Carthage before lunch, the Sahara by Friday.
Which Carthage day actually stops at the Bardo mosaics. How far Ksar Ghilane really is from Djerba. What a night in a desert camp costs. Every tour in Tunisia, reviewed.
The six places a Tunisia trip gets built around.
A Punic capital on the edge of the city, a Roman arena in a market town, two blue-and-white hill villages, an island, a chain of hillside ksour and the dunes behind all of it.
Tunis down to the dunes, the way a first trip usually runs.
Tunis
Hammamet
Sousse
El Jem
Douz
Ksar GhilaneCarthage and Sidi Bou Said fit in one morning.
All 34 Carthage tours →
The Punic ports, the Antonine baths, a hall of Roman floor mosaics at the Bardo, then lunch under bougainvillea on the clifftop. Almost every tour stitches the same four stops together; what changes is how long you get at each one.
Medina, Bardo, Carthage, Sidi Bou Said
Tunis souks first while it is still cool, mosaics at the Bardo, the Punic harbours at midday, then the blue-and-white lanes above the bay for the last hour of light.
The Bardo, taken slowly
Room after room of Roman floor mosaics lifted from villas across the country, laid out inside a beylical palace that is half the reason to go.
Dougga, Bulla Regia and Testour
Inland to the capitol at Dougga, then the underground villas at Bulla Regia, where Roman builders went downwards to get out of the heat.
The Sahara is a four-hour drive from the beach.
Douz and Tozeur are the two gates. From either it is dunes, a salt flat that turns pink at dusk, and a camp with mattresses on the sand. Two days is the honest minimum, and the good camps are small.
Djerba is flat, warm and easy to book from.
The island runs on short days out: a pirate boat to the flamingo sandbank, the crocodile farm, Houmt Souk in the afternoon. It is also the closest beach base to the desert road south.
Hammamet books the coast. Sousse keeps the walls.
The Cap Bon resort strip is where most package weeks land, and nearly every excursion in the country leaves from a Hammamet hotel lobby before eight. An hour south, Sousse and Monastir put a ribat, a walled medina and a working fishing port on the same stretch of beach.
- 1Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunchfrom $58
- 2Quad ride on the hills of Hammametfrom $46
- 32-Day Tunisian Sahara Tour with Food & Stay from Hammametfrom $154
The tours travellers in Tunisia actually book.
All Tunisia reviews →More people take these than anything else in the country, and each one earns the day it takes.
1
VIP Tour: Tunis Medina/Bardo, Sidi Bou Said, Carthage |PICKUP ALL
Review of a private Sousse to Tunis tour covering Sidi Bou Said, Carthage, and your choice of Medina or Bardo, with honest tips on value and…
From · $30
Read our review →
2
Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet
from $98
3
Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunch
from $46
4
Private tour: Medina,Carthage ,Sidi Bou Said, Bardo Museum+lunch
from $58
5
Discovery ride on horseback or camel 2h30
from $45
6
Carthage, Bardo Museum, Sidi Bou Said and Medina Private Day Tour
from $30
7
Cook and Connect: Tunisian Culinary Adventure with a Local Family
from $75
8
Quad ride on the hills of Hammamet
from $46
What a day out in Tunisia costs.
Every tour on the site, in three price bands. A desert weekend costs less than most people expect; a private Roman day costs more.
Medina walks, El Jem half-days, horse rides along the beach and museum entries.
The full-day classics: Carthage with Sidi Bou Said, Kairouan with El Jem, two days in the Sahara.
Private drivers, chartered desert runs and the multi-day loops down to Tataouine.
Three things Tunisia has that its neighbours do not.
Roman ruins run right along this coast and souks fill every North African medina. A 35,000-seat arena in a market town, a chain of inhabited hill villages, and a desert full of film sets are Tunisian alone.
The Arena at El Jem
Rome put a 35,000-seat amphitheatre in a small inland market town, and it is still the third largest that survives anywhere. You can walk the underground corridors where the animals were held, climb to the upper tiers for the view over the rooftops, and outside the summer coach hours have most of it to yourself.
- 1Private Tour to Kairouan, El Jem & Monastir from Tunis_hammamet★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 301 reviews
- 2Daytrip to Kairouan and El Jem Colosseum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 55 reviews
- 3Private Half Day Tour Roman Coliseum EL JEM★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 51 reviews
The Hill Villages and the Ksour
Chenini, Douiret and Tekrouna are Berber villages built into the hillsides of the south, with fortified granaries — ksour — stacked in tiers around them. Families still farm the terraces, houses in the old quarters are still in use and the mosques are working ones. Most tours pair a village with Ksar Ghilane, the hot spring out in the dunes.
- 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
The Star Wars Sets
Southern Tunisia played Tatooine and several sets were simply left standing. The igloo domes out on Chott el Jerid, the Sidi Driss hotel in Matmata that served as the Lars homestead, and Ksar Hadada near Tataouine can all still be visited. This is a film pilgrimage and nothing else; the villages nearby are their own trip.
- 1Tamerza, Chebika, Mides and Star Wars locations Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 18 reviews
- 2Half Day Star Wars Film Set Locations Private Tour from Tozeur★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12 reviews
- 3Full day Star Wars Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10 reviews
Tunisia comes back outside at six.
More after-dark tours →
Cook and Connect: Tunisian Culinary Adventure with a Local Family
Read our review →
Book these before you fly to Tunisia.
Most of Tunisia can be arranged at a hotel desk the night before. These cannot: they run on small camps, fixed departure days and a single road in.
- 01One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – MatmataOne road in and a handful of camps at the end of it. Spring and autumn dates go first.
- 02One night under the tent: Tataouine – Chenini – Ksar Ghilane – MatmataA long southern loop that only runs on set days, not daily, and the drive alone eats the morning.
- 03Sahara 2 Days Tour VIP In Tunisia | Guided FUN | PICKUP ALL CityAn overnight desert trip needs a bed booked in the camp, and the camps hold a few dozen people.
- 04Cook and Connect: Tunisian Culinary Adventure with a Local FamilyA family kitchen takes one group at a time, so the date you want is the date you book.
When the coast hits 38°C, go underground or go early.
Tunisian summer afternoons are for shade. The Bardo, the covered souks and the sunken villas at Bulla Regia stay cool through the worst of it, and the desert trips worth taking leave before seven or run into the evening.
By base — pick where you sleep
The newest Tunisia tour reviews.
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Full-Day Shore Excursion Private Tour in Tunisia Carthage ,Medina, Sidi Bou said
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Bardo Museum with Medina, Carthage and Sidi Bou Private Tour
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El Jem, Monastir, and Kairouan Medina Private Tour
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Half-Day Carthage, Sidi Bou Said Private Tour with Licensed Guide
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Kairouan, El Djem, Monastir Self-Guided Excursion from Hammamet
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Kairouan, El Djem and Monastir Guided Excursion from Hammamet
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DayTrip to KORBOUS Thalasso-Thermal Bath & Spectacular SEA Cliffs
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Roman Archeology Guided Tour Thuburbo Majus & Uthina
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The Best of Tunisia, 3 Days Guided Tour with Lunch
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