Tunisia - Travel Blog

Tunisia – Travel Blog:

Tunisia in January might not be everyone’s idea of a nice holiday but it’s probably the ideal time to go there if you want a cheap break with plenty of good weather and no hassle. I spent nine days there and seven of them featured glorious sunshine with great sunrises and sunsets, yet the temperature was only 18C, so ideal for exploring. I did also experience 48 hours of biblical rain but that could happen anywhere, any time.

Medina in Tunis

First of all, how to get there: I flew from Dublin through Istanbul but as Tunisia is a former French colony, there are more flights through French airports and they are relatively inexpensive. I hired a car as usual which was trouble free and good value. Tunisian infrastructure is excellent, particularly in the north, with excellent roads and tolled motorways. Roads get a bit bumpy as you go further south but are still OK.

People are very welcoming everywhere; when they realise you are a tourist, they immediately say ‘welcome to Tunisia,’ and sometimes they ask, ‘what do you think of our country?’ I found this particularly useful when stopped by the traffic police. There are checkpoints everywhere, almost like Russia in the old days. I was stopped numerous times but as soon as they realised I was a tourist, I was welcomed warmly and then waved on. By contrast, in Morocco, which I visited a couple of years ago, I was also stopped numerous times and often fined for either real or imagined offences.

I was told that Tunisia has an excellent education system and most people are multilingual. Obviously everyone speaks Tunisian Arabic and most people also speak French. A lot are fluent in the Berber language and due to their proximity to Sicily, many speak Italian. Most people also have a reasonable command of English but less so than many other African nations.

If you don’t fancy driving, there is an excellent train and bus service so getting around is relatively easy. There are also numerous taxis everywhere, which although I didn’t use, I understand are a very cheap method of transport.

So, what is there to see? If you are a beach person, Tunisia is for you; it has seemingly endless beaches all along its coast with soft sand and a gentle Mediterranean sea. There are some of the Atlas Mountains in Tunisia but none of the high ones. There are some beautiful vistas, particularly around Jendouba and Ayn Darahim but it is not a mountainous country. The landscapes are a contrast between wild deserts in the south and beautiful green farmlands and vineyards in the north. Each of the towns and cities has an old town called a ‘Medina’ where you will usually find an interesting market. The medinas in Tunis and Sousse are particularly interesting and you can lose yourself for hours there. Traders are polite and don’t hassle you, unlike other countries.

The seafront at Sidi-Bou-Said

Beautiful rolling hills and farmland near Dougga.

The highlights for me though were the sites of the ancient ruins. These are spread throughout the country and are well worth visiting. The best known is Carthage, which is very near Tunis but I found far more interesting sites at El Jem, Dougga, Monastir, Hidra, Thuburbo-Majus and Uthina. These are the major sites but there are numerous other smaller ones throughout the country. You can buy a guide book which features each site and gives the history of each. The Carthaginians lived here over 5,000 years ago and had a highly developed society. With the rise of the Roman Empire, they became rivals and fought many wars. The best known Carthaginian was Hannibal, who, for reasons best known to himself decided to attack Rome from the north and went all around Europe with his elephants, eventually crossing the Alps. Sadly, his quest was in vain and eventually the Romans won out and destroyed most of the Carthaginian cities. They then proceeded to build Roman settlements on the same sites so in many places archaeologists cannot tell whether the ruins are Carthaginian or Roman. The one construction that they are sure is Roman are the amphitheaters. These can be found throughout Tunisia, and the best one, almost a duplicate of Rome’s Colosseum, is at El Jem.

El Jem Amphitheatre.

Food wise, the entire country seems to be hooked on pizza. Perhaps it’s the Italian influence. Everywhere you go, menus feature pizzas first. They do other foods as well obviously and their salads are excellent. Meats like lamb, beef and chicken are popular and potatoes and vegetables are omnipresent. There is also a wide range of fish and seafood. If you fancy a glass of wine or a beer with your meal, be careful and check it out in advance because many restaurants don’t serve alcohol. But don’t despair because many do and if you look hard enough and ask, you will find what you need. Eating out is extremely cheap. Most places will serve you a main course (and insist you eat soup beforehand) for less than five euro. The lowest I paid was three euro and the most was fifteen – but this included a bottle of excellent Tunisian wine. Their wine is really good by the way; perhaps the French influence has helped.

Ribat or Castle of Monastir.

Now, some of this comes with a caveat. Most restaurants in the north are reasonably presentable, as in, clean and well appointed. However, some are not and the further south you go, they tend to get even more grubby. Sometimes I had no choice but to use one of these restaurants. To be fair, the food was still excellent but their concept of clean would be a bit removed from ours. By way of explanation, let me digress here. Back in the 1970’s, a well-known Irish supermarket owner flew all his senior managers to the US to show them the concept of a clean floor. People thought it strange at the time but when those managers returned to Ireland, the standard of cleanliness in their shops reached an entirely different level. Ireland, at that time, was probably where Tunisia is now. In other words, what’s clean to them is not to us. This is particularly manifested in the state of their toilets, but I want to stress that it’s not universal. Strangely enough, I found that any public toilets I used were extremely clean and well maintained. To emphasise the different standards, I found more than once that hotel and guest house owners which had very clean rooms recommended places to eat which were far below an acceptable standard. I guess this was what they were used to.

But back to the food; every meal comes with a basket of delicious fresh French bread or sometimes Tunisian, which is even better. It also always includes a salad and a soup, whether you want it or not. One day, I remarked to the waiter that the Tunisian bread was so delicious that I wanted to take away what I hadn’t eaten. He insisted that I take another freshly cooked loaf along with the part I had left and placed both in a plastic bag. Now I should say that this restaurant was not the most appealing from the outside but inside it was fine and the food was superb. I also found the opposite in that some places looked good from the exterior but inside were awful. Part of the problem is that Tunisia has not implemented the ‘no smoking’ rule that most other countries have. As a high proportion of the population smoke, this leads to smoke filled bars and restaurants, sometimes to the point of stifling.

Now, this brings me to one of the downsides of the visit. But it’s not just Tunisia; I have now visited nine different African countries and all of them appear to be obsessed with the plastic bag. Where we in the west are encouraging the use of reusable bags and paper bags, the plastic bag seems almost like the symbol of prosperity in Africa. No matter what you buy, they will put it in a plastic bag. Sometimes they will put it in a small plastic bag and then put that into a bigger one. If, as I did, you say you don’t need the bag, they look at you in horror and insist. The net result of this of course is that the entire country, I would even say continent, is littered with plastic bags. Everywhere you go, unfortunately littering and dumping is commonplace and, as you will see from the photo, the cities and countryside are almost choked with litter. There are organised rubbish collections but most people just seem to ignore them and dump rubbish everywhere. It’s a shame because it takes from the attractiveness of the place. Now to be fair, I have seen careless littering in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal, even to some extent in Ireland, but in Tunisia, it is on an industrial scale. One of the saddest, almost comical sights for me was the cacti in the desert areas festooned with wind-blown plastic bags.

Litter in the Desert.

Litter in Kairouan.

Back to the positives –the standard of hotels and guesthouses is very good and also inexpensive. The most I paid was E40 and the least was E15, and this was for bed and a delicious breakfast. As it was January, hotels were relatively empty and rates were low. You can use any of the major booking agencies but I found I got better value by googling the accommodation directly. Beware though – once again, the further south you go, the places to stay become fewer. For instance, at most of the ancient sites which I named above, there is no accommodation nearby and very limited eating options. Perhaps this is why they are not listed when you google the most interesting places to visit in Tunisia. I found that almost universally, Tunis, Carthage, Sidi-Bou-Said, Sousse, Monastir and Kairouan were the top six. I visited all and they’re fine but look a little deeper and you will find better sites. I think a lot of tourism in Tunisia is organised around stays in Tunis and day trips from there. Effectively that rules out anywhere that requires more than a four hour drive, hence the lack of infrastructure in the south.

Ichkeul National Park.

Going back to the people for a moment, I found most very friendly and while they were eager to chat, their lack of fluency in English (and mine in French) tended to limit the conversation. I did meet a couple of people who were very interested in aspects of their cities and culture who insisted on showing me interesting places and were adamant that they did not want any payment. One coffee shop owner brought me deep into the most interesting part of the medina in Tunis. Now a small word of warning – I did encounter two individuals who were clearly intent on running a scam of some sort. Their approach was to walk up to me and say ‘hi, do you remember me?’ Needless to say, I said I didn’t. They smile and say, ‘I’m security at your hotel.’ Now in both instances I hadn’t checked into a hotel in the cities where I was approached so I just laughed and said no thanks. But beware; some people could be taken in. These guys were very well dressed and looked legitimate. I’m sure this scam is practiced in many countries but it was my first time to encounter it.

The Capitol at Dougga.

Amphitheater at Dougga.

One or two other unusual features which I haven’t encountered elsewhere. All butcher shops hang the slaughtered carcasses outside, as a sort of an advertisement I guess. Now the meat was always clean and the area hygienic so no complaints there. But many shops also had live animals tied up outside. I saw shops with three sheep, two camels and one with a cow (see photo). I don’t know how sensitive or perceptive animals are but it seemed an unnecessary cruelty to me – it was almost as if the butcher was hanging the carcass up and saying to the live animal, ‘you’re next.’

Butcher shop in Kairouan.

I don’t want to end on a negative note because the Tunisian people are very welcoming and warm to visitors and as I said, the few issues I highlighted are just due to them being at a different stage of development. If I were giving advice to the tourist board, I would say keep working the beaches and the ancient ruins but please do something to stop littering and give the place a bit of a makeover. You might also consider banning plastic bags and smoking in restaurants. Believe me, it’ll be worth it. In the meantime, enjoy the sunshine.

Uthina.