Things to do in Tunis

Landmark · City centre, west of Avenue Bourguiba

A UNESCO-listed old city of covered souks, Ottoman palaces and the Zitouna mosque — lived in rather than curated.

Local tip: Far less commercialised than Marrakech's, and correspondingly less hassled. Go up: several souk merchants will let you onto their roof terrace for a small purchase or a tip, and the view across the tiled rooftops to the Zitouna minaret is the one photograph worth taking here.

Culture · Northern suburbs, above the bay

The blue-and-white cliff village above Carthage — cobbled lanes, bougainvillea, and the most photographed place in the country.

Local tip: It is genuinely beautiful and genuinely overrun between eleven and four. Go at eight in the morning or after six, when the coaches have gone and the residents come back out. Café des Nattes is the famous one; the terrace at Café Sidi Chabaane further down has the better view of the gulf.

Landmark · Northern suburbs, on the TGM line

The Punic and Roman capital, scattered across several separate sites among modern villas and the presidential palace.

Local tip: It is not one site — the Antonine Baths, the Punic ports, the amphitheatre and the Byrsa hill are each separate stops on the TGM, and a single ticket covers them. Most visitors do one and leave. The Punic ports are the smallest and the most historically astonishing.

Neighborhood · End of the TGM line, north

The coastal suburb belt — beaches, cafés, international schools, embassies and most of the city's foreign residents.

Local tip: La Marsa's corniche and the café strip behind it are where the northern suburbs actually socialise. Gammarth beyond it is quieter, more villa-and-hotel, and thinner on daily life. If you are choosing between them, spend an ordinary Tuesday evening in each.

Culture · West of the centre

One of the world's great collections of Roman mosaics, housed in a nineteenth-century beylical palace.

Local tip: The scale is the point — room after room of floor mosaics lifted whole from villas across the country, in a quantity no European museum can match. Allow three hours rather than one, and go on a weekday. The Virgil mosaic is the famous piece and the marine scenes are better.

Nature · 1–1.5 hours east around the gulf

The peninsula closing the Gulf of Tunis — hot springs running into the sea at Korbous, cliffs, vineyards and quiet beaches.

Local tip: Korbous has thermal springs that pour straight off the rocks into the Mediterranean, and you can sit in the hot outflow with cold sea around you. It is a local weekend habit and almost unknown to foreigners in Tunis. Go on a weekday and continue up the coast road toward Sidi Daoud, which is one of the best drives in northern Tunisia.