Personal impressions of a holiday in Tunisia. Doctors talk about what diseases Russians bring back from their foreign holidays. Are there mosquitoes in Tunisia in July?

Probably the title of the story and the word “Tunisia” itself brings to mind the terrorist attack in Tunisia that occurred in June 2015, when tourists were shot near the resort town of Sousse.
We were in Sousse from September 27 to October 10, 2016. And I’ll say right away that the necessary security measures have now been taken there.

On the streets and at hotels there are policemen with machine guns. They are also on duty at the beaches.

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Along the way, two more photos from the central street of the capital of Tunisia - Tunis.

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So, in order.

It's interesting to visit DIFFERENT countries. And then there’s this tempting offer to fly to Africa! I read on the Internet about the velvet season on the African coast. The Internet said that the best period to visit Tunisia is the end of September, beginning of October. There is no scorching heat, the sea is warm. And so it was, only with nuances.
Getting wet to the skin in Africa is real.

The “Velvet Season” during this period consisted of almost daily heavy rains, mainly at night. And when I was getting ready for the trip, I decided that an umbrella was the first thing I wouldn’t need in Africa. It was possible to swim during the day, mainly in cloudy weather. Sometimes the sun appeared.

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In the photo below you can see palm trees on the hotel grounds, they were tossed from side to side during the downpour. The same tall palm trees are in the photo above (photo from the capital of Tunisia - Tunisia). Only in Africa did I see very tall palm trees. These palm trees are date. Their fruits constantly fell to the ground and the cleaners scooped them up with scoops and carried them to the dump.

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Below in the photo is the Tunisian Colosseum - the “brother” of the Colosseum in Rome.

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I mentioned Carthage at the beginning of the story, so I’ll tell you a little about it.

Yes, this is the same famous city, the capital of the state of the same name, in ancient times the main rival of Rome. And the same Hannibal, born in Carthage and who became a famous commander. During the third Punic War in 146 BC, Carthage was captured and destroyed to the ground. Even the remains of the ashes were wiped off the face of the earth and 400 carts of salt were scattered on the ruins so that the land would be barren for many more years. Here we saw a museum and ruins remaining from the ancient city. In some places it is very reminiscent of Pompeii.

These two trips: Tunisia - Carthage - Sidi Bou Said and a trip to the Sahara (with a visit to the Colosseum) were supposed to be the most exciting, but an incident also happened to us in the Sahara (more on that later).

Now about the hotel.

We stayed at the Thalassa Sousse 4* hotel. If you don't find fault with little things, you can say that the hotel is good. These are buildings and bungalows scattered throughout the park. The main advantage of the hotel is the access from the park to the sea (its own beach), as well as the availability of water park. For hotel residents - the water park is free, for tourists from other hotels - for a fee. In fact, I chose the hotel because of the water park. When checking in, you put a bracelet on your hand, which gives you the right to free visits to restaurants, bars, water parks, etc. for the period of your stay.

In the photo - bungalows (separate rooms) located directly on the beach.

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Below is the main exit to the beach from the hotel grounds. Arabian jug - as a decoration.

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View of the Mediterranean Sea from the terrace of the Thalassa Hotel.

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It would be nice, but there is one BUT, which ultimately ruined the trip.

Unsanitary conditions in Tunisia.

The hotel area is closed and guarded, a sort of “state within a state.” You can spend your entire vacation without leaving the hotel and not even spending money (if you don’t go on excursions). The hotel and grounds are cleaned. And there are garbage cans - jugs like those in the photo.

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The photo shows blooming cacti. When planting cacti, they hardly make fences, at least in Sousse. The cacti are very tall, compared to ours, which are in pots on the windows, African cacti are simply giants. Maybe in Tunisia they are as tall as a ten-year-old child. And, interestingly, there are fruits on them. The fruits of the cactus are edible, they look like a small green cone, inside there is burgundy-colored pulp with seeds. The fruits are sold at the market. I tried it - not very tasty.
I took a cactus fruit from the street, I wasn’t going to eat it, I decided to look at it (I didn’t think there were even thorns on the fruit) and splintered my entire palm. The fruits must first be rolled on some surface so that the spines come out. The spines themselves are small, you can’t see them. The impression is that they scatter like dandelions across the hand, although I only picked them up with two fingers.
I don’t know why in the photo below there are burgundy-colored fruits, there are probably some like that. They sell green ones at the market.

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I continue on topic.
It would be possible to close our eyes to this state of affairs, but it doesn’t work.
Viruses and bacteria are clearly breeding in these garbage heaps. They float in the air and end up in the sea. And there are also difficulties with drinking water. Water is provided at the hotel using coupons. The son went to the bar and took a bottle of drinking water with a coupon every day. As a result of unsanitary conditions, many tourists get sick. And we have become so healthy. Adults and children have a sore throat, cough, runny nose... Some people think that this is so-called acclimatization. Believe me, this is not the case. Probably due to non-compliance with sanitary conditions, different things happen viral epidemics.
We got sick in Tunisia. I ran around to pharmacies there in search of medicines; the things I brought with me were not enough for the first case. And they came to my room in the middle of the night to ask for antipyretics for the child. My son also had a fever in Tunisia and all the symptoms described above appeared. Upon arrival home, both spent a month on sick leave.
This circumstance was the main trouble of the trip.

Let me remind you that the hotel areas are being cleaned. I didn’t see any garbage in the resort area near the port of El Kantaoui (maybe I didn’t pay attention).
This is, in fact, a port. There is an amusement park, souvenir shops, restaurants... A tourist place.
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Resort area near the port of El Kantaoui.

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Yachts in the port. The port is small. I didn’t like that they don’t offer tourist routes from Tunisia to Sicily. Maybe have? I haven't found one for myself.

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A tourist train runs around the city, just like in Mallorca.

Adventures of Russians in the Sahara.

The trip to the Sahara lasts two days. The first day passed without any special incidents, except for a wild downpour on the way and my smartphone turned off due to water getting into it. That's why we didn't get any photos on this trip. The most interesting thing on the first day is the Colosseum and inspection of the dwellings of the Berbers - troglodytes on the way to the Sahara.
Troglodyte means "cave dweller". Unusual dwellings are located in the town of Matmata in chalk grottoes carved into the hillsides. In ancient times, the Berbers who lived in this area climbed into inaccessible grottoes, because the latter served them as a refuge from the conquerors. Some still live in these caves. But now they have running water and at least a refrigerator. We saw cars and satellite dishes near the caves. In individual grottoes there are small restaurants and hotels for tourists.
The people living here have opened small “businesses” - they let tourists see their life. They stand near the road and point towards their “apartments”.
The courtyard and entrances to the “rooms” of the troglodytes’ dwellings. Photo from the Internet.

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This oasis is the city of Douz, which is called the gateway to the Tunisian part of the Sahara Desert. In ancient times, caravans of traders stopped at the oasis. As they say, water here is valued more than gold. In this connection, there is a peculiarity when tourists travel to the Sahara. You need to take drinking water with you. If anyone has read above, you may have remembered: “Water is issued at the hotel using coupons.” Logically, in the Sahara there are difficulties with water. Bring your own bottle to the restaurant (I mean a bottle of drinking water, what did you think?). There is no tea or coffee. It seems to me there was something like beer for a fee. There was water in the shower in the bathroom.
It is interesting that in addition to the pool on site, the hotel also has a rooftop pool with very warm water from a healing mud spring.
There is another feature - evening camel riding. I was surprised by the number of camels, there was a whole herd of them. Those who wished were dressed in national clothes. I later regretted that I didn’t dress up like a Berber, because... They took me on camels to the desert, and there was wind and I “ate” of sand. I had a stole with me, I slightly covered my face with it, but this was not enough.
Then - half a night at the hotel, getting up at 2:45, checking out of the hotel, and here the “interesting” part began.

Across the Sahara with fireworks.

It was an unforgettable night, just not in the context in which this expression is usually used.

According to the plan, we were supposed to watch the sunrise on a salt marsh - a dead lake, watch the scenery for the film "Star Wars", ride in jeeps and further according to the program.
However, everything changed in one minute, when someone sitting in the back of the bus worriedly shouted: “We’re BURNING!”
It was 4 am (we had just left the hotel), some were sleeping. Suddenly a flame burst out from somewhere and smoke poured into the interior of the bus. Sleeping people had difficulty understanding what was happening. They shouted, the driver did not understand Russian, the English words flew out of my head.
Finally they stopped and everyone got out. Behind the bus, a council of tourists - motorists, led by a guide and driver - gathered. They decided: “You can’t go any further on this bus.” Oooooooo!!! You need to contact a travel agency and decide how to get out of the Sahara. Those camels would be useful, especially since they always know where to go.
More than 2 hours passed in ignorance before they sent for us a bus from the same travel agency (I won’t do anti-advertising for it, I will say that it is a very well-known travel agency in Russia) with other people’s things on the seats. Subsequently, they took this bus to point A, and then took their tourists further.
And what’s interesting is that by morning the roosters started crowing in the vicinity of Douz. This is true. It’s as if we were not in the Sahara, but transported, say, to the Tver province.

And what to do in the Sahara in the middle of the night near a tourist bus, when you feel angry that you shouldn’t have woken up before 3 o’clock?
However, there will be something to do.

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In some places in the Sahara there are date plantations, they are private. Why am I saying this? Besides, you can’t go into the plantation and pick dates. That's why many went to the date plantation to eat dates "from the bush." Dates, like dates, are sweet. Eat a maximum of 5 pieces. By the way, in the photo the date palms are not in the Sahara, but in the port of El Kantaoui. On plantations it’s about the same.
We must give credit to the Tunisians. Almost immediately, police arrived in a jeep and set up a post near the broken down bus with Russians. There were about six policemen with machine guns.
We still hadn’t left the outskirts of Douz yet, so there were some shops with provisions near the road. Promptly, through word of mouth, local merchants learned about our trouble and at 4 am they opened all their shops. Tourists went to the shops, picked up nuts and dates (those who did not see the date plantation in the distance). In general, the locals seem to have made an annual plan for dates and nuts.
What if the bus broke down further? There was such a landscape and only a road through the desert.
Second photo from the Internet. All subsequent ones are mine again.

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In fact, the desert in Tunisia is of different types, some areas are sandy, others are rocky, clayey, and saline.
There are sand dunes, but we hardly saw them. The whole trip was crumpled, we practically didn’t ride on the dunes in jeeps, so we were taken from two or three slides near the scenery for the film “Star Wars”. I know how they ride in jeeps through the dunes; five months before we were in the Emirates in the Rub al-Khali desert. I remember this cool event very well.
Instead of riding on the dunes, for which, by the way, we paid extra, we were transported by jeeps from point A to point B, from point B to point C, etc. Jeeps were constantly changed. Probably the company decided to meet the total amount of the trip paid by us and replace the dunes with transfers.
This is inconvenient. I still had some property with me. And good. Many had to change clothes after a rainstorm at the Colosseum. Again - drinking water (we didn’t drink all of it on the first day). Always transfer these belongings to a new vehicle. Everyone was seated six people in a jeep, so we didn’t hear the guide’s story on the second day.
We did see some things in “fast motion”: a dead lake, the scenery for the movie “Star Wars”... In the desert, local children have mastered the “business” - they run up to tourists, offering them, for small money, to take pictures with a caught fennec finch - a cute big-eared fish desert fox. By the way, the fennec is a predator, in fact it is not so cute.

They also sell souvenirs there. The "desert rose" is very popular.

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"R Desert ose" is an intergrowth of gypsum crystals, formed in a layer of sand under certain conditions. There are individual "roses" and there are "roses collected by nature" in a bouquet. Such souvenirs are sold everywhere.

Regarding souvenirs, I will also say that mosaics are very popular here. 10

We drove in jeeps through the desert for quite a long time, I looked out the window and thought: “Probably the desert is the seabed that was millions of years ago.” There are salt marshes and a dry lake. Or maybe I'm wrong.
We also saw the Sahara Mountains, swam in a waterfall, and saw donkeys and sheep. At the end of the journey they sent a bus for us.

I don’t know what associations those who visited Tunisia have. I have three in one: flood, unsanitary conditions, fire. Although it is interesting to see the Colosseum, the ruins of Carthage, and visit the Sahara.

The travel agency agreed to compensate for the spoiled trip to the Sahara with a free trip to the zoo.
In the zoo there are not only animals, but also plants, most often prickly ones.

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I hope that on our next trips our tourist happiness will not change.

I am finishing my “confession” and wishing everyone successful travels over the upcoming New Year’s weekend.

In Tunisia, tap water is not considered drinkable. In many cases, this is not full-fledged fresh water, but desalinated sea water. For example, the shortage of fresh water is a big problem; even hotel pools here prefer to be filled with sea water.

In Tunisia, the safe chemical composition of water and the absence of harmful microorganisms are not guaranteed. Don't drink tap water, don't take unnecessary risks.

You can't be careless with the sun

Tunisia is a southern and hot country, and the sun is active and treacherous. In the first days, it is better to limit your exposure to direct sunlight. And you should always use sunscreen - SPF 20 or higher for adults, SPF 30 or higher for children.

Please remember that sunburns are not covered and will be treated at your own expense.

Be careful if you take food to your room

Taking food from a restaurant in all All Inclusive hotels is strictly prohibited, but prohibitions rarely stop our tourists, which often backfires. In hot climates, food spoils quickly and you can become seriously poisoned.

Remember the “6 hour rule”. If the food was prepared more than 6 hours ago, then throw it away without a second thought! Don't take any chances, there's more on the buffet.

Allergies should not be underestimated

In Tunisia, tourists will find not only the sea and sights, but also a variety of flowers and food ingredients that they have never encountered before. Conclusion: a cure for allergies.

And you need to be especially careful with temporary tattoos made with henna. There were cases when tourists were allergic to this particular mixture; it’s better not to even imagine the consequences.

You shouldn't do anything active while drunk.

Any injuries or exacerbations of diseases are not considered an insured event if they occurred while intoxicated.

In addition, Tunisia is an Islamic country, although it produces, for example, Celtia beer, which can be seen in the photo on the left, click on the photo to enlarge.

And although there is no punishment for drinking alcohol, the responsibility for being drunk in public places is much higher. If in Russia it is easy to get away with a fine of 500 rubles (COAP Art. 20.21), then in Tunisia for insulting public morals you can go to prison for a term of 6 months to 5 years or a fine from 120 to 1200.

Of course, imprisonment is applied to tourists only as a last resort, but there is a theoretical chance of this happening, and it’s unpleasant to pay fines.

Do not buy souvenirs in the first days of your vacation

Tunisian traders are skilled at identifying newly arrived tourists, and this is a priority target for them. Our advice is to beware of traders in the first days and do not buy anything until you understand the prices.

Also read our articles: “”, “” and “”.

Tunisia is a hot African country with snow-white beaches and gentle Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. However, summer holidays here are overshadowed by a meeting with a harmless underwater inhabitant - a jellyfish. Experienced tourists are advised to find out in advance when and in what quantities these creatures appear and where they live.

When to expect a jellyfish invasion in Tunisia

The influx begins at the moment when the water warms up as much as possible. Between July and September, clusters of them are found on any beach in Tunisia. They come at different times and to different places, it all depends on the temperature of the water and the direction of the wind: animals do not know how to move long distances on their own, they are moved by sea currents.

Local residents, through observations, have compiled a kind of schedule, according to which it is easy to determine when and where jellyfish appear in the country:

Contrary to popular belief, jellyfish appear not only at the peak of the season - in August. They sail to the shores of Tunisia already in May and multiply there until October.

Places with the greatest concentration of jellyfish: the popular Hammamet, Monastir, Sousse, because the water temperature here on hot days can reach 28-30 °C.

It is impossible to accurately predict the jellyfish season in Tunisia by month: depending on various factors, there are either very many of them in different years, or a small number; these creatures can move chaotically to begin breeding in the warmest waters. Since the warmest water is near the shore, they accumulate there. Hotels are trying in every possible way to protect tourists from contact with these marine inhabitants: they place special nets in the sea, but, unfortunately, they are not always effective.

Where can you find jellyfish in Tunisia

Do not think that jellyfish are a feature only of the Tunisian coast. In fact, they live in other seas (Black, Red, etc.), and in other countries whose shores are washed by the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas (Turkey, Greece, Croatia, etc.), but in Tunisia - the warmest water and calm waves, so there are many times more of these sea creatures.

However, vacationers have found a way out - they rent a yacht or go on a ship excursion and swim in the open sea. It is cleaner and safer.

Tunisian jellyfish: dangerous or not?

Let us immediately reassure tourists planning to visit the most popular African country for family holidays: black jellyfish, which pose a danger to human life, here No. But blue, white and transparent types are common.

The sting of any jellyfish is painful. After a while, severe itching will begin on the affected area of ​​the skin. A rash, redness, scarring will appear, the body may become numb, and you may feel dizzy. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea may occur. The bite of some creatures can be fatal, especially if a person is prone to allergic reactions!

Remember that the more saturated the color of an individual, the more poisonous it is!

To minimize the risk of being stung, follow the safety rules while holidaying in Tunisia:

First aid for a jellyfish sting

If you are stung by a jellyfish, you need to do the following:

After providing first aid, consult a doctor immediately!

Tunisia is an amazing country that you definitely need to visit to enjoy its flavor. And to prevent jellyfish from ruining your vacation, just remember where and when they appear and how to avoid this unpleasant encounter. May you have the most pleasant impressions of the days spent at Tunisian resorts!

MOSCOW, July 3 – RIA Novosti. Russian tourists often return after vacations at popular foreign resorts with exotic infections; In order not to spoil your holiday experience, doctors interviewed by RIA Novosti recommend getting the necessary vaccinations in advance, drinking only bottled water abroad, not swimming in strange bodies of water and not trying unwashed vegetables and fruits at markets.

Enterovirus and syphilis are not uncommon

“When we are going to go somewhere abroad, we first need to know what the morbidity situation is there, what diseases are more common, from here we need to think about how to protect ourselves from them,” Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Childhood Diseases Natalya told RIA Novosti Skripchenko.

The travel company must provide all explanations about the epidemiological situation in the country where the tourist is traveling. “This is their responsibility, and the company must provide a list of infections against which tourists are required to be vaccinated. This is in the law on the fundamentals of tourism activities,” the doctor added.

She said that Russian tourists often bring back all sorts of infectious diseases from their holidays abroad. “People come to us from Bulgaria and Turkey with enteroviral paralysis and enteroviral polyneuropathy (multiple damage to peripheral nerves). Now we have three such children in our department,” Skripchenko said.

Recently, the medical facility received children who returned from Tunisia and Greece with en(damage to all parts of the nervous system of an infectious or toxic nature), the doctor noted. Last year, there were children from Bulgaria and Turkey with serous meningitis, Skripchenko said.

“In principle, you can bring syphilis and HIV infection from behind the cordon,” says Vladimir Nikiforov, chief infectious disease specialist at the FMBA of Russia.

In Tunisia - rabies, in Thailand - malaria

It is advisable for those traveling to Tunisia to be vaccinated against hepatitis A and B, typhoid fever, and rabies, Skripchenko said. “If you are going to visit rural areas, there is dengue fever. In Tunisia, for example, there are bats, there is a very high risk of contracting rabies through their bites,” the doctor explained.

Those who are going on vacation to Egypt or Turkey must be vaccinated against hepatitis A and B and typhoid fever, the doctor warned. “Neither in Egypt nor in Turkey are there any specific infections, and they bring ordinary intestinal infections and typhoid fever,” Nikiforov noted in turn.

“If we go to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, there is malaria there, so we need to take antimalarial drugs with us,” Skripchenko explained. In addition, there is meningitis in Saudi Arabia and it is advisable to get vaccinated against meningococcal infection before traveling to this country, she advises.

In India, you can become infected with hepatitis A, typhoid fever, Japanese encephalitis (an acute infectious disease from the group of mosquito-borne viral encephalitis), malaria and Dengue fever, Skripchenko said. Thailand also has malaria, Dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and leptospirosis (this infection can be contracted through contact with animals or by swimming in water bodies), the doctor warned.

Dengue fever can also be brought from Cuba, beloved by Russians, Nikiforov noted. “We don’t have it because this disease requires high temperatures and mosquito vectors to develop,” he noted.

When going to countries in Africa and South America, you should definitely get vaccinated against yellow fever, Skripchenko added.

Shawarma in eateries and fruits in markets

While on vacation, you should swim only in designated areas and should not swallow water. “Where there are official beaches, the water is monitored,” explained the infectious disease specialist.

The chief infectious disease specialist of the FMBA of Russia strongly does not recommend drinking unknown water. “Carry bottled water with you, preferably without gas,” he said and added that if you don’t mind spending money on bottled water, you can boil tap water and drink it.

Skripchenko recalled that enterovirus infection enters the human body through the mouth, so vegetables and fruits must be washed well, and water or food must be thoroughly heat-treated.

"Don't eat shawarma at any eatery<…>, do not try vegetables and fruits at markets,” Nikiforov said.

After returning from a vacation abroad, you need to monitor your well-being in the first two weeks, the doctor noted. “Male, fever, pain in joints and muscles, vomiting, if a person turns yellow, then, of course, you need to call a doctor home and inform him that you were on vacation in a particular region of the world,” Skripchenko said .

A first aid kit is good, but a doctor is better

In case of cuts, tourists should put iodine, a bandage, and a bactericidal plaster in their first aid kit, Skipchenko advises. She also recommends taking probiotics with you on vacation to help with stomach upset.

You can also take antibacterial drugs for intestinal infections and antiviral drugs, says Skripchenko. “This is nonspecific, but antiviral protection in the case of influenza or respiratory infection or for the purpose of prevention,” noted the pediatric infectious disease specialist. Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Most patients suddenly experience severe headache and vomiting after two to five days. Babies develop a monotonous, strong, so-called “brain” cry. Impaired consciousness and insomnia develop rapidly.

Nikiforov noted that he is categorically against tourists numbing their headaches with pills. “Because it’s one thing when a person has a headache because a person is just tired. But it’s quite another thing when he starts having serous meningitis. In the latter case, painkillers will relieve the pain for a while, but the process will remain, and time will be lost,” the doctor explained .

He believes that there is no need to skimp on health insurance, and if an emergency occurs, consult a doctor.

To say that we love to travel is to say nothing) Travel is our passion, perhaps even the meaning of life. Considering a country for our next trip abroad, we immediately agreed that Tunisia would be it. It is impossible to immediately determine what attracted our attention to the country. Perhaps the place where Tunisia is located is the very north of Africa, because Africa is something alluring and at the same time seemingly so dangerous and incomprehensible. Maybe a passion for extreme entertainment - jeep riding in the real Sahara desert along sand dunes, quad biking through olive groves and cactus plantations. We do not rule out the option of an All Inclusive system, although, to be honest, we are not among those who like to treat ourselves to alcoholic drinks during our vacation, but it should be noted that draft Tunisian beer tastes quite pleasant.

After reading information about the country on the Internet, we were sure that we knew almost everything about Tunisia, but believe me, we were very mistaken...

First things first...

The time of the trip to Tunisia was at the beginning of September. Why this month, you ask?
September was chosen for the following reasons:

• This month is considered the best holiday season in Tunisia, called “velvet”: strong heat is replaced by mild heat. And it's not a joke! Sometimes during the day it was so hot that it was scary to imagine what it was like in August - the hottest month for northern Africa;
• at the beginning of September, the jellyfish season in Tunisia ends (as it turned out, this is erroneous information, we will pay special attention to it in our story);
• prices for tour packages in September become more acceptable, although the price range in the 2014 summer season for Tunisian resorts was unreasonably off the charts;
• September is the time when the number of tourists with school-age children decreases noticeably, as does the total number of vacationers on the coasts in general (during excursions in Tunisia, and there were quite a few of them, there were no children on the bus, which was surprising for local guides - they constantly they forgot that in Russia the beginning of the school year falls on September 1, and not on the 15th, as is customary among them);
• Well, what can we say, a trip in September allowed us to extend the summer, and, as you know, it does not spoil us with the warmth of the sun in Siberia, but we wanted to give ourselves at least a little more summer mood.

The flight to Tunisia with a landing at one of the largest airports in the country, Monastir, took about 8 hours on the way there and 7 hours 15 minutes on the way back. A pleasant bonus for a holiday in Tunisia is the fact that tourists arriving here on a package tour do not need to apply for a visa in advance. When entering the country, you only need to complete some formalities. Pegas was chosen as the tour operator for the flight, not because it is our favorite “carrier,” but because it is the only one who provides direct flights from Novosibirsk to the desired country. Oddly enough, the flights were not delayed - everything went exactly according to plan.

Our first acquaintance with Tunisia from the airplane window impressed us - already from there we could see the snow-white beaches of Tunisia and the stunningly beautiful color of the water in the sea.

The desire to swim was gaining momentum, but ahead of us was a transfer to the hotel and accommodation in a room. The resort destination for our vacation was the small town of El Kantaoui, whose pride is its port. El Kantaoui has a wonderful location - just 5 km from Sousse - the noisiest place in Tunisia, ideal for a nightlife-loving youth. From our “village”, at any time of the day or night, you could get to any establishment in Sousse for little money in a local yellow taxi. As a rule, the cost of such a trip is 5 Dinars, which in our money is approximately equivalent to 105 rubles. For those who want to party at night, but relax during the day in a quiet, peaceful environment, El Kantaoui is the ideal combination of price and quality.
To be honest, most of all I wanted to relax on the island of Djerba, which is part of Tunisia, but, unfortunately, there are no flights from Novosibirsk to this wonderful place, so our dream did not come true. Two more famous resorts of Tunisia, Mahdia and Hamammet, were not accepted for consideration due to the fact that these two cities are more suitable for families with children or for holidays for people of an older age category - life in the resorts comes to a standstill after 22:00. In El Kantaoui, on the contrary, life after 22:00 in the area of ​​​​the famous port is just beginning: a bunch of restaurants, cafes, bars and nightlife establishments open their doors to visitors after dark, luring those passing by with colorful menus and signs.

Let's get back to the story...
After our big bus departed from the airport, it became... first little disappointment: we don’t know why this particular road was chosen to transport tourists to hotels, but it was neither clean nor beautiful. From the windows we saw piles of garbage scattered right next to the roadsides, which created the impression that everything around was a local dump. There were either destroyed or unfinished houses everywhere, it felt like we were in a place where the war had just ended. The first impression is fear and misunderstanding.

Upon entering the resort area, it became cleaner and more tidy with every kilometer - we breathed a sigh of relief. Our hotel of the famous Spanish chain El Mouradi Club Selima was the last one on the way. Patiently waiting to get out and looking at other hotels, we counted 5 hotels of the same chain, but with different names. The Spanish network has firmly captured the tourism business in Tunisia. Going on vacation to the country, we knew very well and were prepared for the fact that hotels in Tunisia were built in the 90s and not all of them were subject to renovation work after that. Our hotel was no exception: modest, old, but quite cozy and comfortable to stay in, and besides, we did not plan to sit in the room. Even at the reception, we admired the local population working in the tourism business; personally, I felt a sense of pride in them: every hotel employee can easily and with great pleasure talk with a tourist of any nationality vacationing in their hotel. And we, living in Russia, somehow have a condescending attitude towards the education of people in Tunisia, and in vain. What can we say, many of the residents of Russia have been unable to master any foreign language for years, there is a category of people who have difficulty speaking and writing competently in their native Russian language. The woman who informed us that the room would be ready for check-in in an hour spoke fluently in Russian, English, Arabic, French and German. And this is just what we heard, but tourists from Poland, Serbia and, perhaps even from Spain and Italy, vacation in Tunisia. Russian guests in Tunisia are still only 10%, but 70% of the tourist flow is made up of French vacationers. Still would!!! A flight and a week of accommodation on the All Inclusive system empties their wallet by only 90 Euros, can you imagine that? We were shocked...

While waiting to check in, we decided to go to the beach and cool off by drinking a delicious non-alcoholic cocktail. The beach did not meet all, at least my expectations, it exceeded the plan of my requirements: the sand was so white that it blinded my eyes, which were not yet accustomed to the Tunisian bright sun and blue sky, without a single cloud.

A slightly nervous bartender in a bar on the beach (and he was always like that, just no one paid attention to it anymore) made us delicious cocktails - three-colored ones, which created some special flavor at that moment and gave us a feeling of celebration. The animation that had started by that time attracted attention and completely lifted the mood. The fatigue from the flight and lack of sleep seemed to dissolve. The animators were great, the competitions were so funny that we even risked taking part in this show once)) The main feature of the location of the rooms in our hotel is that the territory is huge: only 56 two-story bungalows, each with 10 rooms. Fortunately, we got house No. 12 (without any additional payments), which is very close to the entire hotel infrastructure - restaurants, a mini-market, access to the hotel grounds, a swimming pool, tennis courts, the sea and the beach. If you were placed further than house 36, consider yourself far from lucky.

True, for this we had to resort to a little trick and, when booking a hotel, indicate that the purpose of our trip was Honeymoon. Well, is this a hoax?)) Besides, it’s so nice to treat ourselves to a huge plate of a wide variety of fruits given to us on the very first day.

The second day in Tunisia surprised us, and again not very pleasantly: waking up early in the morning, we saw the sky covered with clouds and felt a cool breeze. The climate of Tunisia, as we understand, is very unpredictable, although when studying information on the Internet about the weather in Tunisia by month, not a word was said that it could rain in the country during the summer holiday season. We felt the first such light rain during an afternoon walk around the port. I can’t say that it was heavy rain, it lasted about 5 minutes, but it became a very unexpected event for us.) My question while getting ready for vacation, whether I should take an umbrella with me on vacation, was subject to grinning, and, as it turned out , not in vain;-)

Fortunately, this was the first and last experience of an unexpected encounter with Tunisian rain. All the following days, the rain seemed to have decided not to disturb the vacationing tourists in any way: during the day the bright sun was shining, and at night it was good, sometimes almost torrential rain.

Sea in Tunisia

I would like to pay special attention to the beach and the sea, in fact, which was the main place we spent our time. Believe me, without having been there and personally experiencing the maritime atmosphere of the country, it will be difficult for you to understand what kind of sea is in Tunisia. I can authoritatively declare (including 9 visited countries of the world: Turkey, Thailand - Pattaya and Koh Chang, Egypt, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Bali): there is no such warm and gentle Mediterranean Sea anywhere else! You can swim and enjoy the expanses of water endlessly. The Tunisian Sea is incredibly diverse and completely incapable of getting boring: during the day, the mood of the sea constantly changes, you get the feeling that the sea is very capricious. How nice it is to swim in completely calm water, knowing that, after just 5 minutes, waves can begin and wait for them with the goal of having fun and somehow childishly riding them and deceiving them, trying to escape from the unpredictable water elements. Even standing at a depth, you can see with the naked eye every toe of your foot and the fish swimming past, mostly gray or white, some of them with colored blue or orange stripes. We witnessed the catching of one very unusual fish, swimming near the seabed and strongly resembling a snake during its movements.

What to do during a beach holiday in Tunisia?

Lay on the beach

The most popular and favorite pastime of tourists from all over the world on the beach is lying on sun loungers under the rays of the hot sun. Tunisia is no exception. The hotel we stayed in is quite large. According to our estimates, it can accommodate up to 1000 tourists of completely different nationalities. The beach, of course, is the same for everyone, so the best places sell like hot cakes. The beach area of ​​our hotel was the most spacious on the entire coast: there were enough sun loungers for everyone, but there were not so many umbrellas. The most effective way to get the best seats is to take a walk past the beach at 6-7 am before breakfast and throw towels on the sunbeds you like. Beach rule - even all day long, free sun loungers with towels laid on them are not used! A method that absolutely does not require colossal efforts, but is necessary, because, as they say, “in a large family, claws don’t click”))). Sun loungers and umbrellas are provided free of charge on hotel premises in Tunisia, but mattresses are often available for a fee. 90% of vacationers don’t bother with them, and for complete comfort and relaxation, we rented soft mattresses, which, by the way, were very inexpensive: 2 dinars/piece for the whole day, which is less than 50 rubles in Russian currency.

Go snorkeling

The second most popular entertainment on the beach in Tunisia is not snorkeling and exploring the underwater spaces near the coast, which, by the way, is also done by quite a few tourists. Before our appearance, they either didn’t know about entertainment or didn’t even know about it. Each swimming area is fenced with buoys connected to each other by ropes, which, as it turns out, you can not only swim to or swim across. You can sit and swing on the ropes, especially when the waves come. After our first such use of fencing buoys, the next day we observed this picture: on almost every meter of the fence there was someone’s figure. It’s strange why no one decided to have such gatherings before?

Go on water rides

Along the entire beach strip, stretching for kilometers along the coast, in the area belonging to one or another hotel, there are rental points with a huge variety of entertainment offered: bun or banana rides, water scooters, parasailing, extreme sports on a flying mattress, windsurfing rental, sailboat or catamaran. Parachute flight- what attracted vacationers most of all. Every day, starting at 10 am, bright structures began to show off in the sky. The cost of a flight for two persons is 80 dinars or about $50. Little money for unusual and incredibly bright emotions!!! We decided to fly and didn’t regret it one bit! From the height you can enjoy breathtaking views of the colorful Mediterranean Sea and the surrounding area of ​​the city of El Kantaoui. The highlight of the flight is the fleeting knee-deep dive into the open sea and the instantaneous rush upward again. The flight lasts a maximum of 7 minutes, but this is enough to breathe in the smell of freedom and feel a share of adrenaline, especially at the moment of the turn, when the parachute suddenly goes even higher and everything around becomes very shallow.

Jet skiing- our little passion! In Russia, it is now quite problematic to enjoy this means of transportation: you need a license of a certain category, or it is possible to rent a scooter with an instructor who will be happy to ride, but is it really interesting to sit in the back and completely depend on the skills of the rider? It's much cooler to control a fast scooter on your own and rush through the water along your own route and winding paths. Emotions go through the roof when, during a sharp turn, you are completely covered by its own wave! We can say that we are no longer new to this business, and after the first skate, they shook their finger at us and advised us to skate a little more calmly next time.)) That was not the case))) Subsequent skates were no less extreme. The cost of this pleasure is 40 dinars per person or $50 for two.

Our hotel’s All Inclusive system includes not only free meals, but also water activities as a bonus: every day we could spend 30 minutes absolutely free sail on a catamaran, kayak or learn windsurfing. A Russian tourist is a tourist who will definitely take full advantage of freebies. The catamaran turned out to be a one-time entertainment for us, everything was too calm on it.

But we liked the unstable and constantly rocking kayak much more - we went to sea on it at every convenient opportunity. Believe me, a 30-minute walk with active participation in rowing is quite enough! Boats passing by considered it their duty, seeing kayakers on their way, to create a wave so that life would not seem like a fairy tale to those kayaking. At times it swayed so much that it seemed like there was a possibility of capsizing. We never waited for such a moment.

The third free "water attraction" is windsurfing. We did not begin to master this type of water entertainment not because we were afraid of not being able to cope... There was just one SMALL BUT!

Hunt for jellyfish
It's time to move on to the most terrible and unpleasant and at the same time new and unusual thing that we had to face during a relaxing holiday in one of the best resorts in Tunisia. Even on the way to the hotel, the guide accompanying us from the airport casually said that when swimming in the sea, you need to be careful and not touch the rarely passing jellyfish. Already at that moment, these words alerted me, because no one warned us about such aquatic inhabitants in the waters of Tunisia when purchasing a tour package. The guide assured us that the hottest jellyfish season in Tunisia had come to an end. Oh, how wrong she was!
It’s good that for the first few days we couldn’t even imagine what these small, but such burning creatures looked like. When I first entered the water, I felt a slight burning sensation in my right hand in the area of ​​the thumb. Coming out of the water, I discovered a slight redness and a couple of blisters, reminiscent of the moment when you are stung by nettles. The lifeguard on the beach immediately made us happy that I had become a victim of a jellyfish, and sent us to the first aid station, where they kindly lubricated my “wound” with a special remedy that relieved the burning sensation after an encounter with a sea creature. I couldn’t even think at that moment that people with such a “bite” don’t even go to the doctor))) At this point, for 7 days, our fears were eliminated, no one bothered us in the water and we never saw what these little ones looked like , as we then thought, pests. I can’t say for sure, the number of days on vacation is lost, either on the 7th or 8th day, when we arrived at the beach early in the morning, we saw the following: only a few people were swimming in the sea, the rest were standing knee-deep in the water and were doing something carefully look around their feet. Curiosity arose, and we ran to the water to find out what was happening there and why we were not aware of the events. This was our first encounter with jellyfish face to face! There were plenty of them! Small and not very large, large and absolutely huge, with small, barely noticeable legs and long tentacles, sometimes reaching more than 10 cm, which, in fact, caused a burning sensation upon contact with the human body. Don't think about it, jellyfish don't attack people and probably don't want to at all. It is we, people, who interfere with their existence. While swimming, we accidentally touch them and they have to defend themselves and attack, enveloping our body parts with their poisonous tentacles. The poison, of course, is safe for human health and has an effect only on the upper skin, but the pain still causes discomfort and some bite marks take quite a long time to disappear, leaving small scars that resolve within a month. If possible, it is better to avoid meeting these evil creatures. For the next 3 days, the behavior of the jellyfish was completely logical: at 6-7 in the morning they were washed ashore, by 10 o’clock there were practically none left, at most a few at the very entrance to the water.

Our swimming day began at this time. And again, no one interfered with our stay in the water. In those blessed days, we did not even think that everything could change... The 10th day began with an unpleasant one: just after plunging into the water and getting ready to swim, I again became a victim of a jellyfish, judging by the size of the bite, quite large. The best way to relieve the burning sensation is to get out of the water and rub the bite area with sand. This is what all the vacationers who suffered that day did with me. As some of the victims said: a folk method of combating burning is to apply tomato pulp to the burn site. It was an early morning. We decided to hold off on swimming, hoping that the jellyfish would leave by 10 o'clock, as they usually did. To foreshadow the events a little, I would like to point out that on this day, until the evening, any attempt by people to enter the sea ended in disappointment. The victims joined the ranks of those who were either already standing and rubbing their burns with sand at the entrance to the water, or, having lost all hope of swimming, lay on a sun lounger and rubbed the burn site with a tomato obtained from the hotel restaurant, which the hotel staff handed to each person who applied. It should be noted that there were also daredevils who swam and stayed at sea for a long time. I don’t know, either they are so lucky, or their skin is somehow insensitive. It’s hard to believe in both. Time passed, we played Beach Ball, ran to swim in the pool waiting for the jellyfish to leave, and not only were there fewer of them, there were more and more of them and of ever larger sizes. Returning to the beach after a hearty and delicious lunch, we finally breathed a little sigh of relief. The sea had amazing and quite strong waves. People floating and having fun on them inspired hope that there were no evil “burners”. True, the time was already at least 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Like everyone who missed sea water during the day, we began to swim, making our way through the ever-increasing waves to the buoys. Only a few swam that far. Oh, what a heavenly pleasure it is to sit on the buoys and swing on the waves, sometimes blocking the view not only of the shore, but of each other! We enjoyed the process for quite a long time until we realized that the waves were huge and it was time to swim back! To be honest, it was difficult to swim back - the waves sometimes overwhelmed us, the side buoys became our salvation, clinging to which we could rest. And then another surprise awaited us!!! Did you guess it? One single huge jellyfish, apparently accidentally swimming into our swimming area, ended up on my way! !! And my left hand touched her long legs. Of all the “jellyfish stings” in Tunisia, this one was the most severe and painful! It seemed that the entire left arm was affected. The only goal at that moment was to quickly get out of the unsafe territory. After this event, I began to have a panicky fear of vile jellyfish. Active swimming in the sea that day was the last! The burn more or less went away only by late evening, and the small red scars persist even almost a week after arrival. The remaining days of rest looked like this for vacationers: early in the morning, Russian tourists went on a hunt for jellyfish, trying to defeat the sea, and, as we know, it is impossible to defeat it. But we believed! Of course, in so many years of travel we have never seen or experienced anything like this! Have you ever caught hundreds of jellyfish from sea water? Some of the tourists went hunting with a cap, some with a glass, some caught jellyfish with masks, others put them in flippers, and a few even caught jellyfish with their bare hands. Brrr... A huge number of “mass jellyfish graves” were dug on the shore. The funny thing is: on the neighboring beaches we observed at least three men going hunting in the water with huge nets. Where they got them remains a mystery to us. I think the hunt for jellyfish will remain in our memory for a long time. It was scary then, but now this unequal “massacre” is remembered with a smile.

There was a feeling that the more we caught them from the sea, the more of them would come. For the last three days we could only splash around at sea; the path to the buoys was closed. But the pool was at our complete disposal and there we had a blast.

Evening entertainment on and near the hotel

A huge advantage of our hotel is the constant, not only daytime, but also evening animation, which gathers crowds of vacationers in order to attract as many people as possible to the disco held in the hotel’s nightclub. A nice addition is a daily free hour of tennis, table tennis or mini golf. It is better to play tennis in Tunisia either early in the morning or after sunset. Other times are pure hell to play.
In the hotel lobby, for those who want to play, there are slot machines, billiards, table hockey or football and air hockey. In general, for those who do not want to go anywhere outside the hotel, but do not want to spend time in the room, there is something to do.

If you want to take a little walk, but don’t want to go to the party center, then not far from the hotel - about a 4-minute walk - there is a street with several restaurants, bars and shopping centers where you can shop and buy interesting souvenirs. It is completely unfair that in shopping centers, in the clothing departments, mostly only men's clothes of different colors and styles are sold. There are very few women's things and there is simply nothing to choose from.

We noticed the Grill restaurant for ourselves, where we went to smoke a quality hookah and drink a refreshing mojito.

Excursion program in Tunisia

As you know, Tunisia is not only kilometers of white beaches, but also a country that contains a considerable number of historically important places on its territory. When preparing for the trip, we knew in advance.
Well, to be honest, the trip to Tunisia was determined by just one excursion to the Sahara Desert offered there. The Sahara is what attracted and pulled us to this mysterious and very hot country. One could forgive anything not visited from other attractions of Tunisia, but not this place!

1st excursion - Trip to the Sahara

1st day

We were not at all intimidated by the two-day duration of the event and the 1,300 km of future travel by bus. The cost of the excursion was $150 per person. A trip to the Sahara Desert is something that was especially looked forward to in Tunisia. And we weren’t even scared by the fact that they would pick us up from the hotel neither light nor dawn - at 5 in the morning! We were ready for a long journey both physically and mentally! And now this day has come. After leaving the hotel, with every turn and kilometer we were getting closer to the place of our dreams. The journey was long, but other beautiful places in Tunisia awaited us along the way:

After a walk and a detailed inspection of the underground possessions of one of the Tunisian families, it was time for lunch. The place of the meal itself was unusual - apparently, it was someone’s former underground apartment, in each of the rooms there was a dining room for receiving guests. It is quite pleasant and unusual to eat in underground structures, and the food seems to taste something special. We were very impressed by the next, as our guide said, “technical stop” - the path to it passed along the outskirts of a city abandoned by local residents. After a strong earthquake in Tunisia, which occurred several years ago, about 70% of the inhabitants of this city died, the remaining 30%, without thinking, left their homes, without even taking any things with them. Driving past the city, you clearly get the feeling that someone was here just 5 minutes ago. The city has since received the title of ghost town. Believe me, there is quite a strong energy there, both frightening and thought-provoking.

The culmination of the first excursion day was the final stop in the town of Douz and check-in at the Touareg Hotel, which turned out to be very decent and comfortable. Duz is a very small town, surrounded on all sides by dunes. The local population believes that Douz is the “gateway to the desert,” because there is nothing around except “desert possessions.” Walking along the streets near the hotel, you can feel the breath of the desert and the atmosphere of something huge and uncontrollable, surrounding you on all sides. Checking into the hotel, surprisingly, did not take more than 5 minutes. We got a room on the third floor with a spacious terrace, however, there was no time left to relax at the hotel. There were only about 40 minutes to change clothes and run to the shower.

There were only a few hours left to sleep. An early rise at 3:15 am was planned and the earliest breakfast during the entire holiday in Tunisia. Already at 4:30 a comfortable bus was waiting for tourists at the entrance to the hotel and was ready to whisk us off to new adventures.

2nd day

• Sunrise in the desert
  The first event that was ready to give new sensations was the sunrise in the desert. The place to watch the sunrise was chosen to be one of the tourist spots near the salt marshes, which take on a bright pink hue with the sunrise. We were expecting sunrise only 150 km from the Algerian border!

  

  At 6:10 the sun began to appear, illuminating everything around and creating beautiful landscapes in the rays of light:

  

  It is here, near the parking for tourist buses, that you can buy the cheapest dates in all of Tunisia, but no less tasty for that.

  



• Extreme jeep ride on the dunes
  The next stop is our main destination - the transfer point to the jeeps! Jeep riding on the dunes is an extreme adventure that we were waiting for and incredibly desired. When distributing people into jeeps, the wishes of tourists are taken into account: some prefer to quietly drive around the Sahara, without running into any obstacles along the way, while others crave thrills and do not intend to miss more than one obstacle. We, of course, belong to the second category, and we got the most crazy company and the very first jeep in a string of cars. The first jeep is the jeep that can afford more than others! The “desert roller coaster” began immediately after everyone sat in their cars and made sure to buckle up. We expected a lot, but we couldn’t even imagine what it all really looked like. There were an equal number of men and girls in the jeep (6 people in total), but it is now difficult to determine who squealed more with pleasure. It is sheer madness to fly at speed onto a dune with an incredible slope and take off on it, not knowing what lies ahead, and after landing on the ground, descend along an almost completely vertical road. You can’t even imagine what it’s like to pass an obstacle in a jeep sideways, when you come to the clear realization that a little more and there is a huge probability of overturning. Naturally, local drivers already have enormous driving experience and excellent knowledge of the construction of dunes, because they practically grew up in the Sahara, but at the moment of extreme driving along the dune, thoughts about this do not occur to them at all.

  

  The jeeps following us swallowed the dust raised by our vehicle and were horrified by what the driver was doing.



• Scenery for "Star Wars"
  We easily and naturally overcame drifts in the sand dunes, moving deeper into the Sahara to the place that once served as the backdrop for the film “Star Wars”. It seems possible to get to this Tunisian landmark only by jeep and only by an experienced driver who knows how to “negotiate with the sand.”

  

  Following the jeeps through the desert to our next destination, we observed one of the prides of the Sahara - the “diamond road” and the beauty of the salt marshes, where some of the most beautiful “desert roses” are formed, which can be bought in souvenir shops at any of the Tunisian resorts. The purchased “desert rose” souvenir is one of the best souvenirs of the Sahara that can be brought from Tunisia.

  

  The “Diamond Road” is a path where the sand consists of 99% quartz and glistens under the rays of the sun, creating the impression of a pile of broken glass around it.



• Oases of Shebek and Tamezra
  Fascinated by what we saw and still not recovered from the dose of adrenaline we had received, we witnessed the next miracle of the desert - the oases of Shebek and Tamerza. As soon as we found ourselves outside the jeeps, it seemed as if we were in some part of the Wild West: we were surrounded by mountains of completely different bizarre shapes and sizes.

  

  Our ascent to one of the upper observation platforms began. The first oasis on the way is Shebeka. It is located at the foot of the mountain, from the gorge of which a thermal spring gushes. The constantly flowing water from the source formed a lake that amazes tourists coming here from all over the world with its sky-blue color.

  

  The second oasis of Tamerza is unique in that a small waterfall has formed in its expanses, in which anyone can refresh themselves while walking through the mountainous expanses.

The culminating event of the second excursion day was a trip to the city of Kairouan, which has the fourth degree of significance in the Islamic world after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It is here that the country's most important mosque, Sidi Okba, was built.

Walking along the streets surrounding the mosque, you can observe crowds of local residents, among whom are a huge number of women dressed in very closed attire, fully consistent with the traditions and everyday laws of Muslims. On top of their clothes, Muslim women wear a special robe - hayek, which covers the Muslim woman's body to the very toes. Every Muslim woman wears a headscarf called a veil. To be honest, there are a lot of women in such clothes in the resort spaces of Tunisia, which sometimes makes staying and walking along the resort streets not entirely comfortable due to the judgmental glances of us Europeans who dress quite freely while on vacation.

The way back to the bus passed by a Muslim cemetery, from where the souls of dead Tunisians go to heaven. The cemetery is located right within the city, a few steps from the mosque. Without knowing what exactly this place is, it is difficult to guess that people are buried here: we did not notice any signs, photographs, or any identifying marks on the graves.

This ended the long two-day journey; there was a 1.5 hour journey to the hotel. We had to return right in time for the start of dinner at about 19:00. Tired but happy, we feasted on food and headed to our room to rest, replaying the events that had happened in our heads and sharing our impressions.
The only wish for the program of this excursion- make the ride on the desert dunes longer. Still, this is what many people go there for, and I would like to experience extreme moments for a longer period of time.

2nd excursion - Tunisia, Carthage, Sidi Bou Said

Tunisia

While in Tunisia, you cannot lose sight of the country’s capital - the city of Tunis, a visit to which will show and tell you “how the country lives and breathes.” Acquaintance with the main city of the state began with arrival at 9:00 on the main street of Tunisia - Habib Bourguiba Avenue. Not to say that the alley evokes admiring glances: it is an ordinary alley in the middle of the street, surrounded on both sides by the roadway. The most popular place for tourists to visit on the alley is the local Big Ben - the clock tower located at the very beginning of the avenue. Here, everyone walking along the central street of Tunisia considers it their duty to take a photograph.

Once at the other end of the avenue, you can observe the beginning of the old city - the Medina. The streets of the Medina are so narrow and winding that, as legend has it, not every local resident can move deep into the city without getting lost. The main attraction of the old city is the Zitouna Mosque, which can only be reached by covering a rather long path along one of the central narrow streets of the old city. The street is one continuous market and a place where a huge number of people of completely different nationalities are concentrated.

Not the best place for a walk. The main rule on the way to the mosque is not to turn off anywhere, otherwise there is a huge chance of getting lost and not being able to return in time for the departure of your bus. At the end of the path there is a view of the mosque, which many tourists from all over the world want to see. We did not find anything special in this building and did not spend much time exploring this structure, leaving ourselves some time to visit a couple of shops.

On the way back to the bus stop, we had enough time (saved at the mosque) to stop by the government-run General or Monoprix store. Only here are the fixed and lowest prices for food in all of Tunisia. A visit to one of the stores is a great opportunity to purchase olive oil, cactus or fig jam, drinking water, local wines, coffee, teas, dates in convenient packages, local sweets and other necessary goods as a gift for yourself and your loved ones. This was the end of our meager acquaintance with the capital of the country. Indeed, very little time is given to walk around the city center - it is incredibly difficult to get a complete picture of the city.

Carthage

The second place to visit on the excursion program is Carthage, which in ancient times was considered the capital of one of the states. Currently, all that remains of the once existing city are ruins on Birsa Hill. The main thing that impresses when visiting the ruins is the stunning view from the hill to the surrounding area. To be honest, of course, there is very little that reminds us of the existence of the city now. From the ruins it is difficult to imagine what once stood in this or that place. The National Museum of the History of Carthage is open to the public, where you can see things that preserve the memory of the city’s past: sculptures, frescoes, models of structures and buildings, jewelry. The museum is quite small and 10 minutes is enough to see everything that is presented in it.

But what really surprised us and was able to amaze us, causing a feeling of admiration, were the ruins of the baths, which once served as a health complex in Carthage for Phoenicians who wanted to relax and enjoy health treatments using sea water. The baths were built near the sea coast. Nowadays, of course, they are badly destroyed, but the scale of the buildings in the ruins is quite clear and readable. In modern Tunisia, the area of ​​residential buildings located near the ruins remaining from the ancient city is considered elite and is characterized by very high land costs.

The third known object remaining from Carthage is the amphitheater, which could easily accommodate up to 50,000 spectators. The amphitheater is so poorly preserved that stopping at it is not advisable. From the bus window you can clearly see the destruction of the former Colosseum.

Sidi Bu Said

A visit to the only blue and white town in Tunisia - Sidi Bou Said - is a must in many excursion programs in the country. This town is unique in that the Tunisian authorities have prohibited residents living in houses in the city from repainting their houses in other colors. Every local resident is required to paint their home in shades of blue and white. The town is located on a mountainous surface, has large descents and ascents. From the highest point of the city, which is an observation deck, a magnificent view of the sea, surrounding area and port opens.

There are many souvenir shops concentrated in Sidi Bou Said. Guides like to emphasize that in the city local sellers are ready to bargain until they lose consciousness. We checked - this is an absolute lie! They greatly inflate prices and are completely reluctant to lower them. You can only buy good quality magnets at a profit in Sidi Bou Said. The rest is not even worth wasting time on. This is what we can definitely note: the best hookah in all of Tunisia is made here. While drinking national tea with pine nuts or almonds, you can smoke a delicious huge hookah. Many who have visited Sidi Bou Said compare the town with the Greek island of Santorini. We were not there, but comparing photographs of the two places, we also found slight similarities.

In general, this excursion can be regarded as very educational and interesting, but, as with all excursions, there is quite a bit of free time and it is not enough for quality sightseeing without fear of being late for the tourist bus.

3rd excursion - Phrygia Safari Park and Zulu Show

The third excursion we bought to the local zoo attracted us with the promise of seeing a real giraffe. While in Thailand, we skipped a visit to the zoo. It was simply necessary to fill some gaps.

The Safari Park does not have a huge territory, like, for example, the Novosibirsk Zoo. What I liked about it is that the paths are laid to a high level. It turns out that you can observe the little animals from above, seeing the entire cage of the animal and how its inhabitant spends his time. While walking through the safari park you can see the following animals: elephants, crocodiles, donkeys, meerkats, tigers, lions, some birds, ostriches, camels, buffaloes and even goats. But we came here for the giraffes, and therefore we spent the most time in their enclosure. A pleasant surprise was that real zebras live in the same territory as giraffes! The giraffes amazed us with their height and gracefulness. At the same time, they were very surprised by their cowardice: the ostrich released towards them chased giraffes throughout the entire territory. Of course, they run funny: because of such a long neck, you get the feeling that the giraffe is about to fall over. For an additional 10 dinars, a zoo employee kindly provides special grass that you can feed the giraffe. In addition, this is a great opportunity to get quite close to the animal and even pet it. I don’t know if I was lucky or just the opposite, the benevolent animal licked my face with its rough purple tongue.

It takes 1 hour to walk around the entire territory of the zoo. At 17:30, a funny show of fur seals, or rather one fur seal, begins in a specially equipped arena at the zoo. The main actor is so funny and clumsy that the adult audience laughed with delight much more than the children. The show lasts only 10 minutes, after which the tired cat is allowed to swim a little in the cool water, and the audience has the opportunity to observe the habits of the animal.

At 18:30 it is time for the African Show to start. A huge line of tourists forms to enter the dome-shaped room where a performance by the Zulus, who have come from South Africa, is being prepared. While watching the show, tourists feast on dinner from Tunisian cuisine and enjoy delicious red wine completely free of charge.

Personally, we didn’t find the show anything special, although older people were completely delighted. As they say, it depends on the taste and color... We didn’t take anything else from the excursions: three trips, as it seemed to us, was quite enough. The rest of the time I wanted to enjoy relaxation and Tunisian warmth.

A little about the port of El Kantaoui

Port El Kantaoui is deservedly considered an elite suburb of Sousse. Some of the best and new hotels have been built near the port, almost all of which boast a thalassotherapy center. And, as you know, thalassotherapy in Tunisia is one of the best in the world. It’s a little unfortunate that we didn’t have enough time during our vacation to experience the best procedures first-hand, but on the other hand, that’s not what we went for.
So…
El Kantaoui is a small but quite capacious port, ready to simultaneously receive up to 300 pleasure boats and snow-white yachts. While still standing at the entrance to the port, you understand that another, some other world is waiting for you behind it.

There are restaurants on the port territory that are ready to serve dishes prepared from the fresh catch of local fishermen. With the onset of darkness, the number of tourists in the port increases sharply. It becomes difficult to find empty seats in a large number of restaurants: tourists feast on delicious seafood dishes with great pleasure.

The dishes may be tasty in these restaurants, but, to be honest, the same delicacies are in Greece and on the island. Bali was much more appetizing and fragrant. Maybe we were just being too picky.

To walk around the entire expanse of the port you need at least 1-1.5 hours. This time is enough to:

You can enjoy an equally beautiful sight while walking in the port during sunset, watching how the yachts and ships standing on the pier plunge into darkness. On the beach, under the rays of the setting sun, local kiters practice their skills, attracting everyone's attention. There are a huge number of kitesurfers in the sea, each of them demonstrating a completely different level of skill.

The highlight of the cocktail list offered at the port is the following establishment, which offers a vitamin mixture (melon, apple, fig, peach, banana) in a real melon for testing.

The waiting time for our miracle drink was at least 20 minutes. This beauty is very popular among tourists. The queue increases when those passing by notice such a “miracle glass” in the hands of those walking along the port.
Daytime activities in the port come down to an excursion program offering trips to the sea: a walk on a pirate ship, a glass-bottom boat ride, or a yacht ride in small groups with stops for swimming in the open sea. Already in the first minutes of the walk we realized that the price fluctuates greatly. You should also try to come to an agreement with such “traders”. For the next walk, the price can be no more than 15 dinars/person, while for tomorrow the sellers of walks can write out a piece of paper with a price of 40 dinars/person on it. In general, as they say, “language will take you to Kyiv.” You need to try and try to save your finances.

Within walking distance from the port is the very center of the city of El Kantaoui, where there is a large amusement park, temptingly glowing in the dark, and a water park, where vacationers with children willingly buy tickets. From our hotel to the port you can walk at a leisurely pace in 35-40 minutes; you can get there by taxi in no more than 2-3 minutes. The cost of such a trip is a maximum of 4 dinars. Again, you need to agree in advance with the driver about the cost of delivery.

Quad biking through olive groves and cactus plantations

One of the last days we decided to ride ATVs. In addition, the guide during the information meeting very beautifully painted the place for skiing. I really wanted to get another dose of adrenaline and extremely positive emotions! It turned out that the rental place is only 5-7 minutes walk from our place of residence. You could easily come here on your own and rent ATVs much cheaper than through Pegas. But the job was done and all that remained was to wait for the start of the walk through the promised olive groves and cactus plantations. The ATVs lined up in a long line made us a little wary: the prospect of riding around in a crowd following each other was not at all pleasing. We quickly got bored with such slow and careful riding in those places where it would be a shame not to show off. All that was left was to start breaking the rules, otherwise there would be no fun. We increased the recommended distance of 4 meters between neighboring ATVs several times, which gave us the opportunity to accelerate and sometimes perform extreme maneuvers. We turned a deaf ear to the comments of the instructors who followed us, because we did not pay money for the excursion in order to have a simple and boring ride. The road was really very picturesque and beautiful in places, especially among the growing cacti.

But I won’t hide it: sometimes the route passed by some landfills, where there was not the most pleasant smell in the air. Fortunately, there were few such areas. We managed to ride both through the underground tunnel and along the roadway, where traffic was not so busy, but still the road was not completely deserted. Having forgotten that we needed to ride in one line, we got a kick out of looking for obstacles on our way. Almost at the very end of the track, as a punishment I was sent to the beginning of the line of quad bikes for not following the rules, but this could not spoil the impressions of the rental.
The cost of the excursion was $40 per person.
The main rule in group quad biking- do not forget to break these rules, otherwise there will be nothing to remember.

To conclude the story, I would like to say that we spent a wonderful 12 days on the coast of Tunisia and brought back a huge amount of photographs, impressions and new knowledge.

We have become even a little more experienced in traveling abroad. In the meantime, all that remains is to remember and choose a new place to spend your vacation!