Tunis: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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The medina of Tunis was laid out from 698, around a mosque whose columns were carried up from the ruins of Carthage fifteen kilometres away — which is the shortest way to understand this city: everything here is built out of what came before it. It became one of the richest cities in the Islamic world between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and the Unesco listing covers around seven hundred monuments inside the walls. Three hours. The souks shut on Friday afternoon and most of Sunday, and the lanes are covered so the heat matters less than you expect.

A short history of Tunis

For centuries Tunis was a small town in the shadow of neighbouring Carthage, which the Romans destroyed in 146 BC. After the Arab conquest at the end of the 7th century the Zitouna Mosque was built here, and the city began to grow. In 1229 it became the capital of the Hafsid dynasty, and it has been the capital of the country ever since. In 1574 it was captured by the Ottomans. In 1881 Tunisia became a French protectorate, and a European city with wide boulevards was built beside the old medina. In 1956 Tunisia became independent. In January 2011 protests in the city brought down the ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and the Arab Spring set out from here.

The ten best sights in Tunis

1
Zitouna Mosque
From 8 dinars for the courtyard, closed Friday, and non-Muslims see the courtyard only
2
Bardo National Museum
From 13 dinars, closed Monday, and it holds the largest Roman mosaic collection in the world
3
Dar Ben Abdallah
From 5 dinars, an 18th-century house furnished as it was, and closed Monday
4
Tourbet el Bey
From 5 dinars, the mausoleum of the Husainid rulers, and quiet
5
Youssef Dey Mosque
From outside, 1616, and it has the first octagonal minaret in Tunis
6
Hammouda Pacha Mosque
From outside, 1655, and the marble came from Carthage
7
Dar Lasram
Free, a 1819 palace, now the medina conservation office, and walk in
8
Dar Othman
Free, a 1590s palace facade with a marble doorway, and the courtyard is open
9
Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul
Free, 1897, still a working church, and it faces the old French embassy
10
Municipal Theatre
From 10 dinars, a 1902 art nouveau facade, and the season runs October to May

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Tours in Tunis →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Tunis:

Free walking tours in Tunis

The medina, and the mosque built from Carthage

Bab el Bhar · The sea gate, and it stands alone in the middle of a square because the walls on either side of it were pulled down in the nineteenth century. It is the exact line between two cities: behind it the medina, laid out in the seventh century, and in front of it the French colonial town, laid out in the 1880s on drained marshland. The French called it the Porte de France and the name stuck in both languages.
Zitouna Mosque · The oldest mosque in Tunis, and the hundred and eighty-four columns in its prayer hall were taken from the ruins of Roman Carthage — you can see that they do not match, in height, in stone or in capital. Its teaching institution is among the oldest in the Muslim world and it ran continuously from the ninth century until it was folded into the university in 1956. Non-Muslims see the courtyard only.
Souk el Attarine · The perfume souk, founded in the thirteenth century, and it is next to the mosque for a specific reason: the trades were ranked by how clean they were, and the ones allowed closest to the mosque were perfume, books and cloth. The tanners, dyers and blacksmiths were pushed to the edge of the medina, near the gates. The arrangement is still legible if you walk outwards.
Souk des Chéchias · The chéchia is the stiff red felt cap, and the guild that makes it still exists here — a trade that was one of Tunisia’s main exports in the eighteenth century, sold across the Ottoman empire and to West Africa. The wool is knitted, then felted, then dyed, then brushed with a thistle and shaped on a wooden block, and the shaping is the part still done by hand in these shops.
Souk el Berka · This is the gold souk now, in a small covered square with a raised platform in the middle. The platform is what it was used for before: this was the slave market, and people were stood on it to be sold. Tunisia abolished slavery in 1846, before France and before the United States, and the square was converted to gold. Nothing marks what it was.
Dar Ben Abdallah · An eighteenth-century courtyard house, furnished room by room as it would have been lived in — and the layout is the lesson: a blank wall on the lane, one bent entrance passage so nobody can see in from the street, and then a marble courtyard with four rooms off it, one per married son. The carved plaster and the tilework were made by craftsmen from Andalusia whose families arrived after 1609.

Carthage, which Rome erased and then rebuilt

Carthage was the capital of an empire that fought Rome three times over a hundred and eighteen years, and in 146 BC Rome took it, levelled it and sold the survivors. A hundred years later Rome rebuilt it on the same hill, and it became the second city of the western empire. Both cities are on this hill, one under the other, and the nine excavated sites share a single ticket. It is on the suburban train line from Tunis Marine, twenty minutes, and a full day is right. There is no shade.

Byrsa Hill · The Punic citadel, and this is where the last defenders held out for six days in 146 BC while the city burned below. The Romans then cut the top off the hill to build their forum, which is why the Punic layer survives only on the slopes — and on the southern slope you can walk into Punic houses of the second century BC with their cisterns and stairs still in place, which exist almost nowhere else.
Punic Ports · Two basins dug out of the ground: a rectangular commercial harbour and, behind it, a perfectly circular naval harbour with an island in the middle. Ancient sources say the circular one held two hundred and twenty warships in covered sheds, and that the whole thing was invisible from the sea. They look small now because they silted up; the circle is still a circle on any map.
Antonine Baths · Finished around 162 and the largest Roman baths outside Rome itself. What you walk through is the service basement — the furnaces, the water channels and the slaves’ corridors — because the bathing floor was one level up and is gone. The columns standing on the sea front are therefore basement columns, and the real building was twice as tall again.
Tophet · A Punic burial ground where thousands of urns containing the cremated bones of infants and young animals were buried under stone markers. Roman and Greek writers said the Carthaginians sacrificed children here; some modern archaeologists read it instead as a cemetery for children who died young, in a society with very high infant mortality. The argument has run for a century and the evidence supports both readings in part.
Carthage National Museum · On top of Byrsa, in a former French seminary, and the object to look for is the marble sarcophagi of a Punic priest and priestess — carved around 300 BC with the figures lying on the lids, in a style that is half Egyptian and half Greek, which is exactly what Carthage was: a Phoenician trading city that borrowed from everyone it dealt with.
Sidi Bou Said · The blue and white is not folklore: a French-Tunisian baron, Rodolphe d’Erlanger, who lived here from 1912, persuaded the authorities to require it by decree in 1915 in order to preserve a single appearance — so the village looks the way it does because of a planning rule. Paul Klee and August Macke painted here in 1914, and d’Erlanger spent twenty years writing a six-volume study of Arab music in the palace at the top.

The French town, and a palace full of mosaics

France took Tunisia in 1881 and built a new city on drained marshland east of the medina, on a grid with one wide planted avenue down the middle. It is a smaller and more intact version of what the French did in Casablanca twenty years later, and most of it is still standing and still occupied. At the end of the walk is the Bardo, a nineteenth-century bey’s palace that holds the largest collection of Roman mosaics anywhere in the world — floors lifted from villas across Tunisia and hung on the walls. Three hours, and the Bardo is closed on Monday.

Avenue Habib Bourguiba · Laid out in the 1880s on reclaimed lake shore, with a raised planted strip down the centre and ficus trees that are pruned into a continuous green ceiling. In December 2010 and January 2011 this avenue was where the demonstrations gathered that ended twenty-three years of Ben Ali’s rule in four weeks, and the ficus trees were cut back afterwards so that crowds could be seen from above.
Municipal Theatre · Opened in 1902 and the facade is full art nouveau — plaster garlands, female figures, a curved parapet — in a city where nothing else looks remotely like it. It was built by a French architect for a European audience, and the first Tunisian-language play was staged in it only in the 1950s. It still works, and the season runs from October.
Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul · Finished in 1897 and placed deliberately at the head of the avenue, facing the French residency — a statement of who was in charge. The style is a mixture of Byzantine, Gothic and Moorish, which was a conscious choice rather than confusion. It is still a working Catholic church, with a congregation now made up largely of sub-Saharan African students and workers.
Marché Central · The French-built covered market of 1891, and it is where the city buys fish and where harissa is sold from open tubs by the kilo. Harissa matters here more than anywhere: Tunisia produces most of the world’s supply, the paste is made from sun-dried chillies with garlic, caraway and coriander, and Unesco added Tunisian harissa to its intangible heritage list in 2022.
Great Synagogue of Tunis · Built in 1938 to replace the synagogue in the old Jewish quarter, which the French demolished in a slum clearance. There were around a hundred thousand Jews in Tunisia in 1948 and there are a few hundred now, almost all in Tunis and on the island of Djerba. The building is guarded and usually closed, and it is seen from the pavement.
Bardo National Museum · The largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world, in a palace the beys built in the nineteenth century, and the mosaics are mounted on the walls because they are floors — lifted whole from villas across the country. The Virgil mosaic is the only known portrait of the poet. In March 2015 gunmen attacked the museum and killed twenty-two people, mostly cruise passengers; it reopened a week later and the security now is heavy.

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Getting to Tunis and getting around

Tunis-Carthage Airport · Eight kilometres from the centre, and the taxi meter should be switched on
Tunis Ville station · Trains south to Sousse and Sfax, and the metro stops outside
Tunis Marine TGM · The suburban line to Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, 30 minutes, under a dinar

Cheap eats in Tunis

Tunisian food is the hottest in North Africa, and the reason is harissa: a paste of sun-dried chillies pounded with garlic, caraway and coriander, which Tunisia produces most of the world’s supply of and which Unesco added to its intangible heritage list in 2022. It goes into almost everything. The two dishes to eat standing are lablabi — a bowl of chickpea broth poured over torn stale bread with cumin, harissa and a raw egg stirred in — and brik, a paper-thin pastry folded over an egg and deep fried, which must be eaten immediately. Four to twelve dinars a plate.

Chez Slah · About 60 dinars for two, closed Sunday, and book in the evening
Dar El Jeld · About 150 dinars for two, booked ahead, and lunch is cheaper
Café M’rabet · About 5 dinars, cash, and shoes stay on the platform edge
Fondouk El Attarine · About 40 dinars, in a restored caravanserai, and the roof is open for lunch
El Walima · About 50 dinars, home-style Tunisian in Lafayette, and lunch only
Marché Central · About 2 dinars for 100 grams of harissa, and finished by one
Café des Nattes · About 6 dinars, at the top of the steps in Sidi Bou Said, and busiest at five
La Goulette fish restaurants · About 50 dinars for two, on the TGM line, and the catch is listed by weight

Museums in Tunis

Tunisia has more Roman remains than Italy outside Rome, because the province of Africa was the empire’s grain and oil supplier and its towns were rich, and because almost nothing was built over them afterwards. The result is the Bardo, which holds the world’s largest collection of Roman mosaics, and a set of excavated towns within two hours of the city where you are often the only visitor. The Bardo is closed on Monday and most sites close at five.

Bardo National Museum · From 13 dinars, closed Monday, and two hours minimum
Carthage National Museum · From 12 dinars for all nine Carthage sites, and the Punic sarcophagi are upstairs
Dar Ben Abdallah · From 5 dinars, an 18th-century house furnished with figures in each room
Tourbet el Bey · From 5 dinars, closed Monday, and it is usually empty
Ennejma Ezzahra · From 8 dinars, in Sidi Bou Said, and closed Monday
Dougga · From 12 dinars, 110 kilometres out, and a car is needed
Kerkouane · From 8 dinars, 100 kilometres out, and closed Monday
Great Mosque of Kairouan · From 12 dinars, 125 kilometres south, and the courtyard only

Nature and day trips near Tunis

Tunis sits on a shallow lagoon between the Mediterranean and a ring of hills, and the lagoon is the reason the city is where it is — it was a harbour that the French partly drained and partly dredged. North of the city the coast is beaches and the hills are cork oak; inland it dries out quickly into cereal plains. Within an hour and a half there is a Unesco wetland where storks and flamingos winter, and a Roman water temple that supplied Carthage through an aqueduct a hundred and thirty kilometres long.

Ichkeul · From 5 dinars, 70 kilometres out, and best December to February
Zaghouan · 60 kilometres south, free, and the aqueduct is visible from the road
Belvedere Park · Free, 100 hectares planted from 1892, and the city’s only large green space
Lac de Tunis · Free to walk beside, flamingos stand in it in winter, and the causeway crosses it
Gammarth · Free, the beaches north of La Marsa, and the water is clearer than at La Goulette
Bizerte · 60 kilometres north, an old harbour and a working fishing port, and a lake behind it
Hammamet · 60 kilometres south, a kasbah on the sand, and the old town is walkable in an hour
La Marsa · Free, the end of the TGM line, and the seafront cafés are the local Sunday

Things to do in Tunis with kids

Belvedere Park and zoo · From 2 dinars, shade and animals on a hill, and the walk up is steep
TGM train to Carthage · Under a dinar, every 20 minutes, and the sea side is the left going out
Antonine Baths · In the Carthage ticket, big columns and open grass on the sea, and no railings
Sidi Bou Said · Free, all steps and lanes, ice cream at the top, and no cars inside
La Marsa beach · Free, shallow and sandy, and lifeguards in July and August
Punic Ports · In the Carthage ticket, a circular harbour you can walk round in 15 minutes
Nabeul · 70 kilometres out, the pottery workshops let children throw a pot
Zephyr Mall · In La Marsa, air conditioned, and on the TGM line so no car is needed

Holy places in Tunis

Tunisia is about ninety-nine per cent Sunni Muslim of the Maliki school, and the mosques here admit non-Muslims to the courtyard but not to the prayer hall — which is more than Morocco allows and less than Turkey. The country also had one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, going back to Roman Carthage, and a Christian one that produced Augustine and Tertullian. Dress modestly, and Friday midday is prayer time everywhere.

Zitouna Mosque · From 8 dinars for the courtyard, closed Friday, and the columns came from Carthage
Great Mosque of Kairouan · From 12 dinars, 125 kilometres south, and the courtyard is open to visitors
Youssef Dey Mosque · From outside, and the minaret is the thing to look at
Hammouda Pacha Mosque · From outside, 1655, and the marble in it came from Carthage too
Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul · Free, 1897, still working, and the congregation is now mostly African students
Great Synagogue of Tunis · From the pavement, guarded, and no photographs of the entrance
Damous el Karita · In the Carthage ticket, unfenced, and wear long trousers
Tourbet el Bey · From 5 dinars, the rulers’ mausoleum, and the headstones mark sex by shape

Nightlife in Tunis

Tunisia is the most relaxed country in the Maghreb about alcohol: it is sold in supermarkets, in licensed restaurants and in bars, and there is a domestic wine industry that dates from the French period. The drinking is concentrated in the lake district and the northern suburbs; the medina has none and closes early. Nothing starts before ten. During Ramadan almost all of it shuts and the cafés open after sunset instead.

Les Berges du Lac · The business district on the lagoon, licensed bars and restaurants, and open till two
La Marsa · The seafront cafés fill from nine, and the TGM stops running at midnight
Gammarth · The hotel bars and clubs north of La Marsa, and a taxi back is 15 dinars
Sidi Bou Said · Free, the cafés stay open till midnight, and check the last train
Avenue Habib Bourguiba · Free, the pavement cafés run till midnight, and the street is lit
Municipal Theatre · From 10 dinars, and the Carthage festival in July moves to the Roman theatre
Roman Theatre of Carthage · The July festival uses it, tickets from 20 dinars, and it seats 7,500
Café M’rabet · Open till eleven, mats instead of chairs, and no alcohol in the medina

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Frequently asked questions about Tunis

What is there to see in Tunis?

The top sights in Tunis are Zitouna Mosque, Bardo National Museum and Dar Ben Abdallah. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Tunis?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Tunis without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Tunis?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Tunis, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The medina, and the mosque built from Carthage.

How do you get to Tunis and get around?

The main ways are Tunis-Carthage Airport, Tunis Ville station and Tunis Marine TGM. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Tunis, and for how much?

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