Tunis works as one day, and a second day makes it better. The medina in the morning, Carthage after lunch and Sidi Bou Saïd at the end of the day are all within about 20 km of each other. A second day adds the Bardo Museum, with the largest collection of Roman mosaics anywhere, and one of the quiet Roman sites outside the city.
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A working medina rather than a preserved one, with around seven hundred monuments inside it and shops that are still trading. The Zitouna Mosque is the anchor, and the souks around it are still grouped by trade: perfume in one lane, chechias in another, gold in a third. If you have only an hour, the stretch between Bab Bhar and the Zitouna is the densest, and the rooftop terraces above the carpet shops give you the medina from above.
Two cities on one site: Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BC and rebuilt it a century later. The Antonine Baths sit right on the shore, and Byrsa hill above has the Punic foundations and the view that explains why anyone built here.
The blue-and-white village on the cliff above the Gulf of Tunis. Come late if you can: the main street is narrow and fills in the middle of the day, and empties towards evening.
The Bardo Museum is a nineteenth-century palace turned museum, and the reason to come is the floors: Roman mosaics from villas across the country, laid where you can stand over them. Museums close one day a week, so check the day before you plan around it. Then choose one Roman site outside the city: Thuburbo Majus (about 52 km), a capitol and a forum in open farmland that you will often have to yourself, or Uthina (about 22 km), with an amphitheatre built into a slope and huge cisterns. Or the coast: La Marsa and Gammarth for a long lunch.
Bardo, the medina, Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd packs the first two days into one, with a private car.
The medina is on foot. Carthage, Sidi Bou Saïd and La Marsa are on the TGM light railway from Tunis Marine, the cheapest way to reach all three. Yellow taxis are metered, and the meter should be on. The sites in Carthage are spread out, so a car saves the walking between them. Fixed airport fares are on the Tunis airport page.
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Yes, for a day or two. The medina is one of the most intact in North Africa, Carthage and Sidi Bou Said are within twenty kilometres, and the Bardo Museum has the largest collection of Roman mosaics anywhere.
One day covers the medina, Carthage and Sidi Bou Said. A second adds the Bardo Museum and a Roman site outside the city. Beyond that, Tunis is best used as a base for day trips.
By the TGM light railway from Tunis Marine station, which runs through La Goulette and Carthage to Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa, or by taxi. A car with a driver saves the walking between the Carthage sites.
It is a busy working medina and normal city precautions apply: keep bags closed in crowds, and agree the price of anything before you accept it. Unrequested guides near the entrances are common and can be politely declined.
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.
