Most bad days out in Tunisia come down to nine things: forced shop visits, money asked for on the day, extras nobody mentioned, a hotel pick-up round that eats the morning, rushed visits, the wrong car, a driver who smokes or speeds, an airport taxi that names its price once the bags are in, and messages that go unanswered. None of them is bad luck. Each has a reason, usually a commission, and each has a promise against it — in writing, on the booking — so that you can hold us, or anyone else, to it. Below: the complaint, why it happens, and what we do instead.
The classic runs like this. On the way to Kairouan, or inside the Tunis medina, the day pauses at a “carpet museum”, a spice-and-perfume house or a pottery workshop that was on nobody’s programme. A demonstration, mint tea, a sales talk of forty-five minutes, and a driver who is oddly patient about it. He is patient because the shop pays him: a fifth to a third of whatever you buy, and often a small fee just for bringing the car in. On a cheap coach seat that commission is part of how the seat can be cheap.
Our promise: no shopping stops unless you ask for one. The itinerary on the tour page is the itinerary on the driver’s sheet, stop by stop, and there is no shop on it. If you do want to buy a carpet in Kairouan or ceramics in Nabeul, say so: the driver takes you somewhere and waits outside. He is paid by us, not by the shop, so he has no opinion about what you buy. Every one of our 23 day trips lists its stops on the page; the list on the page is the list in the car.
This one comes in two forms. A “friend of the driver” appears at the medina gate or at the amphitheatre, walks with you for twenty minutes and expects a tip that turns out to have a suggested figure. Or the day ends with a price that has grown — fuel, a toll, parking, waiting time, a “guide fee” — each item reasonable-sounding and none of them agreed.
Our promise: one price, in writing, in euros and dinars, and nobody asks you for money on the day except the agreed fare. The price on the tour page is per vehicle and includes the driver, fuel, tolls, parking and pick-up at your hotel. It is repeated on the booking confirmation and on the voucher in both currencies, which is why we take no deposit: there is nothing to argue about at the end. The driver collects the fare on the day, and the fare only. Nobody joins your party at a gate; if you want a licensed guide at a site, it is booked with us in advance at the price on the page — €60 per group for the day — and named on the voucher. A tip for a good day is welcome and is never requested.
A camel ride at Douz, a quad at the dunes, entry tickets at Carthage, the Bardo, El Jem and Dougga, lunch: on many tours these appear as the day goes on, priced by whoever is standing there, and a “from €45” day quietly becomes a €90 one.
Our promise: every extra is listed with its price before you book. Each tour page has a block of optional extras with the price next to each one — entry tickets prepaid at €10 per person, a traditional lunch at €15 per person, a licensed guide at €60 per group — and you tick them on the booking form or leave them; the total is recalculated in front of you before you send anything. Entry fees are not buried in the price either: they are listed separately so that you can compare our day with anyone else’s honestly, and you may just as well pay them at the gate yourself. What is not on the list is not sold to you on the day. The cost guide shows the whole arithmetic.
A coach excursion from Hammamet or Sousse begins with a tour of hotels: forty-five minutes, sometimes ninety, collecting guests along the coast before the road out, and the same in reverse in the evening. A “full day” loses two hours to it, and the seat that leaves last also comes back last.
Our promise: you are the only pick-up. The car leaves from your hotel door at the time you chose, with your party in it and nobody else, and brings you back to that door. The pick-up time on the booking form is the time the day starts, not the time a round starts. That is the whole difference between a private tour and a coach, and the comparison is honest about when the coach still wins.
Twenty minutes at El Jem, a photograph of Sidi Bou Saïd from the car park, the Bardo in under an hour: the coach is not being mean, its day was built around the shop visits and the hotel round rather than around the sites, and something has to give.
Our promise: stop wherever you want, for as long as you want. The published itinerary is an order of stops, not a timetable. Stay two hours at Dougga and drop the last stop, ask the driver to pull over for a photograph on the road to Zaghouan, add a coffee on the harbour at Kelibia: it is your car and your day. The only fixed points are the ones you set — a flight, a ship’s all-aboard time — and the driver plans the day around them.
Booked a minivan, got a saloon; booked air conditioning, got an open window; six people and a driver in a five-seat car, luggage on laps.
Our promise: the car you booked, or we upgrade you for free. The vehicle class is written on your booking and on the voucher, and if that class cannot be provided you get the one above at no charge — never the one below. The rule is built into the booking form itself: from five people, or four with a guide on board, the minivan is the floor and a sedan cannot be chosen for a group it cannot carry.
A driver who smokes with the window down, takes the Kairouan road at 140, spends the day on the phone or treats the roundabouts as a suggestion. On a per-trip wage there is an incentive to drive fast: the sooner this job ends, the sooner the next one starts.
Our promise: non-smoking cars, and professional drivers you can rate. Our drivers are salaried, not paid per trip, so nobody gains by hurrying you. The cars are non-smoking, full stop. The day after the trip you receive a message asking how it went, and what you write is read: the driver’s name is on your booking, and the reviews are the reason he is still driving for us next season. Tell us the same day if anything was wrong and it is dealt with the same day. The drivers and guides guide explains who sits in the front seat and what each is qualified to do.
The airport taxi story has been told at every arrivals hall in the country: a meter that is “broken”, a night rate applied at six in the evening, luggage charged as passengers, a price that doubles once the bags are in the boot and the doors are shut.
Our promise: a fixed fare before you land, no meter, no night surcharge. Every one of our 1,392 airport routes has a published price per vehicle — the same at two in the morning as at noon, the same for four suitcases as for one — and the driver is in the arrivals hall with your name on a board, having tracked the flight. You pay him at the end, the fare on the voucher, in euros or dinars. The comparison with a rank taxi is in the booking-direct guide, including the short runs where a taxi can genuinely be cheaper.
A tour “confirmed” by silence, a WhatsApp seen and never answered, a pick-up time nobody actually agreed, and a morning spent in a hotel lobby wondering whether a car is coming.
Our promise: we answer within the hour. Messages are read by the people who run the trips, seven days a week; a request sent at two in the morning gets the first answer of the day. A booking is not a booking until you hold our written confirmation with the price, the time and the meeting point, and you receive the driver’s name and phone number the day before, so that the lobby question never arises.
These promises are ours, but the checks work on anybody. Before you pay a deposit — and think twice about paying one at all — get answers to these in writing:
A company that answers all seven in writing is one you can book with, whoever it is. We put ours on the tour page, the confirmation and the voucher so that you never have to ask.
All 23 day trips, with prices →
Widely, yes: carpet houses, perfume and spice shops and pottery workshops pay drivers and guides a share of what visitors buy, which is why unplanned stops appear on cheap tours. Our drivers are salaried and no shop is on our itineraries; a shop visit happens only if you ask for one.
No, and we say so on the page: entry tickets are listed as an optional extra with their price, so that the comparison with other tours is honest. You can prepay them with the booking or pay at the gate yourself.
Only the driver, for the agreed fare on the voucher — in euros or dinars, no deposit beforehand. No friend of the driver, no guide who was not booked, no fuel or parking supplement. A tip for a good day is welcome and never requested.
No. The car leaves from your hotel door with your party only and returns there. There is no hotel round.
The vehicle class is on the voucher; if it cannot be provided you get the class above at no charge. Cars are non-smoking. Tell us the same day and it is handled the same day; the driver’s name is on your booking and your review is read.
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.
