This blog entry is a little different to my usual city breaks but thought I'd still add it as we did venture out of our resort!
Why Tunisia?
Back during COVID, me and Adam booked our trip to Tunisia, but due to lockdown restrictions the trip got cancelled. We decided to then book the trip for the year after hoping that COVID would have calmed down and we would be able to go! Tunisia was one of the cheaper options for holidays for us and although we had heard some stuff about Tunisia and the people, we thought we would still make a trip of it!
Quick tips-
You can't bring currency into or out of the country so make sure you find an ATM whilst there and get out some money- this can be used for tips, excursions, etc.
Places do take card but you'll end up only using it in shops or restaurants
Drink bottled water only
Take your own snorkel and mask- you can see the fish!
We found everyone to be really friendly, so ask and make conversation with them! In the hotel, this meant perks (but also if you tip!)
In our hotel they will fill your drinks in any container you give them. Adam and I ended up buying large cups out there as they only had paper cups for beer and wine etc. definitely bring something like a coffee flask or a plastic pint glass.
Taxi prices do change and it's worth finding out what others pay to not get ripped off
People do beg in Tunisia but they would leave us alone straight away if we said no
I was really ill out there and ended up getting a doctor at our hotel. They are really nice and speak good English. The medication really helped, but you will need to go to a pharmacy to pick it up.
Where we stayed in Tunisia?
We stayed in a hotel called 'Hôtel Marhaba Club' in Sousse. We booked through Easyjet holidays and the whole thing was completely fine. We had luggage, flights, transfers and the hotel, all included for £692.08 for the two of us. The resort was great, we chose it because it had a swim-up bar and beachfront location! The food each day was OK. I liked the fresh pancakes and doughnuts for breakfast, but lunch and dinner were usually very similar every day. But that was fine because we would just go out and eat if we wanted something different. My favourite part had to be the pancakes from the pool bar at around 3 pm.
The room itself was nice and clean. We had a balcony overlooking the roadside, which we did ask to change but ended up preferring our view anyway. The bed was two singles put together, but with the heat, I'm not complaining. The bathroom was big as well.
The staff are all really friendly; the maids always say hello and all the bar staff are extremely friendly and witty. The entertainment team were great as well, with water polo twice a day, random activities throughout the day and entertainment in the evening (karaoke, fire show, Irish dancing, etc). We did give out tips, however, and this meant some perks from the staff.
What we did outside the resort!
About a 5-minute walk from our hotel was a KFC and Papa John's. We ended up having the KFC twice as the first time we were a little disappointed. I think the KFC back at home is better, but if you go for the spicy chicken, it's really nice. The meals always came with a drink, chips, coleslaw and a mini bread roll. It was good to have something different from the hotel food. For Papa John's, we ended up sharing one pizza between us. We picked 1/2 and 1/2 and really enjoyed it. The pizza crust was good, and I loved the sauce that came with it (definitely better than the garlic butter we get back in the UK).
Another dinner out was at 'Mo's diner'. This was a great dinner and a fantastic price (£). I got a bbq chicken burger, and it tasted unreal, the portions are huge and I like you get wedges rather than chips. Adam also got a burger and a side of chicken wings. We loved this place so much, we recommended it to our friends back at the hotel.
We also ended up eating at the 'Hard Rock Cafe'. The outside seating area is huge, and the menu looked great. Because we went on a Saturday we missed Happy hour, but we still got cocktails! The cocktails were great, and the food was nice. I got mac and cheese with chicken and Adam got the limited edition Lionel Messi burger. It filled us both up, but we still went for pudding..... both of us probably managed 1/2 of what we had because the portion sizes were absolutely massive! They have live music here at 11 pm on a Saturday but it had just turned 9 pm for us and so we decided to head back to the hotel.
We did one excursion in Tunisia, and that was Camel riding. I'd never done it before, so didn't really know what to expect. This day I was really ill and Adam was hungover, so we were indecisive about whether to go, but knowing we didn't want to miss out, off we went. The tour started by feeding a camel a veggie from your mouth, which meant cool photo opportunities. We then got on our camel (we shared one) and were taken on a ride through a deserted farming area. The ride went on for a long time and when we came back; we went into a sheltered area and were given a Khobz Tabouna (A type of Tunisia bread) to try. The tour bus then picked us up, and we went back to the hotel.
Overall, we both had an amazing time in Tunisia (even if I was ill during most of the trip) and will be looking to go back soon for another holiday! I thought Sousse was a nice area and felt safe the whole time we went outside of the resort. Definitely look into hotels and what's around the resort if you're thinking of going but definitely don't allow all the negative opinions to put you off- we were glad we didn't!
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