Nabeul

Hammamet's walled medina, smaller and generally quieter than the larger medinas at Tunis or Sousse, sits directly against the old town's own beach — a layout that let the town grow as a resort destination around its historic core rather than displacing it. The Kasbah, on a rise above the medina, gives views over the old town's rooftops to the sea. Further along the coast, Yasmine Hammamet is a purpose-built resort development from the 1990s — hotels, a marina and a reconstructed medina-style shopping district built specifically for the package-holiday market, distinct in character from the genuine old town it borrows its aesthetic from.

Kerkouane is unique among Carthaginian-era sites for a specific reason: it was abandoned after being destroyed in the Third Punic War (146 BCE) and never rebuilt, which means its street plan and house foundations survive exactly as Punic Carthage itself would have looked before Rome rebuilt the capital in its own image. The site's excavated houses still show distinctively Punic features rarely visible elsewhere — private bathrooms with terracotta tubs, and floor mosaics using a technique that predates the Roman mosaic tradition the Bardo Museum is famous for. UNESCO-listed since 1985, Kerkouane rewards visitors specifically interested in the Punic civilization that Roman-era rebuilding erased almost everywhere else.

Nabeul town, a short drive inland from Hammamet, has been Tunisia's ceramics centre since at least the Ottoman period, and its workshops — many still family-run, clustered along the main road into town — produce the blue-and-white geometric ware and yellow-glazed pottery sold in souks across the country. Visiting a workshop directly, rather than buying from a resort gift shop, is the more genuine way to see the technique and generally offers better prices. Nabeul's March orange-blossom water festival marks the Cap Bon's citrus harvest, when the peninsula's orchards are in bloom.