Peter Grubb, founder of outfitter ROW Adventures, once wandered into a French travel agency to buy a ticket to Morocco and unknowingly ended up with one to Algeria instead. It was a fine mistake, given the weeks of warm Saharan hospitality he enjoyed, and he's been yearning to return ever since. Next fall he does, this time to lead a new adventure into the lonely canyons and quiet oases of a North African nation seldom seen by Americans. For 21 days, travelers will journey by 4x4 to ancient settlements in palm-ringed valleys and hike with Tuareg guides in Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, an area nearly twice the size of Switzerland, with life-size pictographs and gnarled chasms. Then they'll spend five days trekking with camels through the red-sandstone villages of western Algeria's Sahara, where they'll pitch tents under unfettered skies, mingle with nomads, and devour lamb stew with flatbread baked in the sand. OUTFITTER: ROW Adventures; rowinternational.com PRICE: $5,990 DIFFICULTY: Moderate WHEN TO GO: October, January