Kawar rewards travellers willing to make the effort to get here, but be honest with yourself about what that means: there are no guesthouses, no guides on call, and no marked trails. What there is — ancient salt flats, palm-fringed springs, towering sandstone escarpments, and the immense open dunes of the Ténéré — is quietly extraordinary.
The highlights are concentrated around Bilma, the main oasis town. The salt works are the centrepiece, a landscape that looks much the same as it did when Tuareg and Toubou caravans crossed the Sahara carrying salt north to Fezzan and south to Lake Chad. The natural springs at the edge of town are worth an hour or two, as is time spent simply watching the surrounding desert from the base of the escarpment. For the dunes, you'll need to head a little south and west — the Erg du Bilma is as elemental a sand sea as you'll find anywhere in the Sahara.