Travel report: Tunisia

Country ranking by area: #91
Country ranking by population: #79

Date of visit: February 2018

Tunis has been on my bucket list since 2016. As I have already been to Morocco and Egypt in Northern Africa, time had come for the next country in this region. Tunisia seemed to be the obvious next destination and Tunis was the place in the country that interested me the most. The capital of Tunisia is liberal for an Arab city, a good base to travel to other parts of the country and most importantly it’s a nearby destination.

In addition, I thought that it would a good destination for a weekend trip between November and February. During this period, travelling to European cities can be a freezing and unpleasant experience. Therefore, I asked my colleague Sarah if she wants to join. She is half-Tunisian and the only person that I could motivate for Tunisia. Sarah hasn’t visited her family for a couple of years so that my idea of travelling to Tunisia came at the right time.

Tunis is not on many people’s radar. The city is like the little and unloved brother of popular Marrakech in the West. However, most people don’t travel to Tunis because the biggest problem for the country’s tourism industry is terrorism right now. Islamic terrorists killed people in various parts of the country. One of the worst terror attacks happened in Tunis in 2015 when terrorists killed more than 20 people in the National Museum in Bardo, a suburb of Tunis. Does that make Tunisia and/or Tunis a dangerous destination? I’ll come back to that later.

Easyjet and Inshallah Air – the road to Tunisia

Direct flights from Zurich to Tunis are very expensive and not available for every day. Air France offers flights via Paris, but as Charles de Gaulle Airport is one of the worst airports for connecting flights, taking this route wasn’t an option either. A good budget option was the combination of Easyjet and Nouvelair via Nice. We had almost three hours for the transfer, which seemed to be enough. Easyjet is famous for delays, but with that time frame even a delay of an hour wouldn’t have been a problem.

I have never heard of Nouvelair before. Neither did friends of mine who know a lot about the aviation business. It’s a small Tunisian airline and I found out that they don’t offer online check-in just two days before departure. When I sent them a request by e-mail, I received no answer of course. The airline seemed pretty dubious and I told Sarah that this seems to be another Inshallah Air.

Inshallah – if God wills – the airline wouldn’t have a huge delay or even worse… crash. It didn’t seem that I had false expectations. When we weraye checking in, the man at the counter recommended not taking the middle seat in the plane. “Don’t take the middle seat when flying with us! It’s not good,” he laughingly said. I’m sure he wasn’t awarded the most loyal employee that month.

The airline really sucked, but it was okay for a 90 minute flight. Anyway, as if the bad flight wasn’t enough I forgot my jacket in the plane. You can’t reach any Inshallah Air employee at weekends and the jacket was gone for good. I gave it another shot though by asking again at the airport when I left the country, but the guy at the check in counter said that there was no lost jacket. When I told him if he could check again with his staff he revoked, as he would know about any lost item. I am sure I would have gotten my jacket back if that was Swiss or Lufthansa. Not with Inshallah Air.

Arrival in Tunis

The weather was much warmer in Tunis than in Europe. Not hot of course, but at least a bit more than the slightly above zero degree temperature in Europe. A mild breeze was blowing towards our faces when we disembarked the aircraft. A certain scent reminded me that I was in North Africa or in the Middle East. I realise that every time when I’m in this region. But most importantly, it felt good to be on the road again! It took approximately 15 minutes to go through the customs. The highlight was a metal detector where you had to put your cell phone in a tray before walking through it. The metal detector beeped each and every time when someone passed through. No one seemed to care though.

Sarah’s family, her cousin Asma with husband Amine and baby boy Adam, welcomed us at the airport. They told me that they would drive me to the hotel, and when I said that I could take a taxi as well I was told that their offer wasn’t optional. That’s Muslim hospitality. The ride took approximately 20 minutes and I arrived in Tunis shortly before midnight My hotel was right at the main entrance gate to old Medina and at the end of Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the most famous street in Tunis. Although I couldn’t be more central, the city seemed pretty dead to me at night. I found out later that all the nightlife takes places in the suburbs.

Good morning and Allahu Akbar

The loudest “Allahu Akbar” I’ve ever heard woke me up at 6 in the morning. I was disoriented and didn’t realise where I was in the beginning. My hotel was next to a mosque and the speakers, from which the prayers of the Muezzin resounded, were only 20 meters from my room. It wasn’t the most pleasant waking up to be honest.

My first impressions of Tunis were pretty good. Medina is what the Arabs call their old towns and Tunis has one as well. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the city’s biggest attractions. The Medinas I have seen so far are mazes of small alleys full of shops and cafés. The one in Tunis wasn’t different. Wikipedia says it’s the second biggest in the world after Fès in Morocco. The Tunisian Medina was dusty, narrow and crowded. There was dirt and smoke, and it can be intimidating a bit for people not used to it. However, this is exactly how I imagine an Arab city, and I really like it that way.

I had breakfast in El Ali Café, a cute little restaurant in the middle of Medina, before meeting Sarah and her family a bit later. A few days before, I have found a beautiful rooftop online and asked Sarah where this was. Asma is a famous blogger in Tunisia and she obviously knows spots like that. Medina is full of nice rooftops and we visited two of them including the one I wanted to see. The rooftops of Medina were my highlight in Tunis and they view over the city is amazing. Most of the cafés have a rooftop, which allows you to see the city from above. It’s a don’t miss.

Travel to the suburbs

After wandering a bit more through the souks of Medina, we left Tunis for the afternoon. Many people prefer the suburbs of Tunis to the city. La Marsa, Gammarth and Sidi Bou Saïd are the ones who draw the most tourists. We headed to the latter. Sidi Bou Saïd is often called the Santorini of North Africa, as all the houses are coloured white and blue. It’s a wonderful village and I imagine it to be even more beautiful in summer. It’s tiny though and you walk through the whole place in 15 minutes.

“This is the place where the most expensive houses are in Tunisia. Some rich and famous people from the Western world own a house here” Amine explained. Sidi Bou Saïd was also the only place in Tunisia, where I could see many other tourists. Hordes of Chinese from a cruise ship were taking pictures in this scenic town. I have seen tourists in Medina too but not as many as in Sidi Bou Saïd.

Our last stop in Sidi Bou Saïd was the Café des délices, a café with amazing view over the harbour. Funnily, I was just going to recommend this place, but after googling the name of it, I read terrible reviews about this place on Google and TripAdvisor. Apparently, this café is an awful tourist trap that overcharges guests who are not from Tunisia. I didn’t noticed that when I was there obviously, as Amine made the order and eventually paid the bill. I am sure they didn’t overcharge him.

When picked Tunis as my next destination I also did it because of its nightlife, as it has the reputation of being one of the best in the Arab world. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to experience it. I was simply too tired when I was back in Tunis. As all the action takes place in the suburbs, I wasn’t motivated at all to drive back 20km to the suburbs.

Bardo National Museum and terrorism

Sarah was visiting her family on Sunday. When we had booked this trip, she told me she wasn’t sure how her family would react when she would bring someone from work… a man!! Therefore, I wanted to avoid any kind of confusion and spent the day by myself. In the end, it wouldn’t have been a problem though. We also visited her aunt to say hello. But I didn’t know that beforehand.

The National Museum in Bardo is a 15 minutes drive from central Tunis. That is the place, where Islamic terrorists killed 24 people in March 2015. They started the shootings outside and fought their way into the museum taking the visitors hostage. After more than three hours, the police shot the attackers. This was one of the worst terror attacks in Tunisian history but not the only one in recent years. People got killed by terrorists in other parts of the country too. That’s why Tunisia is suffering a massive decrease in tourists, which is a huge problem, as the tourism sector is one of the country’s most important.

The National Museum is definitely worth a visit. It is not only of the largest museums I have ever been to but also one of the most beautiful. It’s a museum about thousands of years of Tunisian history and has a collection of numerous archaeological pieces. What impressed me the most were the rooms with the marble floors and the mosaics on the walls though. And there are many of them and each room looks different than the previous one.

Couchsurfers and backpackers

As I knew beforehand that I would be alone on the second day, I asked the couchsurfing community if anyone wanted to meet. I have never done that before without sleeping at their place and I was surprised that more than 40 people sent me a message. The night before, I was texting with Firas who invited me to join him and his friends for a good night out. Eventually, I was too tired and cancelled the meeting. Sadly, I found out later that he didn’t want to go out but did it for me only by organising something with his friends. That gave me a bad conscience and I wanted to meet him the day after.

I met Firas right after visiting the museum in Bardo. Firas didn’t come alone but brought a couchsurfer named Nils from Latvia with him. Firas has a narrow face, long hair and is rather a fine and almost feminine man. Nils was the complete opposite. Full beard, round face, muscular, loud and also a bit crazy. He kept talking about naughty Tunisian women and didn’t care that he was in a Muslim country. Firas didn’t seem offended though, he was quite liberal but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nils got into troubles during his stay. Nevertheless, we spent a few hours together in a bar. Side information: Tunisian beer is not bad!

Nils was only 22 years old, he quit his job and travels the world for the next year. However, he has to get back to Latvia from time to time to make sure that he gets his unemployment benefit… Of course, he travels on a very tight budget. When the bills came, he never showed the intention to pay for himself. Even though he was a cool and fun guy, he represented the kind of backpacker I hate. I am sure that Firas paid most of his stuff in the following days, which is not was couchsurfing is about. Nothing against couchsurfing, as this is probably the best and most authentic way to learn about a new culture. But still, as people don’t pay for accommodation when they couch surf, they should at least not let the host pay for everything.

How to spend a few Dinars when your hosts don’t let you

I was in the same situation with Amine and Asma though. They paid for everything and didn’t accept it when either Sarah or I wanted to do so. I didn’t felt comfortable. When I arrived at the airport, I withdrew 300 Dinar (~120 USD) and I had more than 200 when we went out for dinner the last night. In many Muslim countries, you don’t have to pay for anything if you have a host. However, when I travel I want to help the country’s tourism industry, especially in a country like Tunisia, where tourism dramatically decreased in recent years.

We headed to a traditional restaurant and ordered a multi-course menu for each of us. Tunisian cuisine is excellent and was something complete new for me. I expected it to be more like the Middle East one, but the food is very different. The only similar dish I noticed was Couscous. I cannot remember the names of all the dishes, but what I liked the most was Salad Mechouia, a spicy grilled vegetables salad. Lablabi, a soup made with chickpeas and garlic, was excellent too.

Before the waiter brought us the bill, Sarah and I sneaked away and paid the bill at the reception of the restaurant. The multi-course dinner for four person cost 130 Dinar. Usually, you tip 5 Dinar maximum, but I rounded up to 150 (~60 USD), which is still a ridiculously cheap price. Amine wasn’t too happy when he found out. But they gave us (and especially me as a non-relative) so much that it just was my turn.

My travel experience in Tunisia

The journey to Tunisia was a good one and met my expectations. What surprised me the most was the good infrastructure of the country, as it was more or less Southern European standard. The roads are in condition and everything seems less wild than in other African countries. That makes Tunisia probably the most developed African country I have been to yet (together with South Africa, however I don’t see South Africa as “real” Africa). Tunisia is also the only more or less functioning democracy in North Africa.

Another surprise was that I got less hassle in Tunisia than in other Arab countries. Surely, it was also like that because I was together with Amine and Asma, but I almost had zero bad experiences when I was alone. Almost. The taxi driver who drove me to the airport tried to rip me off, but hey… the more I travel the more I believe that taxi drivers and customs officer – no matter to which nationality – are the worst breed of mankind.

Compared to the other two North African cities I’ve been to, Marrakech and Cairo, Tunis seems less hectic and more civilised. It might be a bit less fun than Marrakech, but has more character than the touristy Moroccan hot spot. Cairo is a different thing anyway, not only because of its size. It has very little in common with Tunis. Still, I’d rather revisit the capital of Tunisia than the one of Egypt.

Is Tunisia a safe country to travel? I got asked that a lot. Yes, definitely. Of course, there have been terrible incidents in Tunisia in recent years. But the same incidents happen in European countries too. I would even say chances are bigger that one dies on a sinking, overloaded ferry in Southeast Asia than being shot by terrorists in Tunisia.

Travelling to Tunisia in February is weather-wise maybe not the best idea, but still better than spending time in cold Europe. I have only seen a little bit of Tunisia and one need probably 10-14 days to see the whole country. There are some UNESCO world heritage sites in the country and beautiful beaches too. Moreover, the delicious food and the nice Tunisian make the country worth a visit. I might be back in one day, Inshallah.

 

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!