It seems like whenever we visit a new country these days, I start a post with something like “it took awhile, but we FINALLY made it to <moderately obscure place with some notable downsides>”. So I’ll try to avoid that here. But, in fairness, Tunisia HAD been on my list for quite a long time. And it DID take us a surprisingly long time to finally make it there, especially considering how close it is to Europe and all those fantastic Mediterranean islands we keep visiting obsessively. And Tunisia DOES have some notable downsides, if we’re being honest.
So let’s just assume I ended up saying that without actually having to say it, shall we? If you can do that for me, I’ll tone down the obnoxious ALL CAPS emphasizing. Deal.
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So, the point is, we spent 3 weeks in Tunisia! And it is a very fascinating place, with several stunning historical sites, a few spectacular natural attractions, some rather surprising beaches (surprising to us, not to French snowbirds), a dizzying array of Star Wars filming locations and lots and lots of scrubby, rocky, bleak desert terrain. Like, so much.
And, just to up the difficulty score a bit, we travelled to Tunisia during Ramadan. Yeah, that Ramadan, the one where people don’t eat or drink from sunrise to sunset, all restaurants are closed and reading smutty books is frowned upon. Not ideal (nods Laynni emphatically). Ok, maybe it had nothing to do with craving additional travel challenges or experiencing a new culture on a deeper level. Maybe the timing of Ramadan simply never occurred to us until it was too late and all our flights and hotels were already booked and, you know, changing everything seemed like way more trouble than just eating more meals in and having to sneak the occasional sip of water in a grungy hidden corner.
We do plan to write a specific post about the pros, cons and numerous bafflements of travelling in Tunisia during Ramadan, so I won’t go into much detail here. Mainly because there are so many other things to mention.
Because even though Tunisia shares a fair number of similarities with other places we’ve enjoyed in the past (such as fellow North African destinations, Morocco and Egypt), it was still enough of a notable departure from our recent travels (Central and South America, South Africa, Japan, Vietnam) to offer up a bit of culture shock. My second-favourite kind of shock, incidentally, just behind carpet-, and just ahead of shell-. As a result, there were a lot of things in Tunisia we found really unusual and interesting and surprising and, well, downright weird.
These are those things:
Things to Know Before Visiting Tunisia
1. Tunisia is in Africa. True story.
2. However, it is also very close to Sicily and some parts of Tunisia are actually farther north than Malta.
3. Arabic is the main language but French is also widely spoken and understood. Oh, colonialism, you scoundrel.
4. Similar to the Middle East (and, realistically, many parts of the world) most cafés are full of men smoking, drinking tea and, eventually, watching football, I think.
5. Which fits with what we would describe, with all due respect, as a “culture of loitering”. At any given time, there will be like five guys sitting around staring into space. Not in a group, not chatting, necessarily, just sitting. And I’m not saying they don’t work hard, I’m sure most do. But when they’re not working, they definitely prefer loitering.
6. Tunisians are loud. Not all Tunisians, of course. Not the kids. And not the women. Just the other ones.
7. At any given time, you can usually spot two or more Tunisian men furiously yelling at each other. Serious anger? Play-acting? Hangry? We believe we saw examples of all three.
8. In fact, Tunisia, in general, is pretty loud. Loud conversations, loud cars, loud motorbikes, loud dogs (but only at night, for some reason). Throw in the Ramadan bombas and you end up with quite the colourful menagerie of sound.
9. At least the many, many cats of Tunisia are quiet. Although, in lieu of noise, they may choose to leave a daily shit right beside your door, just so you know exactly what they think of you.
10. Anger issues notwithstanding, Tunisia feels very safe. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it IS safe. But despite what many people think about Tunisia, we certainly never got any bad vibes. And we saw lots of local women travelling alone, so that’s usually a good sign. The cop cars were often pretty beat up, though, which could mean something, or might just be a budget restraint thing, hard to say.
11. The Islamic call to prayer is one of the most evocative parts of travelling in a Muslim country. However, we did notice that not every guy yelling into a loudspeaker was doing a call to prayer, as some seemed to be taking advantage of some sort of Ramadan open mic situation.
12. Tunisians tend to wear dark, bland colours. And, presumably, they look down on my sleek, aquamarine windbreaker.
13. Of course, they are also obsessed with New York Yankees hats, jackets and varied other paraphernalia, so maybe they aren’t in a position to judge.
14. The weather in March was all over the place, from 10C nights to 33C days (at different times and in different parts of the country). And the Tunisians wore at least three layers of heavy clothing through all of it. And often a puffy jacket to boot.
15. The oranges are fantastic. The bananas are expensive. There is no pork, obviously. And no beer, at least during Ramadan. And no milk that could be accurately described as “good”. Tonnes of sheepshead, though.
16. Sometimes, that “historic building” on your map is really just a series of carpet shops.
17. Tunisia is, technically, “not a pretty country”. But it has pretty things.
Spending Tips
18. Tunisian currency is the “dinar”, with $US1 = approx. 3 dinar (tnd). Each dinar is divided into 1,000 millemes. Which is why all prices are shown in thousands, and why I was so confused for the first 3 days. Ok, fine, first week.
19. The 1-dinar and 2-dinar coins are both silver, nearly the exact same size and only one of them has a non-Arabic number marked on it (ever so faintly). And I don’t know Arabic numbers. And only understand French numbers when spoken slowly, clearly and with prior warning that a number is about to be spoken. Which is my long-winded explanation for how many times I ended up holding out a handful of change for a storekeeper to take what he wanted like I was a toddler buying sour candies at 7-11.
20. In our experience, most Tunisians were exceptionally honest about money. While we did have one bus station taxi driver seriously overcharge us before we knew better, there were far more examples of Tunisian integrity.
More than once, someone gave me back a 2-dinar coin that I mistook for a 1. In Tozeur, we took a taxi ride that cost 1.85tnd on the metre (roughly $US0.60) and he refused my modest offer of 3tnd but insisted on giving me back exact change. A “tourist police” officer and his leather jacket-clad sidekick that looked like an adult trying to go undercover in high school gave us a 20-kilometre ride back from Chenini to Tataouine and both refused to accept any money. The building manager in Tozeur organized a day trip for us and refused our 10tnd ($US3) tip and, when we insisted, offered to give it to the cleaning woman instead. Another Tozeur taxi driver refused to accept 5tnd ($US1.50) for a 3tnd ($US1) ride.
21. Don’t get the wrong idea, though, tips are still common in the usual tipping situations and most people will happily accept them.
22. There are lots of ATMs with a variety of maximum withdrawals, most of which charge a 10tnd fee.
23. Restaurant meals are probably the most expensive aspect of Tunisia, generally between 25-30tnd ($US8-10) per meal. Which is, of course, irrelevant if it happens to be Ramadan and none of the restaurants are open anyway.
24. There is a wide range of hotel and apartment prices, much like anywhere, but there are definitely deals to be found. We paid $US17/night for an apartment with 2 (!) terraces located right in the Sousse medina. Right where that cat liked to shit, but still.
25. As you probably noticed from those taxi stories, public transportation is cheap, with long-distance buses and “louages” charging prices that average 3-6tnd ($US1-2) per hour. More on that – and those mysterious louages – later.
26. The Tunisian government has a rather irrational fear of people taking Tunisian dinar home with them and… doing… I’m not sure what. Or why any of us would want to. But the point is, it is a “closed currency” and you are not allowed to take Tunisian dinar out of the country, so make sure you don’t have much (or any) left when you head to the airport.
There are many places to change foreign currency to dinar but the only place you can exchange leftover dinar FOR foreign currency is at the airport. And then only if you have a receipt showing you changed money in the first place (ATM withdrawals don’t count). So I would recommend changing a small amount in the airport when you arrive ($50-100) even though the rate isn’t great. That way when it comes time to leave you can show that receipt and change whatever you have left into euros or dollars or yen or whatever. Up to that amount, of course.
Things to See and Do
27. Tunis
The capital, with the usual interesting souk, a lot of mosques, one big church and a bevy of square, strangely photogenic government buildings.
28. Sousse
The Sousse medina was probably the best one we saw in Tunisia. Just the right amount of serpentine, maze-like alleys, crowded shops and hectic markets. Smells funny, though.
Their Great Mosque is fine but rather small and we weren’t allowed up the tower – always disappointing – but the Ribat (fort) was much cooler. Mainly because it also had a tower and they had no problem with us climbing it. And, while the view from the top was great, the other tourist up there telling his kid he can “just pee anywhere”, less so.
A pretty decent beach, although the numerous abandoned hotels give off a bit of a depressing, dystopian vibe. Kept expecting a gang of bandits to come rushing out to shake us down for canned beets and penicillin.
29. Monastir
A bit shabby and rundown, although it was a bleak, cloudy day, something I often allow to seep into my opinions of a place, somewhat unfairly.
Nice mosque. Huge ribat. Big cemetery weirdly close to the beach. Interesting line of rocks leading out into the bay. A restaurant that actually wanted to sell food… in the middle of the day! At least we ate inside so as not to tempt the locals.
30. El Jem Amphitheatre
Now this place is cool. The El Jem Colosseum is a UNESCO Heritage Site. It was built by the Romans in 238 AD and originally called Thysdrus. It held 35,000 people and anywhere from 3-5 lions. It starred in The Life of Brian and was the site of the iconic “Good vs Evil” Nike football commercial. It was featured in the very first season of the Amazing Race.
There is plenty of shade where Tunisian dudes can loiter, plus some hidden corners perfect for tourists looking to discreetly scarf down a sandwich or two out of view of the fasting locals. Fantastico.
31. Kairouan
The Great Mosque of Kairouan is huge, beautiful and, apparently, the 4th-holiest place in the Islamic world. And, apparently, some extra-special religious math means that 7 visits to Kairouan are considered equivalent to visiting the ultimate holy city of Mecca. Just in Allah’s eyes, though, not the guy checking tickets.
We saw not one, but TWO tour groups in Kairouan, one of which was a fully leather-clad dirtbike crew, plus several other independent travellers. Which made it the tourism champion of Tunisia. At least until a couple weeks later when we experienced the cruise ship version of Sidi Bou Said.
Kairouan also has a cool, old medina, that apparently features 350 (!) mosques. According to the guy following us trying to convince us we needed a guide, anyway.
A shy teenage couple tried speaking French to us, giggled uncontrollably, then sheepishly had to backtrack after following us down a dead-end alley. Celebrity life is tough, yo.
32. Tataouine
A slightly bleak desert outpost in southern Tunisia, Tataouine is famous for the various Star Wars scenes that were shot in the area. And many, many more places that did not make the final cut but were almost certainly, definitely “scouting locations”. A weirdly difficult claim to disprove, it turns out.
The area around Tataouine is riddled with fascinating “ksour”, which is the plural form of “ksar”, which probably still doesn’t help you much if you don’t what that is, either. Basically, a ksar is a small collection of adobe high-rises located on top of a defensible hill that is used for grain storage and just plain livin’, not necessarily in that order.
There is a very good 8 km “marked” trail between the villages of Douiret and Chenini featuring valley oases, desolate scrubland, big rocks, dramatic cliffs and an impressive ksar on each end.
33. Tozeur
Tozeur is a small city located even farther out into the desert on the far side of a giant salt flat that features EVEN MORE Star Wars filming locations, as well as the opportunity to ride camels to a camp in the Sahara Desert or ride quads to a small, crumbling off-road park.
More importantly, there are also some very cool “palmeraies” – which are basically oases with a cooler name and slightly less weird plural form. Namely, Chebika Oasis, Tamerza Waterfall and Mides Canyon, the big 3 of Tozeur tourism. We very much enjoyed them, despite the person on Google who reviewed their tour as rather disappointing because “the waterfall wasn’t very big and there was a lot of dirt”.
Another guided option we considered but ultimately did not commit to was the 3-hour walk in Tozeur accompanied by a Donkey, a specialized experience to discover “local life and fauna accompanied by a donkey, a faithful, wise and docile companion”. The tour includes one donkey per family AND a light snack but is, sadly, not suitable for people over 309 lbs.
Overall, Tozeur is not the best place to go if you prefer doing things on your own rather than joining organized groups or package tours. On the other hand, one day a guy offering horse and cart rides followed me for a full 6 blocks, so that was new.
34. Sidi Bou Said
Sidi Bou Said is a lovely little beach town known for its white buildings with blue trim, a la the Greek Islands. Of course, the salads are a bit different and the beaches are sandier, but both destinations have a lot of cool doors and we don’t understand the language in either one.
We were surprised at just how many tourists were in Sidi Bou Said after seeing almost none in the rest of Tunisia. Then a cruise ship arrived, and shit got real. At least it was still much quieter in the morning, evening and the following 6 days until the next ship arrives.
We finally mastered the Glovo food delivery app and that changed everything, at least from a “desperately trying to find a restaurant that is open during Ramadan” point of view.
Carthage is very old. And very famous. And a complete mess. Basically the random stuff left standing is just scattered throughout the new city, with the occasional fence here and there and one metal detector (just ignore that beep, it’s probably fine). The Antoninus Baths (12tnd) are the best part, followed by the Roman Theatre and the Roman Villas.
The Ennejma Ezzahra Palace (10tnd) is actually quite nice. Much like anywhere, if you want to know how old a historic palace or home is, just check out the size of the beds. Or read the information plaque.
Transportation
Transportation in Tunisia is cheap and relatively efficient.
35. Louage
These shared “taxis” are actually minibuses. You buy an official ticket from the ticket booth before getting in, they never overcharge, usually hold 8 people, leave when they are full and never squeeze in extra people. They are fast, easy and cheap ($2-3/hr), although you might wait a bit if you’re going somewhere unusual. Or anywhere in the south.
On the other hand, sometimes (as in, more than once) ticket officials will get into fistfights with angry dudes from outside their booth. Sometimes it will end there. But sometimes one of those angry dudes will come back a few minutes later with a nasty-looking stick to finish the job but luckily be held back by several other, slightly-less-angry dudes.
Random violence notwithstanding, on the several occasions when our louage journey was not marred by physical jeopardy, this seemed like a system many countries would do very well to emulate. And not just the dumb ones, either.
36. Taxi
Official taxi rates are quite cheap so if they agree to use the metre, you’re in good shape. However, they don’t always want to do that, so in some places we used the Bolt taxi app.
Pros: We lock in the actual price, don’t have to try to describe our destination in a country with a serious disdain for street names and building numbers and can usually get away with the very bare minimum French/Arabic.
Cons: At least 50% of the time the driver will stop somewhere in the vicinity of – but not quite at – the pickup point we have marked on the map. And where we were, not surprisingly, waiting.
And 75% of the time they felt the need to call me through the app. To say what, you ask? I have no goddamn idea because, as I’ve mentioned, I don’t speak French/Arabic. And on the phone, I can’t even fake it. Usually the call seemed related to the fact they were bafflingly refusing to show up at the right pickup point. But sometimes they also didn’t seem to believe that we actually wanted to go to the actual place we had carefully entered in the app. Who knows, though, maybe there were more details I was missing. Sports betting tips, perhaps. Or questions about air freshener preferences.
In Tataouine, we paid one random taxi 25tnd ($C12) to drive us 20 km to the start of our hike, then the next day we hired another to take us out for 2 hours of ksar-hopping for just 60tnd ($C30). He even took us to a place where we could buy warm baguettes.
However, sometimes your taxi will stop and pick up a woman who, according to Laynni, “smells like a dessert with coffee beans in it” and you won’t really know what to do with that information.
37. Train
Trains are generally our favourite mode of transportation. A bit slower than some other options, sure, but usually more comfortable, reasonably priced, with opportunities to get up and walk around, and usually a bathroom available for our discharging pleasure. Most of which do apply to trains in Tunisia. Very cheap. Only marginally more comfortable than louages. Much slower. Yes, there is usually a toilet but it’d best be an emergency before you actually go INSIDE one. Comfort? Well, considering almost every seat is damaged in some way and every window cracked and dirty, maybe don’t focus on that part. You can, however, walk around as much as you want.
38. Bus
We only took one bus, a 7-hr delight from the desert town of Tozeur back to the capital of Tunis. The bus wasn’t originally our first choice but were told by our tour driver that there were very few louages heading that way from Tozeur and none that go the whole way. He also mentioned that “the train is terrible, really slow, awful, I’ve always regretted it, I’ll never take it again”. Which seemed pretty definitive. And, sure, maybe the ticket guy laughed out loud when we asked if we got seat numbers, but, still, the bus was fine.
Of course, with Ramadan in full swing, it meant we wouldn’t be able to drink or snack on board (not without drawing envious/furious glares, anyway). Which meant frantically stocking our bodies up with food and water very early in the morning like we were about to be dropped into a random jungle naked and afraid. But not stocking up too much, of course, because of, you know, the bathroom issue. All of this to survive SEVEN hours. Meanwhile, every Tunisian currently fasting is doing FIFTEEN hours. EVERY day. Masochism on a societal scale, that’s all I have to say.
39. Hotel Owner
The incredibly nice, sweet owner of the apartment where we stayed in Tataouine (Dar Essabeg) brought us a complimentary traditional meal one night, loved to practice his basic English and kindly offered us a ride to the louage station when we were leaving. Upon arrival at the station, he spread both arms wide to, apparently, usher us into the station. NOT as a signal we should both simultaneously lean in for a hug. Which, it turned out, was pretty awkward.
Random Stuff
Yes, apparently, we’re still doing this.
40. Rue de Suisse, in Tunis, features 3 different hotels with Swiss names. So, did aspiring Swiss hoteliers think Swiss Street was the obvious place to settle? Or did the street have a completely different name to start and then by the time 3 Swiss hotels moved in the city eventually gave in and said, fine, everyone is calling it this anyway?
41. It turns out that DVD players and 12-inch TVs still exist. Both of which graced our Sousse apartment.
42. If you show up at a family café during Ramadan and don’t speak the language but look really hungry and smile a lot, it’s possible that rather than explain they only serve coffee and desserts, the owner will graciously feed you the leftovers from their family meal, one fish to share, sorry. And soup for Laynni, since she doesn’t like fish. And then, after the meal is over, he might ask if you liked the soup and after you say “oui, delicieux!”, he might suddenly don his best “aha!” face and tell you the soup contained fish after all, implying maybe you don’t know what you like, after all, you foolish tourist. A fun game, assuming nobody’s allergic to fish.
43. Carthage isn’t the only place you’ll encounter a metal detector. There will be others, and they will almost certainly beep when you go through with your phone and change and piercings and metal joints and whatnot but – and this is key – nobody cares.
44. The wifi was pretty decent in most places we stayed and, when it wasn’t, the data on our phones always worked well (10gb eSim for $US13 with SimOptions). However, if you happen to be staying in a traditional house right in the medina hoping to stream a Champions League match, for the first time in decades, you may find yourself searching for an internet café. And failing, sadly.
45. Lineups, or “queues” for you “u” aficionados, are chaotic and unstructured but not frantic or confrontational. Lively, but relaxed. If you know what I mean.
46. Tunisian hosts were always giving us more toilet paper, which suggests that our reputation preceded us. The question is, whose reputation? Westerners? Canadians? Or us, specifically?
47. Nonetheless, every Tunisian toilet also has a handy “bum gun” nearby, just what the doctor ordered for cleaning up nasty spills or tough stains, so to speak.
48. If you try to ask a Tozeur tour guide what the worst part about fasting is, expect him to loudly blurt “nicotine” before you can even finish the question.
49. In Tunisia, finding green beer on St. Patrick’s Day is a serious challenge.
50. The popular cafés have lots of regulars who sit in the same place every night, so even if you get there early and convince the owner to switch the TV to the Arsenal game, you’ll soon find yourself sharing a table with several chainsmokers playing cards while the heat from a sheesha pipe gently warms the back of your neck. One of the men might even inexplicably ruffle your hair like you’re a small child, while another insists that it makes sense you’re an Arsenal fan because you look exactly like Gabriel Martinelli. Which seems, well, not true.
51. Hot, dry and windy is a very effective combination for drying clothes.
Summary
Like most African countries we’ve visited, we would describe Tunisia using relatively noncommittal words such as “fascinating”, “memorable” and “lively”. No, outside the main attractions, it is not what you would call “beautiful”, and in many ways they don’t really have their shit together.
But the people were really nice to us (if not always to each other), those specific main attractions were pretty impressive, the weather was excellent (even in March) and it is a very affordable place to travel.
Plus, the flight from Tunis to Naples is less than 2 hours, which meant spending the morning in exotic Sidi Bou Said and enjoying Neopolitan pizza by the afternoon.
Finally, I need to address the “51 Things”. First time through, it worked out to exactly 50, which I was pretty pumped about. Just seemed so unlikely, right? In fact, I wrote a whole thing about it. But then Laynni mentioned the whole can’t-take-dinar-out-of-the-country thing and, just like that, odd number again. Now, obviously I considered just removing one of the weaker points (plenty of those to choose from, after all) to get back to 50 but, alas, then it wouldn’t have happened organically and would no longer be worth mentioning. So, as you can tell, it eventually became a whole thing…
(Laynni sighs and shakes her head ruefully)
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