Product Description

The Rough Guide to Tunisia is the definitive guide to this fascinating North African country. The guide includes a full-colour 24-page introduction to Tunisia's highlights, from the mile-long beaches of the mediterranean coast to the fortified Kasbahs of the mountainous interior and the Saharan oases towns. The guide gives lively accounts of all the sights, from Roman remains and Islamic monuments to the ancient Medinas of Tunis, Sfax and Sousse. There is comprehensive coverage of the resorts - Hammamet, Sousse and Port el Kantaoui with details of their beaches and the best excursions to the surrounding mountains and deserts. For each city, town and village there are in-depth reviews of the best places to stay, eat, shop and haggle. The authors also provide authoritative background on the country's history, religious and social traditions, wildlife, architecture and its use as a location for films such as 'The Life of Brian' and 'Star Wars'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1224770 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 680 pages

About the Author
Daniel Jacobs has contributed to several Rough Guides, including West Africa, Morocco, Egypt and India. Peter Morris wrote the original edition of this book in 1985 and once played a game of football with Glen Hoddle.

Excerpt
Climate and seasons

Tunisia follows usual Mediterranean patterns of climate. The best time to travel, from a scenic point of view, is spring, when the south has not yet reached full heat and the north looks astonishingly fertile - above all, around the orchards and vineyards of Cap Bon. Be warned, though, that March and April are the dampest months of the year in the south and it can bucket down in the north.

Summer has mixed virtues. July and August are much the hottest months of the year - if only slightly more so than in the southern parts of Italy or Greece - and the one time you really do need to lapse into a local way of life, for example resting through the midday hours at a cafe or taking a siesta at your hotel. Obviously this goes above all for the deep south and the ksour (see Chapter Nine). On the more exposed beaches of the north coast, midsummer is actually a pull - some of them are only warm enough for swimming from around May until October. If you wait until autumn, you get the best of both worlds, with warm swimming and few crowds, even at the big resorts.

In winter, the north and the Tell can get distinctly cold; Ain Draham, the highest mountain town, commonly has a metre of snow, and in 1985 it even snowed at Bizerte on the Mediterranean coast. Tunis, Cap Bon and Sousse are not so much cold in winter as dull, with sporadic rains. But this is an ideal time for covering the ancient sites at leisure and then migrating south to Jerba's beaches and the Sahara.