How to find camels in Minecraft 1.20 Trails & Tales update

The Minecraft 1.20 Trails & Tales update will introduce camels to the game. These desert creatures have plenty of interesting features, including being able to be ridden and bred, and their height keeps them from being hurt by many hostile mobs.

To experience just how beneficial camels can be in Minecraft 1.20 (or its snapshots and previews), players will need to find them first. Fortunately, camels have a definitive spawning location according to recent betas, though they may spawn in more locations by the time the Trails & Tales update is released.

For the time being though, players who want to find a camel in Minecraft 1.20's betas will need to search for a desert village.

There are a few ways to find desert villages in the game, some easier than others.

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How to locate a desert village and camels in Minecraft 1.20

A camel roams a desert village in Minecraft Java snapshot 23w12a (Image via Mojang)

Since Minecraft 1.20 hasn't arrived quite yet, players can find camels in the Java Edition 23w12a snapshot or the Bedrock Edition 1.19.80.22 preview. Earlier betas also possess camels, but these program iterations are the latest ways that players can enjoy Trails & Tales content before the update's release.

Whatever the case, players can find desert villages and the camels that come with them manually or by using the in-game cheat console.

Here's how you can find a desert village in update 1.20 and its betas (as of March 2023):

1. If you're hoping to find a desert village manually, you'll obviously need to head to a desert biome. These dry and warm biomes generate alongside other hot biomes like swamps, mangrove swamps, warm oceans, and badlands. Check the biome for sand blocks, as it's a dead giveaway that you're in a desert.
2. After finding a desert biome, simply roam it and keep an eye out for any buildings comprised of sandstone. Sometimes, this may result in a desert pyramid, but if you find small square homes or a sizable tower reaching into the sky, you've found your village. Just walk in, and a camel should be spawned inside by default. If not, you may need to look for another village.
3. If you'd like to use the command console to find a village, make sure cheats are enabled and enter "/locate structure village_desert" or "/locate structure minecraft:village_desert" without quotations and then press enter. You'll receive a set of coordinates to the closest desert village to you. You can then head to that location using the in-game coordinates feature in either Java or Bedrock to find the village.

Once players have found their camel, there's plenty to do with it. It can be healed and bred by being fed cactus and can be saddled and ridden, much like other travel mobs.

Camels can even hold up to two players on their saddle. This means that players can bring a friend along on a camel ride and travel to new adventures in the Trails & Tales update.