Is Tunisia really as bad as some say?

[MyNewRoom]

I'm going to Tunisia next week with my 18 year old dd.
I've just made the mistake of searching old threads. It seems it's dirty and dangerous and we will be stalked and harassed everywhere we go.
We are in a nice hotel, all inclusive so don't necessarily need to leave the resort.
But I love exploring and would really like to leave the resort.
Is it really bad? Any tips please.

Been there 2 months after the terrorist attacks on the beach, for Xmas, stayed at Sidi Bou Said.

It was weird. No tourists, we saw 7 other foreign tourists during our visit of the souk, where 90% of the shops were closed anyway, we had the Bardo museums and the Antonine baths for ourselves, literally (that was fantastic). We had a 5 course Xmas lunch alone in a deserted, massive 5-star beach hotel, no other clients, we had 15 waiters looking after us. Foreigners were not allowed to venture outside of Tunis (for their own safety), it was a bit of a special time and atmosphere.

Didn't get harassed or hassled, but it was so dirty, litter everywhere, people were strange, not very friendly, visibly afraid to speak their minds, my EXH’s VPN was messed with, relics of the Ben Ali regime where everyone was spying on each other. Food wasn’t great.

Not a country I would go back to, even in better circumstances.

Thank you for all the advice. There are some very differing views.
We are blonde, but fairly well traveled. We have been to Turkey, Morocco and Egypt where we did get harassed but it was manageable.
It seems that being sensible is the answer, we always wear appropriate clothes when outside of hotels to be courteous.

Don’t let your dd wander around alone though, it’s not a good place to be doing that. (Or even DS if you have them, no one is safe, my male cousin as a child was harassed as well and my aunt offered stuff for him), horrible place that I will never defend.

Another case of men ruining a nice experience

If you’ve experienced the harassment in Egypt, you will find Tunisia much easier to cope with.

If you’ve experienced the harassment in Egypt, you will find Tunisia much easier to cope with.
Agree.

I’m not from the UK, and do obviously not expect anyone to behave like in Europe. Far from it. The men in Tunisia can keep their cultural differences, and behave like criminals and perverts. If that is what is standard for them. It’s batshit to even think this is an ok ’just cultural thing’ for any men.

Sounds a low bar for a holiday that the best you can hope for is a bit of harrassment rather than a lot.

The relatively mild harassment that you will get in some parts of Tunisia is more than outweighed by the vast vast majority of the people, who are warm, friendly and welcoming, wonderful sightseeing, many really good hotels, excellent beaches, and delicious food if you eat outside your hotel.

Yep..

Very low

You'll probably experience less harassment, if any, than Morocco and Egypt

Some friends of mine went recently and their verdict was stay in the resort. Which sort of makes it a bit pointless picking Tunisia over somewhere safer with a similar climate, imho anyway.

Well we are here. So far it's been fine. Dd is getting a lot of attention from waiters -pulling her seat out at dinner- not mine though 🤣
She's been told how pretty she is and every time she gets a drink they twist her straw into a heart shape. I'm not bothered by that, it's harmless.
We did venture out of the hotel and that was a whole different story. Groups of older men sat outside cafes really looking at her in a mean, intimidating way.
And the rubbish in the streets, horrible. If a few of those men got off of their backsides and picked some rubbish up the place would be much more pleasant.
I think the deal breaker for me though is the animals. Our hotel is overrun with cats and kittens. We brought food with us, we always do, so have fed as many as we can.
Currently sitting on our patio with a very young female cat whose tail is horribly broken. She's beautiful and we are currently researching ways of taking her back home.

I have been previously and the men do leer over women particularly blonde hair and blue eyes. We have had them follow us persistently asking for phone number, email etc or approaching us in the sea, offering to sell for camels etc also had an inappropriate sexual passes when out and about. The resorts look amazing and I believe if you stayed in the resorts you would have a different experience, most have private beaches now. I have not taken my teenager for the reason above but if I did I would not leave the resort as prev countries she's had eyes and Tunisia is on another level in comparison.

Sounds accurate! Hope your having a nice time however!

We got hassled loads because we were dopey 19 year olds running around some non touristy areas in questionable clothing.

You will hassled a bit even in tourist areas it is true, but it’s a perfectly fine county to travel in as women IME

If you want to to stay in a resort, might as well go to the canaries..

I’ve been twice. I was 21 and 22 at the time. Blonde, blue eyes.

the hotel we stayed at (same
hotel) they were the loveliest, kindest people I have ever met. They couldn’t do enough for you.
we absolutely loved it. And it will forever hold a place in our hearts.

I wasn’t a fan of the outside of the hotel. Nothing major happened.

I found Egypt a lot worse.

and Marakech last year was fine. Up until I was in the souks in a crowd and a mangrabbed onto my arse. Ignored it a few times as I thought it was just crowds. But very soon realised that wasn’t the case.

Yeah it’s horrible - wouldn’t go back . Didn’t feel safe

We weren’t a couple of ‘dopey’ women though. We dressed respectfully and wanted to explore outside the hotel. Which is what we tried to do, and why we didn’t go to Spain instead, otherwise what’s the point of visiting somewhere different if you’re just sat in the complex all day drinking cocktails on a lounger.

So many cats there! We were passing a little square by a small local souk with loads of cars lying around and suddenly a bunch of them started getting up. A local man arrived with a big bag and explained to us that he gave up his job and took a more local, worse paying one to care for the local cats and give them food, medicine etc everyday. He had eye drops and all sorts and when he left the younger kittens were all running after him! Wish we could've rescued some of them

unstableunicorn

That's lovely.
We passed a building yesterday that looked like some sort of animal shelter. We're going out later to see what they do there and if we can donate.
Here's a picture of our new friend, we've called her Wonky because her tail is all bent and broken. It doesn't seem to bother her though.

Depends if the waiters are her age, if older then it’s weird to do it to her and not you.

They are her age, they don't mean any harm.
The leery older men get my best "fuck off you pervert" look if they so much as glance in her direction.

Actually - what used to help when I was younger was telling men like that ‘you’re a bad Muslim’, it triggered some shame.. so you could try that.