Day 1
Arrival in Tunis
Met at the airport and taken to your hotel, with touring available the same day. A welcome dinner follows in La Goulette or Carthage.
Night in Tunis, at Dar Said (or similar).
Private Tunisia tour: 11 days, 10 nights, the Sahara and the island of Djerba
$3,150
A person, double occupancy.
The only programme with both a night in the desert and two on Djerba, reached across the Roman causeway after the ksour villages of the south.
The journey in brief
- Length
- 11 days, 10 nights
- Price
- $3,150 a person, double occupancy
- Single room supplement
- $750 a person
- You sleep in
- Tunis (2 nights), Tabarka (1 night), Kairouan (1 night), Tozeur (2 nights), Ksar Ghilane (1 night), Djerba (2 nights) and Tunis (1 night)
- Meals
- All meals, including a welcome dinner at a fine restaurant
- Not included
- Tips and drinks
- Best months
- March to May, September to November
Along the way
Kairouan
Day 4
Tozeur
Day 5
Ksar Haddada
Day 8
Djerba
Day 8
Day by day
Day 2
Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and the medina
Carthage in the morning, then Sidi Bou Said, then the medina of Tunis.
Night in Tunis, at Dar Said (or similar).
Day 3
The Bardo and Tabarka
The Bardo Museum, then northwest on rural roads to Ain Draham and Tabarka.
Night in Tabarka, at La Cigale Tabarka or Dar Smail (or similar).
Day 4
Dougga, Bulla Regia and Kairouan
Dougga, then Bulla Regia and its underground villas, then on to Kairouan.
Night in Kairouan, at La Kasbah (or similar).
Day 5
Kairouan, Sbeitla and Tozeur
Kairouan in the morning, Sbeitla in the afternoon, Tozeur by evening.
Night in Tozeur, at Tameghza Palace, The Mora Sahara Tozeur or Dar Habibi (or similar).
Day 6
The oasis region and the Star Wars sets
Chott el Gharsa and the yardangs where the Qui-Gon and Darth Maul duel was filmed, the Mos Espa set, and the mountain oases of Chebika and Tamerza.
Night in Tozeur, at Tameghza Palace, The Mora Sahara Tozeur or Dar Habibi (or similar).
Day 7
Chott el Jerid, Douz and Ksar Ghilane
Across the chott to Douz, then south off the tarmac and onto desert tracks to the encampment at Ksar Ghilane. Riding out to the Roman fort for sunset and returning by moonlight is the thing to do here.
Night in Ksar Ghilane, at Pansy Camp (or similar).
Day 8
Matmata, the ksour and Djerba
Through the mountains around Tamezret into Matmata, then desert tracks to Ksar Metameur, a fine example of a ksour village. Some of the ksour nearby were used for Star Wars, Ksar Haddada among them. Then to the coast and across the Roman causeway to Djerba.
Night in Djerba, at Radisson Blu Djerba (or similar).
Day 9
The island of Djerba
Djerba keeps island time. The mosque architecture varies across the island alone. There is the ethnographic museum at Guellala, a town known for pottery, and the Ghriba synagogue, part of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating its presence here to more than two thousand years. Houmt Souk is small, walkable and the best shopping in Tunisia.
Night in Djerba, at Radisson Blu Djerba (or similar).
Day 10
Djerba to Tunis
Your morning on Djerba is unstructured, with your guide, driver and vehicle there for whatever you would like to do. A late afternoon flight back to Tunis, and a farewell dinner.
Night in Tunis, at Dar Said (or similar).
Day 11
Departure
Transfer to the airport for your flight home.
Start from this journey on the map and change what you like. The estimate moves as you build.
Where you sleep
The hotels our programme sheet names for this journey. Where the sheet says or similar, so do we, and a similar property may stand in.
Tunis, 3 nights
Days 1 to 2 and 10Dar Said (or similar)
Guest house
Tabarka, 1 night
Day 3La Cigale Tabarka (or similar)
Five star
Our sheet also names Dar Smail for this stop.
Kairouan, 1 night
Day 4La Kasbah (or similar)
Five star
Tozeur, 2 nights
Days 5 to 6Tameghza Palace (or similar)
Five star
Our sheet also names The Mora Sahara Tozeur and Dar Habibi for this stop.
Ksar Ghilane, 1 night
Day 7Pansy Camp (or similar)
Desert camp
Djerba, 2 nights
Days 8 to 9Radisson Blu Djerba (or similar)
Five star
What the price covers
Included
- Airport transfers
- Hotels
- Baggage handling
- Transportation as indicated
- English speaking guide
- Entrance fees to all sites
- A 4x4 excursion
- All meals, including a welcome dinner at a fine restaurant
- All taxes
Not included
- Tips
- Drinks
The itinerary has a flight from Djerba to Tunis on day 10. The cost sheet lists transportation as indicated and does not name the flight, so ask us to confirm it in writing.
When to go
We suggest March to May and September to November for this journey. We leave out any month in which the average daytime high reaches 95F (35C) at a place on this route that the table covers, and we leave out December to February.
- Tozeur, where you spend two nights: an average daytime high of 98.1F (36.7C) in June, 103.1F (39.5C) in July and 102.7F (39.3C) in August.
- Douz: an average daytime high of 97.3F (36.3C) in June and 102.6F (39.2C) in July and August.
- Dougga: an average daytime high of 96.8F (36.0C) in July and 97.2F (36.2C) in August.
- Bulla Regia: an average daytime high of 98.2F (36.8C) in July and 98.1F (36.7C) in August.
- Kairouan, where you spend one night: an average daytime high of 99.9F (37.7C) in July and 99.5F (37.5C) in August.
- Sbeitla: an average daytime high of 96.6F (35.9C) in July and 95.2F (35.1C) in August.
- Matmata: an average daytime high of 97.2F (36.2C) in August.
- Tunis and Djerba stay under the line all year. August is the warmest month the Institut lists for them: 93.4F (34.1C) at Tunis and 92.3F (33.5C) at Djerba.
- September is the warm edge of that window, and the Institut puts it just under the line: Tozeur averages 94.3F (34.6C) and Douz averages 94.8F (34.9C).
- We leave out December to February. Tunis is at its wettest in December, with 75.2mm (3.0 in) of rain, and in January, with 63.1mm (2.5 in), and those three months are the coolest of the year at Tunis and at Tozeur.
- Nights in the desert are cool in winter. The January average low is 43.9F (6.6C) at Tozeur and 40.3F (4.6C) at Kebili, the Institut's station for Douz.
- Tabarka, where you spend one night, is the wettest station in the Institut's table: 960.2mm (37.8 in) a year, against 471.6mm (18.6 in) at Tunis.
Source: Institut National de la Météorologie, Tunisia's national weather service. The figures are its long term monthly averages, and no station sits at a site. The choice of months is our advice, and none of our programme sheets states a season. Each figure is from the Institut's station nearest the place: Tunis-Carthage for Tunis, Beja for Dougga, Jendouba for Bulla Regia, Kasserine for Sbeitla and Kebili for Douz.
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