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TUNISIA TOURS

 
Tunisia From The North To The South
It’s a real adventure to see everything from Roman ruins to the Sahara. This tour offers an amazingly diverse landscape, from Mediterranean northern coastline to glimpses of the Sahara Desert. An opportunity to experience the diversified culture, archaeological & main historical monuments of Tunisia, it offers a chance to have an insight into the fascinating fortified villages and Ksours built by the Berbers. It's a real tasty mix of culture, history and discovery.
11 day / 10 Night

 
 Itinerary :
 

Day 1: Arrival in Tunis:
Arrival to Tunis airport, assistance and transfer to hotel, dinner and overnight.
Day 2:Tunis- Carthage-Sidi Bou Saïd-Bardo Museum-Tunis(Médina):
We will start the day by visiting Carthage the capital of the great Carthaginian Empire. There will be visits to the Byrsa Hill with its vestiges of Carthaginian and Roman buildings and the Carthage Museum. Next we continue to the Punic ports, including the Salammbo Tophet, where urns containing the ashes and milk teeth of 8th century BC children have been unearthed, and the Antonine Baths, a huge Roman bath complex on the edge of the Mediterranean.Next, we’ll visit the picturesque Andalusian village Sidi Bou Said. It is a delightful place for a leisurely stroll through its winding cobbled streets. Its trademark white walls, contrasting sky blue doors and ornate window grids make for wonderful photography.
Departure to visit the Bardo (*) Museum. This is Tunisia’s National Museum and the repository of the country’s rich archaeological collections, including the world’s largest collection of Roman polychrome mosaics.  Housed in an 18th century Beylical palace, it was the first museum to be founded in Africa and contains stunning mosaics and relics from the sites we have visited. Continue to the medina, Tunis's historic heart, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you will stroll through the winding Medina’s streets, with its souk (door-to-door shops selling all types of local curiosities) one of the world’s great marketplaces and retrace its remarkable wealthy past, you will have also a walking tour within the modern city. At the end of the day, transfer back to your hotel, dinner and overnight.
(*) If Day2 will be a Monday, this day the Bardo Museum will be closed, the visit of Bardo will be replaced by the visit of Carthage Museum.

 

Day 3: Tunis–Bizerte-Tabarka :
After breakfast, departure to Bizerte, the northern most town in Tunisia. Bizerte has been a major port since Phoenician times when it was known as Hippo Zarytus. Under French rule in the late 19th century it became a naval base and has remained Tunisia's biggest military centre ever since. At the heart of the town is the wonderfully picturesque Vieux Port (Old Port), visit the city and the old port. Departure to Tabarka, the capital of cork industry and where the sea and mountains elegantly merge, a seaside resort tucked in between t:he ocean and the mountains stop to explore the “needles”, dinner and overnight.

Day 4 :Tabarka-Aïn Draham-Bulla Regia –Dougga-Hammamet:
Departure from the hotel , stop in Ain Draham, with it’s unique  buildings having sloped roofs, designed to cope with the winter snows that are common in the mountains. We continue to the ruins of Bulla Regia. The ruins here are unusual as they reveal the Romans adopting the local custom of building their homes underground to avoid the heat. In addition to the subterranean mansions, the site also contains a theatre, baths and a temple to Isis, an Egyptian goddess who the Romans thought it fashionable to worship at the time.Continue, to Dougga to visit what are widely held to be the best ruins in all of Tunisia. Dougga, or Thugga, is undoubtedly the most prestigious of Tunisia's archaeological sites and was inscribed on the World Heritage list and turned into a national archaeological park. In this site you feel that you are literally walking in the footsteps of people who lived here two thousand years ago, as you stroll through the stone-paved streets, flanked by impressive buildings .Our visit will feature the sights including the Roman theatre built in the Greek style, the Temple of Augustan Piety, the Capitol; a temple-like public building featuring impressive monolithic columns; the terraced Baths, the Punico-Lybian Mausoleum.Departure to Hammamet, dinner and overnight.

 

Day 5: Hammamet –Kairouann-Sbeitla-Tozeur:
Depart to Kairouan, this city remains a purely Arab city filled with outstanding examples of the finest Islamic architecture in Tunisia: Visit the Great Mosque, the oldest place of worship in North Africa, and the zaouia, or tomb complex, of Sidi Sahab, a companion of the Prophet. We will see the impressive pools at Aghlabid Basins, built in the 9th century to collect and store winter rainwater. Then free time to stroll into the medina (old town), the ancient marketplace encircled by 11th-century walls. Continue to Sbeitla to view its remnants of the Roman Empire. The small town of Sbeitla is the site of the ancient city of Sufetula and possesses some of the best preserved Roman temples anywhere. In addition to temples dedicated to the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, the site also has 2 early Christian basilicas and an extensive bath complex with a remarkably sophisticated system for heating the floors. Departure to Tozeur, dinner and overnight.


 

Day 6 :Tozeur-Mountain oasis (optional) -Tozeur:
Morning at leisure or you can take an optional excursion: It’s a discovery extra ($) tour to the mountain oases, where many of the scenes of "The English Patient” were filmed. You’ll drive south into some of the country’s most spectacular mountain scenery; visit the mountain oasis of Tamerza, along with Mides and Chebika.
You’ll drive south into some of the country’s most spectacular mountain scenery; visit the mountain oasis of Tamerza, along with Mides and Chebika. In ancient days Chebika was called Ad speculum; after the Roman troops who communicated by mirror. The towns were flooded in 1969 in freak torrential rains and were later abandoned. The original villages are now “ghost’ towns. These villages continue with the old tiered oasis-style of cultivation of crops – vegetables are grown under pomegranate and orange trees which in turn are grown under date palms.
Visit the old town Tozeur, one of the largest southern settlements, this quarter is famous for the unique decorative architecture in brick with exuberant towering facades patterned in bas-relief zigzags.Next we will visit the Museum of palm trees a very nicely done exposition about the date palm trees .It offers also a tour inside the oasis an explanation of the irrigation system. This visit will end by a degustation of date products.Dinner and overnight.


  

Day 7:Tozeur-Nefta-Chott El Djerid –Douz:
After breakfast we’ll travel to the small, remote town of Nefta. This peaceful oasis, with a crater-like depression planted with palm trees in its centre, is crowned with the white domes of numerous Zaouias (holy sanctuaries). We'll visit the old quarter with its distinctive architecture and observe, through ancient doorways, the looms and rugs that provide a living for most of the people. After, we'll drive to cross the Chott El Jerid. This chott (flat, dry salt lake) is the largest in Tunisia and only becomes an inner sea during the winter rains. Most of the year it is a salty and dry marsh with the light reflected from the crystal surface creating mirages. Continue to Douz; a typical desert village. Douz is a maze of sand-coloured homes, narrow streets, a central marketplace and palm-filled oases. Here you can have an optional ($) camel ride passing over the majestic sand dunes and picturesque desert where the Sahara seems to go on forever. Dinner and overnight in Douz or in Matmata.
Day 8: Douz-Matmata-Chenini-Tataouine:
Departure to Matmata, of Star Wars notoriety, but more importantly, center of the most extensive number of traditional troglodyte pit homes in the region. The landscape is barren and marked with fissures, crags and small tabletop mountains. Visit of one of these dwelling caves, and then visit the hotel Sidi Driss, where scenes from the Lars homestead in Star Wars were filmed.. Continue to Ksar Hadada, one of the most picturesque ksour, (a ksar is a Berber granary).It was built to store and protect barley, wheat, and olive oil. The ksar is made of stone, gypsum, and mud. The ksar is built of overlapping vaults stacked on top of each other, so it looks like the scales of a fish. It was also used as a movie set for Star Wars 1 - The Phantom Menace.
Afterwards, we'll drive to visit  the desert village of Chenini, perched on the top of a dizzying ridge, and one of the few Berber-speaking villages still inhabited.
Continue to Tataouine, one of the most picturesque cities of the South-East. Tataouine is surrounded by Ksours and fortresses jutting out of the mountain, once used to store food essentials such as cereals, olive oil and dried fruit away from the enemy. Dinner and overnight.

 

 

Day 9: Tataouine-Medenine-Gabès-El Jem-Sousse/Port El Kantaoui:
Departure to Medenine; a well-known Berber village famed for its Ghorfas, visit the ghorfas, ancient wheat granaries built in the rocks.
Continue to Gabès, the main attraction in the city centre is the souk (Souk Jara) area where locals sell fruit and vegetables, spices, dried fish and mounds of green henna for which the city is renowned, visit of the souks and market spices
Departure to El Jem Known in Punic and Roman times as Thysdrus to visit the largest and most spectacular Roman amphitheatre in North Africa and the best preserved in the world. The approach to El Jem offers a scene of contrasts, due to the setting of the site amidst the barren and simple surroundings of the present day town. The coliseum appears better preserved than the one in Rome and certainly, has seen far less numbers of tourists over the years. This colossal edifice (classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site) which seems to rise out of nowhere was designed with seating for 30,000 people and is similar to Rome’s Coliseum. In the small archaeological museum, see the gorgeous collection of mosaics.  Visit the remains of Roman villas behind the museum. From El Jem, you continue east towards the coast and head north to the city of Sousse. Sousse is Tunisia's third largest city, known for its seaside resort (Marina) of Port El Kantaoui. Dinner and overnight.

 

 

Day 10 :Sousse/Port El Kantaoui:
Enjoy a free day at leisure in your hotel.You can explore on your own the centre of Sousse, there are a number of shops and restaurants, you can also visit the local medina or the resort of Port El Kantaoui, a modern seaside resort (Marina), you can take a ride on the Dotto train and admire the sights as you go.(Breakfast –Dinner and overnight)
Day 11: Departure:
Transfer to Tunis airport for your departure flight.
 
 

 

 

 

 


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