traffic and fewer crowds. Living in the slow lane means less stress.  Less stress is one of the greatest hidden barriers to good health.

Here are 3 desert vacations that be might right for you.

Sahara:

Explore its wonders:

This is the world’s biggest desert (not counting the Arctic and Antarctica), occupying much of North Africa including Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Algeria. Awesomely empty and hot as it is, humans have left their mark here over millennia – typical itineraries take in petroglyphs, Classical ruins, ancient villages and gloriously atmospheric oasis towns as well as the endless landscapes.

Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.

Trip information:

Morocco Desert Tours offers daily desert tours with a variety of outdoor activities.

Emily Luxton Travels offers ideas for a visit to the Sahara without an organized tour.

Marrakech Desert Tours offers day trips and activities desert tours from Marrakech.

Atacama

Explore its magical wonders

Gives you a magical experience with pink flamingoes zooming overhead. You’ll discover them on the salt flats and lakes of this desert in northern Chile renowned as the driest place on earth. The chi-chi frontier town of San Pedro de Atacama makes a fabulous base for exploring natural phenomena that also include the El Tatio geysers and the geological freak show that is the Valley of the Moon.

The 600-mile long Atacama is a bit of an enigma—some parts of it haven’t seen rain in more than 400 years, while others are covered in snow that just won’t melt. This desert is the driest place on earth with a home to a town—Calami.

Trip information:

Department of Wandering provides a first-timer’s guide to visiting the Atacama Desert Chile.

Tip Top Planning offers 10 Tips for Visiting the Atacama Desert

Joshua Tree, CA

Explore its natural wonders

In Southern California, Joshua Tree sits like an extraterrestrial outpost in a region that typically conjures images of sandy beaches and spray-tanned celebrities, and to miss it would be to miss two deserts in one sprawling, oft-empty state park. Where Colorado meets the Mojave, dunes and rock formations meet the Dr. Seuss-like trees that give the park its name. But you won’t find much luxury in the small, dusty town that surrounds the park.

Trip information:

Joshua Tree Visitors Guide 1 Day itinerary – Daytime trips

National Park Service Plan your Joshua Tree Visit

Things to know before you embark on your desert journey

Vanessa Franko, 11 things to pack for Desert Trip. The Press-Enterprise

Blackwhite Vivid list 11 Tips you need to know before going on a desert trip.

Healthy travel, 3-minute read. How to Travel to a Desert

And, you may want to pick up some novels set in the desert.

The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca Tahir Shah

In the tradition of A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, acclaimed English travel writer Tahir Shah shares a highly entertaining account of making an exotic dream come true. By turns hilarious and harrowing, here is the story of his family’s move from the gray skies of London to the sun-drenched city of Casablanca, where Islamic tradition and African folklore converge–and nothing is as easy as it seems….
Inspired by the Moroccan vacations of his childhood, Tahir Shah dreamed of making a home in that astonishing country. At age thirty-six he got his chance. Investing what money he and his wife, Rachana, had, Tahir packed up his growing family and bought Dar Khalifa, a crumbling ruin of a mansion by the sea in Casablanca that once belonged to the city’s caliph or spiritual leader.

For more desert books check out David L. Ulin’s  Building a desert reading list.