TUNISIA: BOUTIQUE EXPLOSION

Tunisia boasts high literacy and has made signiicant strides toward gender equality. It has long been a destination for European holidaymakers on sun-and-fun package tours that include outings to the country’s famous archaeological sites: Dougga, Bulla Regia, Oudna, and El-Jem. In recent years, tourism has gone upmarket, with boutique hotels opening in and around the capital, Tunis, such as the Villa Didon in Carthage and the Hotel Dar Said in a 19th-century mansion.

While many of the prime spots along the country’s 700 miles of coastline have been developed into large resorts, a little effort will get you off the tourist trail and onto some lovely sand. The port town of Bizerte was the last to be abandoned by the French departing Tunisia. It’s an easy day trip that swings you past the archaeological site of

Utica. Djerba, a sandy, palm-clad island off the southeastern coast, is billed as a model of peaceful Muslim–Jewish coexistence. The Jewish community, about a thousand strong, worships at the El-Ghriba synagogue in Erriadh.

Two hotels have opened in this enclave, Dar Dhiafa and

Dar Bibine, the latter with Armani linens and Philippe Starck furnishings.

Nearby is the small port town of Zarzis.  While not one of Tunisia’s most elegant cities, it has excellent nearby beaches and a new boutique hotel, the lushly landscaped Residence Sultana. From Zarzis, set off into the desert to visit sites such as Chott El-Jerid (described by scientists as one of the most Mars-like places on Earth) or the trog-

lodyte villages of Matmata, where George Lucas ilmed scenes from Star Wars in the 1970s.

 

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