A Week in Tunisia

This November I took my last trip of 2025 – one week in Tunisia! This was my first time in Africa and a fantastic, and honestly really relaxing last trip of the year. 2025 was a lot, both in general but also I did a ton of travelling this year. So Tunisa, a fairly relaxing trip but also a first trip to a new continent, was a great way to end this year travel-wise.

 Why Tunisia? First and foremost, the history as Tunisia is the home of one of the Mediterranean’s most famous ancient cities – Carthage. Tunisia is surprisingly not that bad to get to from the East Coast of the US. A non-stop flight to Europe, in my case Munich, and then a short 2-hour flight to Tunis. A bit too far for a long weekend, but great for a week-long trip. I spent six and a half days in Tunisia – two and a half the coastal town of Sousse and four in the capital Tunis and I highly recommend checking out both locations. Now, without further ado, here are the Must Visit, the Delightful, and the Frustrating of my trip to Tunisia.

Must visit
Carthage
As a bona fide history nerd - Carthage is one of those cities that loom large as both fascinating and so distant far-off land of myth - like Athens, or Timbuktu. Seeing Carthage was the main point of the trip and being there was incredible – excited squealing may have occurred. Carthage is actually a fairly upper-middle class neighborhood in the outskirts of modern Tunis, and the historic sites are spread across the neighborhood. One ticket gets you into the eight different sites. You can walk between all of the sites – that’s what I did – but it is a LOT of walking.

Despite being famous as a Punic city, almost all the ruins are Roman, including former baths, villas, and an amphitheater. Most of the ruins are just that, ruins but it’s still incredible and worth checking out. The most impressive Punic site was the Sanctuary of Tophet, which was a religious site for two main Phoenician gods and also a graveyard. It was extremely cool, especially as you could go into a cave and see some of the carvings on the gravestones. It’s an absolutely must visit, even if the ruins are not the most visually impressive.

Sanctuary of Tophet

Roman Sites in the Interior
To see some truly spectacular ruins, the best place is to head to the interior. Tunisia was a key and very wealthy part of the Roman Empire in the first couple centuries CE (a few hundred years after they razed Carthage to the ground) and there are several ruined cities and sites that are incredible to visit. The most famous is El Jem - which is the second largest still existing colosseum in the world (second only to the one in Rome). My favorite though was Dougga, a small city that is largely excavated and a UNESCO heritage site.  Another fantastic site is Bulla Regia is a much smaller city, with only 25% excavated. It’s the home of several villas that were built partially underground. The underground portions are impressively intact, as are some spectacular mosaics. All of these sites are a few hours from the major cities and can really only be reached by car or tour (I hired private tour guides/drivers) but they are absolutely worth the time and effort.

Bulla Regia

The Delightful
The People
Obviously no country’s people are a monolith, but just about everyone I met in Tunisia was really lovely. Nearly everyone I met was genuinely friendly and also respectful to me a woman traveling alone. There were no comments, cat-calling, or weird looks (and only one question about where my husband was) I felt completely comfortable in Tunis in particular. The only places I avoided were the clearly men-only cafes – which seemed to just involve men sitting around, chilling and smoking cigarettes.  And Tunisians were just ... chill for lack of a better word. Even wandering around the souks I rarely had people outside the shops hassling me to buy things. Sure, there were a few people who were annoying touts - but that's literally everywhere. 

The Weather
This is time-specific but the weather during my trip in November was literally perfect the entire time I was there. Sunny in a lovely 70s or so in the daytime and cooling down to the mid-50s at night. Perfect weather for walking around, particularly when visiting ruins which have no shade. I’m sure in the summer Tunisia is scorching but mid-November, I could not have hoped for better weather.

Mint Tea
It's just really good! Almost everywhere I went in Tunisia served mint tea and so it was my default drink of the trip. I drank it everywhere – with meals, in teahouses when I was taking a break, and at museum cafes. The tea itself was green tea infused with mint which is then poured over fresh mint leaves and served with sugar and sometime with a little pastry bite. Since the weather was literally perfect, the tea was excellent regardless of the time of day.

The Frustrating 
The Bardo Museum 
The Bardo Museum is one of the best-known museums in North Africa and recently reopened after being closed for several years. So naturally I expected a world-class museum. What I got, however, was a confusing, badly organized museum with a world-class collection. Seriously, the collection itself, particularly the mosaics, is phenomenal. And the mosaic baptismal font and blue Quaran were worth price of admission alone. But the museum is organized in the most random, shattershot way, with no clear, logical flow. You're going backwards through Tunisian history then suddenly it jumps forward a millennium when you turn a corner, and then you hit a tiled room with no exhibits without any warning. And to make it worse, they don't even give you a little map explaining the museum! I consider myself if not an aficionado than at least a knowledgeable enjoyer of museums. And the Bardo is a mess. That said - the collection itself is phenomenal and well worth seeing. It deserves better presentation.

It really is an incredible collection

The Food
I am sure that plenty of Tunisian food is delicious. However - I had very little of it because Tunisia is one of the least vegetarian-friendly countries I have ever visited in my life. Almost everything contained meat or fish, including salads. Even in Tunis it was nearly impossible to find vegetarian dishes. I ended up eating a lot of pizza and Italian food and having really big breakfasts while I was there. The few vegetarian Tunisian dishes I had were delicious, but they were few and far between.

Conclusion
I had a great time in Tunisia. One week is a good amount of time to hit the highlights of the country – see the most famous sites, visit some ruins and the medinas and also see some of the 9th -12th century Islamic kingdom forts and mosques (interesting and worth checking out). I’d have needed at least another week to go beyond the highlights, as the other places are harder to get to/more remote. I’m not sure if I’ll go back or not – there is definitely more to see and in particular I’m interested in visiting Djerba. It was also a very relaxing trip. People are friendly and while the tourist infrastructure is more geared to large package tours, it was reasonably easy enough to get around as a solo tourist, albeit a bit expensive if you opt for private transport. But if you have any interest in Roman history or ruins in particular – you absolutely must take a trip to Tunisia at some point.