--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Tunisia (City Guides) | Wimup" description: "Wimup's Top 10 guides across Tunisia, mapped and ranked: Tunis and Carthage, the Sahel coast, Kairouan and the Sahara, when to travel and what to eat." url: https://wimup.com/country/tunisia type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-22 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Tunisia **Carthage** on one coast, the **Sahara** at the other end of a five-hour drive, and nine UNESCO World Heritage sites in between. Tunisia is the shortest route into North Africa there is. ## Quick answer Give **Tunis** two days: the medina, the Bardo mosaics, and Carthage and Sidi Bou Said on the same commuter line. The north is green, with **Bizerte**, the cork forests behind **Tabarka** and Roman **Dougga** inland. The Sahel coast has **Sousse**, the amphitheatre at **El Jem** and **Sfax**. **Kairouan**, the fourth holy city of Islam, is the stop that changes the trip. Then the desert: **Tozeur** and **Douz**, **Matmata**, and **Djerba** for a beach. Two weeks does the loop. One does the north and the Sahel. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr–Jun · Sep–Oct - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $45–100 - **Language:** Arabic is official, French is used across business and signage - **Getting around:** Coastal trains, shared louages, a hire car for the south - **3** City guides - **11,972,169** People - **0** Video guide Tunisia is short on distances and long on eras, which is what makes it easy to travel. Tunis is the arrival point for most trips, with the walled medina, the Bardo mosaics and the ruins of Carthage inside one commuter line. North of it Bizerte and Cap Angela mark the top of the African continent; south along the Sahel are the amphitheatre at El Jem, the ribat and medina of Sousse and the great mosque of Kairouan. Keep going and the country turns dry: Matmata and its underground houses, the salt flat at Chott el Djerid, the oasis towns of Tozeur and Douz, and the film sets left in the sand around Tataouine. Arabic and French are both everywhere in daily life, the coast is Mediterranean rather than desert, and the interior needs a car or a long train. ## 3 Tunisia city guides 1. [Tunis](https://wimup.com/city/tunis.md): Africa · 10 picks 2. [Djerba](https://wimup.com/city/djerba.md): Africa · 10 picks 3. [Sousse](https://wimup.com/city/sousse.md): Africa · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 11,972,169 - **Area:** 163,610 km² - **Density:** 73.2 / km² - **Capital:** Tunis - **Major cities:** Tunis, Sfax, Sousse, Kairouan, Bizerte - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Tunisian dinar (TND) The dinar is a closed currency and cannot legally cross the border. Change money on arrival at a bank, keep the receipts and change the rest back before security. Medinas and louages run on cash. - **Language:** Arabic official, French in daily use Arabic is official, Tunisian Derja is what people speak, and French runs through schools, menus and road signs. English is common in Tunis and the resorts, thinner in the south. - **Calling code:** +216 - **Power:** 230V · Types C and E - **Emergency:** 197 police · 190 ambulance · 198 fire Police 197, SAMU ambulance 190, fire 198, and 193 for the Garde Nationale on rural roads and motorways. The European 112 is not reliable here, so save the local numbers. - **Visa:** Visa-free for many nationalities EU, UK, US, Canadian and many other passports enter visa-free for up to 90 days, with the usual validity and an onward ticket. Check your nationality with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. - **Getting around:** Trains, louages and a hire car SNCFT's coastal line links Tunis, Sousse, El Jem, Sfax and Gabes, with a branch to Tozeur. Louages, shared taxis that leave when full, cover the rest. The Sahara and inland ruins want a car. - **Driving:** On the right A motorway runs from Bizerte down the coast past Sfax, and speed limits are enforced. Rural roads carry livestock and unlit vehicles after dark, so finish long drives before sunset. - **Tipping:** Round up, and a little more in tourism Leave the coins in a cafe and round up in a restaurant. Guides, drivers, porters and hammam attendants work partly on tips. - **Time zone:** CET (UTC+1) One hour ahead of GMT all year, with no daylight saving, so Tunisia is level with London in summer and an hour ahead in winter, and an hour behind Paris from spring to autumn. - **Ramadan:** Shorter days, later evenings Many cafes and restaurants close by day, offices shorten hours and life moves to the evening. Sites and transport run, and visitors need not fast, but eat and smoke discreetly. - **Alcohol:** Legal, and not everywhere Served in licensed restaurants, hotels and a few shops, rarely in cafes, and scarce in Kairouan. Local wine is cheap and decent, the beer is Celtia, the fig spirit boukha. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** (good) - **Apr** (best) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (good) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (best) - **Nov** (good) - **Dec** ## Fun fact Africa ends in Tunisia. Ras ben Sakka, the tip of Cap Angela on the coast north of Bizerte, has been recognised as the northernmost point of the continent since 2014, when it displaced Cape Blanc eight kilometres along the same shore. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Tunisia is a package beach holiday **Reality:** Northern Europe buys it that way, and the resorts at Hammamet, Sousse and Djerba are real. They are also a thin strip of a country with nine UNESCO World Heritage sites, Roman Dougga, an amphitheatre at El Jem to rival Italy's, and a Saharan half few beach visitors see. - **Myth:** It is all desert **Reality:** The north is Mediterranean, green in winter and covered in cork oak and olive. The Sahara begins well south of the middle of the country, past the salt flats, and the drive from Tunis to the first dunes takes most of a day. Tunisia's problem in spring is rain in the north, not sand. - **Myth:** Carthage is a ruin you see in an hour **Reality:** Carthage is a suburb of Tunis on a hillside above the sea, and the site is scattered across it. The Antonine baths, the Punic ports, the theatre and the hilltop museum sit a walk or a short hop apart on the TGM line. Give it half a day and pair it with lunch in Sidi Bou Said above it. - **Myth:** You need Arabic to travel here **Reality:** You need neither Arabic nor much planning. French runs through schooling, business, menus and signage, so a French speaker is entirely at home, and English is widely spoken in Tunis and the resort towns. A few words of Derja are still the fastest way to change the temperature of a conversation. - **Myth:** The medina is a tourist trap **Reality:** The Tunis medina is a working neighbourhood, a UNESCO site, and the place the city does its shopping. The stretch around the main gate is set up for visitors. Two turns off it are the wool market, the perfume sellers and the courtyards, and the pressure to buy drops to nothing. - Greet before you transact. Aslema, or bonjour, and a moment of small talk come before the question, and skipping to the question reads as brusque however friendly the tone. - Bargaining is expected in the souk and nowhere else. Shops with marked prices, cafes and restaurants are fixed. In the medina, a counter-offer is part of the conversation, and walking away politely is a normal move that offends nobody. - Dress is relaxed on the coast and more conservative inland. Beachwear stays at the beach, and covered shoulders and knees are the right call in Kairouan, in any medina and around religious sites. - Mosques are mostly not open to non-Muslims, with a few exceptions where the courtyard is. The Great Mosque of Kairouan is one of those: the courtyard is visitable, the prayer hall is viewed from the doorway, and shoulders and knees stay covered. - The left hand is not used for eating or for passing food. Bread is torn, never cut, and shared dishes are eaten from the section in front of you. - Photograph people only after asking, and expect a refusal sometimes, particularly from older women and inside markets. A police station, a military site and a government building are all firm no. - Friday midday slows the country down for prayers, and Ramadan reverses the day entirely. Neither stops a visitor doing anything, but both are worth knowing before you plan a lunch. - Politics is discussed openly and often with visitors, and the 2011 revolution is still a live subject. Listening is welcome. Pronouncing verdicts on it is not. ## Famous Tunisian faces - **Habib Bourguiba**: Led independence in 1956, president until 1987, pushed through the Personal Status Code. - **Ons Jabeur**: First Arab and African woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final, Wimbledon 2022. - **Ibn Khaldun**: Born in Tunis in 1332. His Muqaddimah set out a theory of history and society. - **Claudia Cardinale**: Born in La Goulette outside Tunis in 1938, and one of the defining faces of Italian cinema - **Azzedine Alaïa**: Couturier born in Tunis in 1935 who defined the body-conscious dress of the 1980s. - **Kaouther Ben Hania**: Director of Four Daughters, Œil d'or at Cannes in 2023, then an Oscar nominee. - **Anouar Brahem**: Oud player and composer whose albums for ECM carried the instrument into contemporary jazz - **Oussama Mellouli**: Olympic champion in the 1500m freestyle in 2008 and the 10km open water in 2012. - **Abdellatif Kechiche**: Born in Tunis. Won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2013 for Blue Is the Warmest Colour - **Moufida Tlatli**: Director of The Silences of the Palace (1994), a colonial household seen from below. - **Hend Sabry**: Debuted at fourteen in The Silences of the Palace. A star of Arabic film and television. - **Emel Mathlouthi**: Singer whose Kelmti Horra (My Word Is Free) became an anthem of the 2011 revolution. - **Latifa**: Pop singer from Manouba. Won a World Music Award for Middle East sales in 2004. - **Saber Rebaï**: Singer and composer from Sfax, best known across the Arab world for Sidi Mansour - **Habiba Ghribi**: Olympic steeplechase champion of 2012, upgraded to gold when the winner was disqualified. - **Wahbi Khazri**: Scored the goal that beat holders France at the 2022 World Cup. - **Farhat Hached**: Founded the UGTT trade unions and led labour's independence fight. Assassinated in 1952. - **Hannibal**: The Carthaginian general who took an army over the Alps in 218 BC. ## Must-try Tunisian food - **Couscous**: The national dish, steamed over a lamb, fish or vegetable broth. UNESCO-listed in 2020. - **Brik**: Egg, tuna, parsley and capers in thin malsouka pastry, fried. The yolk should run. - **Ojja**: Tomatoes and peppers cooked down with harissa, eggs cracked in, merguez or prawns added. - **Salade mechouia**: Grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions chopped with oil and garlic. First on most tables. - **Chorba**: Thin, peppery frik wheat soup with lamb or fish. Every evening through Ramadan. - **Mloukhia**: Powdered jute leaf slow-cooked with beef until almost black. Deeply savoury. - **Koucha**: Lamb shoulder baked slowly in clay with potatoes and paprika. The celebration roast. - **Lablabi**: Chickpea and cumin broth over stale bread, egg and harissa. The cheapest good breakfast. - **Kafteji**: Fried peppers, potato, courgette, tomato and egg, chopped together in front of you. - **Fricassé**: Small fried roll of tuna, potato, olives, egg and harissa, eaten standing up. - **Merguez**: Thin lamb and beef sausage red with harissa, grilled over coals, served in bread. - **Complet poisson**: The coastal plate: grilled fish with rice, salad, chips and a fried pepper. - **Grilled daurada**: Sea bream over charcoal with lemon and oil, the default order from Bizerte to Djerba. - **Poulpe salad**: Tender octopus dressed cold with oil, lemon and parsley. A Sfax and Kerkennah habit. - **Harissa**: Sun-dried chillies pounded with garlic, caraway and olive oil. UNESCO-listed in 2022. - **Olive oil**: One of the world's largest producers, and it goes in everything. Buy at a co-operative. - **Deglet Nour dates**: Translucent honey-coloured dates from the Tozeur and Kebili oases, sold on the branch. - **Makroudh**: Semolina pastry filled with date paste, fried and soaked in syrup. Kairouan's speciality. - **Bambalouni**: Sugared fried dough ring, sold hot at the top of the steps in Sidi Bou Said. - **Zlabia**: Loops of batter fried and drenched in syrup, bright orange and everywhere during Ramadan. - **Assidat zgougou**: Aleppo pine seed cream under custard and nuts, made for the Prophet's birthday. - **Samsa**: Almond and sesame pastry triangles in syrup. Small and dense. - **Mint tea with pine nuts**: Strong, sweet green tea with pine nuts floating on top. The cafe order. - **Boukha**: Clear fig spirit, Tunisian in origin, drunk cold from a small glass. - **Citronnade**: Whole lemon blended with sugar and ice. At every beach cafe from May to September. ## By theme - [Hidden gems of Africa](https://wimup.com/hidden-gems-africa.md) ## FAQs ### How many days do you need in Tunisia? Ten to fourteen for the full loop. Two nights in Tunis for the medina, the Bardo and Carthage, two on the Sahel coast for Sousse, El Jem and Sfax, one in Kairouan, then three or four in the south for Tozeur, the Chott, Douz and Matmata, and a couple on Djerba if you want the trip to end on a beach. A single week is enough for Tunis, Cap Bon and the Sahel without rushing. ### When is the best time to visit Tunisia? April to early June, and September to October. The coast is warm, the archaeological sites are bearable at midday and the desert is still tourable. July and August are the peak beach months and the wrong time for the Sahara, where daytime temperatures climb far past comfort. Winter reverses it: the north is cool and wet, and the south is at its best. ### Do you need a visa for Tunisia? Most visitors do not. Citizens of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and many other countries enter without a visa for stays of up to 90 days. The list is specific, so check your own nationality with the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and travel on a passport with comfortable validity and an onward ticket. ### How do you get around Tunisia without a car? Trains and louages. SNCFT's coastal line links Tunis, Sousse, El Jem, Sfax and Gabes, which covers most of what people come for, and a branch runs inland to Tozeur. Louages, the shared long-distance taxis, fill the gaps. They leave when the seats are taken, with no timetable, and reach every town in the country. The desert circuit is the one stretch where a hire car or a driver saves real time. ### Can you visit the Star Wars sets in Tunisia? Yes, and there are more of them here than in any other country. The Lars homestead interior is the sunken courtyard of the Sidi Driss hotel in Matmata, still a working hotel. The Mos Espa set stands in the sand west of Tozeur and is slowly being buried by it. Ksar Hadada near Tataouine and the salt flat at Chott el Djerid are on the same circuit. Most sit in the south, so pair them with the oases. ## Related countries - [Algeria](https://wimup.com/country/algeria.md) - [Egypt](https://wimup.com/country/egypt.md) - [All of Africa](https://wimup.com/africa) Part of [Africa](https://wimup.com/africa.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.discovertunisia.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.diplomatie.gov.tn/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Getting around](https://www.sncft.com.tn/?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.