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 hit was going in to the wrong cafe – traditional Tunisian cafes are really for men only, and someone just tipped us off that we were in the wrong place. No problem, we left and went to get a coffee at a restaurant instead.
A Typical Louage Station
No problem at all! We were always worried that our backpack would end up on the top of some bus and end up falling off in the middle of the desert somewhere and we wouldn’t realize till we reached our destination, but it never happened. At times, we had to buy an extra “seat" on the louage so that we could put our packs on it. Fair enough!
Q: Did people bug you on the trains and louages?
No, no issues there either. We never took a train. Everyone was very kind to us on louages and it was a convenient, easy way to get around.
Q: I speak some Arabic and no French and my wife speaks neither, do you think we will have problems?
No, we’re sure your Arabic will be a lot more useful than our French was. French is quite widely spoken, but everyone speaks Arabic! When we trotted out our (very) few words of Arabic, people were delighted – we can only imagine how happy they’d be with someone who spoke more!
Q: Geographically would you recommend going north or south first to get the most from Tunisia?
Hmm – We’re not sure we’d have a preference. We made a nice circle, but we don’t think it matters. The only tip would be to leave a day or two at the end to pick up any souvenirs in Tunis (assuming you’d fly out of there) and you don’t have to carry them around with you.
Q: .(…) do you think that it would be easier getting a comfort class or first class seat instead? I wouldn’t even had known which car to board on the train if I had though…
Sorry, can’t answer – we never took a train.
Hope this helps – and let us know in the comments if there are any more questions about Tunisia!
Wow… thanks for the follow up to my email. It seems like you were able to get around nicely with the louages.
I guess I have another question. I hear that the louages can be quite “daunting” on people with motion sickness… do you think that this is the case with the louages that you usually took?
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Ian replied on June 23rd, 2010 7:23 am:
Not in our experience – I get bad motion sickness and I never had a problem!
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I speak very little Italian and I plan to learn Arabic or Hebrew. Should I consider not going to Tunisia because of the fact I am Jewish?
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Ian replied on January 19th, 2013 1:31 am:
We had a great time in Tunisia. Language or religion is not an issue!
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