Carthage & Sidi Bou Said Vs. Medina/Souks

[Ashlm85]

We are finishing up some details for our upcoming cruise in few weeks. We will have one day in La Goulette. Currently, I have the Carthage/Sidi Bou Said tour booked. I am excited about this, but feel like I'm missing out on seeing the Souks in Medina. It seems like such an experience! I love other cultures and am not nervous about haggling, etc.

 

However, I have been reading that they usually close around 2pm. However, our ship tour starts around 2 as we are not docking until 1pm. Has anyone experienced the Souks? Could you tell me if this closing time is correct? Also, what would you suggest for a tour...Carthage or the Souks.

 

I would appreciate any and all suggestions!

 

Thanks!

[CruiserBruce]

If the Medina and the Souks are important to you, take that tour. Compared to the other major ruins around the Med, Carthage is over rated, IMHO. The concept is nice, but much more is to be seen in Ephesus, Athens, Olympia, Rome, Pompei, etc.

[KirkNC]

I have yet to hear anyone say they enjoyed their trip to the Medina. We were in Tunis twice on our B2B cruise in August and we heard nothing but unhappy comments from those that went.

 

I agree Carthage is nothing like Ephesus but the baths were pretty good. Also Sidi bu Said is very pretty.

 

We took the train to Carthage and Sidi bu Said and enjoyed both. It cost about $5 for the train plus $8/pp for Carthage.

 

Kirk

[KCL214]

We did the Ship's tour of Carthage and the Medina on our cruise on August 28th. The souk was interesting, but they took us on a short tour around a few of the streets and then took us to the "best" place to shop and left us there for an hour. The guide said we could walk on our own around the souk, but he had us so scared about getting lost in there that we did not want to go more than a block away. We are not into serious shopping, we look for things such as t-shirts, ornaments, etc., so an hour was much too long and we spent most of the time standing around waiting. So, unless you are into serious shopping, such as for a rug, I would not recommend this excursion. Karyn