Visiting Tunisia (April/May 2005)

Wanting to arrive in the Baleares end of May only, we decided to visit Tunisia. People there had told us that repairs could be done easily, and as we had to lift out the boat to replace the propeller shaft seals of our port saildrive, we went to Hammamet to get the work done.

Geography and Travel: Tunisia can be devided into three parts:

- A hilly north, covered with trees.

- A flat, relatively fertile zone (Sahel) in the middle, where most of the 30 million olive trees of the country grow. Impressive, but boring after a while.

- A southern part, where rocky, unfertile hills slowly change into an endless sea of sand: the Sahara desert. Here, we found the many peaceful oasis to be the most attractive.

The coastline itself is not appealing and - a deception to us who love to anchor in quiet bays - does not offer any protection. One is therefore forced into one of the few marinas.

The best way to visit the country is to rent a car, preferably a four wheel drive, and drive throughout the country, which can be done in a short time. Renting a car cost a minimum of 50 Dinars (35 Euros) and this seems to be the magic limit nobody wants to undercut.

It is hard to judge a hotel from the outside or from its rating. We paid between 20-40 Euros a night and the more expensive one was the worst. Hygiene was bad to average. In the tourist resorts you have those huge hotel complexes which are equipped with every kind of comfort. Hammamet is one of the recent ones and offers newer hotels with more modern facilities. These complexes are mostly designed for accommodating groups of tourists offering them many activities.

Our opinion is that Tunisia is either interesting for people who look for adventure and are equipped with four wheel drive vehicles to explore the desert with its wadis, its oasis and its mountains and the rest of the country with its historical heritage. Or Tunisia could also be a suitable place for people who look for recreation in one of those many hotel resort with their numerous activity programs, or just for enjoying the sun and the sea (the beaches are not always free of weeds).

But what about sailors? Well to tell the truth, we were wondering during our entire stay in Tunisia, why a sailor should ever come to Tunisia. The entire coast line offers very few protected bays. The marinas are usually built close to big tourist centers. The fishing harbours are occupied by the local boats, where you have to tug yourself somewhere in between, and most of them are anyway to small to offer you a berth for the night. Except at the north the coast line doesn't offer any spectacular views. The sailors we encountered here had either wintered in one of the marinas and were on their way out of he country or as some of them in Hammamet just sitting in the marina on their boats, and were enjoying their water front "apartment". All in all our opinion is that Tunisia is certainly not a sailors paradise.

Generally restaurants in tourist centers are expensive for what they offer. We ate really well in Sfax and that for a good price, but again that was in a big city, away of all that tourist hassle. Fast Food restaurants are cheap, serve all kind of sandwiches and local specialties, and are not bed at all.

In most of the cities we found internet centers; the fees were very low, but the connection slow. We often had difficulties in even checking our mail, and downloading our latest updates to our domain was something impossible.

French is spoken by almost everybody, so we didn't have any problem to find our way around. English is understood far less, and is only spoken (badly) by the younger generation.

Payment by credit cards were most of the time not excepted.

History and Culture: The country having a rich history marked by Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Turks and Arabs, one can find all kinds of beautiful ruins and stylistic elements. Regretfully, in the more touristic sites it is a constant and tiring fight to get rid of people who force themselves up to you as guides.

The original handcraft has longtime ago surrendered to cheap tourist gifts which one can find in any country by now, and as quality carpets can be bought cheaper at home nowadays, the only real remaining artifacts are items made of olive wood. So we bought some spoons and a mortar of that elegant and surprisingly hard material.

The good thing about travel guides is that they tell you about cities that aren't interesting to visit, like Sfax, a town of half a million and the second biggest of Tunisia. The marvelous thing then becomes that you hardly see any other westerners, and can walk around in the markets without - finally! - being disturbed by annoying people.

Political: Huge pictures of Ben Ali, the recent president of the country, are to be seen everywhere; portrayed as the protecting patriarch he thrones over almost every plaza, the desk of every shopkeeper, the hotel reception and any office. We noticed a large police presence everywhere. When entering a port, you have to go to the border police immediately to inform them about your arrival (only to see that they know about your coming anyway, as they have already been informed by telex by their colleagues from the marina you left the same morning), and when leaving they want to know your exact destination (see our experience when leaving the country - May 21st).

In the country itself, there are controls at almost every roundabout, and although foreigners are seldom stopped (their rented cars have distinctive licence plates), residents have to produce papers every time.

Often locals told us that the country needed more stability so that it could progress, but we weren't long enough in Tunisia to comment on that. We noticed though that daily life for locals is not cheap at all and that many people were complaining about tourists not coming anymore.

Repairs and Stays: We were told that one could find all spare parts and that repairs are easy to be done. However, this is simply not true. Hammamet seems to be the only place with a travel lift that is insured, but the work delivered is only average. Be sure to fight for a good price (we were able to reduce the initial offer by more than 50%!), have everything put in writing before lifting out or doing any repairs and be aware of people who coax you with false promises as they are often only interested in the commission they get from others to bring you there.

Many sailors go to Tunisia as the marina fees are lower than in Europe. We found this also not to be true; we payed a lot less in Alghero than we would have done in Monastir or Hammamet. One has to learn to negotiate a good price, it is that simple. Definitely cheaper are the fuel prices: we saved close to 600 Euro by filling up in Tunisia instead of Italy.

Conclusion: We left the country with mixed feelings, the first time that this happened to us after visiting so many countries in the Mediterranean. Was it the police presence, the constant hassling or the promises easily made but not held? Whatever it is, we are glad to have seen Tunisia and we are happy to be on our way again.