From La Goulette you can see Carthage, Sidi Bou Saïd and the Tunis medina in a single call and be back at the ship with margin. Carthage is about 10 km from the terminal, Sidi Bou Saïd another 3 km up the coast, and the medina 14 km the other way — the port itself is a working harbour with little to see, so the day happens twenty minutes away. A private car from the port gate covers all three in about 6 hours for €112 per vehicle, up to 4 people.
Cruise ships berth at the La Goulette terminal, on the channel that joins the Lake of Tunis to the sea. The terminal has the usual souvenir stalls and a taxi rank; the town behind it is a fishing port known in Tunis for its seafood restaurants and the squat Spanish fort of the Karraka, and that is roughly the extent of it. Nothing you have come to Tunisia for is within walking distance. Carthage begins about 10 km north, Sidi Bou Saïd sits on the headland just beyond it, and the medina of Tunis is across the lake causeway to the west. All three are twenty-minute drives, in different directions from one another, which is why the order of the day matters more than the distance.
Carthage is not one enclosure with a gate. It is six separate sites spread over several kilometres of a residential suburb, on one combined ticket: Byrsa hill with its panorama over the gulf, the Antonine Baths down by the sea, the Punic ports, the Tophet, the Roman villas and the theatre. On foot you see one. With a car, three fit comfortably before Sidi Bou Saïd: Byrsa for the view and the sense of the place, the Antonine Baths for Roman engineering at full scale, the Punic ports for the outline of Hannibal’s harbour, still readable in the water. Go first, while the sites are empty and the air is cool; the coach groups arrive from about ten.
The blue-and-white village is 3 km from Carthage and the one stop every ship’s excursion makes, so between eleven and one it is full. There is one main street climbing to the Café des Nattes, a few lanes off it, the terrace of the Café des Délices looking down on the marina, and the Ennejma Ezzahra palace for anyone who wants an interior. An hour is right; a whole afternoon is what people do who have nothing else planned. If your ship is in port until the evening, do it last, after two, when the coaches have gone.
The medina of Tunis is a UNESCO site: the Zitouna mosque at its centre (the courtyard is open to visitors, the prayer hall is not), the covered souks around it, and the Bab el Bhar gate where the old city meets the French avenue. Ninety minutes walks the main axis with a coffee. The Bardo museum, twenty minutes further west, holds one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world and takes a good ninety minutes of its own. On a six-hour call you choose one; on an eight-hour call, with a car and no lunch stop, both are possible, but tight. Our standard cruise day takes the medina, because it is on the way back to the port.
The TGM suburban train runs from La Goulette along the coast to Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd — cheap, frequent, and a fair option for the two coastal sites if you are happy to walk from the port gate to the station and between the Carthage stops. It does not help with the medina, which is in the other direction. Taxis wait at the terminal; agree the price for the half day before you get in, and expect a driver who waits rather than one who explains. A private car with driver is €112 for the vehicle for about 6 hours — €56 each for two, €28 each for four — and it does all three sites in the order that beats the coaches. A state-licensed guide can be added for €60 per vehicle, and lunch in Sidi Bou Saïd or La Marsa for €12 a head.
Every ship publishes an all-aboard time, usually an hour before departure, and the port road can be slow at the end of the afternoon. Whatever you do, be through the port gate an hour before all-aboard, not at it. If you book a car, tell us the all-aboard time and the day is planned backwards from it; the driver has your ship’s schedule and you are at the quay with margin. One rule of the port is worth knowing: only state-licensed guides may meet passengers inside the terminal area. So a driver on his own waits with your name on a board in front of Restaurant La Victoire, about 200 m outside the port gate on the seafront avenue, while a guide meets you at the terminal exit itself.
All 23 day trips, with prices →
Not usefully. Carthage begins about 10 km from the terminal and its sites are spread over several kilometres of suburb. The TGM train or a car are the two realistic ways there.
About 15 km by road, twenty to twenty-five minutes. It sits on the headland just north of Carthage, so the two are always combined.
Yes, the TGM suburban line stops in La Goulette and runs along the coast to Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd in about fifteen and twenty-five minutes. It does not go to the medina.
No. You walk out through the terminal on your own. The only rule is on the inside: a licensed guide may meet you at the terminal exit, an unaccompanied driver may not, so he waits just outside the gate instead.
The day starts when you step off, not at a fixed hour. The driver tracks the ship, the price is fixed, and the plan is worked backwards from your all-aboard time.
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 34 tours and 1,392 transfer fares.
