"ricknkat's Tunisia Page" a Tunisia Travel Page by ricknkat

Hello!
We were in Tunisia for a couple weeks and had a really enjoyable, adventurous time. It is a beautiful country with something for everyone to enjoy. We bought a really affordable package deal with 7 nights, transfers and round trip air from New York for about $850. We flew from Vegas to NY to Milan to Tunis, which wasn't as terrible as it sounds (but bring your own water and goodies on Alitalia or you will probably die of thirst on the plane waiting for the attendants) We got there and took the hotel bus for the hour ride to Hammamet. We stayed in Hammamet South at the Flora Park Hotel, which was a nice, swanky joint but not a whole lot to do besides hang out at the beach. (and it was too chilly to do that in mid march when we were there. The hotels are all about 20 minutes from the actual town & medina of Hammamet- which is an easy bus ride. The cultural center is a converted villa owned by a Romanian millionaire in the 20's and is about halfway between Hamm. south, where all the big hotels are, and the town of Hamm.

We also took a 'louage' station wagon-taxi in to Tunis for the day, which was fun and adventurous riding with shackled chickens in the back seat. We didn't see the Bardo Museum because we were pressed for time and mosaics don't really turn us on all that much. We wandered around the Medina and shopped and took a tour of the Koranic School, which was really great. Watch out for the over-eager locals who act super neighborly and try to lead you to go see some really nice place for pictures because they will ALWAYS eventually take to to their shop and hock all kinds of goods on you. ( We actually didn't mind this trick too much because you do get to see some different sights). We also went to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, which are next to eachother and are easily reached on the TGM metro train line. Sunset in Sidi with mint tea and a hookah pipe is a daily ritual.

The next day we rented a car for 3 days, (at almost $60 a day- a complete rip-off- but what can you do?) We drove to Kairouan (the mosque and mausoleum are a must see), then on to Tozeur (not much to see except date farms and rabid dogs)- however the "Republique" restaurant on Ave. Bourgiba was incredible, cheap and super filling. We heard Knights in White Satin on the radio while we were eating, which was really cool for some reason.

Then we headed toward Gabes and Matmata. We hit a pot hole from Hell and bent the rim and discovered that the spare wheel was even more bent and spent the rest of the day limping through the next two towns trying to find another wheel. We finally did and made it to Matmata at dusk and had another totally incredible meal at an underground hotel. We stayed at the Marhala, which is the best one by far, as well as the cheapest) which was totally cool and about $22 including the wonderful 3-course meal and petite dejeuner the next morning. We walked around and explored the lame little museum the next day and headed toward El Djem where the famous Roman colloseum is. We really loved touring the arena and pretending we were gladiators yelling out "Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!" (see picture from the colloseum below) We then sped back to Hammamet that evening on the Peage (turnpike)- the best way to make good time but you don't get to pass through all the cool little 3rd world towns with the suicidal schoolkids walking in the middle of the road and the bloody sheep carcasses hanging as advertisments for freshness at all the roadside BBQ shops. I've never been somewhere, including Mexico, where people have driven more crazily and where pedestrians had less concern for their lives. I was constantly praying I wouldn't hit someone walking out into the street without looking- which was about every 5 minutes...

But aside from the stressful driving conditions we really had a great time. Tunisians love Americans for some reason and we had little trouble communicating or finding a student who could translate. The people are super nice, helpful and friendly, however the merchants will take advantage of the language barrier to short change you at every opportunity, or try to give you a half a kilo for the price in the window, instead of a whole kilo, so be careful. Learing some numbers and basic phrases in French would be indispensible. Also, don't expect to be reimbursed if you have to fix anything on the car you rent, and the car you rent will undoubtably be almost empty, so make sure to return the car as empy as you can or you will just donate it. You will NEVER get American money back at the airport either, so be sure to spend it all before you leave. There are ATM's all over the place, so carrying a whole lot of money really isn't necessary anyway.

We really had a wonderful time, saw amazing architecture, had long, interesting conversations with interesting locals and other tourists from all over, and generally enjoyed ourselves and learned a lot. We would recommend it to anyone with an adventurous spirit and an open disposition, which of course goes for any foreign travel really, especially in a 3rd world country and being on a budget like we were. Enjoy and Shokran!