May 2025
Considering the proximity of the two cities, I assumed there would be plenty of cheap direct flights from Barcelona to Tunis, but there was only one available daily & that was too late to be useful after our early morning arrival in Barcelona on a transatlantic cruise ship. So we chose to go through Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, and that ended up being a wonderful call. Great pizza, pasta, and gelato – what more would anyone need in an Italian airport!
Finding our travel mates at the humble Tunis Airport was not hard & they were still in decent shape after a long day of flying from California. Our Airbnb was a 20 minute drive from the airport, and the cabs were pretty cheap.
By the time we checked into the Airbnb apartment, it was dinner time. We hopped over to a neighborhood restaurant recommended by our host, Chez Wald Moufida. It sounded like a fancy French restaurant, but it was a tiny local place that served great Tunisian food which we enjoyed.
Our Airbnb apartment was on the second floor of this building on one of the main streets of Sidi Bou Said & was very spacious, well decorated, and comfortable with all the necessary amenities.
I chose the Sidi Bou Said area to stay because this area was described as safer and more atmospheric than the Tunis city center. Looking back, that was the right decision.
We signed up for a free walking tour, and our guide Dominic was an Irish expat living in the neighborhood. He and his companion were doing this tour in the spirit of sharing, not really needing extra income, and we had an excellent introduction to the area.
He explained that the village was named after a respected religious scholar who lived there, Abu Said al-Baji.
He led us to the Ennejma Ezzahra Palace shown above to start the tour which is where the French artist and musicologist Baron d’Erlanger (1872 – 1932) lived. Being the most influential cultural figure in Sidi Bou Said during his lifetime, he was the one who came up with the color scheme of white and blue for the village. The Palace is now owned by the Tunisian government & is a museum of Tunisian and Arabic music. Dominic said it had the killer view of the ocean & the fascinating collection of musical instruments – and well worth the admission cost of 10 dinars ($3.50). We meant to visit it later, but, unfortunately, we never had enough time to do so.
Sidi Bou Said is not that big. You can just slowly meander through the hilly alleyways without thinking about the passage of time.
I could see why someone would want to dance in one corner of the village.
The Mediterranean Sea was right below the hills of Sidi Bou Said. There’s a beach bearing the village name at the bottom of the hills.
What was the line for? People peeking in to get the view below. We did it, too, obviously.
There was no shortage of little shops and cafes and restaurants & our apartment was only a 10 minute walk!
Bleue! restaurant was recommended for great sandwiches by Dominic & he was right. We went back there a couple days later, but, sadly, it was not open that evening.
We went to the Sahara Desert area for 2 nights, and, after that, we only had one full day left in Tunisia which we spent in the city center of Tunis. This left us with just one more dinner opportunity in Sidi Bou Said. Let’s have a fancy dinner, we all agreed.
Based on Dominic’s comment, we went straight to La Villa restaurant, but, they would not even let us step into the lobby without a reservation. So we went on to another restaurant that Dominic said was good: Au Bon Vioux Temp, pictured above.
Dominic introduced us to bambalouni (60 cents) & the best one was on the same street as the restaurant. It belongs to the donut family, I guess, but this Tunisian version is so tasty that I didn’t care about the calories or the fat content. Enjoy & the endorphin will cure everything!!
Tunisia itinerary link
Small Wide World 