Lonely Planet Tunisia (Country Guide)

Discover Tunisia

Squint in awe at the glinting-gold El-Jem Colosseum and imagine the bloodthirsty roar as Roman gladiators entertain the crowd.
Float in startlingly clear seas at El-Mansourah Beach.
Wear your fragrant jasmine flower with confidence you're sending the right message.
Sway gracefully on camelback through the endless Sahara, willing your steed not to break into a trot.

In This Guide

Four authors, 73 days of in-country research, 70 detailed maps, 102 plates of salade mechouia, one rented camel.
New Arts & Architecture chapter.
Top Tunisian chef Rafik Tlatli gives an expert take on the local cuisine.
Content updated daily: visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the-minute reviews, updates and traveler suggestions.

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At Lonely Planet, we see our job as inspiring and enabling travellers to connect with the world for their own benefit and for the benefit of the world at large.

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What We Believe
We believe that travel leads to a deeper cultural understanding and compassion and therefore a better world.

A Lonely Planet publication.

Most helpful customer reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful.
Pretty good
By wanderlust
All in all, I was very happy with this guide. It was the right size (not too thick, not too sparse), was very informative, and had great maps. I even liked the recommended routes (since Tunisia is small, it's very possible to "do" the whole country in a month), if one can "do" a country at all without living there.

Two recommendations I had for them. The first is that I did miss the recommended itineraries if you have 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, etc. It would have helped.

The second and more important issue I had was with the authors. Yes, they had a token female author but she reviewed the more women-friendly places such as Sidi Bou Said. The amount of harassment we received wasn't surprising, as I didn't solely rely on Lonely Planet and read up on those issues; but it really wore us down over the three weeks (I was traveling with a female friend and we are both attractive women in our 20s and 30s.)

My friend and I found ourselves in hysterics when the male author

recommended that we sit down with men in a cafe and talk to them about their lives. Yeah right!! I come from Turkey, so I am in no way ignorant about Muslim tradition (although North African culture is obviously different than Turkish), but nearly every single man we talked to hit on us.

That's ok, that's life. But I was infuriated to read that covering our heads would invite ridicule, because finally, in our last week, I started covering my head in Jerba and I felt an IMMEDIATELY positive difference. Yes, if I had been a tall blonde perhaps the reception wouldn't have been the same, but is Lonely Planet only geared towards men and tall blonde women? What about Mediterranean types like myself who can easily pass as native Tunisians? I wish I had known beforehand and would have covered up the whole time (by the way, we dressed EXTREMELY modestly and after seeing how some tourist women acted in Tunisia, we are definitely sympathetic to the stereotypes the men have there towards women like us).

Tunisia is a great place to visit and I still have to admit that this is a good guide but ladies, read up on your own. Or should I write my own guide for women? :)

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
Nicely Laid Out and Easy to Use. Useful Maps
By M. Sprague
It's light and compact and has some useful maps. We used the hotel suggestions but in most cases the ratings were off, if it says 3 stars assume 1.5-2 stars. Take ear plugs. Almost all of the hotels were in noisy areas. Many of the suggested eating places were also off the mark. Extensive menus would be met with three or four options available. The guides to sights and towns to visit were very good. We used the walking tours and maps to navigate through the country quite comfortably. Assume you'll be ripped off by every taxi driver and you'll be ok. It's still very inexpensive to travel in Tunisia. And this book is very handy to have along for the ride.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Tunisia (Country Guide)
By Helen Quinn
This is one of the few guide books I have read and not had to buy others for the same country by other authors/publishers. A guide book is just that - a "guide", and nothing should be considered set in stone. The content is wide-ranging, appears to be thorough, and covers most of the places I will be visiting in the fall. I am wearing the pages thin from constant reading, and still find it very interesting and informative. Great book!

See all 4 customer reviews...

Lonely Planet Tunisia (Travel Guide)

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher

Lonely Planet Tunisia is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. See the huge, undulating dunes of the Sahara, lunch among perfect rock pools in El-Mansourah, or marvel at the roman mosaics in the Bardo Museum; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Tunisia and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet Tunisia Travel Guide:

• Colour maps and images throughout
• Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests
• Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
• Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices
• Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
• Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including customs, history, religion, art, literature, cinema, music, dance, architecture, wildlife, and cuisine
• Over 76 local maps
• Coverage of Tunis, Cap Bon, Tabarka, Bizerte, Ain Draham, Kairouan, El-Jem, Gabes, Matmata, Tataouine, Medenine, the Sahara, Douz, Jerba, Tozeur, the Jerid, Carthage, and more

The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Tunisia, our most comprehensive guide to Tunisia, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.

• Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's Africa guide for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer.

Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet, Donna Wheeler, Paul Clammer, and Emilie Filou.

About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in.

TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category

'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times

'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)

Born in Sydney, and brought up a fishing rod's flick from the harbour, Donna Wheeler knew her Darlinghurst days were numbered when she first set eyes upon a fog-clad St Kilda Pier as a teenage art student. There have been stints in New York, London and rural Ireland, but Melbourne's art scene, bands, bars, coffee and wry sense of self has held her wandering eye for almost two decades. Donna has commissioned food guides and online features for Lonely Planet and has wored as a digital producer, content strategist and art director. She has studied visual arts, English literature and is a graduate of RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing program. She now devotes her time to freelance writing and editing.

Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
A guidebook of mixed quality
By Martin Ternouth
There is a lot of information in this guide, but the quality and tone varies from the serious and well-informed to a fluttery gushing: there is no sense that the production has been coordinated by a strong editorial personality. The chapter on Tunis (no doubt unfairly, but that's what it reads like) gave the impression that it had been written up after a weekend's visit to some old college friends who'd been living there for a few months as ex-pats and wanted to show the researcher the clubbing scene to the exclusion of much else. Four examples may illustrate my point.

At one restaurant we are advised not to expect Frankie Knuckles in the early 80's disco, and the decor is patronised as "endearingly eccentric". No mention of it being an attractive, extremely well-run and friendly place with excellent food. Another is is described as a "buzzing place . . . heavily curtained from the street so punters can tuck into the alcohol on offer with impunity." I'm sure it's busy when Millwall are playing an away game in Tunis in the Europa League, or there's a New Order concert at the Parc des Sports, but outside of these invasions it is a pleasant cafe to chat with the locals and eat wonderful fish. There is, despite assurances in the book, no view from the bar at the the best retsaurant/hotel in Carthage: the view is from the restaurant, the terrace outside, and some of the rooms. And the zoo is written off with a brief reference to parrots and monkeys in cramped and old-fashioned cages. The charm of the zoo is in the family groups of locals that visit it: groups such as married couples in their very early twenties with children, pairs of young men or women walking arm in arm, or little toddlers holding on to a grandparent's hand and listening gravely to what they are being told - four species of human grouping that that are almost entirely extinct in 21st Century Britain.

The book also predates the Jasmine Revolution of 14 January 2011 and although the city feels perfectly safe, there is razor wire and Armoured Personnel Carriers and you might get warned off sensitive sites at gunpoint. On a more complex point, some of the purportedly Western music videos (often Lebanese with European production) are far beyond what would be allowed on MTV in Europe or the USA and imply a routine acceptance of violence and paedophilia in Western culture. Some of the guidebook's praise of "edgy DJs" might have been tempered by some understanding of the view of the West that this is giving to ordinary Tunisians.

And finally, the French and Arabic phrasebook pages would be worse than useless outside the holiday camps. You'll get very little out of Tunis as an independent traveller if you don't speak reasonably fluent French or Arabic.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Useful guide
By kboz
This was informative and well written. I found the DK Eyewitness Guide did a slightly better job of covering the things I was most interested in, but the two Guides complemented one another.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Very useful book
By Susan Marx
I am finding this book extremely useful in planning an upcoming trip to Tunisia. The only thing missing is an index like other Lonely Planet guide books have.

See all 8 customer reviews...