Barrhead Travel Destination of the Week: Tunisia

This week's featured destination is in sunny North Africa.

Sands of Time – Tunisia

On the map it’s just a nugget of a country clinging to a crag at the top of a vast continent, but on the ground the reality turns out to be something quite different.

It’s certainly Africa, but the architecture has overtones of Moorish Spain, the history has associations with ancient Italy, the language originates from the Middle East and the flavours are redolent of France, along with groves of olives, yards of vines, miles of beaches and swathes of Sahara. Yes, Tunisia packs a surprisingly big punch for a tiny country.

In fact, this little slice of North Africa is far more bewitchingly exotic than most other winter sun destinations, despite being closer to the UK than many at under three hours’ flying time.

A factor which, when combined with the increasing desire among travellers to avoid the eurozone, means Tunisia has done steady business of late, attracting holidaymakers who might otherwise have been tempted by the likes of the Canaries or Cyprus. Tunisia represents particularly good value, especially if you’ve an interest in thalassotherapy, history, desert landscapes, empty beaches and/or golf.

Summer visitors tend to be on two-week family holidays and stick to popular resorts like Hammamet, Port el Kantaoui and Djerba. Winter visitors typically go for a shorter duration and will favour more cultural experiences, sampling the desert oases and ancient cities, and are becoming increasingly interested in the country’s growing stock of boutique hotels.

The shoulder season, particularly autumn, can be very busy while the sea is still warm.

The big news in recent years has been the completion of upscale resort Yasmine Hammamet and the opening of a golf course attached to The Residence, Tunisia’s top hotel. Golf is earmarked for further development, with the present 10 courses expected to double within the next decade.

There is also the imminent opening of Enfidha Airport, 50 miles south of Tunis in Tunisia’s main tourist resort area, built in expectance of a substantial increase in visitors.

Sousse

The Tunisian equivalent of Barcelona comfortably combines business and tourism, with a port and a promenade at the heart of the city. There are bright lights as well as a 1,000 year old medina protecting a maze of narrow pedestrian-only streets. From the tower of the Ribat, a fortified monastery built in 827, you look across a townscape of tiny coloured pieces like thousands of carefully arranged eggshells. Proximity to the giant mosque at Kairouan and the amphitheatre at El Jem make this a good focal point for culture. If you don’t want to stay in town – and there’s a spanking new Moevenepick hotel to encourage you to do so – then the purpose built marina resort of Port el Kantaoui is only six miles north. Developed in 1979 in traditional Tunisian style, the resort is made up of brilliant white buildings, cobbled streets and narrow walkways.

Hammamet

There’s a variety of beach resorts to choose from up and down Tunisia’s coast, but Hammamet remains a perennial favourite. Its beaches are, of course, excellent, particularly south of the old town, and have all the usual watersports on offer. Hammamet also boasts a medina of its own, with an old fortress now largely populated by funky cafes and surrounded by craft and souvenir shops. The town is a well-balanced mix of traditional Tunisian style and international resort, and the proximity to Tunis 40 miles away makes the big city easily accessible for a day trip. Southern Hammamet has been recently rebranded as Yasmine Hammamet, named after the jasmine that grows in profusion and the resort now hosts a range of five-star hotels and upmarket shopping centres. The town’s location at the food of Cap Bon gives access to a small peninsula with miles of unblemished sand and unspoiled coastline. There are caves full of bats at the falconer’s village of El Haouaria, a Spanish castle and fishing port at Kelibia, and a hinterland covered in vines and wild flowers.

Tunis

Tunis is where Paris meets Tales from the Arabian Nights. The centre is charming and traffic-free and you can buy a baguette or café au lait with the aid of your schoolboy French in the wider, post-colonial city. In the intricate maze of narrow lanes of the 1300 year old walled medina, the ancient centre where a lot of people live out their lives, you won’t want to do much more than wander through the souks, rich with smells of leather and perfume. The variety of merchandise and haggling is the norm. While in the medina, pop you head into the Great Mosque, sip mint tea in a café and try the wonderfully named brik a l’ouef, effectively an egg fried in pastry.

Carthage

Back around 200BC, the Carthaginians dominated the Mediterranean. The remains of their capital city is now part of the northern Tunis suburbs and there’s an extensive museum both on the site and in the Bardo a short drive away. Equally interesting at Carthage is the Punic Port, where a secret lagoon was excavated and a massive circular hangar erected, large enough for 250 warships. Here there’s a nifty Oceanographic Museum and a scale model of what it all must have once looked like. If you’re heading to Carthage on the metro – as most visitors do – then it would be foolish not to continue a couple of stops afterwards to Sidi Bou Said, the charismatic village suburb on a hill overlooking the sea, where Tunisian and international celebrities live.

Djerba

In summer it’s a popular beach destination and in winter it’s far enough south to have a better climate than the majority of Tunisia’s beach resorts, but the island of Djerba – connected to the mainland by a causeway – also has its own distinctive cultural appeal. For a start, it’s low-slung architecture is indicative of the varied ethnicities living here and it has several charismatic funduqs in Homt Souk, its main town ,which were once caravanserais (roadside inns) offering food and shelter to itinerant merchants. All are reminders of Djerba’s long history as a key meeting and trading place on the Med. The island is also far enough south to give access to some of the extraordinary landscapes of the Ksour, including the surreal village of Matmata, where many people still live in cave houses under the ground.

The Sahara

The southernmost third of Tunisia is mainly desert, but desert with great variety. Beside the dunes, there are arid mountains, salt lakes and oases, and all have something to offer tourists. Most choose to base themselves at Tozeur, an oasis with an airport and a labyrinthine old quarter, with walls of delicately patterned brickwork. In the palmeraie itself, the filtered light under the canopy of palms, twitters and rustles, distant voices argue over irrigation and old men lurch down foot-hardened paths, seeking fresh grass for their donkeys. The second most popular oasis, Douz, compensates for its lack on intrinsic charm by providing all sorts of desert activities, from go-karting to ballooning and camel trekking. The nomadic Adhara camelteers gather at the village of Zaafrane, from where, if you wish, you can negotiate a five-day desert crossing to Ksar Ghilane.

Thalassotherapy

The Carthaginians knew about the benefits of bathing in warm seawater even before the Romans built their thermal baths in the Cap Bon region. Today, seawater cures and treatments that maximise the therapeutic effects of marine minerals are huge in Tunisia and second only to France – but at a lower price. Mostly they take place in the larger hotels and especially in purpose-built recent resorts like Yasmine Hammamet. Typically they will offer a proper medical assessment followed by a course of treatments which are particularly good for joints, muscles and skin. Most will have a seawater pool and offer the likes of seaweed wraps, massage and even traditional hammam, Turkish baths.

For all of your Tunisia travel needs be sure to make Barrhead Travel your first port of call. Phone one of our friendly consultants today on 0871 226 2673 or visit www.barrheadtravel.co.uk and start planning your holiday to Tunisia today!