1 destination · 9 things to do

Tunisia

Tunis is the city where Africa, the Arab world and the Mediterranean meet on one lagoon. At its heart is a UNESCO-listed medina of vaulted souks and domed palaces; a short light-rail ride along the lake takes you to Carthage, once the rival of Rome, and to Sidi Bou Said, the white-and-blue clifftop village that looks over the Gulf of Tunis. Add the Bardo Museum, home to one of the greatest collections of Roman mosaics anywhere, and you have a capital that rewards a long weekend. This guide books it properly: a guided walk through the medina, a street-food crawl, the mosaics of the Bardo, the Antonine Baths and the ruins of Carthage, mint tea in Sidi Bou Said, and the two big day trips that every visitor eventually wants, Dougga's hilltop Roman town and the great amphitheatre of El Djem. Then it matches you to a bed, from a palace-turned-hotel in the medina to a cliffside guesthouse in Sidi Bou Said and a lakeside business hotel near the airport, because in Tunis where you sleep decides how you move.