A camel train is a series of camels carrying goods or passengers or both in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points. Although they rarely travelled faster than the walking speed of a man, camels' ability to handle harsh conditions made them ideal for communication and trade in the desert areas of northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula for centuries, though they could only travel on routes with sufficient sources of food and water. Camel trains were also used sparingly elsewhere across the globe but during the 20th century they have been largely replaced by motorized vehicles or air traffic.

By far the greatest use of camel trains occurs in North Africa, to conduct trade in and around the Sahara Desert. In antiquity, the Arabian Peninsula was an important route for the trade with India and Abyssinia.

Camel trains have also long been used in portions of trans-Asian trade, including the Silk Road. As late as the early twentieth century, camel caravans played an important role connecting the Beijing/Shanxi region of eastern China with Mongolian centers (Urga, Uliastai, Kobdo) and Xinjiang. The routes went across Inner and/or Outer Mongolia. According to Owen Lattimore, who spent five months in 1926 crossing the northern edge of China (from Hohhot to Gucheng, via Inner Mongolia) with a camel caravan, demand for caravan trade was only increased by the arrival of foreign steamships into Chinese ports and the construction of the first railways in eastern China, as they improved access to the world market for such products of western China as wool.