Tunis medina to Tozeur: closed TND rules, louages, Roman stone, and data that thins in the desert.
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Tunisia is Carthage on a suburban TGM line, a medina in Tunis that still sells what the neighbourhood cooks, and a Roman amphitheatre at El Djem that makes you forget the coach park. Sidi Bou Said is blue and white and best before the cruise hour. The south — Tozeur, Douz, the Chott — is a different country of brick ksars and wind.
The dinar is closed. You do not buy a stack of TND at home, and you do not fly out with a brick of notes. Change after you land, keep the receipts, and spend or convert before you leave. French still works beside Arabic. This is not a Marrakech clone with a different airport: the louage is the intercity spine, the train is useful on some corridors, and the haggling tone is its own.
Eat brik, lablabi and a couscous that is a Friday event, not a side. Do Tunis and Carthage, then one Roman site and one south — not a highlight reel of every mosaic in the guidebook. In Ramadan, daytime cafés in town shift; resort buffets keep feeding tourists who did not get the memo.
Essentials
Traveler tips
Real advice from people who have been to Tunisia, curated by our team with links to the original sources.
Do not arrive with leftover dinars from a cousin, and do not pack notes 'for next time.' Change in, spend or change out, keep the paper. Customs cares about this more than your mosaic fridge magnet.
Go to the louage gare, say the town, wait for the van to fill. Fares are posted or known. A man offering a 'private taxi' at the same price as four seats is doing maths you did not ask for.
El Djem is a half-day of scale. Dougga is ruins on a hill that want shoes and water. Do not treat every Roman site as interchangeable stone.
The village is real in the early light and at dinner. Midday is a photo queue. Walk down toward the harbour if you want a café that is not performing.
Book the 4x4 or the outpost stay. The salt flats flood after rain. Sunset at the Chott is a timing problem; start back before you need the eSIM to find a road that disappeared.
TripAdvisor Forums
First-timers get steered to La Marsa or Sidi Bou Saïd for air, or the Ville Nouvelle if they want to walk to the medina and the Carthage train. A hotel that is neither leaves you in taxis for every ancient suburb.
View sourceTripAdvisor Forums
Hannibal for the baths, Byrsa for the hill — the Tunisia board argues about the station because the sites are scattered along the Gulf, not in a single courtyard. Buy the combined ticket and treat the train as the shuttle between them.
View sourceFAQ
TND is a closed currency. Change cash after you arrive and convert leftovers before you leave, with receipts. An unlocked iPhone XS, Pixel 3 or Galaxy S20+ with a Tunisia eSIM can show you the official exchange desk instead of a lobby rumour.
Maps, translation and louage coordination: about 1–2 GB a day, so 15 GB covers Tunis plus a south hop if you are not streaming. Desert days use less data and more screenshots.
Tozeur and Douz towns are fine. Out on the Chott and in dune camps the signal drops. Download maps and your driver's number on hotel Wi-Fi.
Possible, with ID. An eSIM means the first TGM or taxi is a map, not a kiosk lesson in millimes.
Only if the plan lists those places. A Tunisia-only eSIM stops at the border. Sicily is Italy on the plan list, not a Tunisian roaming gift.
eSIM plans
Tunis-Carthage kiosks want your passport and a queue after a late European flight. A Tunisia eSIM is online for the TGM timetable, the louage station pin and a translation of a medina menu.
Install it before you fly. The desert still wants an offline map. Spend the dinars; keep the receipts; let the phone handle the rest of the errands.