AIBU to wonder why holidays to Tunisia are so much cheaper?

I went last year, 2025, and toured around with my husband, adult son and a guide. Went to Sousse, the Star Wars place, the edge of the Sahara amongst other places.

Everyone was kind, and in fact when we were a bit stuck and confused about local public transport (after the guide had left) the locals were incredibly helpful and went above and beyond, with no benefit to themselves.

I was vigilant about food hygiene the whole time, didn’t eat salad, didn’t have ice etc, used hand sanitizer constantly.
And yet contracted campylobacter 🤮

You should read Take A Break magazine before you go! Young African men preying on older western women for a visa are pretty common place.

There’s a website called Tunisian Love rats in which Western women describe their experiences with Tunisian boyfriends.

We loved it. Went couple of years ago. Spent couple of evenings in local cafe not far from hotel with live music.
They had it hard since the attack. Just when it was starting to pick up again, covid hit and so on.

Supply and demand.

I am now back from my week in Tunisia. I enjoyed it immensely, and it surpassed my expectations.
But do you know what, I see Tunisia as being a bit like Turkey. It’s only as good as the hotel you’re staying in. Outside of that, there’s not much to it. And I stand by what I said upthread, there is a massive problem with disposable plastics there. The government need to ban the flimsy free plastic bags that are automatically given with each and every shop purchase. They are everywhere. Not to mention the plastic water bottles from all the hotels. Honestly, I thought Britain was bad for littering until I saw this place. It’s not a good look.

I agree. For me, it’s not worth the risk.
Like I said I would not go back there.

Exactly. It’s a shithole where it’s not safe to leave the hotels.

We went at Easter -Accidentally booked the hotel where the attack took place as its changed its name.

We loved it - food was really good, staff were amazing. We've stayed at some decent 5 star hotels in Turkey and I'd return here.

We did go out for a wander and, although we felt safe, the area is awful. Run down streets, decapitated restaurants that have never recovered from the slump after the attack etc. The port area was rubbish.

The risk is not remotely "just as high" in London. The risk of being caught up in anything terror related in London is a tiny fraction of 1% and there is very low state security presence, so it doesn't interfere at all with your free travel. The risk in Tunisia, near the major resorts, is also a (higher) fraction of 1% so it looks the same, on paper, but the massive difference is there are zones of Tunisia where the risk rises exponentially - go near any of the borders and your risk of kidnapping by terrorist organisations is very real, and this will increase the longer you remain there. Fine you say, I'll just stay in the major resorts... Okay, but the reason they are safe is the extreme armed presence keeping them that way, which is not conducive to a nice holiday IMHO. You might say the same is true elsewhere in the world, like Cancun. I wouldn't go there either but it's worse in Tunisia because of the overall sense of oppression. No photos of anything govt, no drones, clothing rules, currency rules, border and travel controls, ID checks, attitudes to local women (not just us tourists) etc. The only way to do Tunisia is to go to a higher end resort and never leave it and what is the point of being in Tunisia and supporting that state if that's what you do? Also, even in the nice resorts you fundamentally have no rights or real protections if you get into a dispute with the hotel. No part of it seems worth the risk to me.

If you're a woman alone, don't go anywhere in Tunisia. Even in your hotel you might get pestered. Travelling with a man will still be annoying, but more tolerable. Personally I'd say it's interesting to have been, would not go again. Applies to all of North Africa IMHO: actually Tunisia is a little better in this respect than Morocco, but that just means Morocco is a relentless tide of agravation, not that Tunisia isn't annoying as f.

Had three holidays in Tunisia. 2 in port el kantauoi and 1 in hammamet. This was just before the beach attack in sousse. I found the people to be really friendly and was saddened about the effect that the attacks had on tourism.

Definitely. I lived alone in Barcelona for 6 months with not one issue but I know people who have been for 48 hours and been mugged.

Had the worst holiday of my life in Tunisia so would never return. Me and DH, pre-kids (thankfully). We had chosen a 4-star hotel, half board but it wasn't 4 star. The food was terrible, I remember we had to sit at the same allocated table each night for the dinner buffet. Daily highlight was ordering a coke to go with the meal. We both got really bad food poisoning so spent most the week on the toilet, with one taxi trip out to a pharmacy for some drugs. I think we were end of season too, as the weather wasn't quite warm enough for sunbathing, pool was cold and dirty. We hadn't bought enough books so we had to ration our reading! We slept loads. Luckily we had only booked for a week, but on the day the rep came to the hotel, there were queues of people shouting and sobbing when they were told they couldn't cut their fortnight holiday short (this was before the days of low-cost flights so at the mercy of the chartered flight). Upon returning to the UK we needed antibiotics to clear up the gastric problems.

So the cheap price could be down to large numbers of previous visitors refusing to go back, and telling their tales of woe to others! I'm sure it's actually fine now if you choose your hotel carefully.

If you’d bothered to read one of my earlier posts, you would have seen that I’ve already said that spitting at women and groping them is unacceptable. You’ve taken this particular post out of context.

No, nothing justifies horrible misogyny! Agadir is in Morocco.

It wouldn't be surprising if a confluence of events has hardened attitudes to British or European tourists. Behaviour is pretty terrible - not all holidaymakers get ugly drunk and belligerent, but very many are rude and disrespectful. People on the North African coast have plenty of opportunity to see the worst of us, either in their own resorts or as seasonal workers in Europe.

At the same time, Islam's got stronger and more fundamental. It's gradually dropping its tolerance of 'infidel' ways which, to the man in the street, must look pretty rational given what they see of us.

The Tunisian state only dropped Islam as 'official religion' in 2022. There is now no state religion and religious freedom is guaranteed, but the government controls and subsidises the mosques. I think all those states have a difficult tightrope to walk, with majority Sunni populations receiving hard-line rhetoric from further East alongside serious repercussions from the Palestine situation and the need to maintain good relations with the non-Muslim world.

It is worrying that the status & freedoms of women can roll back so very quickly - in any society, really, though we've seen it most glaringly in Muslim countries. For younger European women with little experience of cultural misogyny, I can imagine it being a terrible shock to find themselves in a man's world like that.

I've been in the past and didn't really enjoy it. The hotel itself was nice but there is an expectation to tip for everything and the service is very variable depending on how you tip, which is understandable but I still felt uncomfortable and going out of the hotel, you are constantly approached by people trying to sell you something.

Omg that is a story to hear

It didn’t sound like any of the woman on this thread displayed behaviour in that deserved being spat on or to be thought of of whores. I just get frustrated that people make out that the U.K. is just as bad, feels like gaslighting. It’s clearly obvious when you go to these countries the way they view and treat woman is worse on a larger scale

Depends what you’re looking for. I went last year, all inclusive, it was absolutely fab. Locals were friendly, hotel was lovely, beach was clean, no hassling from anyone. I would definitely go back!
If you want a holiday where you sit by the pool & on the beach - perfect. If you want a holiday with a bit more exploration, perhaps not. My mindset on terrorist attacks - they are just as likely, if not more so, to happen in the UK. I don’t want to live in fear, so I’m just well researched when I book somewhere abroad?

As a young woman travelling to a job interview by train in England I was followed by a white man (nationality unknown, just loud heavy breathing) who was openly reading a porn mag. When I complained, the white British train conductor told me that the gentleman was entitled to read any literature he wished. I had to lock myself in the toilet.

It’s all revolting. This comment was part of a discussion as to whether attitudes to European tourists in N Africa particularly might have become more hostile in the last 3 decades and why that might be. The bad reputation of some British tourists in Spain was mentioned but no-one is saying that justifies horrible misogyny anywhere.

I wouldn’t say lucky - I’ve had some dreadful experiences with men. Just not Muslim men.

I think it must be where people are going. It's probably like comparing Southwold and Blackpool.

@Harry12345 , I think the pp meant British lads abroad.

You seem to have a lot to say about British men’s behaviour but not men who are spitting at woman, leering at children or locking woman in shops

So if your daughter was going to go solo backbacking around Egypt or Scotland OR Tunisia or Wales you actually think she’s at the same risk in Wales and Scotland?
mum honestly baffled by this, I’m under no illusion that there’s an issue with me assaulting woman no matter what religion or culture but you only need to see the rights or way the native woman are treated to know there is a difference in how most will view westerton woman. Numerous woman on this thread alone have said they were actually spat at, I’ve never heard of that in all my days in this country