Rome Around : Tunisia 🇹🇳

A family trip to Tunisia. Starting in the desert, and crossing the country to end on the beach, when I heard Tunisia was a great spot to go for sun, I figured it was safe for the family, but equally, we always want to explore more than the trodden path. Thought process: “Wha country haven’t we been to yet that we could share with the kids that isnt too far from the UK for them and Zimbabwe for us?” Tunisia came to mind. Google: “luxury desert stay in Tunisia” and Anantara Sahara Tozeur came up. From that moment, we couldn’t get it out of our heads, but wanted to explore more than just stay in a nice hotel. We started at Anantara Sahara Tozeur as we wanted to “elope”, and share exchanging our wedding vows and rings with our kids, while also sharing a new country with them. (A great location for a low maintenance, intimate wedding!!) We explored the surrounding Chebika Oasis and Mides Canyon, near the Algerian border, along with the popular Star Wars original film sets. If you want a taste of the desert but also a peaceful stay at an oasis, this was a great spot. We contemplated renting a car and drivng across the country ourselves, which in retrospect, we would have felt quite safe doing so, but it came down to a matter of time. We had 4 nights in the desert and 4 nights to pick a spot seaside, otherwise, we could have got the coast and spent another week making our way back up north to Tunis. Hammamet had enough to offer with beach, culture, souks and a handful of good restaurants. Tunisia was Rome’s 21st country. His favourite part was riding and petting the camels. The people were incredible. We would absolutely recommend it if you want a combo of beach, desert, and culture. (Mom and dad had experience a camel experience in the Sahara once before. The camels walked 60-90 mins just before sunset, and 60 mins pre-sunrise to make sure they were out of the heat by sunrise. They were not put to work in the heat of the day, and at night, all rested together in a big group, seemingly unbothered, free to roam a bit (on long slack lines I imagine) but not tied up tightly. Of course I don’t know anything beyond that, but it did make me think about how going forward I would approach anima tourism. Since then, it’s been national parks, sanctuaries and conservations. When these camel handlers seemed to pull the camels along to any tourist to get their 10-15 minute ride, with hooks through their noses - -which I hadn’t seen before, I felt bad for promising Rome he could go, but this was our moment to assess our plan going forward. No promises until we see what the conditions are. This isn’t to say the handlers were aggressive or we saw them do anything severe, just in general, it felt wrong. I felt bad for the animals. Rides weren’t long and temperatures weren’t hot, but animals should be free. I don’t like riding any. We didn’t like to see the rings in their noses. I’m sure that getting pulled is very sensitive 😢.) I regretted supporting this while doing it. This isn’t Tunisia related, but camel/animal riding in general. I just don’t want to support it anymore.)