Tunisia, a small country on the North African coast, is a popular vacation spot for Europeans seeking to enjoy the sun, beach and sea. However, most don't journey beyond the Mediterranean into the real Tunisia where there is a land of desert oases, Sahara dunes, Roman relics, beautiful mosques, fascinating walled cities, rich grasslands, salt lakes and marshes, cork oak forests and rugged mountain vistas.
TUNISIA
Itinerary
(Breakfast - B, Lunch - L, Dinner - D)
Day 1
Depart Toronto
We expect our flights to leave North America in the early evening.
Day 2
Tunis Airport / Gammarth
On arrival at Tunis Airport, and after clearing Customs and Immigration, we will be met by our Tunisian guide who will accompany us on the 15-minute drive to our hotel in Gammarth. This luxury hotel is located in a residential area along the northern part of the Bay of Tunis and is about 20 minutes north of the Tunis City Centre. After checking in this might be the time for us to relax with a pleasant swim in one of the hotel's two swimming pools or a leisurely stroll along the adjacent beach. An orientation meeting to discuss the details of our tour will take place in the late afternoon.
o/n Hotel Abou Nawas Gammarth (D)
Day 3
Tunis Bardo / Medina / Carthage / Sidi Bou Said
The first full day in Tunisia will see us focus on the heritage and culture of this fascinating country. For over 3,000 years this country has witnessed the passage of Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Turks, Spanish and French. Each has left a part of its story in stone or mosaics, on the hills of Carthage and the threshold of the Sahara desert. What better place to start than the Bardo Museum, a 19th Century Palace, in which priceless mosaics have been assembled from all parts of the Tunisian territory and which represent the main eras of Tunisia's history.
After exploring the shops of the Medina, we'll have a pleasant lunch and then continue on to Carthage. This city was founded in the 8th Century BC and is remembered as the city, led by the legendary Hannibal, who dared to challenge the might of Rome. This national monument has an awe-inspiring storehouse of baths, dwellings, amphitheatres, temples, shrines and the famous naval port of the Carthaginians.
We'll finish our day of Tunisian history in Sidi Bou Said with mint tea or Moorish coffee, in one of its renowned coffee houses, while we scan the Mediterranean for shearwaters, gulls, gannets and cormorants. This evening we will be driving in to the Tunis Medina where we will have dinner at Essaraya Restaurant.
o/n Hotel Abou Nawas Gammarth (B, L, D)
Day 4
Tunis / M'hamdia / Thuburbo Majus / Grand Mosque / Kairouan
After breakfast, we will leave our hotel and set out for M'hamdia where we will be on the lookout for Lanner Falcons, kites, buzzards and eagles. We'll continue to the fascinating ruins of Thuburbo Majus, a Berber-Carthaginian settlement long before the Romans arrived. Later on, we'll arrive in Kairouan, Tunisia's oldest Arab city and Islam's fourth most holy city after Mecca. Here we'll visit the Grand Mosque, with its massive buttressed walls, before returning to our hotel. Hotel la Kasbah is Kairouan's only topnotch hotel and its fabulous pool in the central courtyard beckons weary travellers.
o/n Hotel la Kasbah (B, L, D)
Day 5
Kairouan / Bouhedma NP / Tozeur
This morning we will leave for Bouhedma National Park, which was formed to protect one of the most delicate ecosystems in the country, the lower steppes. During the Punic wars, Hannibal used elephants captured in this region on his mission across the Alps. Although there are no longer elephants here, the steppes do harbour numerous species of endangered animals. Two of the rarest mammals in the world, the Scimitar Oryx and the Addax, have been re-introduced to the park and hopefully we will have a sighting of them. In addition, we'll be on the lookout for gazelles, antelopes, ostriches (also re-introduced), land tortoises and monitor lizards that still prosper here. We'll take a box lunch with us so that we can spend a good part of the day in the park.
In the afternoon, we'll leave for the oasis at Tozeur in western Tunisia. We'll be travelling through an arid land of bare pink hills punctuated by sporadic oasis-villages built around springs and deep gorges. We'll be making regular stops along the way as this habitat is rich in small birds. We'll be looking for Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Temminck's Horned Lark and Trumpeter Finch.
On our arrival in Tozeur, it soon becomes quite clear that the main attraction of this desert city is its vast oasis. This oasis covers about ten square kilometres that has been planted with some 200,000 palms and is fed by 200 springs. After we check in to our hotel, which is quiet with tastefully decorated rooms and a swimming pool, we'll have some time to do some independent or small group exploration of this very interesting and unique town. Even the hotel grounds can be alive with such migrants as flycatchers, warblers, Nightingales and wheatears.
o/n Hotel Dar Cherait (B, L, D)
Day 6
Tozeur / Chebika/ Tamerza / Nefta / Tozeur
This morning, we will drive in 4x4 vehicles to Chebika and the oases on the rocks. Then we'll move on to one of the most beautiful oases in the country, the remote desert oasis of Tamerza with its waterfalls, and the canyons of the Mides. We'll have lunch in Tamerza, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Since many birds concentrate in these fertile oases, we will be looking for Nightingale, Wryneck, Sedge Warbler, Greater Whitethroat and many others. Where there is water in this arid land, birds tend to congregate. A number of shorebirds can be found in such habitats along with resident rarities like Scrub and Tristan's Warblers, Rufous Bush Robin, Desert Lark and Desert Wheatear.
In the afternoon we'll travel by bus 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.
In the evening, after dinner, we plan to visit the Dar Cherait Museum, where we will be able to view a wonderful collection of Tunisian cultural artefacts. It is the most outstanding establishment of its kind in the South.
o/n Hotel Dar Cherait or similar (B, L, D)
Day 7
Tozeur / Lezard Rouge / Chott El Jerid / Douz
After breakfast we will travel by bus to Metlaoui, where we will transfer to the Lezard Rouge (The Red Lizard), a special train consisting of original, meticulously restored 19th Century carriages. We will then have a novel trip, through the desert and picturesque gorges of this wilderness region, to Selja.
After a late lunch back in Tozeur, we'll drive through a stretch of sand dunes that gives a foretaste of the Sahara on the way to 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. This region is also well-known for its “Desert Roses”, brown gypsum crystals resembling a petrified flower that are found in the valleys between sand dunes.
As we arrive in Douz we enter the village, surrounded by desert, on a wide road lined with eucalyptus trees. With a population of about 30,000, Douz is a maze of sand-coloured homes, narrow streets, a central marketplace and palm-filled oases. There are wet areas and lakes in the Douz area so we intend to check them out for species of duck, shorebirds, waders and desert passerines.
o/n Hotel Mouradi Douz (B, L, D)
Day 8
Douz / Matmata / Medenine / Tataouine
After breakfast, we'll leave Douz on our way to the southernmost point in our trip, the town of Tataouine. If anyone of us wants to try an optional camel ride, this will be the time for it and we will stop on the outskirts of the town where these rides are offered. We'll continue on the main road to Matmata skirting the edge of a valley that is cultivated using the jessour or terracing method laid out in the wadi beds. As we follow this new road, we will make stops along the way for such desert species as Cream-coloured Courser, Greater Hoopoe Larks, Hoopoe, Red-rumped Wheatear and Greater and Short-toed Larks. On reaching Matmata, we'll discover a lunar landscape pocked with craters. Each of these depressions forms the courtyard for an underground dwelling sometimes as much as 5 - 10m deep. We'll visit one of these houses and also a Berber family.
After lunch, we'll drive on to Ksar Ouled Soltane where we will be able to visit the well-known ghorfas, or rooms to store grain. Throughout the south, nomadic Berbers stored their grain in ghorfas, small stone cells. With regular stops along the way, we will finally arrive at Tataouine, our destination for the night.
o/n Hotel Sangho (B, L, D)
Day 9
Tataouine / Douiret / Chenini
We'll continue our exploration of this rugged area, close to the edge of the desert that covers nearly one third of Tunisian territory. We'll first visit the remote Dahar village of Douiret, standing in a magnificent setting of sharply delineated peaks. Its stone buildings and cave homes hang halfway up the steep mountainside and are built around a white mosque. Afterwards, we'll reach the village of Chenini, perched on the top of a dizzying ridge, and one of the few Berber-speaking villages still inhabited. We'll have a local guide take us along some of the winding paths to visit some of the homes and observe their way of life. We will then spend the afternoon relaxing at our hotel or taking a trip into the town to visit the marketplace. This hotel has an excellent swimming pool, well-maintained gardens which attract interesting bird life and an amazing night sky filled with stars.
o/n Hotel Sangho (B, L, D)
Day 10
Thyna / Sfax / El Jem / Sousse
Today, we will leave the southern town of Tataouine and make our way north to Sousse where we will spend two nights. Although, this will be mainly a travelling day, we will be making several stops at some very interesting places. The saltpans south of Sfax support high winter populations of flamingos, spoonbills, and a variety of herons, egrets, gulls and terns. There are also good numbers of shorebirds such as stints, Dunlin, curlews and godwits. Some species such as Avocet, Black-winged Stilt and Redshank stay on to breed. On our way to Sousse, we will have the opportunity to visit the single most impressive Roman monument in Africa, the extraordinary amphitheatre at El Jem. The remains of the amphitheatre, which seated up to 30,000 people, are among the best preserved of its kind - finer than the Coliseum in Rome.
o/n Hotel Kanta (B, L, D)
Day 11
Sousse / Hergla
Our very comfortable and friendly hotel is located nine kilometres north of Sousse. In the morning, we'll visitdowntown Sousse and Souk followed by lunch at our hotel.In the afternoon, we'll spend time at a freshwater lake and reedbed area near hergla as well as the wadi at Sidi Bou Ali. All the usual wading and waterbirds, including flamingos, spoonbills, Purple Gallinule and Marbled Teal are found here. Peregrine Falcons and harriers hunt over the area and sometimes large flocks of migrating cranes may be seen. Hergla is a charming little fishing port that has some very interesting craft shops scattered around its tiny winding streets. We'll return to the hotel in time for dinner.
o/n Hotel Kanta (B, L, D)
Day 12
Bouficha / Zaghouan / Hammamet
On our way to Hammamet, we will visit the Bouficha Barrage, a lake where we will be able to seek out some of the Tunisian bird specialties. We will also visit the town of Zaghouan. Our base for the next two nights is Hammamet, a city of 40,000 with a vast beach and an old port, where its lantern fishermen can be seen setting out at night in the shadow of the Kasbah.
o/n Hotel Lalla Baya (B, L, D)
Day 13
Hammamet / Korba / Lebna / Kelibia / Haouaria / Hammamet
On our last full day in Tunisia, we will explore the coast north of Hammamet to the peninsula of Cape Bon Peninsula. This is a particularly interesting area for, at this time of year, Cape Bon is the final stopover for migrating birds, such as raptors and storks, before they fly over the Mediterranean. Among these flocks large numbers of birds of prey take shelter in the cliffs that form the farthest tip of the cape. Thousands of Cory's Shearwaters may also be seen passing by off shore. We'll remain in the area for some time and have lunch at Les Grottes in Haouaria, the most northerly village on the peninsula.
In the afternoon, we'll visit the nearby Roman Quarries where slaves extracted enormous blocks of stone from the rock. These slabs were then taken by sea to neighbouring cities. This quarry supplied the stones for the construction of Punic Carthage. We'll return to the hotel in time for a swim and relaxation before our farewell dinner in a restaurant in downtown Hammamet.
o/n Hotel Lalla Baya (B, L, D)
Day 14
Departure Day
This is the end of our tour. Depending on our flight times, we will be transferred to the Tunis airport for our flights home. (B)
