Tunisia Mini Moon: 5-Day Itinerary to Tunis and Djerba

Even though we booked Tunisia months before I came up with my 50 Before 50 plan, we knew we wanted to go somewhere a little off the beaten path. And Tunisia checked all the boxes for a mini-moon:

  • Short flight from our wedding in France
  • Warm weather with beaches
  • Somewhere totally new for us

After a short road trip from Bordeaux to Toulouse, we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to drop off the rental car and board our flight to Tunis (the capitol of Tunisia) at Toulouse Airport. Toulouse was a vibe; even though we were only there for an afternoon, we definitely want to plan a trip back. Between the sandwiches from Le Détaillant and all of the pink-hued terracotta buildings, we can’t wait to return to la ville rosé.

Strolling the streets of Toulouse before we boarded our short flight from Toulouse to Tunis
The streets of Toulouse known as The Pink City for its rose-hued terracotta buildings
Le Détaillant in Toulouse, France – great spot for sandwiches

And then it was on to Africa, an entirely new continent for both Bill and myself.


Day 1: Tunis

Located in Northern Africa between Algeria and Libya, Tunisia is not the first place you think of for a mini moon. With an eastern border along the Mediterranean Sea, Tunisia’s landscape is green and lush in the north, before getting sandy and arid in the south where the Sahara Desert begins. Though the primary language of Tunisia is Arabic, almost everyone speaks French as a second language (thanks, colonialism) and a handful of people in the more touristy parts speak English, so even with my (rudimentary) Montreal French, I was confident we could manage. One other thing we noted before we arrived was that Tunisia is a Muslim country so seeking out a cocktail or a glass of wine would be limited to hotels catering to Western tourists. No hard-core boozing scene here.

With five days on the ground in Tunisia, we wanted to see as much of the country as possible so we split our time between Tunis in the north and Djerba, an island in the south that falls within the Sahara Desert.

A quick flight from Toulouse to Tunis and then a 40-min cab ride through the dusty roads of Tunis, we arrived at the Four Seasons Tunis in Gammarth, a tony neighborhood with upscale restaurants and houses facing the Mediterranean. After checking in, we kept it pretty low-key and hung around the hotel for the rest of the afternoon, spending time on the beach, at the pool and eating at the French restaurant onsite for dinner.

The pool scene at the Four Seasons Tunis overlooking the Mediterranean. Meticulously maintained by the hotel, the private beach was probably the nicest we saw in all of Tunisia.
The way to the spa at Four Seasons Tunis
Another hallway at Four Seasons Tunis
Looking back to the hotel from the pool
Fresh flowers in the lobby
The spa pool

Day 2: Carthage and Sidi Bou Said

Our first morning in Tunisia, overlooking the Mediterranean from our balcony
The view from the breakfast room overlooking the pools and beach
The dessert station at the hotel breakfast buffet

After a wildly over-the-top breakfast buffet at the hotel, we called a Bolt (similar to Uber), which arrived quickly (after a bomb check to gain access to the hotel), and for about $4 we were driven the 20 minutes or so to Carthage. The Phoenician and Roman ruins of the ancient city of Carthage lie on the eastern outskirts of current-day Tunis, the capitol of Tunisia. More than two thousand years ago, Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world.  It became the capital city of the civilization of  Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage.

Carthage ruins
Our first morning in Tunis was spent checking out the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Carthage
The site was pretty empty with the exception of a French tour group and a few kitties
Crazy to think this is like 2,000 years old and still in amazing condition
Carthage, Tunisia

We then hopped into another Bolt and headed to Sidi Bou Said, which is a neighborhood on a hill famous for its blue & white buildings that some say resemble Greece.

Our cab dropped us off at one of the highest points in Sidi Bou Said so we started walking down and exploring the neighborhood

Later that night back at the hotel, we asked the concierge for a recommendation for a traditional Tunisian dinner and headed out to the medina in downtown Tunis. After a bumpy cab ride where our first driver ran out of gas and left us on the highway to be picked up by another driver, we arrived to the medina. I had expected a bustling bazaar of different shops, but everything closes down at night and it’s basically an abandoned maze of dark and narrow pedestrian streets. And I do mean dark; we had to use our phone flashlight to make our way from the outside gate and into the heart of the medina where the restaurant was located.

The medina during the day… at night, it’s unrecognizable
The sitting room at Dar Belhadj, where we camped out with some mint lemonades before a traditional Tunisian dinner

After a traditional dinner (couscous, brik, and the ubiquitous Tunisian trio of harissa, olives and tuna) and a tour of the restaurant, we made our way back out through the medina (even darker at this point, bordering on scary — especially when a person barrels out from a hidden pathway) and back to the hotel for the night.

Bab el Bhar, also known as the Port de France, separates the medina from the modern part of Tunis

Day 3: Tunis > Djerba

Getting to Djerba should have been an easy 45-minute flight, but this day turned into a nearly 10-hour ordeal where I seriously considered bailing on Tunisia altogether and flying to Greece for the next three days. Even though one friend-of-a-friend and several internet strangers advised us not to do the 5-hour drive from Tunis to Djerba (the roads are bad! the drivers are crazy!), I wish we had ignored everyone and just done it because sitting in the Tunis Airport (where it’s widely – and wildly – acceptable to smoke cigarettes anywhere) for almost an entire day due to a delayed and then canceled flight was a soul-sucking non-adventure. Eventually, we made it to Djerba about five hours late. The highlight of that 45-minute flight was someone who smoked not one but two cigarettes ON THE PLANE. No one seemed to be bothered by it either.

Eventually we made it to Djerba, picked up a rental car and were off to our Airbnb.

Our Airbnb in Houmt Souk on the island of Djerba. The owner lived in a larger house next door and greeted us with pomegranate seeds picked fresh from her backyard.
The interior of our Houmt Souk Airbnb

 


Day 4: Djerbahood

After a quick breakfast in the Houmt Souk neighborhood of our Airbnb, we headed out to explore the island with Djerbahood as our major destination for the day. Djerbahood is a street art project in the town of Erriadh on the island of Djerba. Featuring the work of more than 150 artists on buildings and walls around the neighborhood, walking around Djerbahood as the sun was setting was one of the highlights of our whole Tunisia trip.

  

 


Day 5: In Search of a Nice Beach

I don’t want to dwell on the negative, but pristine beaches were hard to come by in Tunisia. Despite being on the Mediterranean, beaches aren’t a well-maintained resource and it seriously bummed me out to see trash on almost every public beach we found. You’ll have to take my word for it, but the level of desperation we were facing when it came to enjoying a nice beach led us to buy day passes to a Club Med. That’s how you know we were down bad when it came to the beaches in Tunisia.

A public beach on the north shore of Djerba
Camels on the side of the road in Djerba. They weren’t fenced in but did have their ankles tied together so couldn’t go far…
Camel rides on the beach are popular with tourists, but not my jam at all
Eventually, we found a nicer beach option thanks to purchasing day passes to a Club Med
The beach at Club Med
Never thought I’d end up in a Club Med, but here we are
A nicer public beach on the north side of Djerba across the street from a cafe called Santorini
Espresso and some Monopoly deal at the Santorini Cafe in Djerba
Santorini… in Djerba
Later that night, we ended up at the Zanzibar bar in the courtyard of the Hotel Arisha. One of the few places we found that serve alcohol on Djerba, Zanzibar was full of European tourists drinking Becks beer and rose by the bottle.
Beers at Zanzibar… and a not-so-subtle photo of the American wearing sunglasses at night who we saw every night. In my head, she’s Carrie Matheson from Homeland.

And just like that, our mini moon in Tunisia was over and we checked another country off the bucket list.

Back at the Djerba Airport for a 7am flight home to Boston via Frankfurt.

Ideal Tunisia Itinerary

If I were to do Tunisia again, I’d make a few changes to the itinerary. First, I’d fly direct from Paris to Tozeur in the south of Tunisia via Transavia Airlines. I’d bypass the Tunis Airport and any intra-Tunisia flights as much as possible. And I’d probably go in the early fall, as the weather won’t be oppressively hot during the day and you’ll avoid the wind storms of the late fall/winter.

In Tozeur, I’d go full Sahara experience and stay at a luxe hotel in the middle of the desert, like the Anantara Tozeur.

Dinner in the Sahara Desert at the Anantara Tozeur
Personal pool overlooking the Sahara?
Anantara Tozeur

I’d rent a car or do a guided trip to Tataouine, Douz and the Chebika Oasis.

Tataouine is a town in southern Tunisia with an abandoned film set used in the original Star Wars movies
Douz is a town in southern Tunisia that acts as a gateway to the Sahara Desert and is where a lot of camel trekking and ATV tours leave from
The lush Chebika Oasis in the middle of the Sahara Desert in Tunisia
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