How much money do I need – Tunisian Experience

One of the biggest draws for tourists coming to Tunisia is the relatively low cost of things: meals at restaurants, drinks, transportation, adventure activities... pretty much everything on your trip to Tunisia is going to be cheaper than a comparable destination in Europe! Still, anyone considering a trip to Tunisia wants to know the costs of all the usual tourist expenses. If that's you, you've come to the right place! My wife Abi and I have lived in Tunisia for years and have traveled all around the country. We always try to get the most out of our money and we’ve accumulated some knowledge for living thrifty in Tunisia over the years. So, we thought we’d share some of what we’ve learned about how much things cost. Whether you're on a tight budget or are looking to spend big, you can have an awesome experience. Keep in mind that as I write this, 1 Tunisian Dinar is $0.37, or €0.30 Euros, or £0.28 Pounds Sterling. Restaurant Food There is a big different in price if you eat at a resort or hotel restaurant versus if you just find a place around town. Here is my honest opinion about the price of Tunisian dishes. The taste of the food does not go up to any noticeable degree when you get it at a nicer restaurant. In my mind, you’re paying TND 50 for a plate of food, you’re paying for two things: the experience, and a little more peace of mind that the veggies have been washed well. Still, even in nice restaurants, you're playing Russian Roulette when you eat raw veggies. But that's another subject for another post! Expensive Restaurants A traditional Tunisian restaurant in the medina will serve a dinner plate of fish couscous for about TND 45. A plate of skewered fish costs TND 48. A restaurant at a 4-Star hotel in Hammamet serves salads for TND 20, starters for TND 32, and dinner plates for TND 46. A very high-carb breakfast at a fancier café in Tunis will include coffee, some cold meats and cheeses, and lots of pastries. It will run about TND 22. "Foreign" Restaurants Tunisians seem to be very content with eating only Tunisian dishes most of the time, and not branching out into foreign flavors. There are some authentic “foreign” restaurants out there, but there aren’t that many of them. They also tend to be more expensive. We love Asian food and one of our favorite places is a Japanese restaurant in La Marsa called Bistron Nippon. It’s a hole-in-the-wall, but the food is very tasty. A nice dinner plate will cost TND 35 or more. If you add on a sushi plate to split for an appetizer, you’re looking at around TND 50 per person for the whole meal. As you would expect from a city on the Mediterranean, you can get great sushi in Tunis. We recently ate at a place called Go! Sushi, where you can get a 2-person sushi box plus soup for around TND 60. I'm not a sushi guru but it tasted really good to me! Street Food I love Tunisian street food. It's very tasty, very cheap, and if you choose correctly, it can be healthier than a meal from a typical American fast food chain. Disclaimer, though…. Beware of eating fresh veggies, which come on most sandwiches! As I mentioned above, you’re playing Russian roulette with stomach bugs when you eat fresh veggies. A grilled chicken or turkey sandwich (sandwich escalope) with cheese and lots of veggies at a Tunisian sandwich shop outside of the tourist area of town will cost only TND 3.5. A hip shawarma restaurant in a nicer part of town will serve a Middle-Eastern style shawarma wrap with chicken for TND 8. A Tunisian street food place will also serve a number of tasty and moderately healthy plates for TND 10 and under. You can get grilled meat kabobs, stew-like dishes with seafood, spaghetti, pizza, etc. These fast food places are everywhere. Alcoholic Drinks It may surprise you to hear that even though Tunisia is a Muslim country, they consume quite a bit of alcohol. The data below are from a whole post that I wrote on alcohol in Tunisia. If you plan to buy alcohol on your trip, you should give it a read! Wine & Champagne in Restaurants The prices here are taken from the menus of nicer restaurant-bars in the La Marsa and Sidi Bou Said area of Tunis. Bottles of wine are available from several different countries. A bottle of local Tunisian wine is as little as TND 45. Most bottles from the US, Spain, Italy and Germany were in the TND 100 to 500 range. A few bottles went over TND 1000, and the most expensive I saw was TND 2,335. Bottles of Champagne ranged from TND 280 to TND 1,400. The cheapest was Piper Heidsick Rose. The most expensive was Cristal Roderer. Beer & Liquor in Restaurants A can of Heineken or the Tunisian brand Celtia at a bar in Sidi Bou Said is TND 7. To give you an idea of the markup, the same drink costs TND 2 in a store. Liquors are sold by the glass and the bottle. The cheapest Vodka is Keglevich for TND 10. The most expensive is Beluga Gold Line for TND 70. The cheapest Gin in Gordon's for TND 15. The most expensive Gin is "Monkey 47" for TND 50. Beer in Stores Supermarkets that carry alcohol keep a ton of beer in stock, but from only a few brands. Celtia is the most widely consumed brand in Tunisia. It’s a pale lager made in Tunis with a 5% ABV. There are a few Tunisian brands available, as well as some Dutch imports. BeerVolumeTNDUSDEurosHeineken6 pack of 24cl cans14,460$5.034.53€Celtia Legend (Tunisian)6 pack of 24cl cans10,920$3.803.42€Stella (Tunisian)6 pack of 24cl cans11,940$4.163.47€Mutzig6 pack of 24cl cans11,220$3.903.52€Priced as of summer 2020 Wine in Stores Tunisia has produced wine for thousands of years, and today there are tens of thousands of acres of vineyards in the country. In supermarkets, you can find many Tunisian-made wines, as well as many imports. Here are some of the wines with prices that I found at a store in Tunis. WineTNDUSDEuroMagon Rouge9,690$3.383.02€Mornag Jour et Nuit Red44,450$15.5213.87€Chateau Defleur Carignan Syrah14,350$5.014.48€Prestige de Mornag Red13,390$4.684.18€Cuvee Des Chasseurs Red21,490$7.506.71€Didona Reserve40,390$14.1012.60€Cos Pithos Rosso (Sicilian)122,000$42.6038.07€Antoniolo Juvenia Nebiolo (Italian)110,000$38.4134.33€La Ginestia Chianti (Italian)57,950$20.2418.08€Wittmann Silvaner White (German)82,000$28.6318.09€Nals Margreid Pinot Gringo (Italian)77,500$27.0624.19€Priced as of summer 2020 Liquor in Stores There is a considerable variety of spirits available in large stores. You can expect neighborhood supermarkets, or large supermarkets in smaller towns to have a lot less, if they carry it at all. BrandVolumeTNDUSDEuroCaptain Morgan1 L87,200$30.4527.21€Mayfair Dry Gin70 cl40,000$13.9712.48€Hennessy Cognac1 L58,900$20.5718.38€Grey Goose Vodka1 L229,990$80.3171.77€Jack Daniels1 L211,000$73.6865.85€Absolut Vodka1 L144,000$50.2844.94€Priced as of summer 2020 Coffee In Tunisia, you pay for the experience, not the food. This is especially true when it comes to coffee. The price of an espresso goes from TND 1 to TND 5 depending on how nice of a place you’re in. If you get something mixed with milk and sugar, it will be around TND 7 at a nice place. Most cafes serve cappuccinos and lates. Most coffee drinks also only come in one size. There are a few exceptions, such as the small coffee chain called Cosmitto’s, which serves good frozen coffee drinks. The most expensive coffee drink I can remember seeing was around TND 8. That was a Frappuccino of some sort with chocolate and whipped cream, from a nicer cafe. Hotels It totally depends on your preferences, but I’d say you can have peace that your room will be clean and “as advertised” in the $50-$100 range. Hotels Over $200 If you spend over $200 for one room, you’re probably going to get a special experience. In the medina (old city) in Tunis, you can stay in some traditional Tunisian hotels that have updated amenities but still have a very charming, old, Arab-world vibe to them. There are also some luxury hotels along the beach that go up to $300-$400 per night. Hotels $100 - $200 If you spend over $100 per night you can stay at a resort hotel located on beach in a major tourist area like Hammamet or Tunis. In fact, I’d say MOST of the big resort hotels that are located right on the beach have rooms starting in this price range. If you’re spending over $100, you should certainly expect an Air-Conditioned room, very clean sheets and towels, good views from your room, a working TV, and plenty of other amenities. In this price range, the hotel will probably also have shared spaces like a cocktail bar, a restaurant, and a nice sitting area. Hotels $50 - $100 You can get a clean and comfortable room in a major tourist area for under $100. In fact, you can find hotels that are very centrally located that offer rooms for around $70. In this price range, you can expect to get all of the same amenities that you would find for a comparable price in a major hotel chain in the US or Europe. You should expect Air-Conditioned rooms, complimentary breakfast and WIFI, blackout curtains, bathrobes—stuff like this. Under $50 For $45 you can get a room just a block off of the main Avenue Habib Bourguiba in downtown Tunis. Or for $40 you can stay a few blocks from the beach in Hammamet. After searching at several places for under $50 on Bookings, Trip Advisor, and Hotels.com, the places consistently get a 3.5 or 4-star customer rating (out of 5). So, if you stay at a place in this range, you may get less-than-stellar customer service, and you also are more likely to get unpleasant surprises or find that the rooms were not as advertised. Airbnb Tunisia has a lot of great Airbnbs where you can really soak up the charming Tunisian culture and hospitality. Prices range from $30 per night for a room in a flat to over $250 for a whole house. I've stayed in two Airbnbs in Tunisia: one in Tunis and one in Raf Raf. Both were exactly as advertised. I definitely prefer Airbnbs in Tunisia to hotels. It seems to me that the selling point for hotels where we're from in the US is that you're usually staying at a hotel chain so you know what you're getting. In Tunisia, hotels can be a gamble if you're on a budget. But with Airbnb's, you have the benefit of detailed reviews from other guests. When it comes to the actual place you're staying in, it seems to me you get the same value as you would at a similar place in the US or Europe. However, I think you can find Airbnbs in more convenient, tourist-friendly places and you're not paying as much for the location as you would outside of Tunisia. For example, we recently stayed at a bungalow in Raf Raf which was $87 for one night. That was a fair price for the house and accommodations. It wasn't luxurious, but it didn't lack anything. But, that house was right on a beautiful beach. I think we would have paid way more for a comparable beachfront property in the States. Car Rentals Short Answer: Around TND 140 ($51, GBP 39, EUR 43) per day. Abi and I wrote a whole post about car rentals that tells you everything you need to know. Check out How to Rent / Hire a Car in Tunisia. If you're entering Tunisia through the Tunis-Carthage Airport and you want a car right away, there are plenty of rental options right there at the Airport. TND 140 is the cheapest option I could find if you're driving it away from the Airport. From the Airport you can rent from one of the companies that are located there, or you can find another company in Tunis and arrange a "meet and greet" where they bring the car to you. It's cheaper to rent from a smaller company away from the Airport, although you will have less of a selection and they may not speak English. Public Transportation For tourists, public transportation is super cheap. We wrote a huge and comprehensive post on How to Get Around in Tunisia. If there’s any chance you’ll take public transportation in Tunisia, you should check it out! A taxi ride in a normal, metered taxi from one side of Tunis to the other will cost between TND 8 and TND 15, depending on traffic. But if you’re just going from one neighborhood to another it could be less than TND 5. Keep in mind that taxi drivers in the capital city will not want to give you a ride if you're only going a short distance. A slightly more expensive option is to use Bolt. Bolt will cost roughly twice the amount of a regular taxi, which is still not that expensive. Bolt works like Uber or Lyft, except you pay in cash. Louages and trains are around the same price. Last week Abi and I rode a louage from Tunis to Sfax. That's a 3-hour drive and it was about TND 20 per ticket. A louage from Gafsa to Tunis, which is a 5-hour drive, was TND 26. Groceries A 1-liter box of milk is around TND 1.2. A dozen eggs is around TND 4. A baguette bread is only 200 millime, one-fifth of a dinar. Tomatoes and potatoes are less than TND 2 for a kilo. In America, processed and packaged foods are often very cheap while fresh fruits and vegetables are pricy. It’s the opposite in Tunisia. Breakfast cereals and other packaged foods are the same as American prices. But produce is much cheaper If you’re staying at a place with a kitchen while you’re in Tunisia, you can make your own meals with fresh meat and veggies for very cheap. Abi and I often buy a week’s worth of fruit and veggies for around TND 20. Many fruits and veggies are not available year-round. If you buy strawberries or watermelon or cantaloupe when it’s just coming into season or when it’s going out of season, it can get a lot more expensive. Ground beef is currently around TND 30. Chicken is much cheaper, around TND 12 for a kilo. Turkey breast is the cheapest white meat. Tours Short Answer: Tours are in the ballpark of $100 per day per person. Factors that affect the price are the meals offered, entrance fees to historical sites, the distance your driver has to drive, the number of people in your group, and many other things. Day tours on Trip Advisor go for $50 or more for a half day and $100 or more for a full day. A tour company (which we are not affiliated with) called Engaging Cultures has a 3-day tour of Tunis, Hammamet and Tunis for $420 per person. They also have a day-tour of a Berber village and Roman ruins for $110 per person. These tours include pick-up and drop-off by a private driver, meals, entrance fees to historical sites, and special experiences. Gasoline The cost of gasoline in Tunisia at the time I write this is TND 2.01 per Liter. That’s TND 7.61 per Gallon. Here’s what that costs in other currencies, based on the exchange rates in Summer 2020. AmountTNDUSDEURGBP1 L gasoline2.01$0.740.620.561 Gal gasoline7.61$2.802.362.13 Let’s say you want to drive a rental car from Tunis to Tozeur and back. That’s a 6.5 hour drive each way, with a total of 928 km. The car may get around 50 MPG since most rental cars in Tunisia are very fuel efficient. At that fuel efficiency you’ll spend TND 87 ($32, EUR 27). Doctor’s Visit If you get mildly sick or injured on your visit to Tunisia, you can get treated in a private clinic for very cheap. It could cost you as little as TND 50 paying cash without any kind of insurance. One time when Abi (my wife) caught a bad stomach bug and had a fever, she went into a private clinic in Tunis at close to midnight. She saw a doctor there, got Tylenol through an IV, and then bought the prescription the doc wrote for her, all for about TND 80. That is crazy inexpensive! I have also visited a private clinic multiple times, one of which was after-hours, like 10 pm. I don't think I ever paid more than TND 50 for a doctor visit. At this time Abi is in her second trimester of pregnancy, and she goes to a very highly reputable OB doctor. Each visit, including a short ultrasound, is only TND 60. That's paying cash without insurance. Museum Entry Short answer: TND 5-12 The entry fee to the Carthage Museum is TND 12. If you’re going to tour Carthage you can’t miss this place. The museum is located on the grounds of a big church (the St. Louis Bascillica), which is itself on top of the famous Byrsa Hill. With the cost of admission, you can tour the outside area that has remains of an ancient Phoenician village, as well as some Romain ruins on top of that. The entry fee for the Bardo Museum is TND 11. You can easily spend an hour or a few hours at the Bardo museum, even if you’re not that into history. It’s located in the Bardo neighborhood of Tunis, the capital city. Just last week I visited the new archaeological museum in Gafsa. It was only TND 5 to enter, although they have a pretty small selection at this point. Historical Sites Short answer: between TND 5-12. You can visit the historical sites in Tunisia without a tour guide for very cheap. You will need to pay in cash at these sites. SiteTNDCarthage12Bulla Regia8Dougga8Makhtar8Sbeitla8Utica8Uthina8Kerkouane8Thuburdo Majus8Gightis5Neapolis 5Pupput5 Scuba Diving Short Answer: Pay in Euros €70 for a 4-hour dive. One place that can guide you through the whole process is called Archimede Diving Center. They are an authorized PADI dive resort, which is a kind of introductory diving program where beginners can show up and dive with the assistance of instructors. At this place, it’s €70 for some beginner’s instruction and then a 4-hour dive. To get certification as an open water diver with Archimede Diving Center, spend 4 days doing 8 different dives for €420. Camel Adventure in the Desert Short Answer: A high-end, reputable tour company charges $180 per person as long as your group has more than 4. In my opinion, an overnight camel trek is the perfect thing to do with a group that’s a little bit adventurous, but not so adventurous that they want to suffer in order to have fun. When my parents came to visit Tunisia, it ended up being the highlight of their trip! This $180 includes a traditional Tunisian dinner prepared in front of you, a nice breakfast with hot drinks and hot bread, a traditional Bedouin tent to sleep in with all the bedding included, professional camel guides, your own camel, and most likely some traditional music played at night around the campfire. It's a blast! While that $180 per person price is normal (that’s what the #1 rated company on Trip Advisor charges), you can find much cheaper tours if you look around. I’ve been on 3 overnight camel rides into the desert, and my wife had done more than 10. Most of these times we went with a Tunisian Bedouin friend who has his own very small company. He only charged about TND 100 per person ($35). That is crazy cheap, so you will be very lucky to find that price, but it’s possible. Golfing Short Answer: They charge Euros, between €50 - €100 for 18 holes. The highest rated course in Tunisia is called Golf Citrus, and it's located in the beach town of Hammamet. It's €98 for 18 holes, €48 for those under 18 years old. On the island of Djerba at the Djerba Golf Course you can play 18 holes for €44. It's €54 to play 18 holes at La Cigale in Tabarka. La Cigale is a resort hotel and the course is right on the sea. Tabarka is a beautiful city in the northwest of Tunisia, close to Algeria. ATV Rides Short answer: $115 and up. On the cheaper end of things, you can do a half-day (4-hour) tour on a quad for $115. The same amount of time in a desert buggy is $135. An overnight on a quad where they set up camp for you and take care of all of your food is around $400. If you really want to spend a lot of time riding on the sand dunes and money is no issue, you can get some high-dollar tours with European guides. Other companies offer a 5-6 day tour in the range of €1,500. Conclusion Hopefully this post has at least given you enough information to know what kind of vacation you can expect to have in Tunisia, based on your budget. We continue to be amazed at how much history and natural beauty you can see, and how much fun you can have, for so cheap. Enjoy your trip!