Our original plan after Carthage and Sidi bou Said had been to go to Dougga – a famous Roman site west of Tunis. But after the Bardo museum and Carthage, we were suffering from a mild case of “ancient ruins fatigue”, so we decided to change the itinerary a bit, and head for the Cap Bon instead.
The Cap Bon is a very pretty part of Tunisia, and is also blessed with some of Tunisia’s best beaches. So yes, it is very touristy. And we were headed for Hammamet, which is the main tourist resort on Cap Bon – so we were a bit anxious as neither of us is a huge fan of package tourist resorts. We started off by checking into our hotel, a good 20 minutes walk from the medina. The best thing that can be said about the hotel is that it was cheap – let’s leave it at that. Since we were only planning to spend one day on Cap Bon, we decided to head off to explore straight away, and jumped into a taxi which took us to the nearby town of Nabeul. Actually, we were only planning to use Nabeul as a transit point for heading westwards. But we quickly realised that our plan to see all (or even half) of Cap Bon in one day was way too ambitious. So we decided to explore Nabeul for a bit instead – it is after all the Tunisian capital of ceramics. We quickly realised there wasn’t really much to see in Nabeul, so we headed back to Hammamet after a stroll through the crowded main street (where everybody was trying to sell us ceramics) and a “good value for money” type of lunch by the beach.
We started our exploration of Hammamet by a visit to the unusual Villa Sebastian. The villa was built by the Rumanian millionaire George Sebastian in the early 20th century, and has now been converted into a kind of cultural/exhibition centre. The villa itself houses some vaguely interesting paintings, and an impressive swimming pool. After a lengthy stroll in the pleasant gardens, we found ourselves at the roman-style theatre, where we enjoyed the sunshine for a while. After a surprising encounter with a chameleon (well I think that’s what it was anyway), we made our way back to the villa for another tea (people drink a lot of tea in Tunisia...). All in all, the visit was a nice and peaceful way to spend a couple of hours, after the hassle and bustle of Hammamet.
We then headed to explore the medina; starting with the 15th century Kasbah (a Kasbah is a kind of military fortress which “guards” the medina). It was nothing to write home about, although we had some pretty nice views over the medina and the rest of town. The medina itself was very pretty, a bit reminiscent of Sidi bou Said with its white and blue painted houses and windy streets. But it was certainly a lot less peaceful than Sidi bou Said – it’s a good example of the bad things mass tourism can do to a place. Tourist shop after tourist shop... A pity, but that’s the way of things I suppose... We finished off the evening in another “good value for money” restaurant, which turned out to be owned by Sodexo! Now that’s globalisation for you!!!
More photos here.
The Cap Bon is a very pretty part of Tunisia, and is also blessed with some of Tunisia’s best beaches. So yes, it is very touristy. And we were headed for Hammamet, which is the main tourist resort on Cap Bon – so we were a bit anxious as neither of us is a huge fan of package tourist resorts. We started off by checking into our hotel, a good 20 minutes walk from the medina. The best thing that can be said about the hotel is that it was cheap – let’s leave it at that. Since we were only planning to spend one day on Cap Bon, we decided to head off to explore straight away, and jumped into a taxi which took us to the nearby town of Nabeul. Actually, we were only planning to use Nabeul as a transit point for heading westwards. But we quickly realised that our plan to see all (or even half) of Cap Bon in one day was way too ambitious. So we decided to explore Nabeul for a bit instead – it is after all the Tunisian capital of ceramics. We quickly realised there wasn’t really much to see in Nabeul, so we headed back to Hammamet after a stroll through the crowded main street (where everybody was trying to sell us ceramics) and a “good value for money” type of lunch by the beach.
We started our exploration of Hammamet by a visit to the unusual Villa Sebastian. The villa was built by the Rumanian millionaire George Sebastian in the early 20th century, and has now been converted into a kind of cultural/exhibition centre. The villa itself houses some vaguely interesting paintings, and an impressive swimming pool. After a lengthy stroll in the pleasant gardens, we found ourselves at the roman-style theatre, where we enjoyed the sunshine for a while. After a surprising encounter with a chameleon (well I think that’s what it was anyway), we made our way back to the villa for another tea (people drink a lot of tea in Tunisia...). All in all, the visit was a nice and peaceful way to spend a couple of hours, after the hassle and bustle of Hammamet.
We then headed to explore the medina; starting with the 15th century Kasbah (a Kasbah is a kind of military fortress which “guards” the medina). It was nothing to write home about, although we had some pretty nice views over the medina and the rest of town. The medina itself was very pretty, a bit reminiscent of Sidi bou Said with its white and blue painted houses and windy streets. But it was certainly a lot less peaceful than Sidi bou Said – it’s a good example of the bad things mass tourism can do to a place. Tourist shop after tourist shop... A pity, but that’s the way of things I suppose... We finished off the evening in another “good value for money” restaurant, which turned out to be owned by Sodexo! Now that’s globalisation for you!!! More photos here.
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