How to Ride a Camel in Minecraft

Horses had a good run, but the camel does something no horse can: it carries two players at once, sits you so high that zombies can't reach you, and comes with a built-in dash move. Camels wander desert villages in the 1.20 update and beyond, usually found sitting around looking unbothered. Here is how to get on one and actually go somewhere.

Do You Need to Tame a Camel?

No — and that is the first pleasant surprise. Unlike horses, camels cannot be tamed and do not need to be. Walk up to one and interact with it and you will simply climb on; it will not throw you off. The catch is control: without a saddle you are a passenger on a mob that goes where it likes. The saddle is what turns a camel into transport.

How to Get a Saddle

Saddles cannot be crafted, so you will have to find one. Your options:

• Structure chests: dungeons, ancient cities, bastion remnants, desert temples, End cities, jungle temples, Nether fortresses, strongholds and villages can all contain saddles.
• Trading: a master-level leatherworker villager sells a saddle for 6 emeralds — the most reliable renewable source.
• Fishing: saddles appear as treasure loot, but at under a 1% chance it is a slow gamble.
• Mob drops: striders and ravagers always drop a saddle when killed.

How to Ride a Camel: Step by Step

1. Find a camel in a desert village — that is the only place camels spawn. Pick a standing one; a sitting camel cannot be made to stand up on command.
2. Right-click (or use your interact button) on the camel to climb onto its back.
3. Open your inventory while mounted. You will see the camel's inventory alongside yours — place the saddle in its saddle slot.
4. Close the inventory and ride with your normal movement keys.
5. Press and hold jump to charge the camel's dash — a boosted forward leap. The cooldown shows temporarily where your experience bar normally sits.

Two Riders, One Saddle

A saddled camel has two seats, and remarkably, both riders share the single saddle — no second saddle needed. The player who mounts first sits in front and does all the steering; the second player is free to look around, which makes the classic setup obvious: one driver, one archer. Only adult camels can be ridden, and only by players — villagers and other mobs cannot ride them without commands.

Why Ride a Camel?

• Height advantage: you sit so tall that most ground mobs, zombies included, cannot reach you with melee attacks. Creepers, regrettably, can still explode next to you.
• Two-player travel: the only land mount that carries a friend — perfect for multiplayer trips and escorting a new player.
• Combat platform: driver plus bow-wielding passenger is a genuinely effective fighting combination.
• Desert camouflage: its sandy colours blend into desert terrain, making you harder to spot at a distance.

Camel vs Horse

The verdict: for raw speed and rough terrain, take the horse. For travelling with a friend, fighting from safety, or crossing a desert in style, the camel wins — just plan around water, because those long legs are not built for swimming.