Top destinations in Tunisia

Tunis is a working Mediterranean capital with a UNESCO-listed medina at its heart and the ruins of ancient Carthage in its northern suburbs. Base here for 2–3 days at the start of any trip: you'll see the Bardo Museum (the world's best Roman mosaic collection), eat in Sidi Bou Said with its blue-and-white houses tumbling toward the sea, and use the city as a launchpad north to Bizerte or south to Hammamet. Where to stay: La Marsa, Gammarth or the Sidi Bou Said clifftop for beaches and quiet; the medina or downtown for atmosphere.

The central east coast — known as the Sahel — combines wide swimming beaches with serious history. Sousse has a UNESCO medina and a 9th-century ribat fortress you can climb for sweeping coastal views; Monastir has another ribat used as a Star Wars filming location; Mahdia has one of Tunisia's prettiest old towns and quieter beaches than Hammamet. The international airport here (Monastir-Habib Bourguiba) makes it an easy entry point.

Inland and south, the landscape becomes lunar. Tozeur is the date-palm capital, with a remarkable mud-brick old town; nearby are the mountain oases of Chebika, Tamerza and Mides, where waterfalls fall into red-rock canyons. From Douz, the 'gateway to the Sahara', you ride camels or 4×4s into the Grand Erg Oriental — the soft orange dune sea that runs all the way to Algeria. Many Star Wars locations are here, and a night in a desert camp is the single most-loved experience in the country.

Often skipped and unfairly so. The far north has cork forests, mountain villages, the wild Mediterranean coast around Cap Serrat, and Tabarka with its Genoese fort and offshore reefs popular with divers. Bizerte has the prettiest old port in the country. Cooler in summer than the south — perfect for July and August.