To Tunisia by campervan!

After eight weeks in Tunisia, we are back in Europe. The country pleasantly surprised us! We hadn't expected beforehand that it would be such an adventurous trip. Imposing canyons, endless desert landscapes, ancient Berber villages, film sets, vast salt flats, cave dwellings deep underground, and the list goes on. In this blog, we take you through our positive and less positive experiences.

Kelly en Richard in the Sahara 

Our route

From Italy, you sail to the capital, Tunis. We hesitated for a long time about whether to do the tour of Tunisia clockwise or counter-clockwise. Ultimately, we chose counter-clockwise. We really enjoyed this. The south of Tunisia is the most beautiful, so if you travel north first, the journey becomes increasingly beautiful the further you go. You also end the trip along the east coast, allowing you to enjoy the vast turquoise beaches for a little while longer before sailing back to Italy. In hindsight, we are happy with this choice.

The most beautiful places to visit

To start right away with the highlights of the trip, here is a list of points you absolutely must not miss on a tour of Tunisia.

• Rommelpriste , described as the most beautiful mountain route in Tunisia, and we completely agree. If you have a 4x4, be sure to drive the old route as well.

• Mides Canyon , a gigantic canyon near the border with Algeria. Endlessly long and imposing, where you walk around practically alone.

• Oasis Chebika , a green tourist oasis surrounded by a beautiful mountain range.

• The route from Mos Espa to Ong Jmal runs straight through the desert, with a high chance of spotting dromedaries right past your camper.

• Scott el-Djerid is a 5,000 km² dried-up salt lake. With, of course, the famous iconic abandoned bus. However, we found the Sebkhet El Melah salt lake even more impressive because it is truly still white with salt here.

• Ksour (plural of ksar): in the southeast, you will find numerous old Berber villages. There are a great many of them, ranging from renovated tourist versions to old, abandoned ones. For example, we visited Ksar Mrabtine, Ksar Hadara, and Ouled Soltane.

• Troglodyte dwellings . Cave dwellings are typically found in rock faces. In addition to this type of dwelling, you can also find troglodyte dwellings in Tunisia. These are located in large pits underground. Tourists choose to visit them en masse in Matmata, but in the wider area you can find countless examples where you can discover them all to yourself.

• El Djem , an enormous Roman amphitheater comparable to the Colosseum, but where you are allowed to touch and sit on everything, and there are only a handful of other visitors.

Of course, we could make this list much longer. If you want to find inspiration for your Tunisia (camper) trip, be sure to check out our videos for other hidden gems.

Safety

Beforehand, we were asked: is Tunisia safe? If you look at the Ministry's website, Tunisia is largely yellow (just like France, for example). This means that you can travel there without any problems. However, there are also parts colored red, mainly in the border region. Naturally, it is better to avoid these regions. We ended up there by accident anyway and did not feel unsafe anywhere. However, in that area, you do have to submit to National Guard escorts. Just like in Morocco, we feel more comfortable leaving the camper behind here than in a major European city. Our experience so far is that precisely because everyone here is Muslim, things like theft are not tolerated.

The people

In the tourist areas on the east coast, we noticed that vendors could be quite pushy. But as soon as you head further inland, the atmosphere changes completely. Children waved enthusiastically and adults gave us a thumbs-up. They seemed to be saying how cool it is that you are visiting our country. We were regularly invited for a cup of tea or even a full meal. We got the strong impression that the locals felt enormously honored that we, as Westerners, wanted to visit them.

Costs

Tunisia is cheap. Really cheap.

As nomads, we always watch our costs. In that respect, traveling through Tunisia is truly fantastic. For example, we paid:

• For a liter of diesel €0.65

• Baguette €0.10

• Coffee in a cafe €0.50 (in a tourist town €2.00)

• Two pizzas with drinks in Tatouine €10.15

• Admission to El Djem, the Tunisian Colosseum, €6 pp

• For all well-known European brands like Nutela and Nivea, you simply pay Western prices, or even more due to import tax (a 0.7l bottle of Jack Daniels cost €76).

It wasn't the destination that stuck with me, but the feeling along the way.

Is traveling by camper possible?

Yes. Absolutely. But don't expect a standard camper trip. Campsites are scarce, and P4N spots are relatively few and far between. So you are really on your own. You will have to judge for yourself whether a particular spot is suitable for an overnight stay or not. You will also have to deal with the Garde Nationale quite often. Officers regularly came by to check on us, politely asked for our passports, and then wished us a good night. Sometimes we were even escorted to another overnight spot because they considered it safer. That felt a bit awkward at first, but eventually we realized it was mostly well-intentioned.

4x4 vehicle

A question we often get is whether you need a 4x4? No, not necessarily. Globus2 isn't a 4x4 either. Although we often noticed that we would have loved to drive even further off-road. The roads are generally good, but watch out for the enormous number of speed bumps. Finally, it is good to keep in mind what to do if something goes wrong with the camper. Authorized dealerships are only found in the major cities in the east, and they often do not have the right parts in stock. Ordering is possible, but there is a waiting time of one to two months. For adventurous campers, Tunisia is truly a fantastic country.

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Compare with Morocco

Many people compare Tunisia to Morocco, but there are major differences.

Morocco is bigger, rugged, more colorful, and geared towards campers. At the same time, the country is also more conservative, more touristy, and more chaotic. Whereas in Morocco campers are often seen as ATMs, we didn't have that problem at all in Tunisia. That makes traveling a lot more relaxed for us. Children just wave without wanting candy, pencils, or money from you. In Tunisia, the chance of getting fined for anything is very low. In Morocco, we actually had to stop for every stop sign, and the police were often standing at the foot of a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, with a laser gun. What we missed in Tunisia is perhaps the imposing Atlas Mountains with their characteristic mountain villages.

Finally

Tunisia is known for all-inclusive holidays on the east coast. As far as we are concerned, that really does the country a disservice. You can step into so many different worlds within one country. The lack of other tourists gives you a great adventurous Indiana Jones feeling. If you are planning to head that way sometime, be sure to check out our YouTube series about this country. At least two new videos are coming soon to provide a complete picture of this special country.

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