The Travel Nut

Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in North Africa. At the time of writing, there are certain areas that you can visit and other areas that you are advised against (according to the UK.Gov travel advice page). It’s advisable to check this information before booking your holiday.

We booked a last minute holiday to travel over the Easter break in Wales (April 2025), as the weather looked like it would be much better than a full week of rain that was planned for Wales.

We booked the holiday through my travel company (Lisa Craddock Experience It Now Travel) and used EasyJet as the supplier. I absolutely love EasyJet and have never had any issues whilst travelling with them (and they’re affordable too!!).

We travelled up on the Saturday afternoon and stayed in the Premier Inn at Gatwick and additionally booked the Maple Car Parking, meet and greet service (also arranged through my travel business). Room was comfortable and we enjoyed a nice meal in the restaurant along with a few cocktails to kick off the holiday.

Being at Gatwick the evening before allowed us to use the EasyJet twilight check-in service which was absolutely brilliant. No queues, self-service (but staff on hand if you needed any support) and we checked our hold luggage in ahead of the morning flight. This allowed us some extra sleep in the morning, as we only needed to head straight through the security checks. Winner!

Our flight was leaving Gatwick at 6:20am and we arrived at the hotel approx 12pm. The airport in Tunisia is manual, so getting through the security took quite a while, however, when we got through this, the bags were ready and waiting for us at the baggage collection.

We booked and stayed in the Hilton Skanes Monastir Beach Resort. It’s a 5* hotel, and located approx an hour from the airport.

It was approx an hour transfer time from the airport to the hotel. We arrived at approx 12pm at the hotel and were unable to check in when we initially arrived (check in is at 3pm), but the reception supplied us with our all inclusive wrist bands, so we could access the food and drinks immediately. Perfect for hungry teens!

We were actually allocated our room at approx 1:30pm, so still much earlier than the check in time at 3pm, so we headed to the room for a quick change and head to the pool. We needed to make the most of that sunshine!!

The room was much bigger than anticipated and had a lounge area, which was great for evenings when the boys wanted a slightly earlier night. We also had 2 balconies, 1 for the bedroom and 1 for the living area, plus 2 bathrooms and 2 toilets! It could have easily been made into 2 separate bedrooms if need be.

The hotel had some great facilities for kids; a kids club with different activities available everyday and several time slots throughout. Our boys didn’t go to kids club (teenagers!) but they made use of the air hockey table, pool table and waterslides that were available. The hotel even has a bookable tennis court, but we didn’t get around to that during our stay.

The food was your typical all inclusive buffet, lots of choice, varying menus throughout the week. I eat a vegan diet and although the protein choices were limited, there were plenty of curries, veggies and salad and loads of fresh fruit available at every meal. The boys favourite was the freshly made pizza that was baked within the restaurant.

As we were there for more than 4 nights, we were also able to book into either the seafood restaurant, or the Italian restaurant. We chose the Italian, and again, the boys had pizza, Steve had lasagne, and I had a custom made pizza that they did on request for me, to cater for my vegan food choices. It was absolutely delicious!

During the week, we spent some time at the pools, waterslides and the beach (private access for the hotel). There were activities that were available at the beach (parasailing, jetskiing and camel riding) but we didn’t do any this time, but enjoyed watching the paragliders coming back in over the beach.

The hotel also had a gym and a studio for classes. I attended the yoga and stretching classes during the week and really enjoyed. Plus made up for the fact I was missing the classes at home. They were perfectly timed for the one day during the trip that it absolutely poured down!

In the evenings, there was some entertainment in the main lobby area of the hotel next to the Drift bar; singers mostly, plus there was a sports bar Mulberry Tavern onsite. The sports bar also had some evening entertainment on (quizzes, karaoke), which we stayed for some evenings, but we did find this space quite small, and I can’t imagine how you’d find a seat in here during the busy summer season.

During the stay we did do two trips; one half day boat trip plus one full day tour around some cultural spots.

Our boat trip was arranged through Fritz who is a local tour guide who bases himself at the hotel. He is so friendly and will go out of his way to help you. The boat trip is a lively one, a pirate themed trip, where everyone is encouraged to get up and dance and sing along and if you didn’t, you got showered in ice cubes. We really enjoyed, it was lively and you could purchase soft drinks or alcohol onboard (lunch was included in the price). The boys enjoyed everything except for my singing! The boat trip isn’t for those who are looking to enjoy the sealife; there wasn’t really any and the water as still quite cold in April. You could still jump from the side of the boat and spend some time snorkelling though if you wanted too.

Our full day trip was booked via the EasyJet agent who was based onsite. We had an early morning wake up call as the bus was picking us up at 6:20am. The full day tour took us to Kairuan, El Jem and Monastir.

My personal highlight of the tour was El Jem, and the amphitheatre. It wasn’t something I’d associated with Tunisia before but it was absolutely incredible. I’ve got an obscene amount of photos from this part of the trip!

We also enjoyed visiting the Mosque in Kairouan. Please note, you do need to be covered up to visit the mosques (they can provide tabards to help if needed, and women need to cover their hair, so advisable to pack a scarf).

Final stop of the day was Monastir, where we made a vist to The Bourguiba Mausoleum. It’s a monumental grave dedicated to Habib Bourguiba, the father of Tunisian independence, and is renowned for its stunning architecture and historical significance.

If we could do it again, I think I would have chosen to do the half day tour to Kairouan and El Jem, and then a separate half day to Souss and Sidi Bou Said, as I personally didn’t find Monastir to be that interesting.

Overall, we had a lovely week. We would revisit Tunisia and would still like to explore some more of the culture there, particually visiting some of the local markets.

Please bare in mind that Tunisia is still trying to recover from years of difficult times with their government, plus the previous terrorist attacks.

It is quite poor in places and although the holiday resorts and popular tourist sites are clean, there is a lot of rubbish and rubble/abandoned buildings throughout the country, and this can be seen when you are travelling between places on the tours.