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Travel Guide: Tunisia

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Bob J View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Bob J Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Travel Guide: Tunisia
    Posted: 07 July 2010 at 15:58
The idea of these threads is for members to put in their reccomendations for good photo locations to visit - if you want to write a post about a place that isn't represented yet, just post in the requests thread.
 



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Swede66 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Swede66 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 July 2010 at 12:54
Anyone have been to the island of Djerba? I'm going there in the middle of september and would like to know a bit more about the place. Can't really get a grip of it when reading the travel guides I've found on the internet. Any help is appreciated, I'm bringing the a700 and Sigma 10-20, CZ 24-70, maybe a baby beercan 100-200, a polarizing filter and a flash.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote tomiZG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 July 2010 at 13:11
Only went with our little P&S back in 2005 but from the top of my head the most beautiful part in Tunisia is definitely Sidi Bou Said with its white houses and blue doors and windows. It's basically a hill nearby the capital, Tunis, and coming in for a day-trip from Hammamet or so definitely a fantastic spot with many wonderful photo-ops

Edited by tomiZG - 08 July 2010 at 13:13
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Swede66 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 September 2010 at 19:42
From Wikipedia
Djerba (also transliterated as Jerba, Jarbah or Girba جربة) is, at 514 km2, the largest island of North Africa, and also the most southern island in the mediterrainian sea located in the Gulf of Gabes, off the coast of Tunisia

Djerba has a mild climate and a well cultivated soil. Its largest city is Houmt-Souk, with a population of around 60,000. The island is a popular tourist destination, particularly for French, German, Italian and Czech tourists, known for its beautiful beaches and dramatic sunsets. It is one of the few remaining places in Tunisia where a Berber language is still spoken. Another factor drawing some tourists to Djerba is the 1977 location of the Mos Eisley exterior scenes in the first Star Wars movie, filmed in the town of Ajim.

Djerba is noted as a center of the Islamic sect Al-Ibadhiyah and is also noted for its Jewish minority, which has dwelt on the island for more than 2,500 years, although the Jewish population has declined due to emigration to Israel and France since 1967. Most of the Djerba Jews belong to Cohanim, a tribe in Judaism, and have remained loyal Cohanim for centuries. The El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba is over 2,000 years old and is as such the oldest and one of the most famous in the world.

Djerba also has a a sizeable minority of Maltese Catholics, who established themselves on the island as sponge-fishers. Girba remains a Roman Catholic titular see in the ecclesiastical province of African Tripoli


My own experiences
I was positively surprised of my visit to Djerba. The hotel, Les Dunes, gets almost the highest score in my book, the rooms were very good, cleaning immaculate, poolarea could be bigger but they are extending the hotel and another pool is being built. My biggest surprise though was the food, before the trip I got all sorts of comments that the Tunisian food wasn't very good but I must say that I was blown away with how tasty and well cooked everything was, and there was alot. We had an "all inclusive" trip and the buffet for lunch and dinner was heavy with 10 or more different dishes at every meal, I'm no food expert but for me it was as good as it gets. Then the dessert and fruit table, wow. The local beer and wine was ok, not more, I had to taste it several times every day

The beaches of the east coast where we stayed were very nice and got cleaned every morning, the usual annoying salesmen were plenty but if you stayed in the hotel part of the beach they didn't bothered you. The mediterrainian sea was very warm and inviting when we were there ( mid september) and not very crowded. A walk on the beach at sunset is recommended, just beautiful.

We did some sightseeing on the island, not as much as I had planned but I did not take into account the heat which made you want to be near water during the day and close to the bar One day we took a trip to flamingo island, we were shown pictures of flamingos, dolphins and a dreambeach. We took off on a pirate ship complete with jolly rogers and men with hooks. Arriving to the flamingo island was a disappointment, no flamingos and no dolphins, a good beach was all there was. It got better though, in strawhuts we were entertained by pirates and there was also a very good lunch before going home. It was a nice trip but barely worth the 47 dinars we payed each.

We also went to the bazaarstreets of Houmt-Souk and the market in Midoun. The smaller market in Midoun was much nicer than the bazaar in Houmt-Souk. You were almost physically dragged into the various stores if you showed the slightest interest in the products they had, very unpleasant I must say and we left after less than an hour.

The crocodilepark in a place called Djerba explore was the best trip we took. We came very late and got an employee that walked us around the facility, he told us about the different characters of the bigger crocs there and everything worth knowing about the place. We also got an exclusive sneek preview of the African reptile center they are building there. We were allowed to go in to the chameleons and salamanders and were told that they also would have the african turtle and some snakes like the cobra and python there soon. This guy was awesome and very proud to work at this place. Entry fee was only 12 dinars and included entry to 2 other museums at Djerba Explore thet we never got to unfortunately.

Last day we went for a guided quadbike tour that the salesman promised to include lots of photo ops and a was a great tour of the island. Damn those salespersons, got screwed again. The tour was supposed to be for 2 hours but was in reality 90 minutes and it was nonstop driving on a course in the desert landscape. The only stops we did was when the guide wanted to smoke and a pit stop at a "halfway house" where they tried to make us buy a coke or soda for ripoff prices. Also the bikes were in bad shapes, I only had one brake functioning and another had NO brakes at all, time was also wasted when the tourguide ran out of gas and suddenly stopped, which made me and the other guy to crash in the middle of the desert. Everything went well but we were lucky this time. All in all it was a fun trip but for the wrong reasons, almost no photography but a fun time driving the quad in the desert but not worth the 250 dinars we paid for 4 bikes.

Some important things to think about:
In markets,bazars and walk-around salespeople the price is always twice of what it should be and you need to haggle

There are a lot to do on the island, plan your trip in advance

The people on the island talk very little english, some of the people we met talked 4 different languages, berber, italic, french and german but not a word of english. Consult your hotel reception when in doubt, our hotel were great in helping out

There are internet cafés but you will get a lot of "restricted site" when trying to access western websites, at least we did.

100 Dinars is about 500 SEK or 50 EURO and you can't change in advance but have to get your dinars after you arrived. There are a lot of ATM's everywhere but some of the work only in french language. Also, you are NOT allowed to take Dinars out of the country and need to save every withdrawal/moneyorder reciept in order to be able to change the remaining dinars you have back. BUT you are only allowed to change a third of the total withdrawal sum back, so don't take to much dinars at the time at the ATM's. Another reason to not have too much Dinars left at the end of the trip is that the exchange rates are firm and you will loose money when changing back to Euros (only currency available) at the airport.

Always use a polarizerfilter on your lenses during daytime, the sun is sooo strong

Be careful if you need to change lenses on the beach, the sand is flying around and could damage your equipment

Do I need to say sunblock?

When taking a walk, always use flip flops or some kind if shoes, there are a lot sharp things like broken glas, cactuses and other sharp objekts that can hurt you bad

Think of using a hat or cap when going in public like markets etc in respect for the locals. On the beach or the hotel area it's okay to walk around in swimsuits but when transporting yourself around the island or in the mainland it's recommended to at least use knee long shorts and a shirt for men and knee long skirt and "covering" tops for women

All the Lacoste, Polo, Dolce "original" products you can buy very cheap are NOT originals

Ceramics are very nice and can be bought at affordable prices everywhere on the island


There are probably a lot of things I have forgot to write so I'll update if I come to think of more. I will try to go there again for there are more places to explore and things to do on this wonderful island.

Pictures from the island posted in open views
Part 1 - hotel and surroundings
Part 2 - trip to Flamingo Island
Part 3 - The beach


Edited by Swede66 - 02 October 2010 at 20:55
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