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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 ... (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 Air France workers ... (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 were lots ... (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 is occupied ... (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 didn’t end ... (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 there. We stayed in ... (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), and they ... (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 site. We ... (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. Arriving in Gafsa ... (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 one hour. The ... (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 Farmstead on ... (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 way when heading ... (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 more than anything ... (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 for the animals. Definitely ... (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 station, waited 20 ... (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. D 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 guy running the ... (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 it’s probably ... (read more →)
