Essential reading

The guides hub is a library of practical, essential-reading articles — not a directory of human tour guides for hire — built around the specific questions that trip up first-time visitors to Tunis. Some of it is logistics: how the TGM, the light rail and louages fit together for getting around without a rental car, what a multi-site ticket covers at Carthage versus a single-site entry elsewhere, and whether Tunis-Carthage or Enfidha-Hammamet makes more sense as an arrival airport depending on where the trip is headed first.

A recurring theme across several guides is correcting assumptions travellers bring from elsewhere: bargaining is expected in the souks, where an opening price is rarely the real one; the Tunisian dinar can't be exchanged back once you've left the country, so guides cover how much cash to carry rather than over-changing; and only the courtyard of the Ez-Zitouna Mosque is open to non-Muslim visitors, something most travellers don't realise until they're at the door.

Other guides are more experiential: a medina walking guide through the souks around Ez-Zitouna, a Sahara circuit planning guide covering Douz, Tozeur and Matmata, hammam etiquette for visitors who've never used a Tunisian bathhouse before, and a guide to Tunisia's Roman and Punic sites for readers who want to prioritise ruins over beaches. Seasonal guides cover Ramadan's effect on opening hours and daily rhythm, the Sahara's summer heat, and the mildest months for sightseeing across the country.

There are also straightforward comparison and safety guides: Tunis versus Marrakech, Carthage versus Dougga, where to stay across the city's neighbourhoods, realistic daily budgets without invented price tags, and common tourist-area scams worth watching for, particularly unlicensed guides near major sites. The unifying idea across all of them is that they're written to be read before you land, not while you're standing confused at a ticket counter or a medina gate — practical enough to change a booking decision, honest enough to say when a plan doesn't fit your trip.