No, and it is worth being plain about it. El Jem to Matmata is about 207 km in a straight line, Matmata to Douz another 68 km, and El Jem itself is roughly 174 km south of Tunis. Attempted in a day from the coast that is more than 700 km of driving for perhaps two hours out of the car. The three fit naturally into a two- or three-day circuit, which is how they are normally combined.
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| Leg | Straight-line km | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Tunis to El Jem | 174 | A long morning on the motorway |
| Hammamet to El Jem | 123 | A comfortable day trip, usually with Kairouan |
| Sousse to El Jem | 59 | The easiest way to reach it from the coast |
| El Jem to Matmata | 207 | A different landscape: the plain gives way to the southern hills |
| Matmata to Douz | 68 | The last stretch to the dunes |
Road distances are longer than these figures, and the road south of El Jem is slower than the motorway before it.
El Jem takes an hour and a half if you go down into the underground passages, which you should: that is where the amphitheatre stops being a photograph. Matmata takes about an hour for a courtyard house dug into the ground and the view over the bare hills, more if you want to see the hotel that was the Lars homestead in the first Star Wars film. Douz is not a stop, it is the afternoon: the dunes start at the edge of town, and the reason to be there is the light at the end of the day. Together that is a long day of driving with roughly four hours on foot, which is why it belongs in a circuit rather than a day trip.
Two days does it: day one runs El Jem, Matmata and Douz, ending in the south, and day two is the dunes and the salt lake before the return. The 2-day circuit is built that way at €324 per vehicle. Three days (the 3-day circuit, €471) adds Tozeur and the mountain oases without making the first day any longer. Every stop is written up, in order, in the 2-day guide.
Choose El Jem. It works as a day trip from Sousse, Monastir or Hammamet, and pairs naturally with Kairouan (one private day covers both, from Hammamet, Sousse or Monastir). Matmata and Douz are not day trips from the coast resorts, whatever a desk in a hotel lobby says: the driving is the whole day, and you arrive as the light goes.
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About 207 km as the crow flies, and appreciably more by road. They are in different parts of the country: El Jem is on the Sahel plain, Matmata is in the southern hills above the desert.
Two days, staying overnight in the south. Three days is more comfortable and adds the Chott el Jerid salt crossing and the oases at Tozeur.
It is the third-largest Roman amphitheatre standing, and you can walk the arena floor and the tunnels beneath it. It sits directly on the road south, so it costs almost no extra driving on a Sahara circuit.
Not sensibly. It is in the southern hills, a full day of driving each way from the coast resorts. It is normally combined with El Jem and Douz in a two- or three-day circuit.
Sidi Driss, the underground hotel that was the Lars homestead in the first Star Wars film, is the best known. Most circuits sleep in Douz or Tozeur, which put the dunes and the salt lake within easy reach of the second morning.
You do not need one to walk the arena and the underground passages, and a driver can tell you what you are looking at. A licensed guide adds the history if you want it and can be arranged in advance.
Distances are straight-line, measured between the coordinates on our map of the sites; road distances are longer. Prices are per vehicle and come from the same database the 33 tours and 1,392 transfer fares.
