10 days - Tour starts weekly on Thursday & Friday in Tunis

We'll take you through Carthage,Dougga , Thuburbo Majus desert oases, curious troglodyte dwellings, Islamic splendors, a Roman amphitheater, a medieval synagogue, and unspoiled beaches. You'll appreciate the breathtaking beauty of a land that has drawn wanderers over the centuries

DAY 1 - TUNIS -Thursday - Weekly - Year Round
Our local staff will meet you upon arrival at Tunis Carthage International Airport. You'll be assisted with the formalities, and escorted to the fine Hotel El Hana International. There will be time to relax and recuperate from your journey, and enjoy the excellent facilities. If you wish, you can adventure into the center of Tunis to start your exploration of the winding alleys of the souk, filled with treasures of beaten brass and basketry and carpets, and merchants who will welcome you with traditional mint tea.

DAY 2 - CHARTAGE, SIDI BOU SAID - Friday (200 Kilometers) (BLD)
we'll marvel at the ruins of Carthage, a true metropolis of the ancient world, as evidenced by its theater, circus, baths, port installations, and extensive urban plan. We'll lunch at a fine local restaurant, then speed forward in time to the middle ages, as we visit the picture-perfect Moorish village of Sidi Bou Said. With its white washed walls and narrow laneways, it's the perfect setting as we stop for traditional mint tea. Back in Tunis, we'll stop at the Bardo Museum, to view the most extensive Roman mosaics in the world. We'll then head for the Medina, the old quarter of the city, with its warrens of shops filled with wares ranging from humdrum to exotic.

DAY 3 - HAMMAMET, SOUSSE, MONASTIR, EL DJEM, SFAX Saturday (BLD)
After a leisurely breakfast, we'll set off to explore! Our first stop is Hammamet, a cosmopolitan port where sun-worshippers from all over happily coexist with fishermen and traditional ways. We'll stop at the port of El Kantaoui, and then proceed back into time to venerable Sousse, once the Phoenician City called Hadrumatum. We'll stroll through the medina, the old quarter, cooled by sea breezes, and the Ribat. Then we'll continue to Monastir, where we'll stop for lunch, and visit its own notable ribat, as well as the Bourguiba Mosque, dedicated to the hero of Tunisia's independence. Lunch will be served at a comfortable four-star hotel. In El Djem, we'll marvel at an ancient amphitheater, before continuing to stop for the night in four-star lodgings in the bustling coastal city of Sfax.

DAY 4 - SFAX, DJERBA, GABES, MATMATA - Sunday (BLD)
Our busy day starts with a drive to the coastal city of Gabes, a Roman outpost of old and a traditional market center where, for centuries, goods from across the sea and across the desert have changed hands. We'll visit the oasis, where palm groves and gardens flourish. We'll then cross to Djerba, an island where Ulysses once encountered the legendary Lotus-Eaters. You'll have time to explore the old quarters, including the synagogue of Hara Sghira, Hara Kebira with its modern Jewish community, and Guellala, with its craft stalls, and to see the waterfront and fishing fleet, and the lively town of Houmt Souk. After a lunch stop, we'll cross back to the mainland. Our route takes us through terrain of increasingly sparse grasses and shrubs, into the desert to Matmata. We'll stop to look in on a community of miniature underground houses, where the earliest settlers sheltered from the extremes of the desert above -- as do the Berbers of today. We'll settle in to comfortable lodgings and dinner at a four-star hotel.

DAY 5 -MATMATA, KEBILI, DOUZ, TOZEUR- Monday (BLD)
We'll enjoy a full day of desert adventure, today. First we'll visit the village of Kebili, largest of a cluster of oases, islands of life in a harsh landscape, then proceed to Douz, fabled as the Gateway to the Sahara. There, a special treats waits, the opportunity to sample a caravan trek! This close encounter with a camel is entirely at your option! Afterwards, we set off across the Chott El Djerid, a great dry salt lake, for Tozeur. Here, we'll wonder at the ancient irrigation works, and visit the zoo. Our lodgings for the next two nights will be at the comfortable, four-star Hotel Ramla.

DAY 6 - TOZEUR, NEFTA - (280 Kilometers) - Tuesday (BLD)
We'll learn more about oases this morning. Despite the dryness of its surface, great aquifers underlie the Sahara. Where they spill their riches out in springs, they create the green havens of Tunisia's oases. We'll see a dramatic example, as we explore the irrigated fields around Tozeur and motor overland to the great palm groves at Nefta. Nefta is also an important religious center, with notable mosques, and a town of craftsmen, especially basket weavers. We'll return to Tozeur for lunch at our hotel, after which you're free until dinner. You can choose to enjoy the unique desert resort comforts at your hotel. Or, you might decide to wander the streets of Tozeur, look in on daily life, admire the classic North African houses built around patios on terraces above a river fed by springs, and shop for baskets and capes of camel hair.

DAY 7 - TOZEUR, GAFSA, SBEITLA, KAIROUAN, TUNIS - Wednesday (BLD)
We'll delve more into Tunisia's rich and varied past today, as we motor overland through pleasant, rolling coastal lands. At Gafsa, we'll see the Roman pools of Capsa, the ancient crossroads between desert oases and the cultivated coastal lands. We'll wonder at the Roman ruins of Suffetula, as well as the great mosque. Later in the day, we'll reach Kairouan, an ancient, holy, and vibrant city noted for its historic mosques and centers of learning. We'll lunch at the five-star Hotel La Kasbah. Kairouan also is noted for its souk, and the crafting of carpets and leather goods. Of course, there will be time to check out these wares, before we depart to Tunis, or Hammamat where a night's rest and dinner await us once again at the Hotel El Hana or Mechtel Abu Nawas.

DAY 8 - THUBURBO MAJUS & DOUGGA - Thursday (BLD)
After breakfast at the hotel, we start our full day to Thuburbo Majus:
This town of Libyan and then Punic origin sided with Carthage and thus had to pay a tribute to Rome . Thuburbo Maius reached its apogee in the 2nd c with 10,000 inhabitants and and impressive array of of monuments: the forum, built in 161-2, the capitol (168) and a number of temples (Temple of peace, Temple of Mercury, Temple of B'a alat, Temple of Caelestis, Temple of Saturn) of which one later became a basilica, we'll tour as well the market, Roman bath and the amphitheater. We'll enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before proceeding to Dougga: A Numidian city, mentioned in the 4th century B.C. by Diodorus the Sicilian as Tocai, tukka was from the 2nd to 1st century B.C. one of the residences of the Massyle Kings (MASSINISSA, MICIPSA,JUGURTHA). In Roman times the municipal land was split into two parts; the Numidian city, and a pagus (rural area) under the authority of Carthage, Whole again, thugga was a municipium in 205 and honorary colonia in 261. With some 5,000 residents, thugga had a municipal bourgeoisie which endowed her with a number of rich monuments. The monuments are incredibly well preserved, allowing us to imagine the infrastructure this small Proconsular town possessed: 12 temples, 3 of which were transformed into churches in the 4th Century , 3 Roman baths, numerous fountains, aqueducts and more. Thugga slowly lost its glory, though it still enjoyed brief periods of revival in the 3rd, the 4th and 6th centuries (Byzantine fortress) .Though it was never deserted, archaeological research required the removal of its residents to a new Dougga lying below classical thugga. Return early evening to our hotel in Tunis in time for dinner.

Individual RATES per person in US$:
Arrive daily any date/ day of the week, year round Private tour / private guide

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