For the Christmas Holidays in 2023 we decided to take the family to Tunisia. Somehow, even though we say no more MENA holidays, we keep ending up there and we do keep enjoying ourselves.
We were shocked at how cheap the flights and hotel were and how short the flight was. We flew on EasyJet on the 24th December to Enfidha El Hammamet airport for CHF 700 for the whole family with luggage, and the flight took less than 2 hours and is in the same timezone as Switzerland. We had booked a car at the airport with Avis for EUR 325 for a week. The airport is quite small, but was easy to get through the immigration and collect our bags. We also decided for the first time to try the Airportr (https://airportr.com/en/ ) service. This service comes to your house the days before your flight at a pre arranged time to collect your check in luggage. This was great for the early morning flight we had as it allowed us to just focus on getting to the airport in time for the flight with the kids and not to have to worry about checking in luggage as well.
Collecting the car was a bit more of a hassle. The friendly guy at the airport was a bit stressed and there was an issue with the car seats we had booked with the car. After quite a bit of waiting we got our car and packed off to the hotel. The whole process and set up didn’t really have the quality I expected of a major rental company. It was very much a local outfit operating on behalf of AVIS, but the car was totally fine for what we wanted it for.
First thing we found when we were driving to the hotel was that there are many tolls on the road, but that they are very cheap. You just need to have cash for them. We didn’t for the first one, and thankfully the man let us through anyway. We would need to get some cash out before we drove anywhere else. When we say cash, we literally mean small coins.
We got to the hotel, the Steigenberger Marhaba Thalasso (https://www.marhabahotels.tn/en/marhaba-thalasso-spa-2/ ) to check in and after a pleasant check in we were given our wrist bands (as we had an all inclusive package at the hotel, including BOOZE). We had booked the Bungalow Deluxe, all inclusive through hotels.com for EUR 1,650 for 7 nights. The hotel room was nice enough albeit a tiny bit dated, and there were a couple of minor issues with it (like a kettle that didn’t work), but it was nice to have a separate room for the kids and it was certainly big enough for the four of us to comfortably stay there for a week.
After getting settled in we went for a little walk down to the beach to have a look at it. As Christmas is a bit of an off season for this area, the beach was a bit deserted. However, while the kids were playing down by the water, there was the one seller who approached us and suckered Vanessa into being ripped off for a couple of bracelets/necklaces that the kids liked at a tidy price for him.
The kids also decided that they wanted to go into the pool and have a swim even though the water was pretty cold. We sat at the poolside, ordered a few drinks for ourselves and read our books while the kids played.
When the kids were finished, we got ready to go to dinner in the buffet hall. There was a really good selection of foods on offer. Kieran piled on the meats from both western style and even Tunisian. They tried the pizza but decided that the hotel staff were no good at pizza and avoided them for the rest of the week. But there was so much good food on offer and the wines on the table were pretty good as well, which was a positive introduction to Tunisian wines!
Each evening after dinner there was a kids disco, with the entertainment staff being pretty persistent when it came to rounding up troops to attend. At first the kids were not very keen to give it a go. But by the end of the week they were up on the stage doing all the moves and having a good time. The staff looking after this were so good with the kids and really patient. I could not imagine doing those same moves every night for the whole of a season without it driving me insane.
There were also performances every night. They had gymnastics shows and a magic show from troops outside the hotel. There were also some variety shows on most nights that were done by the in-house team, not as spectacular as the shows from outside teams but they were pretty good anyway. A nice way to finish up the evening before taking the kids off to bed.
Our first full day in the resort was Christmas day. After breakfast they had planned a little surprise for the kids by having Santa arrive on his camel and giving out some gifts to all the kids in the hotel. It was a nice touch and the kids really enjoyed it. It also made the morning pass pretty quickly.
By lunchtime we were realising the biggest problem with an all inclusive hotel was that we were going to eat far too much all week. But the food was great, so after too much food eaten again at lunch it was time for Vanessa and I to have some time to ourselves. We placed the kids in the kids club and Vanessa headed off for a massage while I thought about going for a run or doing some training, but instead just sat by the pool with a book.
After kids club we took the kids to play in the indoor heated pool for a little. Kieran was showing off his skills, and being silly with flips and things, which earned him a warning from the hotel staff. Samantha was also showing how much she had improved with her swimming lessons and getting better every time she came in the pool with me.
Dinner was more of the same. Loads of good food, local and western. Plenty of wine and off to the kids disco and the performance.
The next day, we had planned to head down to the desert to go out into the dunes to a camp resort out there. We grabbed a quick breakfast (but still plenty of food) and made sure we had some cash before heading out at 8am to drive the nearly 500km to Douz at the edge of the Sahara Desert.
The drive down was pretty unspectacular. The roads are a bit crazy, the markings and signs seem to only be suggestions rather than rules. We had to deal with some crazy morning fog which reduced visibility to about 1 metre and there was a lot of dust along the road. We saw a lot of olive trees for the first part of our journey and not long after we left Hammamet there were a couple of petrol stations that we found out later we should have used.
After a couple hundred kilometres it became very desolate near the highway and there was very little to see other than a lot of rubbish by the side of the road. We eventually hit the turn which would see us move from the coastal road to inland. There was a huge concrete factory here that gave the false impression that there was some sort of civilization here. It was at this time that we realized that we were going to be cutting it pretty fine to make it to a big town with the fuel we had. So we started looking out for petrol stations. There were none on the road and as we went through some small villages we noticed a lot of local “petrol stations” which were just guys sitting by the road with a bottle of fuel and a gravity fed funnel to fill the car. We thought there must be a real petrol station on route and so we put one into google and blindly followed the instructions, assuming it would be there. With only 60km left in the tank we arrive to where this petrol station is supposed to be, and there is just desert there - it wasn’t even closed down, there had never been anything there. It was 45 km to the next town that seemed to be a regional hub on the map with a few petrol stations so we headed off hoping that the fuel gauge and the distance on our map were correct. It was along this drive that the scenery changed to date plantations and the dried lake became visible. We made it to the petrol station with relief, filled the car, used their toilet and headed on the final part of our journey for the day.
We arrived at the designated carpark on the edge of Douz where they were waiting for us to take us out in the 4x4’s to the desert camp. The kids had a great time on this leg of the journey. The road at first was often covered in moving sand dunes and later we went fully into the desert. We had one pause around prayer time and had a chance to play on the dunes. We got back in the car to complete the journey to the desert camp.
We had booked the deluxe tent at the Camp Abdelmoula through booking.com (CAMP ABDELMOULA, Douz – Updated 2024 Prices (booking.com) for EUR 395 for the family, including dinner, breakfast and the transfer. After dropping our stuff into the tent we headed out behind the tents to the large dune that was right there. The tent was more of a permanent structure with concrete floor covered in rugs, some heating, an ensuit shower (with hot water) and toilet, and a solid lockable door.
The kids had a great time walking up and down the dune with the retro snowboards that had been left there to slide down. We spent a while playing the dunes here and getting a few pics and videos of the sun and sunset before heading over to the bonfire.
We settled down with some cards and played a few rounds before it started to get more packed and darker. There was some music here and complementary hot drinks. They then showed up when the fire had some good coals in it to prepare some traditional bread. It was really good bread, even if there was not enough of it. You also had to make sure you brushed all the sand off it. It was a nice touch before going in for dinner.
There was a traditional nomadic dinner prepared for us that evening. The kids didn’t really eat much of it, but the breads were so nice and Vanessa and I enjoyed pretty much the whole meal. We ended up putting the kids to bed not long after this and Vanessa and I headed over to the bonfire to have a couple more drinks and to stand by the fire.
While here, we met a family who were there and got talking into the evening. They told us about a desert festival happening in Douz the next few days and also gave us a few tips of places to see on our way home. It was fun chatting into the evening with them and we took their details to keep in touch after our holiday.
The next morning we took breakfast and headed back to the 4x4s to head back to our rented car. It was the same route in reverse that we had taken on the way out. This time we saw a couple of expedition trucks and reminded ourselves that we will get one of these soon to do things like this. I took a video of the journey back.
Once back in Douz, we found it was very different to even the day before. Overnight, thousands of people had descended on the town for the desert festival. It was a proper mad house trying to get out of the town and Vanessa was very grateful that I was driving and not her.
We headed east to the town of Matmata. We had just read that it was famous for troglodytes. We had no idea what that meant and found out that it was people who live in caves and many of them still do. We stopped at the Maison Trogodyte (https://maps.app.goo.gl/WttB8jkgo8GSZHVg9) and it was really nice. It was not overly touristy, it really felt like it was somewhere that people live and the people were friendly without pushing any tourist tat or ripping us off.
We then went into Old Matmata and felt like it was not worth the stop. We encountered here someone on the side of the road, clearly trying to push his own shop/tour onto us and he followed us to the tourist information centre and just took over from the woman working there to continue to tell us about his proposed tour. We left and just went back to the car to leave and continue on our journey home.
We headed out to the coast and came to the city of Gabes./Teboulbou. We saw on the map a beach listed and thought it might be nice to head down to the beach and maybe get some seafood. What we didn’t expect was that this city was in such a state. The roads were destroyed/falling apart, the buildings were not much better. There was trash everywhere and it was clear that the city was having a serious problem with unemployment and poverty. Vanessa also then read that after the revolutions in Tunisia and the collapse of government controls there, the pollution in the sea outside this area was so toxic that it was not safe to swim or eat the foods from the sea here. We were quite happy to turn the car around and head back to the highway.
Back on the highway, we started heading north to a site that was recommended and that we both really did not want to miss. It was the Amphitheater of El Jem (https://maps.app.goo.gl/ctr4f4BiipTCDLK37). This was a really enjoyable stop. The Amphitheater is very old but is in really good condition (restored and dramatic collapsed sections). There were not too many signs with information, but there was enough to get a good idea of the history and construction methods. The kids also had a great time running around and climbing over the whole place. We saw the sunset here and it was very dramatic. A sight worth heading to from Hammamet if you are staying there.
On our way out of El Jem we saw may roadside stalls butchering and cooking up sheep. They all looked and smelled so good, so we decided to stop and grab a quick bit of lamb bbq to eat in the car. This didn’t end up being so quick. When I went over to the stall, I chose the fresh bit of meat and they chopped it there and put it onto the BBQ. This was taking a while to cook and while I was there, they had finished up the sheep they were using and needed some more for the next customers, so they went to take one of the sheep that was tied up and started preparing it for slaughter. I realized this was happening too late to run back to the car and grab the kids but I got a few photos of the sheep bleeding out. However, now that it was dead, they needed to skin it and take the insides out so they could sell the meat. So I went back to the car to get the family. Only Kieran wanted to come over with me. He was quite entertained by the sheep being blown up with an air compressor like a balloon and then being skinned and disemboweled. Just as they finished all this our meat was cooked and we took it back to the car to eat on the drive back to the hotel.
The following day we had booked a quadbike experience through the hotel. We were shuttled from the hotel with the other people doing the ride with us that day and headed out to the start location. They were selling traditional face coverings to keep the sand out of our faces. This was a gimmick to make extra cash as there was no real dust on the trip and they were not needed, but Vanessa and the kids all enjoyed having these put on and wearing them.
If you are an adrenaline junkie then this is not the trip for you, as it was mostly on roads or compacted dirt roads and they did not appreciate me trying to slide the quad bike, going through the mud and speeding up and slowing down to make it fun. But, if you are with kids, or a city girl, then this trip was loads of fun. Vanessa still managed to lose control of her quad and take her and Kieran out into a field instead of on the road we were supposed to be following. There were a couple of interesting stops as well for photos and for the guide to show us the wild growing herbs by the road. In all, it was a fun outing for the family and we came back to the hotel for lunch.
The afternoon in the hotel was more pool time, kids club and relaxing by the pool for Vanessa and I.
The following day we decided to take our rental car out for a little tour of the countryside and up to Tunis.
We started by heading out to the Village de Takrouna (https://maps.app.goo.gl/9VVX5sQ8G9eVSrzC8). This site could have been nice. It is an old city on the top of a hill. You can see that they have done some maintenance work on it to restore the area. It was a real shame though to see the scam “official” at the top telling us that everything was closed and that we could not walk around (no signs to confirm this anywhere), and then two minutes later coming to tell us that if we pay him some money then everything is open. Here we also saw some stray dogs helping themselves to a small goat and its intestines. There was also a little café at the top, that was overly touristy in the way it was set up, but at the same time not really offering anything and a bit overpriced. The tea and bread here was good though. We also bumped into some other tourists from Italy on their motorbike and got a good tip for another mountain village to go see.
So we headed off to Zriba El Alia (https://maps.app.goo.gl/9EKF979NCPdHpG58A). We had already tried to get here before going to the previous village but the road that google was trying to send us down was clearly not a road. However, the Italian couple had told us how to get there, so we ignored google and went the long way around on a nice road that bought us to the top of the hill. This village looks like it has collapsed after a number of earth quakes or something similar. There is a lot of rubbled buildings here, but you can also see many clear outlines of buildings and remains. When you go up to the top the view over the village and the area are pretty good and worth walking around.
We had lunch at the little café here. It was nice, the staff were friendly and it gave us a chance to relax a little before getting back into the car to head off to Tunis.
There is not much to say about the drive to Tunis except that we did pass some pretty spectacular aqueducts. These are from the city of Carthage and use to be 132km long. There are still towering sections of it standing next to the highway.
We arrived in Tunis a little late and really only had time to head up to the area of Carthage, or what is left of it. This area of Tunis seems quite well off and a total contrast to the poverty we had seen everywhere else we had been. We parked outside the Baths of Antoninus (https://maps.app.goo.gl/NmTFQAsksPzA8pYd9) and paid the entry to go in. The ticket would have given us entry to other sites as well nearby, if we had more time.
The old baths is a nice area to walk around. They have plenty of information boards telling you about Carthage and the baths. A lot of the foundations from the baths and other building are still there and it was nice to walk around this site. The kids played amongst the ruins and we just leisurely took in all the information and the site.
It was getting dark and so we got back in the car and headed back to Hammamet. We decided we still had some time though before the dinner would close at the hotel and so we went down to take a look at the fort in Hammamet. It is an imposing building, but at night there is not a huge amount to see. We still walked along the waterfront though, and got an ice cream before Vanessa noticed there was a market in the fort that was still open. So we went in there, and to keep the kids happy she agreed to buy them something. They chose this little drum thing each, that she has been regretting ever since.
The next day was our last full day in Tunisia. We decided to make it a hotel day. The kids went to kids club, we all went swimming in the indoor pool. The kids played in the outdoor pool a bit and we just relaxed and made the most of being in a large resort hotel.
And then it was time to go home. The drive to the airport was early, but there was no traffic. We had to go through a few security checkpoints to get to the carpark of the airport, showing the police/army that we were tourists and had flights we were going to. But it was easy, just a little slow moving. Dropping the car off also was a small issue as the guy was not there in his booth and the number didn’t work. But just as we were getting ready to just leave the key in the booth and walk away her arrived.
We all had a great time in Tunisia. One main tip though – when driving through lots of little villages, don’t expect to find much in the way of eating options. And keeping plenty of small change in Tunisian dinars is really handy for tipping, paying tolls, or just paying for small goods in general. Much of the country is in quite visible poverty and life looks to be quite a struggle for many. Not quite what you might expect from Tunisia in 2024.