Les Sables Blancs beach: cliff, sand and diving

Two uses, one cove. Les Sables Blancs are at once an equipped beach, where you spend the day or the night, and a dive site registered separately in the catalogue, stepping down from 5 to 30 metres. The same cove, two ways of enjoying it.

Where is Les Sables Blancs beach?

Tucked between a black rock cliff and the sea, five kilometres from Tadjourah, in the Tadjourah region. The site is not discovered at ground level: the road passes along the top of the cliff, and the beach appears below, in a mineral cirque closed by mount Goda.

The National Tourism Agency places the beach on the other side of the Gulf of Tadjourah; the distance of five kilometres from the town comes from the Dalmar catalogue, and this site’s Tadjourah page repeats it as it stands.

Key facts

Reference	Data
Region	Tadjourah
Coordinates of the area	11.779 N — 42.925 E
Distance from Tadjourah	5 km (Dalmar catalogue, figure repeated on the Tadjourah page)
Access	Road to the top of the cliff, then track
Nature of the site	Equipped beach, holiday village hotel-side or paillote-side
Seabed	White sand, emerald to turquoise water
Dive site	From 5 to 30 m deep (Dalmar catalogue)
Wildlife announced	Green and hawksbill turtles, morays, crocodilefish
Fishing	Sea bream and barracuda
Published offers	Beach day, camping, rooms, boat stay

What do you find on the beach?

The sand is white, the water shifts from emerald to turquoise with the light, and the beach stays tucked between the cliff and the sea. Sunset over mount Goda is one of the place’s arguments.

The site is equipped: a holiday village offers hotel-side or paillote-side accommodation, which lets you spend the day there as well as sleep. That is useful information for calibrating expectations — Les Sables Blancs is not a wild beach, but an equipped one.

The National Tourism Agency describes waters of crystalline purity and extremely rich in fish, where a mask and snorkel are enough to bring out a kaleidoscope of shapes and colours.

What do you see underwater?

The site is practised at two levels, and that is what makes its interest.

With mask and snorkel. From the shore, you reach multicoloured corals and a drop-off without any particular experience.

With a tank. The dive site steps down from 5 to 30 metres, with several small coral drop-offs covered in brain corals. The wildlife announced includes green and hawksbill turtles, morays and crocodilefish. Visibility is described as excellent, with a weak current, which makes the site accessible from beginner to experienced diver.

One detail worth knowing: the sector is also a fishing ground for sea bream and barracuda. Meeting fishermen at work is part of the scene.

How much does a day or a night at Les Sables Blancs cost?

The amounts below are those of the offers published in the Dalmar catalogue for this site. They are degressive: the larger the group, the lower the price per person.

Package	Catalogue offer	Catalogue rate
Beach day	Journée Plage Les Sables Blancs	3,000 to 4,000 Fdj per person
Seaside camping pitch	Emplacement Camping Bord de Mer	10,000 Fdj
Full-board camping	Camping Pension Complète	10,000 to 15,000 Fdj per person
Deluxe double room	Chambre Double Deluxe	25,000 Fdj
Family suite with sea view	Suite Familiale Vue Mer	34,500 Fdj
Stay with boat transport	Séjour avec Transport Bateau	22,000 to 32,000 Fdj per person

Two remarks. The beach day is the most accessible formula on the site, from 3,000 to 4,000 Djiboutian francs depending on group size. Conversely, the formula with boat transport is the heaviest: it is the crossing that weighs on the bill, and its price per person falls in steps up to eight participants.

How do you reach the beach, and what are the limits?

Tadjourah is the natural base. The town is reached by road, by ferry or by fast boat: the detail appears on the page ferry to Tadjourah and Obock and on the Tadjourah page. From the town, five kilometres remain, the last stretch on track. The other route is by sea: a stay offer with boat transport serves the site directly.

Three limits, to be stated frankly.

• The final access is a track. The last kilometres from Tadjourah are not paved, and the beach lies below a cliff: you discover it from above, you do not arrive at ground level.
• The site is equipped, therefore busy. Holiday village, accommodation: this is not a deserted cove.
• The sector is a fishing ground. Sea bream and barracuda are fished there: the cove is not reserved for swimming.

As at any coastal site, the track and the sea decide the programme: the page camps and ecolodges recalls that a beach site can become inaccessible in case of strong wind or a cut track.

What should you combine with Les Sables Blancs?

Tadjourah first: the more urban Fiaa and Cheick Mohamed beaches, and the white city itself. The town’s page compares the three beaches of the sector and lets you choose according to your profile.

Then the hinterland: the Forêt du Day and the Goda mountains, whose mount Goda precisely closes the landscape of Les Sables Blancs.

For diving, the page diving in Djibouti covers the other sites of the gulf. For the season, the month-by-month calendar is on when to go to Djibouti. And if you want to combine salt with sea, Lake Assal can be combined with Tadjourah in the same circuit: a three-day offer indeed links Lake Abbe, Lake Assal, Tadjourah and Les Sables Blancs.