Africa

Best Things to Do in Tunisia

Tunisia is a North African country on the southern Mediterranean coast, bordered by Algeria and Libya. The smallest of the Maghreb countries at 163,000 sq km, it has extraordinary density of historical and natural attractions: Roman ruins at Carthage (just outside Tunis) and the El Jem amphitheatre (the world's best-preserved Roman amphitheatre outside Rome), the UNESCO Medinas of Tunis, Sousse, Kairouan, and Sfax, the Sahara dunes of Douz and Tozeur, and a Mediterranean coast from Hammamet to Djerba with long white-sand beaches. It is one of North Africa's most accessible and safe countries for Western tourists.

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The unmissable in Tunisia

These are the staple sights — don't leave Tunisia without seeing them.

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Medina of Sousse
#1 must-see

Medina of Sousse

📍 Sousse, Tunisia
🕐 Mon–Sun Open 24h
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Medina of Tunis
#2 must-see

Medina of Tunis

📍 Tunis, Tunisia
🕐 Mon–Sun Open 24h
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3
Military Museum of Mareth Line
#3 must-see

Military Museum of Mareth Line

📍 Main Road Toujane, Gabes, Tunisia, 6000
🕐 Mon Closed · Tue–Sun 9:00-16:00
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Tunis

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Destinations in Tunisia

Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, a city of over 2 million on the shores of the Gulf…

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More attractions in Tunisia

Medina of Sousse 1
#1 must-see

Medina of Sousse

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📍 Sousse, Tunisia

The Medina of Sousse is among Tunisia's finest and most completely preserved medieval Islamic city centres, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its remarkable urban coherence, the quality of its surviving religious architecture, and the exceptional completeness of its ancient defensive fortifications. Founded and developed principally by the Aghlabid dynasty in the 9th century CE, the medina is enclosed within 2.5 kilometres of original ramparts punctuated by defensive towers that once protected the city against seaborne raids from the Mediterranean and overland threats from the interior. The Ribat of Sousse — a fortified monastery-garrison overlooking the sea — is the medina's most photographed and architecturally distinctive structure, its watchtower offering sweeping panoramic views across the harbour basin and the labyrinthine terracotta rooftops below. The Grand Mosque, constructed in 851 CE, displays the austere geometric beauty characteristic of early Aghlabid religious architecture, its central colonnaded courtyard a study in harmonious spatial proportion that rewards quiet contemplation. Beneath the medina lies an extensive network of early Christian catacombs dating to the 3rd century CE, containing thousands of individual burial niches carved into the soft limestone — evidence of the ancient Roman city of Hadrumetum existing beneath the Islamic layer. The Medina of Sousse balances authentic everyday neighbourhood life with historically significant monuments, making it an absorbing and richly layered half-day or full-day destination for history-minded travellers visiting the Tunisian coast.

Medina of Tunis 2
#2 must-see

Medina of Tunis

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📍 Tunis, Tunisia

The Medina of Tunis is one of the Arab world's finest surviving medieval city centres, a densely layered quarter of narrow alleys, domed hammams, ornate mosques, medersa colleges, and covered souks that earned UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1979 for its outstanding universal historical and cultural value. Founded in the 7th century CE following the Arab conquest of the region, the medina developed over more than a millennium into a complex and self-sustaining urban organism containing over 700 individually significant historic monuments, including dynastic palaces, teaching institutions, public fountains, caravanserais, and the residences of merchant families whose commercial reach extended across the Mediterranean world. At the medina's spiritual heart stands the Zitouna Mosque, the oldest and most venerated in Tunisia, its prayer hall supported by a forest of recycled Roman columns sourced from the ruins of ancient Carthage — creating a serene interior whose layered origins speak eloquently of the region's complex historical transitions. The souks surrounding the Zitouna maintain a medieval trade logic still recognisable today, with perfumers clustered near the mosque, copper-beaters occupying a dedicated lane, and textile merchants filling another. The Medina of Tunis rewards slow and purposeful exploration, offering glimpses through ornate carved wooden doorways into private courtyard gardens that the hurried visitor never encounters. This is a living city as much as a heritage monument, where schoolchildren and worshippers share ancient streets with curious travellers.

Military Museum of Mareth Line 3
#3 must-see

Military Museum of Mareth Line

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📍 Main Road Toujane, Gabes, Tunisia, 6000

The Military Museum of the Mareth Line in southern Tunisia commemorates one of the strategically decisive engagements of the North Africa Campaign during the Second World War, fought in a landscape of bleak desert hills and stony plains that still conveys something of the tactical challenge faced by both sides. The Mareth Line itself was a system of fortifications originally constructed by French colonial forces along the Libyan border during the 1930s to defend against potential Italian expansionist aggression — a position of bitter irony given that it was subsequently occupied and repurposed by German and Italian Axis forces in 1943 as a defensive barrier against the Allied armies advancing westward from Libya. General Bernard Montgomery's Eighth Army, battle-hardened veterans of the victories at El Alamein and the pursuit across the Western Desert, attacked the line in March 1943 in a complex operation involving a frontal assault and a decisive flanking movement through the desert that outmaneuvered the Axis defences. The museum displays an impressive collection of original military vehicles, field artillery pieces, small arms, uniforms, personal effects, and archival photographs from both sides of the conflict. Preserved bunker sections and fortification remains are visible in the surrounding landscape, helping visitors understand the physical and tactical scale of the defensive system. The Mareth Line Museum is a sincere, thoughtfully assembled, and historically informative tribute to the soldiers of many nations who fought and died in this remote corner of North Africa.

National Bardo Museum (Musée National du Bardo) 4

National Bardo Museum (Musée National du Bardo)

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📍 Route Nationale 7, Tunis

The National Bardo Museum on the outskirts of Tunis is widely regarded as holding one of the world's most exceptional and extensive collections of ancient Roman mosaics, a treasure of such scale, artistic quality, and historical importance that it draws scholars, art historians, and informed travellers from across the globe who consider it among the Mediterranean world's essential cultural institutions. Housed within a former 13th-century Hafsid palace and its substantial Ottoman-era extensions and annexes, the museum displays thousands of square metres of mosaic pavement carefully excavated over many decades from Roman villas, public bath complexes, basilicas, and civic buildings scattered across ancient Tunisia — the prosperous Roman province of Africa Proconsularis that fed the entire empire with grain and olive oil for centuries and generated extraordinary private and public wealth. The mosaics depict mythological scenes drawn from Greek and Roman literature, gladiatorial combat rendered in vivid action, marine life teeming with fish and octopus, exuberant hunting parties, and seasonal allegories of harvest and plenty, all executed with astonishing artistic confidence and superb technical mastery by craftsmen who understood both the grammar of colour and the demands of pictorial narrative. Roman sculpture of high quality, prehistoric artefacts from the Capsian culture, Punic stelae, early Christian objects, and Islamic decorative arts round out a collection spanning several thousand years of documented Tunisian civilisation. The Hafsid palace architecture itself — tiled courtyards, painted ceilings, arched galleries — provides a sumptuous setting. The National Bardo Museum is unmissable for any visitor to North Africa with even passing interest in antiquity.

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Tunisia compresses more per square kilometer than almost any other destination in Africa: a 3,000-year continuum from Phoenician Carthage through Roman occupation (which left the El Jem amphitheatre, Dougga, Bulla Regia, and dozens of other extraordinary sites) through Byzantine, Arab, Berber, Hafsid, Ottoman, and French colonial periods, all within a country the size of Wisconsin. The things to do in Tunisia span the north (Tunis and Carthage, Sidi Bou Said, the northern Tell highlands with Dougga), the coast (Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir, Mahdia, Djerba), and the south (the Saharan gateway towns of Douz and Tozeur, the salt lakes of the Chott el-Jerid, the Berber village of Tataouine famous from Star Wars filming). The country has worked hard to restore tourism confidence following the security incidents of 2015; the main tourist areas are now considered safe.

Best time to visit

April through June and September through October are the best months: comfortable temperatures across the country (20-28°C on the coast, 20-30°C in the south), clear skies, and manageable crowds. July and August are the hottest months (35-42°C in the south, 28-32°C on the coast) with the peak European beach tourism season. The Saharan south is best visited October through April when desert temperatures are comfortable for camping and camel trekking (night temperatures can drop below freezing in December-January). Ramadan affects the country significantly (variable dates annually): daytime restaurant closures, traffic peaks at iftar, and the heightened evening atmosphere of a country observing its major religious month.

Getting around

Tunis-Carthage Airport (TUN) is the main gateway; Monastir (MIR) and Djerba (DJE) receive European charter flights. Domestic flights connect Tunis to Djerba, Tozeur, and Sfax. The SNCFT train network connects Tunis to Sousse and Sfax along the coast and inland to some cities, though trains are slow. Intercity buses (SNTRI) and shared taxis (louage) are the most practical intercity transport for tourists. A rental car gives maximum flexibility for the archaeological sites and the south. The south (Tozeur, Douz) is best covered on a loop from Tunis by rental car (3-4 days) or by organized 4WD desert tour from Douz.

What to eat and drink

Tunisian food is the most distinctive in the Maghreb. Harissa (the fiery red pepper and spice paste) is the national condiment. The essential dishes: brik (deep-fried pastry with egg and tuna), lablabi (chickpea soup), couscous (the Friday communal meal with lamb, chicken, or vegetables), merguez (spiced sausage), and the excellent grilled seafood of the coastal towns. Tunisian olive oil (from 33 million olive trees, mainly in the Sfax and Sahel regions) is among the Mediterranean’s finest; extra-virgin is available in every market. The local wine (Coteaux de Carthage and Muscat de Kelibia are the most accessible labels) is better than most expect and inexpensive. Mint tea (chai bel nana, poured from a height to froth) is the national hospitality drink.Top things to doEl Jem Amphitheatre – The best-preserved Roman amphitheatre outside Rome (the Colosseum), built around 238 AD in the prosperous olive-oil city of Thysdrus. It held 35,000 spectators and is extraordinarily intact — the arena floor, the subterranean chambers, and the outer walls all survive. The El Jem Museum across the road has exceptional mosaics from the surrounding Roman villas. El Jem is 2 hours south of Tunis by train or louage.Medina of Kairouan – Tunisia’s holy city (the fourth most sacred city in Islam, after Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem) with one of the Muslim world’s oldest mosques (the Great Mosque of Sidi Uqba, 670 AD, rebuilt 9th century) and a completely intact Medina (UNESCO). The mosque’s courtyard with its Byzantine columns is extraordinary; non-Muslims can visit the courtyard but not the prayer hall. The Aghlabid Basins (9th-century Islamic engineering, water storage tanks) are outside the city walls.Sahara desert: Douz and Tozeur – Douz (the gateway to the Grand Erg Oriental) and Tozeur (an oasis city on the edge of the Chott el-Jerid salt lake) are the bases for Saharan exploration: camel trekking at sunrise, 4WD excursions into the sand dunes, and the extraordinary Chott el-Jerid (a vast salt flat that looks like a Martian landscape). The Star Wars filming sites at Mos Espa (near Tozeur) and Tataouine (further south) add a pop-culture pilgrimage dimension.Dougga Roman site – Widely considered the best-preserved Roman city in North Africa, 110km west of Tunis in the Tell highlands. The site includes a spectacular Capitol temple (dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva), a theatre with mountain views, baths, forums, and private houses with intact mosaic floors. Far less visited than Carthage and proportionally more impressive.