Tunis, Carthage
and Sidi Bou Saïd
for the perfect blend of seaside, city sights and ancient sites
To please all of the people all of the time may seem an impossible target, but the stretch of coast around Tunis, Tunisia’s green and white capital, comes close to hitting it spot on. This area covers just about everything you could possibly wish for in a holiday year round. Relaxation in really sybaritic hotels with great beaches, spas and water sports, plus plenty of diversions when you feel like doing something. It’s only half-an-hour at most between the city and the resorts, an area packed with interest and a great jumping-off point for excursions further afield.
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Tunis: the Continent meets Scheherazade
The first impression is more Côte d’Azur than North Africa. Leafy boulevards, chic restaurants and street cafés – even twirly-topped poster pillars. Tunis gets sleeker by the minute. Pavements are wide along the main Avenue Habib Bourguiba and the standard of accommodation is international.
Only in the ancient Medina is there a gear-change from cosmopolitan to indigenous culture, yet the souks these days have a veneer of sophistication. Their paving stones shine from centuries of footfalls and the craft work is irresistible. Pottery, silverware, tooled leather and carpets vie with shimmery embroidered shawls and goatskin lampshades. As in souks everywhere, haggling is an expected ritual. Play the game, it’s part of the fun, and that Berber carpet or brass tray will forever carry the memory of a well-done deal. If you balk at bargaining, shop at SOCOPA, the fixed-price state-run handicraft emporiums outside the Medina (one is at the Palmarium centre in Avenue Habib Bourguiba).
There are, of course, more profound attractions in this medieval walled citadel, where Islamic and Renaissance architecture collide. The great Zitouna Mosque can only be viewed from outside, but the ornate Dar Ben Abdullah, the mansion of a well-heeled 18thcentury merchant, is now a museum offering riveting insights into his life and times. Signs point the way to other palaces, mosques and mausoleums – Dar Hussein, Tourbet El Bey and Dar Othman. But just to wander between sunlight and shadow is a pleasure, glimpsing courtyard fountains and decorative doorways.
Mooching about in the Medina
Inside a gloriously tiled café, young men sit smoking hookah pipes – but it’s not as exclusive as it appears. Peer round the corner. A white-haired Englishwoman is ordering Turkish coffee. Two tanned teenagers are sipping Sprites... The Medina is used to tourists. It thrives on them. But you’ll never feel hassled. Tunisians can take no for an answer.
You’re hungry? Restaurant Mahdaoui, in the covered souk opposite the Zitouna Mosque, does lunch for under £5 – a fast turnover of simple Tunisian dishes means everything is cooked fresh. For a more lavish setting and fuller menu of delicious traditional food, try Dar El Jeld or Dar Bel Hadj, restaurants in romantic old Ottoman town houses. Meals here are about £20 a head. Or if a sandwich – tuna, salad – is all you want (cassecroûte in Tunisia), that can be around £1. Restaurant M’Rabet in Souk Ettrouk is good for quick refreshments.
There’s also plenty of choice outside the Medina along the new town’s boulevards and in the suburbs where you can eat fast food or French, Italian or international at whatever price-level suits you. (A list of good eating places will be provided with your tickets.)
The gem of Sidi Bou Saïd
On a headland visible from the golden beaches of Gammarth and La Marsa, and only half-an-hour by little local train from the capital, this dazzling white village smothered in flowers inevitabl draws attention. But, busy or not, it never loses its appeal – and in the evening when the day visitors have gone, it is a total delight. Once an artists’ haunt, Sidi Bou Saïd is a picture at every turn, built in the Andalusian style with sharp blue shutters and curvaceous window grilles, huge studded doors and pretty courtyards. People stroll on cobbled streets, browsing among handicraft shops, sampling doughnut-style bambalonis, a coffee or a juice in the Café des Nattes or a sundowner and “balcony” sea view at the Café Sidi Chabaane. Take your pick of restaurants with shady gardens and enjoy menus of Tunisian specialities – or a simply-grilled fresh fish.
To get an idea of what it was like actually to live in these charming surroundings, explore the Ennejma Ezzahra, a marvellous Moorish villa once owned by Baron d’Erlanger. Full of exquisite plasterwork, paintings, carpets, marble and whispering fountains, it is also home to an intriguing collection of musical instruments. Staying at the Hotel Dar Saïd, you’ll come even closer to blending into the scenery.
A unique Roman legacy
Just outside Tunis, the Bardo Museum’s Roman mosaics will astonish – they are, it’s said, the most colourful in existence, depicting Romans at play in a way rarely seen elsewhere. Carthage, near Gammarth, was famous as the city of Queen Dido. Vestiges of the Roman settlement which superseded it are still visible, and although the Punic ports have all but gone there are Punic houses near the National Museum of Carthage which itself superbly illustrates the Phoenician period. The site not to miss is Dougga, two hours’ drive from Tunis, a Roman town in a remarkable state of preservation. It was clearly a place to come to market, buy, sell, celebrate and offer thanks to the gods. Temples, forum, theatre, baths and communal loos are in splendid condition. All are in a delightful country setting. Two other sites, Thuburbo Majus and Bulla Regia, one-hour and two-hour drives respectively from the capital, are also exceptional.
Getting around
... is a bargain, whether by taxi or train. It couldn’t be easier to get to Gammarth or Sidi Bou Saïd from Tunis or vice versa. Wigmore can organise personal taxi-tours of the city and around at special rates. Otherwise, your hotel reception can just “call you a cab” when you need one. The little Tunis/La Marsa train is not only cheap, it’s an attraction in itself, shuttling every half-hour through an oriental suburbia of pretty back gardens with satellite dishes and stations with resonant names like Hannibal. It stops at Sidi Bou Saïd and Carthage. Return tickets are under £1!
