--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Tunis, Tunisia | Wimup" description: "The 10 best things to do in Tunis, ranked: the UNESCO medina, the Bardo mosaics, Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and the Ville Nouvelle, plus dishes and day trips." url: https://wimup.com/city/tunis type: City guide updated: 2026-08-25 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10 Things To Do in Tunis Tunis, Tunisia · Africa · By Wimup Editorial, 14 min read Tunis is the rare capital where the ancient world, the Arab city and the colonial boulevard are all within one commuter line of each other. The medina behind Bab El Bhar was inscribed by UNESCO in 1979 for some 700 monuments, and it is still a working quarter of perfumers and cap makers rather than a preserved one. ## Quick answer The best things to do in Tunis are the walled medina and its trade souks, the Bardo and the largest collection of mosaics in the world, the ruins of Carthage on the shore, the blue and white village of Sidi Bou Said above them, and the Avenue Habib Bourguiba the modern city still promenades along. Three days is right, and almost everything outside the walls sits on one commuter railway. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr · May · Oct - **Ideal length:** 3 days - **Budget per day:** $40–90 - **Language:** Arabic is official, French is used across business and signage - **Getting around:** The TGM to the coast, the light metro, metered taxis - **Tourism board:** [Official site](https://www.discovertunisia.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## The 10 best things to do in Tunis ### 1. Walk the medina from the Porte de France to the Zitouna Old town · Medina of Tunis, between Place de la Victoire and Place du Gouvernement Inscribed in 1979 for roughly 700 monuments, and a working quarter rather than a museum. The souks are still sorted by trade, which is the easiest way to read them: rose water along the mosque wall, felt caps blocked by hand, gold under the vaults. Give it a morning and accept that part of it will be spent lost. - **Time:** Half a day - **Cost:** Free to walk, small entry at the palaces - **Best at:** Mid-morning, once the souks open - **Tip:** Every lane climbs toward the Zitouna, so navigate by the slope Links: [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/36/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 2. Give the Bardo a morning of your trip Museum · Rue Mongi Slim, Le Bardo, about 4 km west of the centre The largest collection of mosaics in the world, lifted from Carthage, Dougga and El Jem and installed in the palace of the Husainid beys, so nineteenth-century painted ceilings sit over second-century floors. The Virgil portrait is the only surviving likeness of the poet. Three hours is not generous. - **Time:** 3 hr - **Cost:** Ticket at the door - **Best at:** Opening, ahead of the coach groups - **Tip:** Line 4 of the light metro stops at Le Bardo, a few minutes from the gate Links: [Website](https://www.bardomuseum.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 3. Cross Carthage from Byrsa hill to the Antonine Baths Ancient site · Carthage, on the TGM line between Tunis Marine and La Marsa Not one ruin but a dozen enclosures scattered through a seaside suburb, on one ticket. Start on Byrsa, where Punic houses survive below the cathedral, then the Antonine Baths on the shore, among the largest in the Roman world. The national museum on the hill has been closed for a long renovation. - **Time:** Half a day - **Cost:** One ticket covers the enclosures - **Best at:** Late afternoon, when the baths face the light - **Tip:** Six TGM stations serve Carthage, so ride to the enclosure you want rather than walking the whole suburb Links: [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/37/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 4. Take the cliff steps at Sidi Bou Said early Village · Sidi Bou Said, about 17 km north of Tunis, on the TGM line A whitewashed village on the cliff above the gulf, and the most photographed place in the country: white walls, blue doors studded in black nails, the sea below. The palette is a building rule rather than folklore. Come early or stay for dusk, because it is busy by eleven. - **Time:** 3 hr - **Cost:** Free to walk, pay at the cafés and the palace - **Best at:** Before 10am, or at sunset - **Tip:** The TGM stops below the village, so the walk up is part of the visit ### 5. Look into the courtyard of the Zitouna Mosque Mosque · Rue Jamaa Ezzitouna, Medina of Tunis The great mosque, and the building the whole medina is arranged around: the souks run along its walls and every lane that leads to it climbs. The columns holding up the prayer hall were taken from Roman Carthage. Non-Muslim visitors see the courtyard, and the carpet shops opposite sell the roof view for a mint tea. - **Time:** 45 min - **Cost:** Small entry for the courtyard - **Best at:** Mid-morning, outside prayer times - **Tip:** Cover shoulders and knees, and take the shop terrace opposite for the roof view ### 6. Promenade the Avenue Habib Bourguiba Avenue · Avenue Habib Bourguiba, between Place du 14 Janvier 2011 and Place de la Victoire The spine of the Ville Nouvelle, built on ground reclaimed from the lake, with a raised central walkway under two rows of ficus. The promenade is a genuine habit rather than a tourist ritual. The 1902 Municipal Theatre is the best art nouveau facade in North Africa. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Early evening, when the promenade fills - **Tip:** Stand on the central walkway for the theatre facade, not the pavement ### 7. See how the beys lived at Dar Ben Abdallah and Tourbet el Bey Palace · Impasse Ben Abdallah, southern medina The southern medina is the quiet half, and it holds the two buildings that explain the ruling class the souks served: a palace of 1796 staged as a nineteenth-century household, and the Husainid royal mausoleum under green-tiled domes. Both are cheap, both are usually empty, and together they take two hours. - **Time:** 1.5 hr - **Cost:** Small entry at each - **Best at:** Midday, when the alleys are hot - **Tip:** Do them as a pair, they are five minutes apart ### 8. Hear a concert at Ennejma Ezzahra Palace · Rue 2 Mars 1934, Sidi Bou Said Baron d'Erlanger built this palace below Sidi Bou Said between 1912 and 1922, and it is the finest neo-Moorish architecture in the country. Since 1991 it has held the national sound archive and programmes concerts in the room he designed for them. Check the schedule: hearing an oud in that room is the point. - **Time:** 1.5 hr - **Cost:** Entry at the gate - **Best at:** Afternoon, for the light in the gardens - **Tip:** Check the concert programme before you fix the day Links: [Website](https://www.cmam.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 9. Climb to the koubba in Belvedere Park Park · Avenue Taieb Mhiri, Belvédère 110 hectares of hillside laid out from 1892 by the man who had been chief gardener of Paris, and closed to the public for a decade afterwards to let the trees take. A domed koubba moved in from a palace sits at the top, with the city falling away toward the lake. On a Sunday the park belongs to families. - **Time:** 1.5 hr - **Cost:** Free, small fee for the zoo - **Best at:** Late afternoon - **Tip:** Walk up to the koubba for the view over the Lake of Tunis ### 10. Eat grilled fish at La Goulette Food · La Goulette, at the mouth of the Lake of Tunis, on the TGM line The port at the channel between the lake and the sea, and where the capital eats fish. The town behind the fortress was Sicilian, Maltese, Jewish and Tunisian at once, and it still shows in the cooking. The catch is sold by weight and grilled plain. Fifteen minutes on the TGM. - **Time:** 2 hr - **Cost:** Fish sold by weight - **Best at:** Sunday lunch - **Tip:** Pick the fish and agree the weight before it goes on the grill ## Best of the medina in Tunis Six stops inside the walls, from the perfumers' lane to the royal mausoleum. 1. **Zitouna Mosque** (Founded in the eighth century · Medina): The great mosque the medina is arranged around. UNESCO dates it to 723, and its prayer hall stands on columns taken from Roman Carthage. 2. **Souk El Attarine** (Perfume and rose water · Medina): The perfumers' souk along the mosque's northern wall, which every visitor walks whether they mean to or not. Rose water, orange blossom, henna. 3. **Souk des Chéchias** (Felt caps, made on site · Medina): The red felt caps are still blocked, dyed and brushed here by a guild that has held the trade for centuries. One of the few souks where the making shows. 4. **Tourbet el Bey** (Opened 1777 · Southern medina): The Husainid royal mausoleum, opened in 1777, under green-tiled domes. Carved marble, Italianate tilework, and almost never a queue. 5. **Dar Lasram** (Palace and medina archive · Medina): A nineteenth-century courtyard palace housing the association that preserves the medina, which is why it is the best-restored house you can walk into. 6. **Bab El Bhar** (The medina's sea gate · Place de la Victoire): The gate of the sea, left standing alone when the walls came down. It is the hinge of the city: souks behind it, boulevards in front. ## Best ancient sites in Tunis Six enclosures of Carthage, all of them within a few stops of each other. 1. **Antonine Baths** (Second century AD · Carthage): The largest Roman baths outside Rome itself and the most legible ruin at Carthage. The surviving basement vaults still carry the outline of the halls above. 2. **Byrsa hill** (Punic acropolis · Carthage): The Punic acropolis and the hill the city was founded on. Rome sheared off the top, but Punic houses survive on the terrace below the cathedral. 3. **The Punic ports** (Circular naval harbour · Carthage): Two linked harbours, a rectangular one for trade and a circular one for the war fleet. What survives is a quiet lagoon, and the model makes it readable. 4. **Tophet of Salammbô** (Punic sanctuary · Salammbô): A sunken Punic sanctuary of urns and stelae, and the most argued-over ground in Carthage: child sacrifice or infant burial has been contested for a century. 5. **Roman theatre of Carthage** (Still a festival stage · Carthage): Restored and still working: the Festival International builds its stage here each July, and out of season it is a quiet bowl above the sea. 6. **La Malga cisterns** (End of the Zaghouan aqueduct · Carthage): The reservoirs at the end of the aqueduct from Zaghouan, big enough to walk through. Unfenced, unvisited, and the clearest measure of what Rome needed. ## Best museums in Tunis Five collections, from the world's mosaics to a beylical family home. 1. **Bardo National Museum** (Second largest museum in Africa · Le Bardo): The largest collection of mosaics in the world, in the palace of the Husainid beys. The Punic rooms downstairs are the quiet reward. Reopened in 2023. [Website](https://www.bardomuseum.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Carthage National Museum** (On Byrsa hill · Carthage): The site museum on Byrsa hill, with the terrace view over the whole bay. Closed for a long renovation, so confirm before travelling out for it. 3. **Musée de la Ville de Tunis, Palais Kheireddine** (Palace of 1860 to 1870 · Medina): The city's own museum, in the palace built for the reforming minister Kheireddine Pasha. Tunis as a built city downstairs, art upstairs. 4. **Dar Ben Abdallah** (Palace of 1796 · Southern medina): The museum of popular arts, in a palace of 1796 around a marble courtyard, staged as a nineteenth-century household down to the wedding room. 5. **Ennejma Ezzahra** (Built 1912 to 1922 · Sidi Bou Said): D'Erlanger's neo-Moorish palace above the sea, and since 1991 the national sound archive, with a concert programme in the room built for it. [Website](https://www.cmam.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## Best restaurants in Tunis Six kitchens, from a medina palace dinner to a family fish house at the port. 1. **Dar El Jeld** (Medina mansion · Medina): The formal Tunisian dinner in the city, behind a famous yellow door in a restored mansion in the upper medina. Prices match the setting. 2. **Fondouk El Attarine** (In a restored fondouk · Medina): A restored merchants' fondouk off the perfumers' souk, all arches and tilework, with briks and couscous for a fraction of what the room suggests. 3. **El Ali** (Roof terrace over the medina · Medina): Café, restaurant and bookshop near the Zitouna, with a roof terrace over the medina tiles. Go up for mint tea and stay for the classics. 4. **Dar Belhadj** (Traditional house · Medina): A traditional house near the Zitouna turned into a small dining room, and one of the few places inside the walls licensed to serve alcohol. 5. **Le Café Vert** (Open since 1955 · La Goulette): Open in La Goulette since 1955 and still in the same family. Grilled fish sold by weight, and the reason Tunis families lose a Sunday afternoon. 6. **Le Golfe** (On the water since 1955 · La Marsa): A Marsa institution since 1955, on the water with a terrace over the rocks. The signature is spaghetti with local poutargue, the cured mullet roe. [Website](https://restaurantlegolfe.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## Best cafes & patisseries in Tunis Five places to sit down, from a cliff terrace to a doughnut stall with a queue. 1. **Café des Nattes** (Mint tea with pine nuts · Sidi Bou Said): At the top of the stairs in Sidi Bou Said, floored with the rush mats that name it. Mint tea with pine nuts, and a view down the village street. 2. **Café Sidi Chabaane** (Cliff terraces over the gulf · Sidi Bou Said): Terraces cut into the cliff below Sidi Bou Said, stepping down toward the marina. This is where the town watches the sun go down over the gulf. 3. **Café M'rabet** (Turkish coffee in the souks · Medina): An old medina café above a saints' burial chamber, with tiled columns and low benches. The easiest place to stop mid-medina. 4. **The bambalouni stall, Sidi Bou Said** (Fried to order · Sidi Bou Said): A doughnut fried to order in a doorway on the main street, dusted with sugar and handed over hot. There is a queue most afternoons and it moves quickly. 5. **Pâtisserie Masmoudi** (Founded 1972 · Across the city): Founded in Sfax in 1972 and now the standard reference for Tunisian pastry. Buy makroud, baklawa and kaak warka by weight in a mixed box. ## Best neighborhoods in Tunis Six quarters, and what each is actually for. 1. **The medina** (Walled city, no cars · Centre): The walled city, and the place to stay if you want to be inside the thing you came for. Restored courtyard houses, no cars, and a surprising quiet. 2. **Ville Nouvelle** (Central and walkable · Centre): The French grid around Avenue Habib Bourguiba: the cathedral, the theatre and most of the mid-range hotels. Ten minutes from the medina. 3. **Belvédère and Mutuelleville** (Embassies and business hotels · North of the centre): The leafy uptown above the park, with the embassies and the business hotels. Useful for work, less so if you want to walk to the souks. 4. **Sidi Bou Said** (Cliff village, quiet at night · Coast): The cliff village north of Carthage, and the prettiest base in Greater Tunis. It empties once the day trippers leave, which is the argument for staying. 5. **Carthage** (Ruins between the villas · Coast): A wealthy residential suburb with Roman ruins between the villas and six stations of its own. Stay here to walk the site early and late. 6. **La Marsa** (Beach and corniche · Coast): The end of the TGM line, with the beach, the corniche and the best concentration of restaurants on the coast. Where Tunis goes at the weekend. ## Best day trips from Tunis Six runs out of the capital, from a Roman hill town to the top of the continent. 1. **Dougga** (About 1 hr 30 by car · Béja governorate): The best-preserved Roman town in North Africa: a capitol, a theatre still used for performances and a Punic-Libyan mausoleum. Ninety minutes by car. [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/794/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Bizerte and Cap Angela** (About 1 hr by car · North coast): The northernmost city in Africa, with an Andalusian port and a kasbah, and half an hour beyond it the northernmost headland of the continent. 3. **Zaghouan** (About 1 hr by car · Inland): The Temple of the Waters stands at the spring the Romans tapped to supply Carthage, and the aqueduct still crosses the plain in long stretches. 4. **Kerkouane and Kelibia** (About 2 hr by car · Cap Bon): The only Punic town never rebuilt by Rome, so its street plan and its pink bathtubs survive as the Phoenicians left them, on the Cap Bon coast. [Website](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/332/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 5. **Testour** (About 1 hr 15 by car · Medjerda valley): A town founded by Andalusian Muslims expelled from Spain, with a minaret carrying a clock said to run backwards and a street plan that reads as Spanish. 6. **Hammamet and Nabeul** (About 1 hr by car or train · Cap Bon): The old resort coast, an hour south: a walled medina on the beach, and the pottery town beside it. Easiest to reach without a car. ## Festivals & annual events in Tunis (2026) - **Ramadan in the medina** (Feb–Mar): The medina keeps different hours: quiet by day, then the cafés and stalls fill after the fast breaks and stay busy past midnight. - **Independence Day** (Mar): 20 March marks independence from France in 1956. Official ceremonies, closed offices, and a holiday that fills the coast road. - **Jazz à Carthage** (Apr): Running since 2005 and spread across venues in Carthage, La Marsa, Sidi Bou Said and Tunis, over a fortnight of spring evenings. - **Tunis International Book Fair** (Apr–May): One of the larger book fairs in the Arab world, at the Parc des Expositions du Kram, with publishers from across the region. - **Festival International de Carthage** (Jul–Aug): The city's biggest cultural date, staged in the restored Roman theatre since the 1960s: six weeks inside the ancient bowl. - **Journées Musicales de Carthage** (Oct): A week of Arab and African music that works as an industry meeting as much as a festival, with a market alongside the concerts. - **Dream City** (Oct): A biennial of contemporary art staged in the medina itself, using courtyards and workshops as venues. - **Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage** (Nov): Created in 1966 and the oldest film festival in Africa and the Arab world, with a focus on Arab and African cinema. ## Must-try dishes in Tunis, Tunisia - **Brik à l'oeuf**: A sheet of malsouka pastry folded over a whole egg with tuna and capers, deep fried. - **Lablabi**: Chickpea broth poured over torn bread with harissa, cumin and a poached egg, mixed at the table. - **Couscous**: Steamed fine and served with lamb, chicken or, on this coast, whole fish. - **Ojja**: Tomatoes and green peppers cooked down with garlic and harissa, then eggs broken straight into the pan. - **Salade méchouia**: Peppers, tomatoes and garlic grilled over charcoal, chopped fine with oil and topped with tuna and egg. - **Fricassé**: A small fried bread roll stuffed with tuna, potato, olives, harissa and egg. - **Mloukhia**: Jute leaf powder cooked for hours with olive oil and beef until it turns almost black and glossy. - **Makroud**: A semolina pastry filled with date paste, fried and soaked in honey. Buy it by weight from a patisserie. ## Tunis transport & airports - **Tunis-Carthage International Airport** (TUN): About 8 km northeast of the centre on the far side of the lake. There is no rail link into the terminal, so a metered taxi or a hotel transfer is the way in. [Website](https://www.oaca.nat.tn/web/aeroport-tunis-carthage?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **The TGM to Carthage and La Marsa** (TGM): The line that makes Tunis easy. Opened in 1872 as the first railway in Tunisia, it runs from Tunis Marine to La Marsa via La Goulette, six Carthage stations and Sidi Bou Said. [Website](https://www.transtu.tn/fr/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Light metro and mainline trains** (Rail): The métro léger runs six lines across the capital, with line 4 reaching Le Bardo. Mainline trains leave Tunis Ville on Place de Barcelone for Sousse, El Jem, Sfax and Gabès. [Website](https://www.sncft.com.tn/en/home/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Taxis, louages and ride-hailing** (Taxi): Yellow taxis are metered and cheap, and the meter is the whole negotiation: ask for it rather than a price. Between cities, louages are the real network, shared minibuses that leave when they fill. ## Tunis at a glance - **Country:** Tunisia - **Region:** Tunis Governorate, on the Lake of Tunis between the hills and the Gulf of Tunis - **Population:** 604,599 in the commune at the 2024 census, with Greater Tunis the largest urban area in the country - **Founded:** A Punic town before Carthage fell, refounded as an Arab city at the end of the seventh century and made a capital by the Hafsids in the thirteenth - **Nickname:** Tunis el Khadra, Tunis the green - **Language:** Arabic is official and Tunisian Arabic is what is spoken; French is used across business, menus and signage - **Currency:** Tunisian dinar (TND), a closed currency: it cannot legally be taken in or out, so change what you need and keep the receipts - **Time zone:** UTC+1, with no daylight saving - **Calling code:** +216, with no city codes and eight-digit numbers - **Airports:** Tunis-Carthage International (TUN), about 8 km northeast of the centre - **Power:** 230V, 50Hz, sockets of types C and E - **Emergency:** 197 police, 190 ambulance, 198 fire and civil protection, 193 national guard ## Interesting facts - The Bardo holds the largest collection of mosaics in the world, prised off the floors of Carthage, Dougga, El Jem, Sousse and Kairouan. - The TGM line to Carthage and La Marsa opened in 1872 and was the first railway built in Tunisia. - UNESCO inscribed the medina in 1979 for some 700 monuments across seven quarters, among them the Zitouna Mosque and the gate at Bab El Bhar. - Sidi Bou Said's blue and white is a building rule, credited to Baron d'Erlanger, who pressed for the whole hill to be protected. - The Tunisian dinar is a closed currency: illegal to carry in or out, which is why exchange receipts matter and you cannot buy it ahead. ## Tunis travel FAQ ### How many days do you need in Tunis? Three. The first belongs to the medina, from Bab El Bhar up through the souks to the Zitouna. The second is the coast on the TGM: Carthage in the morning, Sidi Bou Said at dusk, fish in between. The third is the Bardo, which deserves a full morning. A fourth buys Dougga or Bizerte. ### What is the best time of year to visit Tunis? April and May, or late September through October. Summer is hot and dry, and July and August are when the city empties toward the beaches. Spring gives clear skies and the ruins to yourself; autumn adds the warmest sea of the year. Winter is mild and wet, and the medina looks better than the coast. ### How do you get from Tunis to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said? Take the TGM from Tunis Marine, at the sea end of Avenue Habib Bourguiba. It is a commuter line, not a tourist service: cheap, frequent, and it calls at six stations inside Carthage before Sidi Bou Said. Pick your Carthage station by the enclosure you want rather than getting off at the first. ### What should you eat in Tunis? Start with a brik à l'oeuf, the fried pastry folded over a whole egg, and a salade méchouia, which arrives whether you order it or not. Lablabi is the medina breakfast. Take couscous with fish rather than lamb on this coast, and finish with makroud from a patisserie rather than a restaurant. ### What should you know about money in Tunisia? The dinar is a closed currency and cannot legally be carried in or out. You change money on arrival and keep the receipts, because converting back at the end requires them and is capped. Cards work in hotels and supermarkets; the medina, the louages and the fish stalls are cash. Spend down before you fly out. ## Nearby guides - [Sousse](https://wimup.com/city/sousse.md): Day trip · 10 picks - [Cagliari](https://wimup.com/city/cagliari.md): Italy · 10 picks - [Constantine](https://wimup.com/city/constantine.md): Algeria · 10 picks - [All of Africa →](https://wimup.com/africa): 67 cities Part of the [Tunisia guide](https://wimup.com/country/tunisia.md) · [Africa](https://wimup.com/africa.md) ## Sources - [Tunis tourism board](https://www.discovertunisia.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Walk the medina from the Porte de France to the Zitouna (official site)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/36/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Give the Bardo a morning of your trip (official site)](https://www.bardomuseum.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Cross Carthage from Byrsa hill to the Antonine Baths (official site)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/37/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Hear a concert at Ennejma Ezzahra (official site)](https://www.cmam.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Le Golfe (official site)](https://restaurantlegolfe.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Dougga (official site)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/794/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Kerkouane and Kelibia (official site)](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/332/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Tunis-Carthage International Airport (official site)](https://www.oaca.nat.tn/web/aeroport-tunis-carthage?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [The TGM to Carthage and La Marsa (official site)](https://www.transtu.tn/fr/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Light metro and mainline trains (official site)](https://www.sncft.com.tn/en/home/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.