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 (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 people.

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 hotels were not up to par - they were not as clean as we would have liked.  In some cities, the most expensive hotel was still not at what we would consider an acceptable level of cleanliness.

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.

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 only pizza place in town - hardly authentic. We did enjoy many pastries from (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 - we met lots of people on louages, at train stations, restaurants, etc. and really (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 a few strange looks, and after about 10 minutes of no service, we, the geniuses, figured out we weren’t welcome there and left for a restaurant.

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 retired a long time ago. It is relatively hard to find out information about buses, except at the bus terminal. Tourist offices didn’t have timetables. The few buses we took weren’t really on time, and the guidebook time estimates were usually pretty far off (some faster, some slower). However, everyone is very happy to help you get on the right bus and figure out how to buy a ticket, etc.

The train network goes up and down the eastern coast, and also cuts inland farther north. There is a also a “TGM” (light-rail) route that will take you up the coast to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said from Tunis.

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 a guided tour on our way in at midnight, as we tried to stay awake.The hotel was a three star hotel that I guess used to be much nicer. The main entry was off a deserted side street. The location could not have been more convenient for the medina, the train station, and the trams. The large room had a very comfortable bed, dodgy looking rug (we wore sandals), and a shower with sometimes hot water (about half the time we tried to use it. Unfortunately, there was no rhyme or reason to when it had hot water - we just learned to try morning and night and hope for the best). (Hot water did not seem to be Tunisia’s forte).

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 (more...)