Survival Skills Crash Course
Traveling to Tunisia?
We’ve been in your shoes!
As Americans who have lived for years in various cities across Tunisia, we have experienced the highs and lows of being guests in this country.
Tunisia is beautiful, welcoming, historical, and full of life. Well… most of the time. To be honest, it can also be challenging, confusing, overwhelming, and in some cases, dangerous.
The key to having a positive experience in Tunisia is to come EQUIPPED with some essential KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS. And we have designed a course to do just that!
While creating this Survival Skills Crash Course, we drew upon the many times we’ve assisted or hosted clients, friends, and family members in their first time stepping foot in Tunisia. We asked ourselves: what are the most critical skills and bits of cultural knowledge that are needed to thrive here? The answer to that question is contained in the 45 videos of this course.
Here is a sample of what you’ll find in Survival Skills Crash Course:
In our experience of learning to function and thrive in Tunisia over the last several years, there are a few major challenges that stand out to us.
The first challenge is that there are CULTURAL BARRIERS that make Tunisia intimidating to travelers and expats.
For example, Tunisia is a Muslim country. But, many of the 10 million people who visit every year are not Muslim. So how does that work? Are you, as a foreigner, expected to behave according to Islamic law? Are you allowed to eat food or drink water during the day in Ramadan? Are the women in your travel party allowed to wear two-piece bathing suits on the beach? And what about alcohol? Don’t Muslims forbid drinking alcohol?
Ready for your Tunisian Experience?
Get access to 45 instructional videos in our Survival Skills Crash Course!
In addition to being a Muslim country, Tunisia is poorer than any country in Europe or North America. To put a number on it, Tunisia’s GDP per capita is about $3,800 while Britain is at $46,510 and America is at $70,250. That’s a big difference. Some travelers are bound to wonder — what does this mean for my trip? Will I have access to clean drinking water? Will I as a “rich foreigner” be a target for petty crime and scams?
In this Survival Skills Crash Course, we tackle the most relevant cultural topics that travelers need to be aware of — being a polite guest, modest dress, drinking alcohol, Islamic values, tourist zones, and more! The goal is to help you avoid embarrassing mistakes and misunderstandings, and to get you on a fast track to making meaningful relationships.
Secondly, you’ll notice that there’s A LACK OF GOOD INFORMATION about Tunisia online.
Are you the kind of person who likes to research things online ahead of time before you go to a new place or do some new activity or chore? We definitely are. If we feel like eating Asian food on vacation, we don’t just drive around until we see a restaurant that looks good — we Google it! If we were going to take the Amtrak train in America from Virginia to NYC, we would research ahead of time how to buy the tickets, what the seats are like, how long it takes, etc., etc. Especially if we’re on vacation, we don’t want to waste a whole afternoon trying to figure something out when we could just find the answer online.
Tunisia is going to be a challenge if you are someone (like us) who likes to learn by reading or watching videos AND you don’t read Arabic or French well. There simply isn’t a lot of information online about the practical aspects of Tunisian life.
For example, check out this video from the course, where I walk you through the menu of a typical Tunisian restaurant. This particular restaurant was one of our go-to spots in the neighborhood in Sousse where we recently vacationed.
In this Survival Skills Crash Course, we are taking the first steps to remedy that lack of good information. We created videos to not only TELL you but SHOW you what’s in a grocery store in Tunisia, how the mini-bus system works, what the currency looks like and how to pay with it, how to not get sick while consuming Tunisian food and water, and many more topics! And the best part — you don’t have to open your translator app while watching our videos! Win!
Ready for your Tunisian Experience?
Get access to 45 instructional videos in our Survival Skills Crash Course!
The THIRD challenge for first-time travelers to Tunisia is that there are SO MANY LITTLE SKILLS TO LEARN if you want to function outside of the tourist zones and without a travel guide.
We are firm believers that Tunisia is an accessible and “do-able” destination for travelers who have a little taste for adventure. All it takes is a little bit of know-how before you can confidently roam throughout the country. It makes us sad to see thousands of tourists disembarking from cruise ships and planes only to spend their whole visit inside a vacation resort, all while there’s this extraordinary country to be explored and experienced just on the other side of those resort walls.
We believe that if you just had a handful of skills to help you move around town, make purchases, and communicate, you would be able to get out into the country and function as an adventurous guest.
In Survival Skills Crash Course, we have created instructional videos to equip you to get out there and create your own Tunisian Experience. Our skills videos include how to say basic Tunisian Arabic phrases, how to use an ATM, how to take a taxi, how to get basic medicines in a Tunisian pharmacy, and more! Here’s another sample of the kind of skills video you’ll find:
Those pain points — cultural barriers, the dearth of resources in English, and the dozens of little skills needed to function in Tunisia — are what we are trying to remedy with our Survival Skills Crash Course.
The question YOU must ask, though, is, What’s in it for you?
What can YOU take away from this course?
How will it change YOUR experience in Tunisia?
Here are our hopes and dreams for how this course will enrich your experience in Tunisia:
You’ll learn from those who have been through the cross-cultural learning experience. Having local Tunisian friends to guide you is great, but you get a different perspective when you hear from someone who has come to Tunisia as an outsider and learned to live here. When we made this course, we envisioned a scenario where we sat down on a plane next to someone who was traveling to Tunisia for the first time. They look a little nervous, but they’re excited about the possibility of exploring a new country. In this imagined scenario, this person on the plane says, “We’ve got 3 and a half hours until we get to Tunisia. Tell me everything. Tell me the most important things I need to know to have a good trip.” The answer to this imaginary question is our Survival Skills Crash Course!
You will be able to envision your trip. If you’re like us, you don’t just want to hear someone talk — you want to see and experience it for yourself. While it’d be nice if we could actually show you around in person in Tunisia, we can’t realistically do that, so we did the next best thing: make videos! Our videos are filled with lots of candid shots of normal Tunisian life, through our eyes. We filmed 100% of the video ourselves, and we are showing you the real Tunisia. We do not work for Tunisia’s ministry of tourism, and we are not just going to show you the glamorous and picturesque scenery. You will see normal-old, every-day Tunisia, as it really is. That way, you are not surprised when you get here. When you can see what it looks like and “get a feel for it”, you will have increased confidence to travel by yourself or lead your travel party.
You will be equipped to experience Tunisia for yourself. As the name suggests in “Survival Skills Crash Course”, we’re giving you the essentials needed to function in your first hours, days, and weeks in Tunisia. We believe that with the skills and knowledge you’ll gain from this course, along with a can-do spirit and at least a moderate taste for adventure, you will be able to have a fantastic Tunisian Experience WITHOUT paying for a guide to take you everywhere and do everything for you. We would feel comfortable sending one of our family members to Tunisia having only the knowledge in these videos.
Click the link below to purchase access to our video course!
Before we go — a few practicalities about what to expect. When you purchase the course, you’ll create a username and password, which gives you access to the Survival Skills Crash Course. It is a series of 45 videos on our site, consisting of about 3 hours 25 minutes of content. You have to be logged in to access the videos. The course is easy to navigate and clearly labeled. They are loosely arranged in order from most urgent topics like Tunisian Arabic Survival Phrases to less urgent but still important topics like Police Checkpoints: What to Expect and What a Hardware Store Looks Like. When you purchase the course, your membership does not expire.
We wish the best to you in your Tunisian Experience and we hope that this course will help you to get the most out of it!
Ready for your Tunisian Experience?