What's Tunisia like?

[osprey88]

I'm thinking of going to Tunisia in February, for a weeks all inclusive holiday. Does anyone have any advice on where to go what to see, or should I try somewhere else? I've been to Egypt a couple of times and really enjoyed, so I don't mind if it's a bit of a culture shock. Thanks in anticipation.

[jno]

it's less of a culture shock than Egypt, though you get some hassle in the bazaar in Tunis. It's got a more developed resort industry down the coast, with good beaches, some pretty old towns, Roman remains (including a good colosseum in El Djem); plus you can take trips out into the desert and I think stay at the troglodyte dwellings where bits of Star Wars were filmed. It's Islamic but not particularly hardline; I think tourists are still allowed to visit mosques. All-inclusives are fine but depending where you are there are usually good local restaurants around, with some French influence. It's a few years since I've been, so I can't be sure my information is still 100% accurate, but I've always enjoyed myself there.

[Lil O'lady]

Jno's got good advice Osprey - only addition I can offer is that we expereinced quite unpleasant attitudes in the bazaar at Sousse wherea Tunis was just good-natured banter and easy to brush off.
The Bardo museum in Tunis is marvellous; the little train from tunis out to the Carthage suburbs is very cheap and reliable, if rickety. Sid Bou Said is beautiful but tends to get hit by waves of coach tours.

[Narolines]

Most of the places you're likely to fetch up - especially if you're going all-inclusive, so you'll probably spend a lot of time in your resort - are pretty tourist-friendly. Tunisia is an Islamic country but it's a much more freewheeling strain of Islam than in the Middle East.

If you do feel the urge to get away from the tourist trail, the less frequently visited parts are still pretty traditional. We had occasion to go to Sfax - quite a long train journey from Sousse - to visit the war grave of a relative, and we were almost the only Northern Europeans in the city. The medina there is much more as it must have been a hundred years ago, and there are no touristy restaurants, though very good and cheap food is to be had at places frequented by local business-people. There is, however, an excellent restored Arabic mansion house with a superb ethnographic and costume collection.

The medina in Hammamet is pretty good-natured; if you've been round Egyptian soukhs you'll have no problems. I can't say I've ever noticed any unpleasantness in Sousse, but I haven't been there for a few years so maybe things have changed a little recently in the light of events in the Middle East.

[Narolines]

Just to endorse what jno siad - El Djem is definitely worth a visit, and so is the old Roman city of Dougga. If you can spare a couple of days the Sahara trip is enjoyable - provided you don't mind being got up for breakfast at 4.30am in your oasis hotel so that you can be driven out on to the salt flats to watch the sun rise over the desert!

[mrs_overall]

I've been to Hammamet & didn't have a very good time. I went with a female friend and despite the fact we're two middle aged old trouts we were hassled constantly, even within the hotel by the male staff. We made friends with a family and they had a teenage son who was mugged in the hotels grounds - they stole the trainers he was wearing. We went in October for some sun but it was freezing so I expect February will be the same.

[Narolines]

Blimey, if you think you need to be "brave" to venture out of your hotel in Hammamet, I suggest you don't go to Casablanca!

One person's "freezing" is another person's "pleasantly warm"; I have a friend in Cyprus, where we live half the year, who's done up in woolies and shivering in front of the fire when the temperature gets down to 22!
We've been to Tunisia in October and had daytime temperatures of around 24, and at the end of February/beginning of March with the thermometer knocking around 22/23 and wall-to-wall sunshine. I don't doubt Mrs O's experience of the weather, but remember that Tunisian weather, like ours, can be unpredictable. Most sources will tell you to expect about 16/17 deg in February and 20 in October, but these are averages and you could be lucky and strike a warm spell, or unlucky and strike a cold one.

[filthiestfis]

Narolines: dont comment on other people's experiences and compare them with yours. You werent there with them, so they are entitled to say what they like about it.