Southern Tunisia and Djerba in 6 days, a private 4x4 tour

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

Entrance included

Built in 670, the Great Mosque is the symbol of Kairouan, the fourth holiest city of Islam: an imposing minaret, a vast courtyard with a sundial, and carved cedar doors opening on a prayer hall of marble columns.

The medina of Kairouan

UNESCO World Heritage · 1988

One of the best-preserved medinas in Tunisia: its souks, its carpet workshops and the city’s pastry, makroud.

Tozeur and the Chak-Wak park

Tozeur, capital of the Jerid, is famous for its palm grove, its deglet nour dates and its houses of sun-baked brick. In the palm grove, the five-hectare Chak-Wak park retells the history of the Earth and of humankind, with some fifty dinosaurs.

Chebika and Tamerza

Chebika is a mountain oasis in the west of the Tozeur region. A winding road runs along a great canyon to Tamerza, an old Roman and Byzantine stronghold close to the Algerian border.

Star Wars sets and the Nefta corbeille

In the desert near Nefta stand the sets George Lucas used for Star Wars. Nefta’s corbeille is a basin where 152 springs once watered the whole palm grove.

Chott el Djerid

The largest salt lake in the Maghreb, some 5,000 km² of white salt crust and mirages.

Sunset at Douz

Douz, the gateway to the Sahara, for a superb desert sunset. A quad or camel ride on the dunes is possible as an option.

The view from Toujane

At the Escale de Toujane, a café and souvenir shop in a cave-like room on the mountain top, you look over a rolling desert crossed by dry riverbeds and a small Berber village.

The troglodyte houses of Matmata

Entrance included

West of Gabès, the Berber village of Matmata hides its homes underground: circular pits with a decorated courtyard and rooms dug into the smooth earth around it.

Ksar Ghilane and its hot spring

On the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental, Ksar Ghilane is said to be the southernmost oasis of Tunisia. A swim in its thermal pool is included; a quad ride on the dunes is an extra. Watch the sun set over the Sahara.

Ksar Ouled Soltane

About 20 km south of Tataouine, this fortified Berber granary of the 15th century is remarkably well preserved: two courtyards lined with vaulted ghorfas, built of raw earth on a hilltop to protect the harvest from raiders.

Chenini

A Berber hilltop village 18 km from Tataouine, laid out on three levels below a ruined granary-castle; its oldest buildings date from the 12th century, and a partly troglodyte mosque is linked to the legend of the Seven Sleepers.

On to Djerba

UNESCO World Heritage · 2023

The day ends on the island of Djerba, where Berber, Arab, Jewish and African cultures meet.

The Guellala museum

The ethnographic museum of Guellala, in the potters’ village of the island.

The El Ghriba Synagogue

A main landmark of the Jews of Djerba, one of the last living Jewish communities of the Arab world, and the goal of a pilgrimage at Lag BaOmer.

Djerbahood

Since 2014, artists from around the world have turned the village of Erriadh into an open-air gallery of some 250 works.

Houmt Souk

The island’s main town, with its craft markets, its fishing port and the 16th-century fortress of Borj el Kebir.

The Mareth Line museum

Entrance included

Built by the French to protect Tunisia from an Italian invasion from Libya, the Mareth Line was refortified by Rommel after his defeat at El Alamein. The museum shows the battle plans; outside stand guns, bunkers and old trenches.

Gabès, oasis and seaport

The largest city of the south after Sfax, Gabès is both an oasis and a seaport, before the road north takes you back to your hotel.