Tunisia

With a fairly firm grip on power, the government of Tunisia keeps things fairly safe even for independent travel all the way to the country's desert interior. It's a great place to roam for weeks and just discover what's out there. Rarely considered by the masses, Tunisia should be on every explorers itinerary.

Tunisia - Lonely Planet

Sidi Bou Said

Submitted by chris on Wed, 12/20/2006 - 17:13
From Tunis we took the TGM train to Sidi Bou Said, an upscale town just north of central Tunis. It took us about 30 minutes to get there and cost about a $1. From the train station there is a short walk uphill to the main part of town, which isn't much more than a plaza and a few small side streets. However, Sidi Bou Said isnt known for being a hot spot, it is famous for its beautiful white and blue houses and it's picturesque setting on a bluff overlooking the sea. It is a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee and people watch and to get some air. Another highlight is the small donut shop just behind the main cafe. There you can buy hot fresh sugar donuts for about .10 each and boy are these things amazingly good. I think we ate about 7 of them.

Day in the Old City of Sfax Tunisia

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 22:45

Our mini-bus left Houmt-Souk around 10am after we sat in it for 2 hours until it was full. We then waited at the ferry terminal for another hour and finally arrived in Sfax around 3pm, 3 hours after we had planned to get there.

Our original choice of hotel turned out to be a wee bit shady, after finding a better option we set out to get some dinner. We went to dinner at the "Club My House" restaurant as the menu looked very good with a lot of ice cream, panini, burgers, pizzas etc.. however it turned out that only about 10% of it was available so we were disappointed, but the burger "Big Mic" was satisfactory enough and the juice was fresh and delicious. After eating it was dark so we went back to the Hotel Thyna to rest.

The next morning we set out to see the city's medina, which is not only the largest in Tunsia, but the most authentic since it is not overrun with tourists. Sfax is an industrial and commercial city so not many tourists stop there, however we found the medina quite enjoyable and it was nice to see a part of the country that many other people skip over.

Jerba & Houmt Souk

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 22:28
After leaving Matmata we headed for Jerba where we planned to stay for 3 days. To get there we first had to backtrack through Gabes and catch another mini-bus to Houmt Souk, the primary city on the island of Jerba. To reach Jerba you have to either take a causeway or a ferry. Our mini-bus took the ferry. Our first day in Jerba was spent visiting the beautiful town of Houmt Souk. We visited the white mosques, the fort and the city medina. One of the highlights was in the old Ham, where we found several men running looms. Our second day we rented a scooter and set off to see the rural parts of the island. I am not very experienced riding a motorcycle and doing this in a foreign country was a bit nerve racking. In fact I was down right scared at times as large lorries sped past on the highway. Our moto itinerary included the town of Guellala, a large Synagogue and a lot of olive trees. Jerba is home to Tunisia's largest population of Jews and their presence is recognizable.

Metloui

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 21:33
One of the things that made our visit to Tunisa so fun was that we really didn't know where we were going to go until we got there. After we arrived in Tunis and finally got our luggage from the airline we took a trip to the train station to see the schedules. While standing at the ticket counter we saw a flyer that included a photo of this beautiful train going through the mountains and we said "what is that?". Turns out it was a tourist train that ran a small route in the southern part of the country from a town called Metloui. This seemed like a great place to start our tour of the country so we said why not, let's take the night train to Metloui and see what happens. We arrived in Metloui around 5am, it was very very cold outside and the small train station had no heat. Since nothing was open we just sat in the station (see photo) for about 4 hours until the Lezard Rouge (this cool tourist train) was ready to leave. The Lezard Rouge train is a series of re-furbished old train cars, one of which was owned by the Bae (ruler) of Tunisia.

Touzer

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 21:07

After our ride on the Lezard Rouge in Metloui we caught a mini-bus to Touzer, an oasis town on the edge of the Sahara. Touzer is the central city in this region of the country and is a popular tourist spot for both Tunisians and foreigners. The city serves both as a place to enjoy the oasis as well a jumping off point for excursions such as desert off road, sand-sailing and multi-day trips on camel back.

After a few days of constant travel we were happy to have a nice place to stay in Touzer where we could relax. We spent our first day visiting the old city, eating food and just getting a feel for the place. We also bumped into the same family we met while on the Lezard Rouge and agreed to join them on a 4x4 trip through the desert to see the set from Star Wars Episode I. Driving up and down the dunes was a lot of fun and the desert was beautiful at sunset, we really got lucky meeting such a great family to enjoy the day with. We later met them again in Tunis before we departed.

Walking on the dunes near Touzer

Douz Tunisia - Edge of the Sahara Travel Experience

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 20:24
After visiting Touzer we ventured to the town of Douz. Douz is situated on an Oasis just at the edge of the Sahara. When we visited they were having their annual Festival of the Sahara, which probably made the city more vibrant than usual. The festival includes tribes from across the Sahara (Libya, Algeria, Chad, Tunisa etc..) who come and compete in events and sell their wares. When I was there I couldn't help but compare this event to a Native American Pow Wow or even a state fair back at home. Although much of the festivities were based on tradition, I couldn't help but feel that things had become more focused on the visitors than the participants.

Matmata and the Star Wars House

Submitted by chris on Tue, 12/19/2006 - 20:09

Matmata is best known for its troglodyte lodges, which are houses dug into the earth. The most famous of these is the Sidi Driss Hotel, which was used as the film set for Luke Skywalker's house in Star Wars Episode IV (see Video below)

To get here we first had to go to Gabes where we then caught a mini-bus to a town called New Matmata where we then changed to another mini-bus to Matmata. Turns out that several years ago the original Matmata was flooded and the government moved people to New Matmata, yet the original town still exists.

Matmata is a very small village with a number of troglodyte houses. Most of these houses still have inhabitants, so don't just walk up to one of them and start peaking around, the locals won't like that. If you want to get an idea of what these houses are like on the inside one of the homes has been turned into a Museum, which sits behind the Sidi Driss. It is somewhat difficult to spot, but most likely one of the locals will come up to you and offer to take you there without you needing to ask, they will expect a small tip for their efforts. You will also need to tip the proprietor (old lady) who lives in the museum/house.

2005 - Tunisia

Submitted by chris on Fri, 11/24/2006 - 19:53

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In December 2005 we visited Tunisia, where we spent nearly 3 weeks. Tunisia is a very interesting country, especially when you get away from the capital of Tunis and move inland, away from the beach resorts.

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