Jake and I recently enjoyed a 12 day all-inclusive holiday in Tunisia. A week on from our return, and we’re still suffering from the post-holiday blues and are struggling to get back into the realities of our ordinary lives. Thanks to a fortnight of inspiration and relaxation, I’ve got a few Tunisia-related blog post ideas up my sleeve that I’ll be posting over the next few days. In this one though, I’ll give you a run down of the holiday from a thrifty point of view. UPDATE: I have digressed a little…

Cost

The holiday costed us approximately £550 each for 11 nights at the Scheherazade hotel in Sousse. With buffet-style food, an Indian restaurant, two pools, a private beach, nightly entertainment, and a gym and spa, it was definitely worth the money. The food was absolutely amazing (I’ll go into further details in another post) and we also benefited from free drinks for the duration of our stay. Sadly though, we did feel as though you had to tip every time you went to the bar if you wanted a generous whisky to coke ratio.

Tipping

With tipping playing such a huge part in Tunisian etiquette, we probably spent a large portion of our money on tips.

We did feel that it was worth it though, particularly when we had a little Googling session to get a rough idea how much our favourite waiter probably earned. We usually tipped him around 3 Tunisian Dinars (TND) each evening, which, to be fair, only worked out at about £1. Far less than you’d tip your waiter at Pizza Express back in the UK. On the last night Jake slipped him a bit extra for being a top bloke.

We also tipped the maid at the start of the holiday, the bar staff got 1 TND every time we ordered a drink in the evening (we wanted lots of whisky) and a member of staff who fixed our hotel room door when Jake somehow managed to break our key card and get us locked out.

Tipping isn’t of course a necessity, so if you want to be super frugal or you simply cannot afford to give money frequently, I wouldn’t worry too much. It did feel like we were shelling out a lot of money during the course of the holiday, but in reality, when taking the exchange rate into account we weren’t paying much. Besides, what’s a quid or two when you’re eating this much grub for every meal?

Getting around

In Tunisia, taxis are your friends. We can’t get over just how cheap they were and how friendly (and trusting) the taxi drivers were too.

Towards the end of our stay we travelled from our hotel in Sousse to Monastir. When we hopped in the taxi just outside our hotel, the driver told us he’d take us to Monastir and bring us back again for 60 TND (£20). This made us think two things:

1. Monastir musn’t be as far away as we originally thought

2. Bring us back again? How will he find us? Surely this geezer is going to rip us off in some way.

As it turns out, Monastir was a 45 minute taxi ride away and the taxi driver wasn’t trying to rip us off. In fact, he didn’t even want ANY money off us until we arrived back at the hotel.

When we arrived in Monastir, he dropped us off as the Bourghiba Mausoleum and told us he’d wait there for us for 3 hours. We still can’t get our heads round the fact that he wouldn’t at least accept 30 TND off us for the ride there. 2 hours later, after a wander round a few of Monastir’s gorgeous buildings, we walked past the Mausoleum again and there he was waving at us. “Do you mind if we have another hour as planned?” We asked. No problem, he said!

Sure enough, he was still there after another hour, smoking a cig and chatting away to another taxi driver as he sat on a small stool that he had been keeping in his boot. So all in all, the trip to Monastir worked out at just £10 each for an hour and a half in a taxi. Imagine spending an hour and a half in a taxi in England. You’d have to be either mad, desperate, or flippin’ loaded to do it!

Things to do

Tunisia has a reputation for being the kind of place for people who like to just chill out at their hotel for the whole time and never leave. While we aint judging anyone that does this, that aint our cup of tea. Sure, I wanted to catch a tan and Jake wanted lots of free beer, but we also wanted a holiday where we could explore lots of places and see lots of amazing things. In the end though, we did find ourselves only going on 3 trips during our stay. We went to Monastir, El Djem, and Port El Kantaoui. We would have liked to do more, and although our hotel was amazing, we wish it had been in a better location and in walking distance of more amazing places to see and do.

Monastir

Our trip to Monastir was easily our favourite. It was also incredibly cheap. It was free to go inside the Mausoleum and we were shown around by a very friendly chap who was only too happy to take a few photos of us. It’s hard to put into words just how beautiful this building was, so I’ll just show you some photos instead. Of course, the pictures don’t quite do it justice.

We also visited Forte El Ribat. I’m pretty sure it was around 7 TND to enter, but it was well worth it. Again, a guide showed us round for the most part, explaining the history of the Ribat, before suggesting we climb to the top of the tower to see the views.

What he didn’t warn us though, was that it was bloody terrifying up there. Never in my life have I been scared of heights, but I was experiencing some serious vertigo once we emerged from the staircase and realised that the only thing preventing us from being thrown off the top of the tower by the extremely powerful winds were the merlons that barely reached our waists.

Jake managed to take a few photos of us, as I was far too terrified to lift my phone in the air. It’s just a shame it was so windy as my hair was all over the place…

El Djem

We also visited the El Djem Colosseum, which was absolutely incredible. We booked this trip through Thomson which meant we got a coach there and back and were shown around by a knowledgeable guide who spoke great English for just 69 TND each.

As part of this, we also got to visit the museum which was equally amazing. It was filled with intricate and brightly coloured mosaics, many of which had been excellently preserved after all these years. At the back of the museum we could walk around the remains of old roman buildings.

Port El Kantaoui

While wandering round Port El Kantaoui (which costed us just 6 TND each way in a taxi) we did find ourselves being hassled more often by local people than we did anywhere else.

“Ride our camels!”

“Buy this jewellery!”

“Pirate ship! Pirate ship! ASDA price pirate ship!”

“All clothes ASDA price!” (They bloody loved the ASDA jokes, did the Tunisians)

“Where you from? Manchester? United or City? What do you mean… how do you say… Tottenham?”

Oh and there was also the man who asked Jake for 5 TND to have his photo taken with a bird. I planned on walking straight past the guy only to realise Jake already had his wallet out. All of a sudden this bird was on my hand and then it was on my shoulder, digging its claws into my skin.

“It best not poo on me!” I laughed nervously. “She never poo on anyone!” the man reassured me.

At that moment, the bird jumped up onto my head. As I smiled for the camera, I thought: “This’ll make a cracking Facebook pho..”but suddenly the man lunged at me with his arms held out to grab the bird. He was too late. The bird did a massive white and yellow poo all down my neck and chest. I never thought I’d be happy about a stranger touching my chest, but I was grateful when the man scooped the shit off me with his bare hands and stopped it running down onto my top.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have minded so much about being shat on by Kes if I had a photo of the exact moment the poo slid out of the bird’s arse and the man lunged at me with an expression of fear. I could have shared it on Reddit or Perfectly Timed Photos and got tons of likes and attention.

Haggling

During our visit to Port El Kantaoui we learned the importance of haggling and taking shop owners’ original asking prices with a pinch of salt. After wandering into a small gift shop at the marina, I gave Jake a nudge to show him a gorgeous ruby ring in a glass cabinet. I wasn’t planning on buying it, I just thought I’d show him how beautiful it was.

All of a sudden though, the shop owner came bursting over to get it out the cabinet. I hadn’t even asked to try it on, but he grabbed my hand and placed the ring on my finger. “How much do you want to buy this for?” He asked me. I had no idea. There were no prices.

We explained that we weren’t interested in buying anything today and were just browsing but we would *of course* return towards the end of our stay if we changed our minds. He was very persistant though. “Oh, 50 TND” I told him. He looked horrified. “This…250 TND!” he explained. Jake and I laughed awkwardly and tried to give the ring back. He still had hold of my hand though.

After lots of nonsense, he eventually agreed to sell it to us for 50 TND. To be honest, it was a beautiful ring and for a moment, £17 didn’t seem so bad. But how come he was suddenly so desperate to get rid of it for this price? Going down from 250 to 50 seemed pretty damn desperate. Suddenly the stunning ring that had once looked amazing seemed like something you’d get in a Christmas cracker. After putting our foot down (and politely making up some very British excuses) we finally managed to escape.

We then asked ourselves, if that man was willing to haggle that low (and had clearly overinflated the price massively in the first place) how low would other shop owners be willing to go for other items? From then on we didn’t buy a thing without haggling a little first. I managed to get a hat down from 25 TND to 10, some trinkets from 20 to 7, and Jake showed some excellent resilience when it came to haggling for a mosaic for his mum.

Swings and Roundabouts

We had an amazing trip and it was great to visit a teeny tiny part of Africa for the first (and hopefully not last) time. However, Tunisia did have a few downsides.

What a load of rubbish

As I’ve written in another blog post, it was hard to ignore the country’s litter problem. It was incredibly sad to see olive trees covered in plastic bags and streets lined in rubbish. We couldn’t walk to our nearest supermarket without having to hold our breaths due to the awful smell of waste. Not everywhere is bad. The centre of Monastir was incredibly tidy and well kept, but the more desolate areas in between towns and cities appeared to be the worst.

Where’d you learn to drive like that?! Grand Theft Auto!

If, like me, you’re not very well travelled and you’re used to the order and routine of British roads, you’re also likely to be shocked by what can only be described as some SERIOUSLY CRAZY DRIVING! I’ll go into greater detail on this in another blog post, because, while I did fear for my life every time I sat in a taxi, the insane driving seemed to kind of work. Keep your eyes peeled for more on this over the next couple of days.

All in all, Tunisia was a pretty thrifty break. All our food and drinks were included, transport to other cities costed next to nothing, and souvenirs were incredibly cheap as long as you’re prepared to haggle and stand your ground. As a result, we probably spent less between £200-£250 between us while we were there. We fell in love with so many Tunisian dishes (we’re trying to recreate some of them back at home), we were humbled by the beauty of Monastir’s Bourghiba mausoleum, and we met so many lovely Tunisian people.

However, although we’ve seen quite a few reviews on Trip Advisor from Scheherezade guests who claim to return year on year, Jake and I aren’t desperate to go back for a long time. We’ve got far too many other destinations to explore and tick off our list first!

 

Photo credits:

All photos are my own except otherwise stated.

Medina marketplace. Michael Foley

Car and moped. Angelfire