Tunisia
by David Sutcliffe
This was to be a simple 2-week beach holiday staying in the resort of Port el Kantaoui and, while the beach and hotels were of a very high standard, the real appeal of Tunisia lies off the well-worn tourist trail as we discovered.
Itchy-feet is one of the symptoms of being a travel agent - you feel the overwhelming urge to seek out, to look beyond and find the new. So, after exhausting the attractions of the beautiful beach and lovely marina in the resort, I hired a car and we headed off to find the real Tunisia.
Tunis, the capital, was the first stop. Tunis is in itself becoming something of a city break destination with people drawn to the medina and the wonderful Islamic architecture of the buildings and mosques. As a brief aside, if you do choose to drive in Tunis make sure you have nerves of steel, the local drivers make Romans look polite and sedentary! Just outside the city we visited the district of Sidi Bou Said which overlooks the Bay of Tunis. This gorgeous, blue and white painted, town has long been the haunt of European artists and intellectuals, so I felt immediately at home!
Travelling south from the beach resorts you come to the town of El Djem. This relatively small town is famous for it's extraordinarily well preserved Roman amphitheatre which was used during the filming of Monty Python's ‘Life of Brian'.
Onwards in a southerly direction and you eventually arrive at the Sahara Desert which offers a fantastic variety of trips from camel riding to sightseeing another film tie-in - the cave dwelling village of Tataouine from ‘Star Wars'.
Luxury spa resorts and international cuisine makes this North African country much more than the beach holiday one might expect.