Hotel Africa Tunis

I fly this morning from Barcelona to Tunis; the capital city of Tunisia and home for the next 2 nights. There is a welcome dinner for me and the other 20 gay men participating in this unusual tour destination. They are from all over the U.S. Half are couples, half are singles traveling alone like me. All have an adventurous spirit and thirst for new experiences in new lands. I have one advantage; I've already been in Europe for 6 days and have passed the "jet lag" stage, so I'm raring to go. ...

Our tour of Tunisia started with a visit to Carthage; just outside of the capital city of Tunis. Carthage was one of the most powerful cities of the ancient world; founded in 814 B.C. by Phoenician colonizers. Over ensuing years, it was conquered by Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and finally the Arabs, falling into ruins by the 7th century A.D. The archeological site is well preserved and provides great insight into life as it was over 2,000 years ago. Following Carthage, we moved on to Sidi Bou...

This very long day will take us over 250 miles north from the Sahara Desert back to the Capital City of Tunis. En route, we stop to visit the amazing Roman ruins in Sbeitla. This well-preserved site from the 3rd century offers great insight to life in the empire. A short drive later we visit Kairouan, the holiest of all sites within Tunisia. With one of the greatest mosques in the country, UNESCO has declared the entire town a World Heritage site. We visited the wonderful Medina (old town) fo...

I enjoyed sleeping late, and a stroll through the old Medina in Tunis, exploring the small streets full of people selling all sorts of goods; produce, blue jeans or jewelry...it's all there. And hidden on some of the streets are ancient mosques, old colonial French homes of the aristocracy and tea rooms.

(I am writing this from Ontario-I can't believe I didn't write about it in Monastir...) So we went to see a Roman Coliseum at El Jem. It is the third largest Coliseum in the world. (and since I've been home people who have seen the one in Rome tell me this one looks like it is in better shape.) So we took a louage to El Jem which is about a 2 hr drive from Monastir the louage driver waited for us for 3 hours while we toured the coliseum and the museum and then drove us back to Monastir. We ma...

I'm at the airport early. One of the only benefits of arriving in the middle of the night (midnight) is that there are no lines to clear through passport control and customs. My big bag is the first one on the conveyor belt. How often does that happen? NEVER! The little one follows close behind and I’m on the way to the hotel, checking in by 1am. I get a great night’s sleep, and after a lazy breakfast head downstairs to arrange the welcome party.

I just happen to meet our g...

Our first visit today is to the dramatic ruins of Carthage. We visit the remains of the Punic city, the hilltop museum and cathedral, and the elaborate Roman baths by the sea (in the shadow of the Presidential Palace).

Next stop the Mediterranean-style village of Sidi Bou Said, with its bright white buildings with blue doors and shutters. We visit a house of a famous lawyer which is now a museum, then have lunch overlooking the bay of Tunis.

Our final stop is the Bardo Museum, w...

Our attempt to leave at 6:30am is thwarted by the fact that someone's phone got knocked off the hook last night, and the wake-up call didn’t come through. Everything happens for a reason, however, and the delay changes our plans so that the day works out better anyway.

When we arrive in Sbeitla to tour the ruins of the 3rd century Roman town of Sufetula, it is clear that no matter how quickly we run through the site we will not make it to Kairouan before the noon closing of the G...

We say goodbye to one tour member this morning. At 10am several of us go with the guide into the medina again. Two of us break away to visit a local hammam. This is an experience more like the one in Morocco, with hard skin scraping and back cracking.

I shop for birthday gifts for one of our tour members, then return to the hotel to get awards and tips organized. The party begins at six, and then we leave for our Farewell Dinner at the Dar Bel Haj – another famous restaurant in t...