Carthage in the morning. The dunes by Thursday.
What the run out to El Jem costs. Whether Kairouan is worth the drive up from Hammamet. How far south two days really gets you. Reviews of every tour you can book in Tunisia.
Tunis, El Jem, Tozeur, and one night in the Sahara.
The four days a first Tunisian trip is built around. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The capital dayPrivate tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunchCarthage, the Bardo mosaics and the blue lanes at Sidi Bou Said, with lunch somewhere in the middle.
02The Roman onePrivate Half Day Tour Roman Coliseum EL JEMThe amphitheatre at El Jem still seats thirty thousand and the upper tiers are open. Half a day from Sousse or Hammamet.
03Two days south2-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour with Food & Stay from HammametDinner and a tent in the dunes. The drive down is long, which is exactly why people book the overnight instead of the day trip.
04The oasis morningHalf-day excursion the mountain oases from TozeurPalm gorges, a waterfall and a Berber village in the mountains above Tozeur. Go early, before the light flattens.
Carthage, El Jem, Dougga: three Roman cities, three completely different days.
Rome ran its African grain provinces from here and left a colosseum in a market town, a hill city with its theatre intact, and a burnt harbour now under the Tunis suburbs. Here is what it costs to reach each one, and how long the day runs.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · VIP Tour: Tunis Medina/Bardo, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage |PICKUP ALL
Carthage and Sidi Bou SaidPunic harbours in the morning, bougainvillea and mint tea after.
El JemA colosseum in a farming town, and you can climb the top tier.
Dougga and Bulla RegiaA hill city with its capitol standing, and villas built underground.
The BardoThe mosaic floors those cities were paved with, all under one roof.
All 42 days out around Carthage →
Tunis for the ruins, the Sahel for the beach, Tozeur for the sand.
A capital with a Punic harbour in its suburbs, two resort coasts an hour from a Roman colosseum, an island with its own lagoons, and the road that runs out into the desert. Six places to sleep, and the best day out from each.
Hammamet, Sousse and Djerba are where the week actually gets spent.
Almost every trip books a beach hotel and drives out from it. These are the days worth leaving the pool for, and each one starts within an hour of the sand.
The Tunisian days out more travellers take than any other.
Every tour we have reviewed in Tunisia →What goes first in spring and autumn, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
VIP Tour: Tunis Medina/Bardo, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage |PICKUP ALL
Travel from Sousse in a private, air-conditioned vehicle to Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, and either the Medina of Tunis or Bardo Museum. Your multilingual driver host, including guides such as Otman, Ahmed, Hsin, and Amine, provides local tips while you explore at your own pace.
From · $30
Read our review →
2
Fun VIP Tour: El Jem, Kairouan, Monastir/Sousse (PICKUP ALL City)
from $30
3
Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet
from $98
4
Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunch
from $46
5
Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunch
from $58
6
Discovery ride on horseback or camel 2h30
from $45
7
Carthage, Bardo Museum, Sidi Bou Said and Medina Private Day Tour
from $30
8
Cook and Connect: Tunisian Culinary Adventure with a Local Family
from $75
The Sahara starts four hours from the beach, and one night is enough.
Camel trains out of Douz, the hot spring at Ksar Ghilane, film sets standing at Ong Jemel, and a tent to sleep in when the temperature drops. If you can spare the second day, take the overnight.
Three things Tunisia has that nowhere else does.
Beaches and Roman stones turn up all round this sea. A colosseum in a farming town, a film set the desert never quite took back, and villages built downwards into the ground do not.
The Amphitheatre at El Jem
The third largest Roman amphitheatre anywhere sits in the middle of an ordinary market town, three storeys of it still upright. You can walk the corridors under the arena floor where the animals were held, and climb high enough to see olive groves running to the horizon in every direction. It is emptier than Rome, and most mornings you have whole tiers of it to yourself.
- 1Fun VIP Tour: El Jem, Kairouan, Monastir/Sousse (PICKUP ALL City)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 451 reviews
- 2Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 301 reviews
- 3Daytrip to Kairouan and El Jem Colosseum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 55 reviews
The Tatooine Locations
The Mos Espa street set still stands at Ong Jemel, out on the edge of the salt flat, and the pit houses at Matmata that played the Lars homestead are ordinary Berber courtyards dug down into the ground, some of them still lived in. Locals have propped up parts of the set for forty years while the dunes work on the rest. Most trips pair the two with a crossing of Chott el Djerid.
- 1One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – Matmata★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 53 reviews
- 2Door of the tunisian desert Ksar Ghilane and Matmata: Full one Day★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 42 reviews
- 3Tatouine – Cheneni – Ksar Ghuilaine – Matmata: 2 days visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 19 reviews
The Ksour and Ksar Ghilane
The hill villages south of Tataouine stored their grain in ghorfas, barrel-vaulted cells stacked four storeys high around a courtyard, and several of those courtyards are still standing. Past them the tarmac gives out. Ksar Ghilane is where it ends: a hot spring running into a ring of palms, a Roman fort on the ridge above it, and the tents where the desert trips stop for the night.
- 1One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – Matmata★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 53 reviews
- 2Private Day Trip Ksar Ghilane Oasis★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 53 reviews
- 3Door of the tunisian desert Ksar Ghilane and Matmata: Full one Day★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 42 reviews
What a day out in Tunisia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. This is a cheap country by Mediterranean standards, and the gap between a good day and an expensive one is narrower than you would guess.
Medina walks, museum entry, the Nabeul spice market and the short runs along the coast road.
Full days: El Jem and Kairouan together, Dougga and Bulla Regia, the mountain oases above Tozeur.
Two and three day runs into the Sahara, private drivers, and the camps out past Douz.
Four Tunisian bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast at the hotel the day before. These four run on convoy times, on seasons, and on a single vehicle with your name against it.
- 01One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – MatmataThe last stretch is soft sand track, so it only runs with a 4x4 and a driver who knows the line. Departures are early and the vehicles are counted.
- 022-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour with Food & Stay from HammametThe desert camps have a fixed number of tents and the good ones fill first through spring and autumn, when the nights are cold and the days are bearable.
- 03Half-day excursion from Sousse to the amphitheater of El JemHalf-day runs from Sousse and Hammamet leave on one morning schedule. Miss it and El Jem becomes a three-hour drive you arrange yourself.
- 04Private Day Trip Tataouine and Berber VillageThe ksour and the pit villages are spread over a hundred kilometres of back road with no bus between them. It is a driver day, and only a handful of them run it.
When the south hits forty five by eleven, go where Tunisians go.
High summer does two things here. Open ruins and the whole south turn punishing by late morning, and the desert runs shorten or stop altogether. The local answer has not changed in centuries: start at first light, then spend the middle of the day under a roof, in a gallery, at a long lunch, or on the water.
By place, from the coast down to the sand
Tunis, Carthage, El Jem, Kairouan, then south until the road gives out.
DouzThe Tunisian tours we wrote up most recently.
More of the new ones →
Night excursion to the desert and Berber village from Djerba
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Tour of the island of Djerba the island of Lotophages
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PRIVATE 2 day SAFARI (Ksar Ghilane and Atlas Mountains) from Jerba
Read our review →
Private Arrival Transfer: Tunis Airport to Tunis Hotel
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Bardo Museum- The ruins of Carthage- Village of Sidi Bou Said
Read our review →
Roman Archeology Guided Tour Thuburbo Majus & Uthina
Read our review →
Tunis Group Tour: Carthage, Sidi Bou Said, Bardo museum & Medina
Read our review →