Best of Tunisia excursion

My daughter (age 27) and I are going on Noordam July 30th cruise. I booked the Best of Tunisia excursion for La Goulette through HAL because I thought it might not be the best idea for 2 women to do this port alone. After reading a few negative reviews about this tour I'm wondering if its still worth doing. Can anyone who has recently done this tour please give me your advice.

I think that you have made a great choice. We thoroughly enjoyed the "Best Of Tunisia" on May 19.

We have been discussing this shore excursion among other things on the "Just returned from the Noordam" thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1430614

Surely others have more opinions to offer.

Barbara

My daughter (age 27) and I are going on Noordam July 30th cruise. I booked the Best of Tunisia excursion for La Goulette through HAL because I thought it might not be the best idea for 2 women to do this port alone. After reading a few negative reviews about this tour I'm wondering if its still worth doing. Can anyone who has recently done this tour please give me your advice.

I would choose Carthage and Sidi Bou Said rather the day long tour. The Bardo museum is also worth a stop. 8 hours tours are too long for us.

We did this port twice with taxis from the port but we were 2 couples and...I speak French. It is not dangerous for both of you to go in a taxi as long as it is a real taxi, not just someone who happens to have a car and be at the port that morning.

Having another 2 persons with you (at least one man) would make things a bit easier but it is not mandatory. Just make sure you take the taxi from the taxi stand.

I'm envious that your cruise is going to stop in Tunisia.

I have a cruise reserved for summer 2012 that was supposed to go to Tunisia as well as Egypt. (This is not a HAL cruise.) Recently we got an email from the cruise line that they are cancelling their stops in Tunisia and Egypt because of the political unrest there...despite the cruise being more than a year away! :(

I would choose Carthage and Sidi Bou Said rather the day long tour. The Bardo museum is also worth a stop. 8 hours tours are too long for us.

 

We did this port twice with taxis from the port but we were 2 couples and...I speak French. It is not dangerous for both of you to go in a taxi as long as it is a real taxi, not just someone who happens to have a car and be at the port that morning.

 

Having another 2 persons with you (at least one man) would make things a bit easier but it is not mandatory. Just make sure you take the taxi from the taxi stand.

I am happy to see someone who took a taxi tour. I plan to do that for my upcoming visit. Did the taxi driver speak English? Do they give you any kind of commentary of what you are seeing or do they just do the driving?

I did the 07day rome/rome on the Noordam and did the best of Tunisia tour , really enjoyed it , the 08hours went so quick , the guide was excellent and the sights superb. There were no treads to us , people were waving at our tourbus , they are crying out for tourists !!! Do not forget it might be a muslim country but people are very open minded to other cultures and most tunisians speak other languages . Please book the tour and enjoy it . Do not forget they had riots for freedom not to join a stricter muslim regime !!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the responses. I'm actually really looking forward to this port because its so different from all the other ports we will be visiting. Now all I have to worry about is the heat!

I think that you have made a great choice. We thoroughly enjoyed the "Best Of Tunisia" on May 19.

We have been discussing this shore excursion among other things on the "Just returned from the Noordam" thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1430614

 

Surely others have more opinions to offer.

 

Barbara

We did this privately with a group of about 9 people a few years ago. It was really cheap and we could go to the Bardo museum and Carthage and much more. We ran into the HAL tour and it was a massive amount of people. There was also a family of three on this tour who did private tours with us in multiple other ports and they said they were sorry they did not go with us.

We hope to go back to Tunisia.

We did this privately with a group of about 9 people a few years ago. It was really cheap and we could go to the Bardo museum and Carthage and much more. We ran into the HAL tour and it was a massive amount of people. There was also a family of three on this tour who did private tours with us in multiple other ports and they said they were sorry they did not go with us.

 

We hope to go back to Tunisia.

Do you remember the name of the tour company you used?

We did the full day tour when we when on our cruise on May 21st. We were apprehensive at first but met another couple that had just done the same tour on the prior cruise and loved it!

We LOVED IT! Carthage, the Medina and Souks, the Barton museum, the wonderful buffet luncheon and of course, Sidi Bou Said - the santorini of Tunisia.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and professional. We felt very safe visiting and touring Tunisia - a lot safer than in Palermo! (in Palermo we saw demonstrations on the streets, police were escorting/barricading some streets, pickpockets galore making believe they were tourists, etc).

So, we highly recommend the full day Tunisia tour! Hope you decide to go and enjoy it!

We did the Best Of Tunisia on the Noordam in July 2009. The ship was there on a Sunday and there was minimal traffic.:) We really enjoyed all that the day offered, especially the Bardo Museum and Carthage. Lucky you to be going there!

Karen

I am happy to see someone who took a taxi tour. I plan to do that for my upcoming visit. Did the taxi driver speak English? Do they give you any kind of commentary of what you are seeing or do they just do the driving?

Could not help you about language skills of the taxi. I am French speaking and I spoke French. Sorry.

He gave us explanations as we were driving, and we hired a guide in Carthage. They were local guides as well at the Bardo museum. But all of this happened in FRENCH.

We booked this tour from the Noordam last summer. We loved it as we felt we saw everything we wanted to see. The bus even made a short stop at the US Military cemetary. We were ushered into see carpets at the Souk, but my husband and I asked what time and where they were leaving from and went around the souk on our own. Make sure and get some dates at one of the shops near Sidi Bou Said. Lunch was good and there were some ancient aquaducts near enough to walk to and get some good pictures. Book the tour and enjoy!

I'm thinking about skipping the carpet sales pitch as well and look around the souk on our own. However, I've read thats its easy to get lost in it so hopefully I'll find our guide again.

Don't forget that where the cruise ships dock is actually called "La Goulette" and this place is 20 km away from Tunis city! So to get there you have to go by taxi. They will charge you something like 100 usd (return), so if you can go with 4 people that means 25 usd each. You may want to negociate a little. They will drop you close to the souks and pick you up any time you want to get back to the ship. Don't just go by yourselves with a private car, the taxis are painted yellow.

The most interesting places to see are Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and the Tunis souk. Watch out for the time of the year though, when i was there it was the end of the ramadan and there were only 2 shops open, it was really very quiet then. Also watch out for the long tall fellow wearing a brown denim jacket , as he tries to "guide" you through the souk and will ask you 20 usd at the end of the "tour". When you decline he gets upset and tries to find another victim.

The taxi drivers speak all a little english or frenglish, french certainly

Personally i would advise to take the ship's excursion, that way you don't have to worry about getting a taxi or keep track of the time