Tunisia, Hammamet

3greenrizla's

Hi all,

I am off on my holidays to Tunisia on Saturday, I've never been before, can anyone give me any ideas of any day trips or any general tips for me?

edit, I have just seen this. http://www.aspectsoftunisia.co.uk/holidays-to-tunisia/hammamet-yasmine-hammamet.asp

wrote:

Excursions
Private tours can be organised by your representative in the resort, or you can join one of the group excursions. The full programme of these will be available on your arrival, but here are some examples:



Tunis, Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd. Visit to the capital, including the Medina and the Bardo Museum (famous for its Roman mosaics), the Roman ruins at Carthage and the pretty artists’ village of Sidi Bou Saïd.

Full day: £28



Kairouan, Sousse and Port El Kantaoui. Tour to Kairouan, fourth most important city of pilgrimage in Islam, visiting the Grand Mosque, the Barber’s Mausoleum, souk and carpet factory. Return via Sousse to see the Ribat and Medina, and Port El Kantaoui.

Full day: £26



Cap Bon. Visit to the Cap Bon area including the stone-carvers’ workshop at Dar Chaabane, the Punic site of Kerkouane and the Roman quarry of El Haouaria.

Full Day: £22



Mini Safari. Overnight stay at Douz in the Sahara, on the way taking in the Roman Colosseum at El Jem and the cave dwellings of Matmata. Return via Chott El Jerid, Tozeur, Metlaoui and Kairouan.

Two days: £75



All excursions, which are subject to availability, must be booked on arrival and paid for in dinars. Prices are approximate. Full-day excursions include lunch.

the mini Safari looks interesting.

Miss Fluff

The mini safari IS great. The Troglodytes at Matmata really are something to behold. The safari will provide you with a proper look at Tunisia outside of the commercial areas, and you don't have to venture far out to see the contrast either. I love food and love experimenting but whilst in Tunisia I spent the week Marvin to be honest, the food was inedible and we stayed at a good hotel so just be wary of that.

AJ2012

The day trip to Tunis, Carthage and Sidi Bou Saïd is definitely worth doing. I thoroughly enjoyed it when I did it.

3greenrizla's

thanks for the replies, heading off on Saturday, I can't wait.

Miss Fluff wrote:

.. I love food......

are vegetarians looked after?

swalsh

I was just about to ask the same thing, looking to go somewhere on the 25th and this is one of the last places left to go. Does anybody recommend it as a resort and where are you staying 3greenrizlas

Miss Fluff

3greenrizla's wrote:

thanks for the replies, heading off on Saturday, I can't wait.



are vegetarians looked after?

A lot of couscous and chick-pea based dishes, food still really awful. In saying that OP, it was about six years ago that I was there so I am sure they have cleaned up their act.

randylonghorn

We did a 3-day version of the safari when we were there, and it was great, though we were fairly wrecked by the end.

Re: food, we were staying on a b&b basis in the older tourist area of Hammamet (NOT the old town itself, btw), and found some very nice restaurants around there ... I'm afraid I can't remember names, and as it was a few years ago there would be no guarantee that the same ones would still be good anyway. Prices were generally quite reasonable at that time.

From memories of talking to those who were on all inclusive deals, food in some places was quite good, not so great in others.

I found a lot of the local dishes in the restaurants quite good, tbh, though I agree with MissFluff that one encountered a lot of cous-cous, and it palls quite quickly.

As far as I could figure out, often the problem in the hotels which did the all-inclusive deals was that they would try to serve a mixture of (a) "English" fare and (b) local dishes rendered bland to suit "English" tastes ... and neither approach was always successful. On top of that, ofc, they had a captive audience ...

That said, my memory is that meals in the hotels were often served buffet-style, though, so at least you could wander around and suss out what looked good, or try a bit of a few things rather than just ordering one dish and being disappointed.

3greenrizla's

swalsh wrote:

............ where are you staying 3greenrizlas

Le Hammamet Hotel b&b

tbh we were waiting for a last minute deal but availability was getting less & les s so I went with Tunisia, & I have no Idea what to expect other than getting away from this rotten depressing weather.



Can anyone tell me what the tunisian dinar is worth against the euro?

I cant get any info from the bank, but according to this http://coinmill.com/EUR_TND.html#TND=1 1TND=€0.58 is this about right.

AJ2012

3greenrizla's wrote:

thanks for the replies, heading off on Saturday, I can't wait

I'm quite envious!! It's about 5 or 6 years ago since I was in Tunisia and it was one of the best holidays I've ever been on. I didn't do the overnight mini-safari but I did do an organised day trip into the desert which visited the Roman Colosseum at El Jem and the cave dwellings of Matmata amongst other places. Hugely enjoyable.

As regards food, we were on a halfboard basis so we usually had our meals in the hotel, but the food in our hotel was excellent.

swalsh

Cheers 3greenrizlas, Looks like we are going now too but just to decide between le hammamet hotel and the bel air. Anybody been to either?

swalsh

OK booked the Le Hammamet, does anybody know if Irish pass cards work in atm's over there and where are they over there?

Moonbeam

I was there in March.

The Le Hammamet Apartments are nice and the facilities are shared with the hotel,The buffet is well worth eating at.

The hotel will do foreign exchange for you as you can not bring dinar in or out of the country.

Don't forget mosquito spray!!