Djerba, Tunisia

Visiting Djerba in Tunisia

Eastern time has been travel time for me as long as I can remember. Due to non existing family traditions this long weekend has served like some bonus days off and this year I decided to visit a new place. Djerba in Tunisia. Mostly because it was new to me and easy accessible from Zurich. Just over two hours flight away, a fresh stamp in the passport and then I was at the place where blue doors are iconic. I did a little research before so knew I wanted to see the souk and beaches. Didn’t honestly expected much more to be worth seeing. Most important was though to catch some sun.

Going local

The first night I spent at a very insta friendly and cozy place just 500 meters from the souk in Jarwbah Hawmat As-Soq. It was a traditional house in white stone with blue details and a small courtyard with a miniature pool at. The reviews at the booking site said it was a gem and it was. I loved the interior and the big terrace where I did a yoga session before breakfast. Staying at the cute place was one of the top things on the island.

Souk

After being in Arabic countries I been to many souks. Some better than others. The one I visited here I liked. it felt also cute and the sellers were not to much. Not a lot of things to buy but was a good ambiance to walk around. Also some nice coffee places to sit at doing people watching. Got my magnet and another goal of the trip fulfilled.

Beaches of Djerba

I was excited to finally see a beach again. Had heard that the sand was very nice and that I fully agree with. It was amazing to once again walk at a beach feeling the sun heating my legs. it wasn’t 30 degrees but 20.

Tourist season has not yet started so it was almost empty. Some other tourists doing like me walking the beach, some camels and horses. Some local fishing men.

The second day the weather wasn’t that good with small rain but still possible for a beach walk so I went for one at another stretch. It is different seeing a beach prior beach season and to imagine it soon will be packed. Quite nice though with the empty sunbeds.

The place here is lined with monster size resorts and not very charming. Mostly Germans and French tourists visit this place but I also heard from people I spoke to that Polish and Checz tourists like to visit. For Swedes this is not a very popular place. I don’t even think TUI or other charter operators have trips here (correct me if wrong). Anyway loads of Germans here now.

Up and downside

It was nice to get to a for me unusual place, visit a new country and see the place outside of tourist season. I will most likely not get back or recommend the place. Resort places like this is not really my cup of tea. Also I like to eat good food when I travel but here I’m affairs of eating to not get sick and there are honestly not many restaurants outside of the resorts. Even the one and only resort food I tried was unbeatable and that was a pizza at a worldwide hotel chain. The locals are very friendly and helpful. French is more usable than English at most places. There is not a lot of traffic so running is easy to do. I was also expecting a lot of stray dogs. There are some but even me who is afraid of dogs wasn’t afraid of these ones. They didn’t care at all. Forget about Uber and Bolt. Here cash is still king. For a do nothing see almost nothing this is a good place. For worldwide explorers a bit limited.