Carthage before lunch. The Sahara by Thursday.
Tunisia is small enough that the mosaics, the medinas and the dunes all fit into one week. What each day out costs, how long it runs, and which ones are worth the early start.
Four days that decide the shape of a Tunisian week.
The bookings a first trip here tends to hang off, what each one costs and how long it takes.
01The first day outVIP Tour: Tunis Medina/Bardo, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage |PICKUP ALLCarthage, the Bardo mosaics and the blue lanes of Sidi Bou Said, with a driver doing the joining up.
02Two days south2-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour with Food & Stay from HammametA night in a desert camp beyond Douz, camels at sunrise, and back on the coast the following evening.
03The Roman half dayPrivate Half Day Tour Roman Coliseum EL JEMEl Jem is a full-height amphitheatre in a town of olive groves. You can walk the tunnels under the arena floor.
04The Djerba boat dayDjerba Flamingo Island Pirate Boatrip – Trip, Lunch & Pick-upFlamingo Island by pirate boat, lunch served on deck, and dolphins in the channel more often than not.
The Sahara starts about four hours from the beach.
South of Douz the road gives out and the dunes take over. Four ways to do it, from an hour in the saddle to two days and a night under canvas.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Private Day Trip Ksar Ghilane Oasis
Two days and a nightCamp beyond the last village, camels at sunrise, back the next evening.
An hour in the saddleA camel at dusk or a quad on the dunes, straight out of Douz or Djerba.
Cave houses and ksourPit dwellings at Matmata and the granary walls at Ksar Ouled Soltane.
The film setsMos Espa and Ong Jemel, still standing on the sand outside Nefta.
All 37 Sahara days out →
Six Tunisian bases, and the best day out from each.
The capital and its Roman suburbs, two beach towns half of Europe already knows, the Sahel ribats, and an oasis where the tarmac gives up.
Tunisia kept more of Rome than most of Italy did.
Carthage was the empire’s second city, and the country behind it is still full of what Rome left: a full-height arena at El Jem, a hill town at Dougga you can walk end to end, and floor after floor of mosaic in the Bardo.
The Tunisian days out with the longest queues.
Every tour in Tunisia →More travellers take these than anything else in the country. What each one actually delivers is underneath.
1
VIP Tour: Tunis Medina/Bardo, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage |PICKUP ALL
Review of a private Sousse to Tunis tour covering Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, and Tunis Medina, with flexible pickup and driver-host support.
From · $30
Read our review →
2
Fun VIP Tour: El Jem, Kairouan, Monastir/Sousse (PICKUP ALL City)
from $30
3
Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet
from $98
4
Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunch
from $46
5
Discovery ride on horseback or camel 2h30
from $45
6
Carthage, Bardo Museum, Sidi Bou Said and Medina Private Day Tour
from $30
7
Cook and Connect: Tunisian Culinary Adventure with a Local Family
from $75
8
Quad ride on the hills of Hammamet
from $46
Tunisia’s beach towns are also its harbours, forts and pottery streets.
Djerba is flat, warm and shallow enough to wade a long way out. North of it the Sahel keeps its ribats and its catacombs, and Hammamet keeps a fort with its feet in the sand.
Every day out in Djerba →What a day out in Tunisia actually costs.
Every tour here, grouped by price. A good number of the best Tunisian days come in under the price of a beach dinner.
Medina walks, the Bardo, half a day in Sidi Bou Said and the short hops out of the beach towns.
The full days: El Jem and Kairouan together, the Roman hill at Dougga, an afternoon on a quad.
Two days south with a night in the dunes, private drivers, and the 4x4 runs deep into the Sahara.
Three things Tunisia has that nowhere else does.
Ruins and dunes run all round the Mediterranean. A full-height Roman arena in a market town, houses dug downwards into the hills, and a film set left standing in the sand do not.
The Amphitheatre at El Jem
El Jem seats thirty-five thousand and still stands close to its full height, in a Sahel town of about twenty thousand people. You go in through the arches the crowd used, then down into the tunnels where the animals and the fighters waited under the arena floor. Almost nothing is roped off, and there is rarely a queue at the gate.
- 1Fun VIP Tour: El Jem, Kairouan, Monastir/Sousse (PICKUP ALL City)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 451 reviews
- 2Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 301 reviews
- 3Daytrip to Kairouan and El Jem Colosseum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 55 reviews
The Pit Houses of Matmata
Families here dug a round courtyard straight down into the soft hill, then cut the rooms sideways off it. The result stays cool through a forty-degree afternoon and is close to invisible from the road above. Several are still lived in, and a few take visitors in for tea and a look at the grain stores.
- 1One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – Matmata★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 53 reviews
- 2Door of the tunisian desert Ksar Ghilane and Matmata: Full one Day★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 42 reviews
- 3Out of time Berber villages Tekrouna and Zriba Alia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 42 reviews
Mos Espa and Ong Jemel
The Tatooine sets went up on open sand west of Nefta and most were never taken down. The domes and the moisture vaporators are still there, filling slowly with dune, and the ridge at Ong Jemel next door is where the sandcrawler shots were made. Only a 4x4 gets across to either.
- 1Tamerza, Chebika, Mides and Star Wars locations Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18 reviews
- 2Half Day Star Wars Film Set Locations Private Tour from Tozeur★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12 reviews
- 3Full day Star Wars Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10 reviews
Four Tunisian trips that will not wait for a walk-in.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hotel desk the night before. These four run on 4x4 seats, camp beds and drivers who want a day’s notice.
- 01One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – MatmataThe oasis lies at the end of a long desert track, so what you are buying is a seat in a 4x4. They leave early and they leave full.
- 02Tamerza, Chebika, Mides and Star Wars locations Day TourMos Espa sits on open sand beyond Nefta and only a 4x4 reaches it. The light worth photographing is the first hour, which means leaving Tozeur in the dark.
- 03Private Excursion to Testour, Dougga and Bulla Regia from Tunis.Dougga and Bulla Regia are inland with no useful train and no bus worth the day. Every visit is a car and a driver arranged in advance.
- 042-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour with Food & Stay from HammametTwo days south runs on one morning pickup and a camp with a fixed number of beds. Miss the departure and the next one is tomorrow.
July inland is brutal. Build the day around the shade.
The coast keeps a sea breeze and the desert keeps none at all. From late June the sensible shape of a day is early and outside, then under a roof while the sun does its worst: mosaic halls, covered souks, a hammam, the cool rooms of an old palace.
By place, coast to desert
By kind of day, ruin, souk, dune or saddle
Tunis, the Sahel, El Jem, then south to the dunes.
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