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Someone emailed us some questions about Tunisia, so we’re going to answer him here so other people can hopefully get something from our answers as well!
Q: Did you have any problems with Tunisians saying things or acting strangely to your wife Wendy?
A: Not at all. Everyone was very respectful. The only somewhat strange situation we ... (read more →)
In the morning, we had the hotel call a cab for us (big mistake – the price doubles – we almost couldn’t afford the fare with our remaining Dinars!). Upon arriving, the Departures Information Board told us our flight was cancelled. I won’t bore you with the details, but chaos ensued. The ... (read more →)
It was a beautiful day so we finished up our trip by going to Sidi Bou Said. This is a tourist town at the end of the TGM line – an easy 30 minute ride by train from Tunis. It features beautiful white buildings with blue doors (somewhat reminiscent of Greek island architecture).There ... (read more →)
The next day we headed to the Bardo Mosaic Museum. We went by taxi (LRT is possible, but it wasn’t worth it,
since the taxi is only $3 and much faster). The Bardo is the premier museum for mosaics in the world. It’s a huge museum (3 floors) and every available square inch ... (read more →)
The next day, we headed north back up to Tunis. We took a train – there are lots of them from Sousse, and it dropped us right downtown next to our hotel, the Hotel Maison Doree (same place we stayed in on our arrival). We were in Tunis for New Year’s, although we ... (read more →)
In the morning we made our way by louage to Sousse. It’s a pretty frequent route. The louage station there is huge – a cavernous warehouse. Outside, we grabbed a cab to take us to the old city. We suspect it was a bit of a circuitous route, but we got ... (read more →)
From there, it was about a half hour walk to the louage station. We were told that there were no more Louages headed only to Kairouan, our next stop, as the louages only run in the morning. We ended up paying the fare to go all the way to Sousse (well past Kairouan), ... (read more →)
We were up early the next morning, very motivated to get going. We took a few louages (with great connections) and a few hours later we were in Sufetula (Sbeitla). The only reason to visit this city is the impressive ruins just outside town. The Louage dropped us off right next to the ... (read more →)
In retrospect, we should have pushed on past Gafsa, but we don’t like traveling in the dark. The bus didn’t end up being a good choice over the louage – even if we had to wait for the louage. The bus was packed, and wasn’t comfortable. We stopped in many small towns. ... (read more →)
During negotiations with the louage driver getting to Douz, the driver warned us that there was an international festival going on in Douz. We had heard this line before, usually as a preface to getting us to stay at the cabdriver’s cousin’s hotel room, which was claimed to be the only room left in town. ... (read more →)
Our next stop was Douz. In about 2002, they build a new road directly between Douz and Matmata. Until then, it had been necessary to loop back up to Gabes, and go through Kebili. What used to be a 3 hour journey – more depending on the louage connections- now takes about ... (read more →)
Arriving in Matmata, we stayed at the hotel which was also the main reason we were there – the Sidi Driss Hotel. This was the hotel seen in the first Star Wars Movie. The interior shots of the Mos Esley (Mos Eisley) Cantina were filmed here, as well as several other scenes (Lars ... (read more →)
The next day, we headed to Matmata. To get there, we decided to take a shared taxi (louage) – in this case, it was a bit of a miscalculation. On our way in to Djerba, we had crossed on a causeway to the island. However, it didn’t make sense to go this ... (read more →)
We went shopping in the Medina and experienced some high-pressure selling. We could tell they were used to a steady stream of European tourists. Things were priced accordingly, and they didn’t really take ‘no’ for an answer. The hard sell wore on us after a while – but what drove us out ... (read more →)
Accommodation wasn’t a problem during the off season. We stayed at the Hotel Erriadh, which is an old funduq. A funduq is a former lodging house for travelling merchants of the camel caravans that stopped there in Ottoman times. The top floor was for the merchants, and the bottom floor was ... (read more →)
We headed back north. Given that we were seeing things faster than we thought, we decided to head to the island of Djerba and see Houmt Souq. To get there, we decided to give the louage system a shot – we should have done so much before. We got to the Louage ... (read more →)
We ate a bad dinner at the hotel (‘tourist menu’ – we should have just asked to have whatever the locals were having on the other side of the room). Again, the restaurant was unheated and we could see our breath as we ate.
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The next day, we headed to Chenini and Douiret with ... (read more →)
We started by visiting Ksar Ouled Sultane. This was definitely a highlight of the trip. The granaries are four stories high, and are really other-worldly. We were there at the end of the day, and had the place to ourselves. Our cab driver (”Ali Baba!”) left us alone – even the lone ... (read more →)
Tataouine is a compact, easy city to get around in. There isn’t much in the way of nice hotels – there are a few expensive tourist hotels out of town that cater to the coach potatoes, but in town the quality goes down. Our hotel (Hotel La Gazelle – not highly recommended, but ... (read more →)
The bus turned out to be a very old accordion bus – which I thought was an odd choice for a 3 hour trip to Tataouine, especially considering that the bus was mostly empty. However, once we reached Medenine (about half way there), the intercity bus turned into a local bus for a twisty ... (read more →)
Continuing our trek south, we took a train to Gabes. There isn’t much to do here. We stayed at Hotel Regina, because it was late and we couldn’t be bothered to find anywhere else (navigating this town is not an easy feat). The hotel was unheated except for a space heater we ... (read more →)
Continuing south from El Jem, we were headed to Sfax. Our Lonely Planet indicated that the bus station was right outside the train station, but, well, it wasn’t there. It didn’t really exist – one simply has to stop on the road and wait for the bus. There is no “bus stop” ... (read more →)
The next day we took a day trip out to Carthage. Carthage is about a 30 minute train ride outside of Tunis. The
TGM is the name of the train line that took us there – it’s a small train line that runs up the Tunisian coast past Carthage and Sidi Bou Said. ... (read more →)
Our next destination was El Jem. The only reason to go to El Jem is a magnificently preserved coliseum. It is directly off the train line heading south out of Tunis. We couldn’t decide whether it would be better to take the bus (which had more flexible times) or the train. ... (read more →)
The next morning we headed off to the medina. First up, we wanted to visit the Great Mosque, as the courtyard is open to visitors only until 11AM. The mosques in Tunisia were constructed in a minimalist style, so they aren’t as impressive as what we saw in Morocco. Also, as in Morocco, it is ... (read more →)
We arrived in Tunis late at night, as we had wanted a full day stopover in Paris. The airport was easy to navigate, with an ATM right at the exit, and soon we were on our way to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Maison Doree . The cab driver even gave us ... (read more →)
Inside the cities, taxis are a pretty cheap option, if it’s too far to walk. We never tried any local buses. Between the cities, there’s bus, rail, and louage. Some buses are government run, and the rest are a hodge podge of local companies, using buses that by all rights should have been ... (read more →)
We’ve met some people who thought we were brave to go to Tunisia independently. We never once felt threatened. The only time we felt vaguely uncomfortable, was sort of our fault. We sat down in a cafe in Douz. Cafes, even in tourist towns, are for men only. My wife got ... (read more →)
We speak French fluently, which certainly helped us navigate the country. Unlike Morocco, almost everyone speaks French – not just people involved in the tourist business. Both old and young, educated and non, all had a working amount of French. It’s a really nice feeling to be able to talk to everyone ... (read more →)
My wife being vegetarian made restaurants difficult to find, but we found that even when nothing was offered on the menu, they were always willing to try to help. In general, we did not have many very memorable meals – but our choice of restaurants was restricted. We would often seek out the ... (read more →)
Bring warm clothes in the winter, as nowhere is heated – neither restaurants nor hotels. The days were generally warm enough, but in the evening, the lack of heat got to us – even as a couple of hardy Canadians.
The hotels are in general not good value for the money. They are expensive compared to other third world countries – especially considering that they have no heat. Although we are usually happy to stay in the ‘budget’ category of hotels (per Lonely Planet/Let’s Go) in the case of Tunisia, the budget ... (read more →)
Overall, we think that a week to a week and half is more than enough time to visit the sights of Tunisia. We were able to move around quickly and see all the highlights comfortably. What the sights lacked, however, was more than made up for with the warmth and kindness of the Tunisian ... (read more →)
My wife and I visited Tunisia for two weeks during Christmas ’03. Why Tunisia? We visited Morocco in 2001 and loved it – and we thought this would be similar. Also, it’s a relatively cheap destination – during peak period, the ticket from Paris only cost $300 (and $800 from ... (read more →)
