This is Arabia at its most laidback and tolerant. An easy African destination and a hotchpotch of cultural diversity to cover a continent, Tunisia tops the list of African holiday destinations. No doubt. If you picture camel trips to the undulating Sahara, medieval medinas exploration and crazy clogged market shopping, salt lakes Fata Morgana and the pervading feel of Rome's richest imperial province, it's hard to resist the temptation of visiting. Although travelers outnumber the locals in holiday season here, don't fear tourist traps and follow the Opentravel top 25 to embrace the sun caressed beaches, barren deserts framed with fertile oases, eerie Berber architecture and French colonial boulevards, rural hospitality and top notch hotel lodging. So, no time wasted...
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Photo by GIRAUD Patrick
The sights of El Jem are mostly covered with sand and the city is a rather sleepy place lacking much character. But if you take a closer look you shall find one of the biggest amphitheatres in the world right here. This impressive structure is a 3rd century remnant of the Roman Empire which, with...
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Location: Tunisia
Photo by riverac
When you hear the name of Sidi Bou Said, just picture white washed houses framed with blue roofs and windows, drapes of flowers adding awesome colors to the scene and narrow winding walkways. What you end up with is a quaint picturesque Tunisian village perched peacefully on a hill somewhere 20 k...
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Photo by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo
Just arm yourself with some good sense of humor, a sharp hunting eye, haggling skills and a convincing expression of disinterest on your face, and there you are, ready for the shopping adventure of a lifetime! The bazaar is an unforgettable sensual feast of colors, sounds and tastes. It won't tak...
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Photo by alex and mac
An ecological jewel and a scenic oasis at the doors of Sahara, Djerba, draws tourists in numbers with its exceptional sandy beaches and peaceful countryside. The popularity of this North African largest island is surely well-deserved. It is here where hundreds years of history influenced by the R...
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Photo by Ptit@l
An architectural landmark itself, the Bardo Musum is a great example of 17th century Arab-Moslem design of vaulted ceilings, galleries and cupolas. Originally a Hafside palace expanded throughout the centuries, today Bardo houses the finest collections of Roman mosaics and far more. Its exhibits...
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Photo by Moscvitch
Tunesian vacations are never complete without some camel-and-sand exploration of the Sahara Desert. The best spot to mount the animal and hit the enormous ‘sandbox' is Douz, often dubbed as ‘The Sahara Gateway', an oasis at the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental. The caravan will have tall, smoot...
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Photo by BishkekRocks
One of the oldest cities in Tunisia, Sousse, held an important status of a commercial and military port at the turn of the 9th and 10th century which with its kasbah, ramparts and a typical ribat formed a part of a coastal defence system. Today Sousse is still regarded as having probably the fine...
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Photo by Jaume Ollé
You visit Chott el Djerid not only to admire the natural beauty of this saline lake with the salty crust shores gleaming in the dazzling sun and an empty eerie feel but also for the awesome optics and deceptive mirages. Its salt crystals dispersed in the baking heat of the day cause the legendary...
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Chenini
Location: Tunisia
Photo by Elcèd77
To a true Star Wars lover the very name of Chenini rings a bell loudly. It is exactly here, in the Tataouine district of south-eastern Tunisia, where some scenes of the famed sci-fi trilogy were shot. Barren and eerie as it is, the area attracts with some preserved dwellings and a mosque. Like mo...
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Gabes Oasis
Location: Tunisia
Photo by phileole
The world's only seaside oasis, Gabes, is almost like the lush Garden of Eden set in a desert dry land. The oasis water supplies come from over 150 artesian wells giving up to 650 liters of water each second. Properly irrigated, the fertile land bears plentiful fruit in market gardens and orchard...
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Dougga
Photo by Simon Blackley
For the Roman feel of grandeur and majesty, head for Dougga, a small town in the north of Tunisia that holds the remains of a UNESCO World Heritage listed Roman town. Once an important military post close to the heartland of the Carthaginian territory and a Roman regional administrative center, D...
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Location: Tunisia
Photo by Asram
Blessed with stretches of golden sands, pine-clad slopes filling the air with an awesome scent and some beautiful colonial houses, Tabarka has a well-earned reputation of an attractive holiday resort. A stay here will surely soothe you with laidback atmosphere, calming views of the bay and outsta...
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Photo by dalbera
Completely flattened in 146 BC by the Roman Senator Cato's order ‘Carthago est delenda', Carthago needs to be destroyed, this powerful trading empire of Phoenician and Punic era managed to restore its old splendor and survive the Roman raiders for almost twice as many centuries. Although the l...
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Photo by mamnaimie
It is reputed that seven visits to the Great Mosque of Uqba are equivalent to one Mecca pilgrimage. Surely, even when doing mere sightseeing, one visit might not be enough to embrace this impressive structure and ornamentation. The mosque can be entered through nine gates but non-Muslims are all...
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Photo by Asram
If unusual natural phenomena incite your explorer's streak, head to Tamerza in the western part of Tunisia, the largest mountain oasis in the country. Extreme temperature variations make it sparsely populated, and there's even a ghost town, reportedly abandoned by its inhabitants in 1969 after 22...
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Photo by Mutari
Hammamet is the oldest and still most eagerly visited resort of Tunisia, the popularity being attributed to a string of amber-colored beaches, a choice of atmospheric cafes, jasmine growing literally all over the place, and pampering resorts, most of which remain discreet, medium sized, and coz...
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Photo by Tab59
No specialist knowledge is necessary to claim with certainly that the mosque of the olive tree, as its name translates, lies at the heart of Tunis both literally and in spiritual terms. The way it is wrapped by the urban fabric of Tunis suggests it was the core around which the city has consisten...
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Location: Tunisia
Photo by zongo69
There are at least two reasons why the little, lunar-like village of Matmata is extremely popular with tourists. First of all, the opening scenes of ‘Star Wars' were shot right here, and visitors can spend the night in the Sidi Driss hotel, the underground home of Luke Skywalker. The second rea...
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Location: Tunisia
Photo by Tab59
As the only natural UNESCO Heritage Site in North Africa, the Ichkeul National Park is particularly dear to Tunisians, and so it is for enormous flocks of migrating birds that choose the tranquil spot for a major stopover point. Located in northern Tunisia, about 15 kilometers southwest of Bizert...
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Photo by mamnaimie
Adorning the tip of a rocky protrusion at the south end of the Gulf of Hammamet, president Habib Bourguiba's hometown has quickly transformed into one of the most eagerly visited resorts in Tunisia. Just off the Monastir harbor rises the perfectly preserved Ribat, which is widely held as the most...
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El Kef
Location: Tunisia
Photo by Ptit@l
This small city in northwest Tunisia is almost entirely off tourist radars, which means it has a lot of authentic feel and opportunities to interact with locals are copious, especially in tiny cafes dotting the narrow, labyrinthine streets. Built on the cliff face of the Jebel Dyr mountain, the c...
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Photo by skuds
Blessed with fabulous seaside location all along the amazing coastline of Cap Bon peninsula, Nabeul might have its beaches noisy and crowded, but it is not sunbathing tourist flock here for. Nabeul is the national center of pottery and ceramics, whose forms, patterns, and sizes can really make yo...
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Photo by Asram
With foundations laid by the Aragonese in the 13th century and further additions made by the Spanish in 1585, Borj el-Kebir is by far the most recognizable landmark of seaside Mahdia, Tunisia's former capital. The fortress may appear as a plain, almost entirely unadorned sandstone building, but i...
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Photo by Asram
As the only surviving example of a Phoenicio-Punic city, the ruins of Kerkuane and its Necropolis are really worth contemplating for a while, especially compared to other sites that did not fare so well under the Romans. The remains, whose original layout is clearly visible, not only reveal surpr...
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Location: Tunisia
Photo by Ahmedettoro
Two millenniums ago, the natural fortress of Jughurta's Table served as a refuge for Berbers struggling to hold off the Romans in a 12-year campaign. Today, the gigantic flat topped mountain watches over Tunisia's deserted back door as well as parts of Algeria, but is certainly not just the barr...
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