Tunisia Travel Guide

The Tunisian capital concentrates the country's headline cultural sites within twenty kilometres of the central medina. The UNESCO-listed medina of Tunis (ninth-century origin) is one of the largest preserved Arab old cities in the world — the Zitouna Mosque, the Souk el Attarine for perfumes, the Souk el Berka for jewellery, the Souk Sidi Mahrez for textiles, and the great gates of Bab el Bhar and Bab Saadoun frame the daily life. The Bardo Museum on the western edge of the city holds the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics, including the famous Virgil mosaic and the Mahdia shipwreck bronzes. North of Tunis, the Roman site of Carthage stretches across the suburb of the same name — Byrsa Hill with the National Museum, the Antonine Baths on the sea, the Punic ports, the Carthage National Theatre festival each summer, and the Tophet sanctuary. The cliffside village of Sidi Bou Saïd above Carthage is one of the Mediterranean's most photographed places — blue-and-white Andalusian-style houses, the café des Nattes that opened in the eighteenth century, the Dar El Annabi traditional house museum, and panoramic views over the Gulf of Tunis. La Marsa beach and the modern lake-city of Berges du Lac complete the metropolitan circuit.

The Tunisian Mediterranean coast running south from Tunis is one of Europe's largest beach-resort regions. Hammamet — the original Tunisian beach destination, with the original walled medina and the Yasmine Hammamet purpose-built resort zone — sits on the Cap Bon peninsula. Sousse (UNESCO World Heritage Site) holds one of the most complete medina-and-ribat ensembles in the Maghreb, with the casbah and the Sousse Archaeological Museum (the second-largest mosaic collection in the country after the Bardo). Monastir, twenty kilometres south, holds the dramatic Ribat of Monastir (built in 796 AD, used as a film set for the 1979 Monty Python's Life of Brian) and the Habib Bourguiba mausoleum. Mahdia further south is the quiet first capital of the Fatimid Caliphate (909 AD), with a peninsular medina and one of the country's best uncrowded beaches. The Cap Bon peninsula between Hammamet and Tunis carries the Carthaginian site of Kerkouane (UNESCO, the only surviving Punic town), and the inland mountain town of Nabeul for ceramics and the famous orange-blossom water festival in March.

The Djerba island in the south of the Tunisian coast (off the Gulf of Gabès) is one of the country's headline destinations and has the deepest Mediterranean cultural depth: the Erriadh El Ghriba synagogue is one of the oldest synagogues in Africa (foundation stones reportedly from the destruction of the First Temple, current building 1920s), with a major Lag BaOmer pilgrimage every spring; Houmt Souk is the central market town with white-and-blue Andalusian architecture; the Borj El Kebir fortress dominates the harbour. The Erriadh village hosts “Djerbahood”, an open-air street-art project that has covered the village with works by 250+ international artists. Djerba is reached by ferry from Jorf to Ajim (15 minutes), by the Roman Causeway from Zarzis (a continuous 7-km road causeway built on Roman foundations) or directly by air at Djerba-Zarzis International Airport (DJE). The Kerkennah islands further north, off Sfax, are the quieter alternative — flat, palm-fringed, fishing-village authentic.

Tunisia carries one of the deepest Roman archaeological stacks in the world. The amphitheatre of El Jem (UNESCO) is the third-largest in the Roman Empire after the Colosseum and the Capua arena — third-century AD construction, a 35 000-seat capacity, and exceptionally complete preservation. Dougga (UNESCO, ancient Thugga) is the most complete Roman city in Africa, set on a hillside two hours west of Tunis with the Capitol, the Theatre, the Libyco-Punic Mausoleum, and one of the most intact temple complexes in the Mediterranean. Bulla Regia further west (UNESCO World Heritage candidate) preserves the famous underground villas — Roman patricians built half their houses below ground for the cool, with the upper floors collapsed and the lower-floor mosaics still in place. Thuburbo Majus, Sufetula at Sbeitla, Carthage itself, the Punic site of Kerkouane (UNESCO) and the Cap Bon Cathaginian-Roman coast form the rest of the deep-history circuit. The Bardo Museum in Tunis holds the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics — many of the major pieces from these sites can be seen there.

Kairouan in central Tunisia is the fourth holy city of Islam after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and one of the great early Islamic foundations — the Great Mosque of Sidi Uqba (670 AD, the oldest place of Muslim worship in North Africa), the Aghlabid Basins (ninth-century reservoirs that supplied the city), the medina with the Mausoleum of Sidi Sahbi (the “Mosque of the Barber”, after Muhammad's companion Abu Zama'a el-Belaoui buried here with three hairs of the Prophet's beard), and the carpet-weaving tradition that gives Kairouan its second name as the carpet capital of North Africa. Sfax on the central coast is Tunisia's second city — the country's most intact full-circuit medina walls (only Maghreb city with continuous fortified medina walls preserved through the modern era), the Borj Ennar lighthouse, and the surrounding olive-oil region (Tunisia is one of the world's largest olive-oil producers). The Cap Bon peninsula and the Tell mountain range to the north carry the Roman heartland, and the desert-fringe oases run from Gabès down through Matmata (the Berber pit-houses, used for Luke Skywalker's home in the original Star Wars) to the Sahara south.

The southern third of Tunisia is the Sahara, with three principal gateway towns. Tozeur is the date-palm oasis capital and gateway to the Chott el Jerid (Tunisia's vast salt lake, 5 000 km², visible-from-space dry-season pink crystallisation), the Ong Jemel mountain ridge and the Mos Espa Star Wars set still standing in the desert near Nefta — the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones used the same set, which is preserved intact. Douz to the south-east of the Chott el Jerid is the camel-trekking and dune-camping town, with the Festival International du Sahara every December (camel races, Berber-Tuareg music, hounds-and-rabbits hunting demonstrations). The Tataouine region carries the dramatic Berber ksour — fortified granaries that descend from the seventh-century Berber tribes — Ksar Ouled Soltane (the most photogenic, four-storey vaulted granary cells), Chenini (the cliff-village clinging to the ridge), Douiret and Ksar Ghilane oasis. Tataouine itself is the namesake of the Star Wars planet Tatooine, and Matmata further north is the troglodyte Berber pit-house village that Lucasfilm used for Luke Skywalker's home — the Hotel Sidi Driss is the actual filming location and is still operating as a hotel.

Tunisian cuisine is one of the most distinctive in the southern Mediterranean — a Berber base layer with Andalusian, Arab, Sicilian, French and Ottoman influences. The headline dishes are couscous (the Tunisian version with chickpeas, lamb and harissa, served especially on Fridays), brik (a thin malsouka pastry filled with egg, tuna and capers, deep-fried), tajine tunisien (an oven-baked egg-and-meat tart, very different from the Moroccan dish of the same name), lablabi (chickpea soup with bread, cumin, harissa and lemon), kafteji (mixed fried vegetables with egg) and the long fish-and-shellfish line of the Mediterranean coast. Harissa, the chilli-paste condiment, is the country's signature taste and was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2022. The hammam (steam-bath) culture is woven into daily life — traditional hammams in the Tunis medina (Hammam Kachachine, Hammam Halfaouine) and the modern hotel hammams in the resort towns. Mint tea, café tunisien (Turkish-style, with cardamom and sometimes orange-blossom water) and the Boukha (the fig brandy, Tunisia's traditional spirit) are the day-to-day drinks. Tunisia's wine tradition (Vignerons de Carthage and the smaller domaines) survives from the long French Protectorate, and the Mornag and Grombalia wine regions on the Cap Bon peninsula are visitable.