Tunisia

We spent our first two nights in Tunis. Although it is well worth visiting, it is not a very impressive capital city. There are quite a few negatives. Much of the city is dirty and rundown. Also, things shut down early, including many of the restaurants. Top-rated restaurants located in the medina are not open for dinner. We would recommend booking a hotel in Sidi Bou Said rather than Tunis. Sidi Bou Said is a very upscale suburban town connected to central Tunis by a 36-minute tram ride. A 20-minute walk from the Tunis tram terminal passes the city's iconic clock tower and leads to the Old City Gate. We spent a couple of hours roaming through the Tunis Medina, the oldest part of the city that dates back over 1000 years.

The world-renowned Bardo Museum (arguably the top tourist attraction in Tunis) was closed during our trip. It had been closed for over six months because of a political conflict between the president and legislature! There have also been prior periods of extended closures of that museum.

Food: The most striking aspect of Tunisian food is that they seem to put harissa paste in almost every entree. (Perhaps that is an exaggeration!) If you do not like spicy dishes, you need to pay attention to what you are ordering. The most common menu items we found were chicken with couscous and lamb with couscous. You can get an enourmous plate for lunch for under $5, harissa included. A casual place for lunch & dinner that we really enjoyed was El Machawy, next to Hotel Le Calif on Rue Mongi Slim. You can select a meat and it is grilled and placed into a (non-spicy) sandwich.

Tunisia's second-largest city, Sfax, is a 3-hour drive south of Tunis. We made an overnight stop here to split up the long drive to the southern part of Tunisia. Although we were not particularly impressed, the city is far more pleasant than Tunis. It is relatively much cleaner and less congested. Two negative aspects of Sfax, however, were annoyingly similar to Tunis. The first is that there was not a great selection of dinner options. We ultimately did find a good quality place, Le Corail, at 39 Avenue Habib-Maazoun. Secondly, like the Bardo Museum, the Sfax Archaeological Museum was also closed during our visit. (It's been 'temporarily' closed for months!)

The Medina of Sfax is the main attraction in the city. It is much smaller than the medina in Tunis and not quite a labyrinth. Overall, Sfax was worth the short visit.

The city of Tataouine is a 4-hour drive south of Sfax. It is a good location from which to explore nearby ksars. Ksars are old Berber fortified villages unique to Northwest Africa. They are so otherworldly that two of these ksars served as settings for one of the Star Wars films.

Tataouine has few accommodation options, plus, finding something with WiFi is difficult, if not impossible. For this reason, we opted to make Tataouine a detour en route to Douz, and we did not stay there overnight. We made an early start out of Sfax, arrived in Tataouine in time for lunch, and afterward headed to Ksar Ouled Soltane.

Ksar Ouled Soltane is a 30-minute drive from Tatatouine. The site is well-preserved and maintained. The multi-storied structures have the appearance of dwellings, but they were, in fact,  granaries. Amazingly, there is no entrance fee. One of the ground-floor units serves as a shop that sells coffee, tea, and paintings. It is open from sunrise to sunset. The site also has a small restaurant.

Douz was our favorite place in Tunisia. We drove from Ksar Ouled Soltaine, which took about three hours. It was by far the most scenic stretch of our Tunisian travel route. Having an airport, Tozeur is the most accessible city in the region, so many tourists use it as a hub to explore southern Tunisia. Some travel guides suggest visiting Douz on a day trip from Tozeur. However, we think that is too short a visit. We highly recommend spending at least a couple of nights in Douz.

Unlike the other cities in Tunisia that we visited, Douz has a distinct tourist area, separated from the rest of the city, where most of the hotels are located. We stayed at the El Mouradi, which is a fantastic value. One tip we have is to avoid booking tours online in advance. We booked camel rides, quad bikes, etc., at the hotel reception desk. The prices were substantially lower than anything advertised online.

The following are some of the top tourist activities in Douz:

• Camel Rides - There are many online ads selling 2-hour sunrise camel rides. (Also, 2-hour sunset rides.) However, you can schedule camel rides for any time during the day. Since a 2-hour ride appeared to be a standard, we booked a mid-day ride through our hotel. However, a 1-hour ride, as suggested by the hotel staff, would have been sufficient. Our camels followed a trail through dunes that began at the city's southern boundary. We would highly recommend it to those who have never ridden a camel. It is a unique experience.

• Quad Bikes - This activity also takes place on dunes adjacent to Douz. (Not in the Sahara Desert proper.)

• 4WD Sahara Tour - This should be included on any itinerary that does not include an overnight desert camping trip. We booked a 3-hour late afternoon trip, although there are longer excursions. Our driver first took a road leading south from Douz. After a short drive, we exited onto an unpaved path and continued until we finally reached the endless barren Sahara dunes that you see in movies. We were able to get out and walk. Since it was February, the sand felt quite cool. According to our guide, this tour is not for the hot summer months of July and August. It is not only the intense heat that detracts from the experience but also an abundance of scorpions!

• Restaurant Elbey - Although very touristy, this is a great place to eat. They serve traditional southern Tunisian food in an oasis setting. One of their more exotic dishes is the dromedary camel baked in a clay pot.

• Camel Treks with Overnight Camping 

The ancient oasis town of Tozeur is a 2-hour drive northwest of Douz. We spent two nights here, which is an adequate amount of time to visit the nearby sites.

• Chott el Djerid - Maps display this as a large body of water. However, this shallow scenic salt lake is dry for much of the year. Its appearance changes with the seasons. The most convenient way to view it is on a drive between Douz and Tozeur. A 30-mile causeway on that route crosses over the lake. The best time to visit is perhaps in spring. That is when flamingos come to nest.

• Chebika, Tamerza, and Midès - These three oasis villages are a 45-minute drive northwest of Tozeur. Chebika has a picturesque waterfall coming out of the mountain. Upon arrival at the parking area, we found an independent Berber tour guide who we hired to take us around all three villages. Midès is right next to the Algerian border. It features an abandoned village and a canyon that you can hike. Overall, these are the must-see attractions in the Tozeur area.

We found that Tozeur is one of the best places in Tunisia to find traditional Tunisian food. Two highly recommended restaurants we ate at offered much more selections than the ubiquitous couscous dishes: Restaurant Dar Deda and Restaurant Soleil. Both are on Ave Abdul kacem Chebbi. The Dar Deda menu includes mloukhia, a stew in a dark brown sauce. They also serve meat cooked in a clay pot. Beware of the Berber pizza, which is extremely hot.