I’ve photographed in 41 different countries and visited all seven continents—so I know that, when it comes to eloping, not all deserts are equal. For a climate type that takes up roughly 20% of the Earth’s surface, you have to know what you’re looking for when it comes to finding the perfect one to get married in! It’s all about finding unique landscapes that excite you that you can also safely explore.
To me, it’s hard to beat that standing-on-a-giant-geode feeling you get with the sparkling salt in the Bonneville Salt Flats. Between the mountains rising up right behind it and the vast expanses of land, you can get some seriously cool photos here that you can’t get anywhere else on Earth.
The best thing about desert locations though is that they’re as varied and complex as the Earth itself… so no matter what you’re looking for in your perfect desert elopement locale, you’ll likely be able to find it! Whether you’re seeking rock formations that will leave you totally in awe, cliffs over canyons for your first dance, the contrast of bright red rock and clear blue sky, or dunes that you can enjoy running, sledding, or ATVing down, I’ve got you. I’ve listed more of my ultimate favorites below!
(I’ve also created a searchable map for locations all over the world! Click here to be taken directly to it and search by activity, season, and more.)
Atacama Desert, Chile
If your dream elopement is on Mars, this is the closest you’re going to get to the red planet here on Earth. Seriously—NASA tests tools for Mars here! The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on the planet and packed with bright red rocks, canyons, and sands that will have you literally thinking you’ve exited the atmosphere. If you find yourself missing water, you can also head to Lagunas Escondidas de Baltinache for a salty lagoon perfect for floating. Pro tip: if you’re looking for stargazing, you’ll want to visit in the middle of the year during this hemisphere’s coldest months for the clearest skies. This is a desert at altitude, meaning things can get pretty cold! San Pedro is one of the biggest towns here and gives you a great view of the painted mountains in the middle distance.
Best for: Desert and Sand Dunes
Best months to get married here: Year Round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Jeep/4×4, Camping, Stargazing
Mojave Desert, California
The Mojave manages to somehow contain part of Joshua Tree, all of Las Vegas and Death Valley, and still have a ton of crazy cool, totally unique things left to discover! Like the Mojave National Preserve, where you can ride across the earth on 4WD or on horseback and explore lava tubes. Or Antelope Valley, which crowds with wildflowers every spring. Sand dunes, the Sierra Nevadas, and wild tortoises all make this an incredibly special place. As a bonus, due to how vast and accessible this desert is, you likely won’t have any trouble finding a spot to be alone in.
Best for: Desert
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Stargazing
Arches National Park, Utah
Yes, this park can get pretty crowded in the summer—which is why, like so many deserts, it’s a great shoulder season pick. Visit in spring or fall for way reduced crowds and the chance to get some of these super iconic rock formations totally to yourself. Towering arches, yes, but also huge red rock cliffs, sheer stone faces, and ribbons of color throughout. You can visit during sunset when the whole park glows and the colors of the desert really come to life. Then stick around after dark to see the Milky Way in an International Dark Sky Park.
Best for: Desert, Canyon and Arches
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Camping, Stargazing, Hot Air Balloon
The Sahara Desert, Morocco
As the world’s largest non-polar desert, the Sahara is a pretty iconic choice for a desert elopement. This is a huge area (the size of the entire lower 48) so it’s a good idea to do some research beforehand on what part of it you may want to elope in! Morocco is an easy place to plan excursions into the desert from, as it encompasses nearly half the country. There are so many options for fun ways to explore this vast place—from luxury camps and camel rides to taking advantage of the dunes on sandboards, bikes, and 4X4s. Don’t skip sunsets or stargazing opportunities while you’re here.
Best for: Desert, Sand Dunes
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Camel riding, 4×4/Jeep, Hiking, Stargazing, Camping
Tabernas Desert, Spain
It may seem counterintuitive, but if you want to feel like you’re getting married in a 1960’s American Western film, you’ll have to go to Europe. The Tabernas desert is Europe’s only desert and, in addition to traditional desert scenery, you can also find a handful of old sets that you can explore that were built for spaghetti western films! As far as scenery goes, you can expect huge white sandstone mountains, palm trees, and even an 11th century castle.
Best for: Desert, Castle and Mountains
Best months to get married here: March to October
My favorite activities to do here: Jeep/4×4, Hiking
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
Every time I’m here, I want to spend all day staring at the ground. When the sunlight hits the salt flats, it literally sparkles. Picture saying your vows on essentially what is a GIANT geode! This place is so huge and flat that it actually starts to feel otherworldly and totally surreal. What makes this extra great for an elopement is that it’s easy to get privacy here… just drive in any direction and, before you know it, you’ll have a corner all to yourself. And as a bonus, this is a fantastic place to get interesting and creative photos of you and your spouse that aren’t possible anywhere else! It’s a super unique spot that will surpass your expectations.
Best for: Salt Flats and Mountains
Best months to get married here: March to October
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Jeep/4×4
Thar Desert, India
The Thar Desert sits on the border of India and Pakistan and is the most densely populated in the world. That should tell you two things: 1. This is a seriously world-class desert and 2. There’s not going to be a shortage of things to do here. Ride camels through the sands, drive 4X4’s up dunes, or attend the yearly Desert Festival held here. The best time to visit here is over the winter, as spring through fall can bring soaring temperatures that will keep you inside.
Best for: Desert and Sand Dunes
Best months to get married here: November to April
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Jeep/4×4, Camel riding
Wadi Rum Protected Area, Jordan
The Wadi Rum Protected Area is a beautiful desert setting that’s deeply steeped in human history. This site encompasses nearly 200,000 acres, so the best way by far to see as much of the bright red sand, cliffs, and amazing rock formations is on a 4X4 tour! Arrange for a sunset tour to get the highlights in golden light or take a full-day outing to see as much as possible while you’re there. Having a local guide take you around not only lets you sit back and enjoy the sights, it also gives you key insights to historic spots that you wouldn’t hear otherwise! Some of the tours even include a Bedouin tea or lunch along the way for a pit stop in some unreal scenery.
Best for: Desert and Rocks
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hot Air Ballooning, Stargazing, 4×4/Jeep, Hiking
Joshua Tree National Park, California
This is a great pick for desert lovers who want to prominently feature the wild plants of the biome in their elopement photos. The silhouettes of these trees are especially beautiful at sunset and moonrise, when they stand out against the super vibrant sky and frame anyone who’s standing in them perfectly. This is also a rock climbing haven, so it’s a great blend if you and your partner love to climb! The rocks here are super interesting and unique—there’s even one shaped like a heart. Ultimately the vibe here is pure SoCal and totally serene.
Best for: Desert, Mountains and Forest
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Camping, Rock Climbing, Stargazing
Uyuni Salt Flat, Bolivia
Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat on Earth—but honestly, the views feel like something off planet! So much so that even Star Wars has filmed here. This desert landscape seems to stretch on infinitely in all directions, forming a unending sea of cracked, white sand. This spot is naturally ethereal all the time for desert lovers, but it attracts a fair amount of visitors over the late winter, when the flats flood and form a perfect mirror image of whatever is above it onto the water. It’s worth hiring a 4X4 guide to take you around the area! At night, bundle up and head out for a look at the incredible stars over the pan.
Best for: Salt Flats and Desert
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Jeep/4×4, Stargazing
Saguaro National Park, Arizona
If what you want more than anything out of your desert elopement are those super quintessential, exactly-like-I-pictured-it moments, Saguaro is your park. These cacti are true pillars of the desert ecosystem, towering up to 60 feet tall and hundreds of years old. They make the best witnesses to any union. The park is split into two halves with the city of Tucson in the middle, making it easy to get to, stay near, and traverse everything this park has to offer. For a taste of the American Southwest that has a little bit of everything, this is a stellar option.
Best for: Desert and Forest
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Camping, Stargazing
Namib Desert & Sandwich Harbour, Nambia
For desert enjoyment that comes with incredible 4X4 opportunities, you’re going to want to check out the Sandwich Harbour area of the Namib Desert. Sandwich Harbour is super unique in that it is only accessible with a 4X4 vehicle and connects the Namib Desert directly to the sea, so you can have the ocean in front of you and red sands at your back. This stretch is also in a national park, so you have a bit of extra privacy and nature protection, which makes this spot feel super special.
Best for: Dunes, Desert, Coast and Beach
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Jeep/4×4, Hiking
Death Valley National Park, California
Far from its name, Death Valley is actually brimming with flora, fauna, and colors if you know when and where to look. In fact, if you go at the right time of year, you can actually find wildflowers here, giving you a super cool contrast for your elopement. Switch between extremes by saying your vows in the lowest point in the country in Badwater Basin and then catch sunrise or sunset on Zabriskie Point which towers hundreds of feet above the park. Besides the beauty, there’s also something special about being able to say you had your elopement here, in such an iconic park.
Best for: Mountains, Canyons and Desert
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Jeep/4×4, Hiking, Stargazing
Makgadikgadi Pans, Botswana
For a desert location that sports both epic scenery and fantastic wildlife, the Makgadikgadi Pans are some of the best of the best! The eponymous pan is one of the largest in the world, formed by a lake that dried up thousands of years ago. What makes this spot extra special though are the animals that stop through during the rainy season, when the desert effectively turns into one of the only two breeding grounds for flamingos in the area. You can also find herds of zebras migrating through the area! ATV through the pans or take a helicopter tour to see the whole thing from above.
Best for: Safari and Desert
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Safari, Helicopter, Hiking, ATV
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada
Vegas elopers, this one is for you! If you love the idea of getting married in Las Vegas but want the chance to get out in nature and actually enjoy the desert itself, too, Red Rock Canyon is waiting for you just 20 minutes outside of the strip! This chunk of desert is just as colorful as the city, with huge formations of brightly colored, striated rock that pop against the blue sky so well. Calico Hills here has great hiking trails and ancient petroglyphs to bring some history into your elopement day, so that you can feel connected to millennia of humans before you.
Best for: Mountains and Desert
Best months to get married here: October to April
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Camping, Stargazing
The Alvord Desert, Oregon
The Alvord Desert is a dry lake bed in eastern Oregon. Hours from any bigger city, it’s definitely not one of the most accessible locations on this list, but it is extremely unique! On the eastern edge of the Steens Mountain Wilderness, the Alvord is a perfect place for stargazing and camping because of the clear night skies and extremely low levels of light pollution. The Alvord is best visited in the summer months when the ground is truly dried out and the evenings are comfortably warm so you can lay out beneath the stars.
Best for: Mountains and Desert
Best months to get married here: July to September
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Camping, Stargazing
Cappadocia, Turkey
Vast expanses of super soft, eroded rock that have created super unique rock formations for you to scope out during your elopement day. Throughout the hills here, you’ll find fairy chimneys, hoodoos, caves, and valleys. This area was volcanically formed, which gives it a really interesting combination of environments that you can take in during your wedding. From underground cities to hot air balloons, there are lots of unique ways to explore here that will take you out of the standard modes of adventuring for any other desert destination!
Best for: Desert and Rocks
Best months to get married here: Year round
My favorite activities to do here: Hiking, Stargazing, Hot Air Ballooning
Big Bend National Park, Texas
If you’re from the US or eloping here, Big Bend is your chance at getting the scenery of the Chihuahuan Desert without having to leave the country. This national park (and neighboring state park of a very similar name) gives you big, sweeping desert views with plateaus, cliffs, and huge expanses of bright blue sky. Pack something to paddle and float through the canyons on the Rio Grande and bask in awe at the massive stone pillars on either side of you. If you want to stay in the park, you can stay at the Chisos Mountains Lodge in the heart of it, a full service hotel with guided excursions down the river, on horseback, and on foot. Because this stretch of desert is so untouched and unpopulated, you get a true sense of the desert at its most mighty. And as an added bonus, the stargazing here is unmatched, with this park having the least light pollution of any other in the lower 48. Due to this park’s location in the southern tip of Texas, temps can soar here—this is best visited in the winter!
Best for: Desert, River and Canyon
Best months to get married here: September to May
My favorite activities to do here: Rafting, Hiking, Stargazing
Want to make sure your dream spot will work during your preferred time of year? Or have a specific activity in mind that you need to guarantee can happen wherever you choose? Check out my interactive map database! This is packed with nearly 600 locations for you to choose from, filter by, and learn more about—so that you never have to worry about FOMO on your wedding day.
And if you need an expert planner or someone to recommend you those great inside-scoop-if-you-know-you-know level spots, reach out to me! I’m on standby to make sure that your day is exactly what you want it to be and combine your dreams with my 10+ years of travel experience to craft a day that you will always remember.
Click here to send me a message and let’s get to planning!
