5 Days in Hammamet

Start in the old town, which is small enough to cover in an hour and which is the real reason Hammamet has a name. The Hafsid walls are said to have been finished around the middle of the 13th century, and the medina inside them grew over the following centuries. The Knights of Saint John raided it twice, in 1602 and in 1605. The first raid succeeded, and the second ended badly for the knights. The quarter you see now is white, low and quiet, and the town has long kept to a low skyline: the local town-planning rule is that no house should rise above the cypresses.

Don't expect a Tunis or Sousse maze. The souk streets are short and sell leather, ceramics, jasmine perfume and tablecloths, and sellers open with a price well above what you should pay. Walk the lanes and then head for the fort, which stands at the sea end of the walls.

The kasbah is a compact fort on the sea side of the walls. It was founded in 893 as a ribat, a fortified watch post for the coast. Around 1463 a Hafsid prince, Uthman, greatly enlarged it into a residence for the town's governor, and after the Ottoman conquest of 1574 janissaries settled in it. After the French took the town in 1881 it was turned into barracks, and when the terraces and part of the east wall collapsed in 1893 it was restored over the next seven years.

Inside there is not much: a courtyard and the ramparts. The point is the walk on top, with the sea on one side and the white roofs of the medina on the other. Give it 45 minutes, and come back in the late afternoon if you want better light for photos.

Hammamet is a fishing town that turned into a resort, so lunch is fish. The restaurants on the ramparts above the water are the pretty ones and the prices show it: Le Barberousse, a long-standing terrace along the old fort walls, is the best-known name (check that it is open this season). Order the catch of the day grilled, ask the weight and the price per kilo before it goes on the grill, and start with a salade mechouia and a brik.

For something cheaper, the small places in and around the medina serve fried fish, sandwiches and mezze, and the town's lemon-and-harissa habits are the same everywhere. Don't order lobster without asking the price first: it is the one dish where the bill can surprise you.

Dar Sebastien is the white villa of Georges Sebastian, the Romanian millionaire who fell for Hammamet and built here in the 1920s and early 1930s (sources differ on the exact years). It became the social center of the town. Between the wars the guest list ran from Jean Cocteau to Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor, and in 1943 Rommel requisitioned the palace as his headquarters. The Tunisian state bought it in 1962 and turned it into the International Cultural Center, with an open-air amphitheater of about a thousand seats added in 1964.

Come for the architecture and the gardens, not for a museum: it is a villa with terraces, patios and a view over the Gulf of Hammamet. The Hammamet International Festival, held here in July and August since 1964, is the reason to plan a summer trip. Outside the festival the place can be quiet, sometimes closed for events.

After the heat of the fort, walk down to the sand. Hammamet has around 20 km of sandy beaches along the gulf, and the stretch next to the old town is the one with the best view: the kasbah and the white medina walls right behind you. In summer it is crowded with hotel guests and day trippers, and prices for sunbeds and jet-ski rides climb with the temperature.

In November the water is around 21°C, which is swimmable for a short dip if you are used to cool seas, and the beach is almost empty. Take a coffee at one of the cafés on the sand, watch the light change on the walls and stay until the lamps come on.

Hammamet has dozens of restaurants, and most are aimed at hotel guests. For a first Tunisian dinner, pick a small place where the menu is short and the dishes are the classics: a brik with egg and tuna, ojja (eggs poached in a spicy tomato and pepper sauce, usually with merguez), a plate of grilled meat and a bowl of harissa on the side.

If you want a glass of wine or a beer with it, ask if the place has a license; many small restaurants don't, and alcohol is sold at hotels, licensed restaurants and bars.

Pupput was the Roman town on this coast, raised to a colony in the late 2nd century under Commodus. The Roman baths here are said to have given Hammamet its name. Most of the town is now buried under the holiday houses and hotels that were built over it, so what is left is a small archaeological site.

Nobody comes here for a spectacle. Give it 45 minutes, and enjoy being one of very few visitors. The site is close to the Hammamet Sud beach, which makes it easy to combine with the next stop.

Hammamet Sud is the beach that made the town's name. The sand is fine and runs for kilometers, the water is clear and shallow for a long way out, and in season there is everything: paragliding, jet-skiing, tubing, short camel rides along the sand. It is very much a package-holiday beach, with hotel loungers lined up in rows.

If you want a quiet swim, go in the morning, walk a few hundred meters from the hotel stretches and rent a sunbed from a beach bar. In November it is peaceful and the water is around 21°C.

For lunch skip the hotel buffet. The fricassé is a deep-fried bun stuffed with tuna, egg, olives, harissa and potato, and you can eat one standing at a snack bar. For dessert, look for bambalouni, the ring-shaped doughnut fried to order and dusted with sugar.

Eat them on the sand or on a bench near the beach, and ask for the harissa on the side if you are not sure. The snack bars are the places for it, not the restaurants with the white tablecloths.

Yasmine Hammamet was developed in the late 1990s on 277 hectares with about 46 hotels, a marina and, within it, Medina Mediterranea: a reproduction of a medina with souks, built from scratch. It is meant to look like an Arab old town and to give hotel guests the experience without leaving the resort.

Let's be honest: it is a stage set. The shops sell the same kind of souvenirs as the real souk, and the lanes are tidy and purpose-built. It is fine for an evening drink, but if you have seen the real medina this morning it will feel like a theme park. And next door there is one: Carthage Land, the amusement park, aimed at families. Go if you travel with children, skip it otherwise.

Walk the marina at dusk, when the heat drops and the promenade fills up. The boats are mostly yachts and tour boats, and the quay is lined with cafés, ice cream stands and restaurants. It is not the real Tunisia, but it is a comfortable evening, particularly in summer.

Boat trips are an in-season thing. In winter the marina is quieter and some places may be shut, so keep expectations modest.

Dinner here is tourist-priced, but you can eat well if you stay with the dishes the restaurants cook every day. Couscous is Tunisia's national dish: steamed semolina with lamb or vegetables and a broth, and on the coast it often comes with fish, as the Cap Bon sea is close.

Ask for the harissa and the chickpeas on the side, take your time and don't be shy about asking what the fish of the day is. The marina restaurants are a good bet for a sit-down dinner; for a cheaper plate, go back into Hammamet town.

Nabeul is a town of about 84,000 people on the south coast of Cap Bon, and its weekly Friday souk draws visitors and locals alike. Expect ceramics, spices, olive oil, leather goods, orange blossom water and the usual pile of souvenirs. Nabeul is also called Tunisia's first seaside resort, but the market is where its character shows.

Go early and with small bills. Bargaining is part of the game and sellers can be pushy, so decide what you want before you come, offer about half and stay friendly. If you want to ship pottery home, pack it yourself or ask the seller to wrap it very carefully.

Nabeul is Tunisia's main center of the pottery industry, and the craft was revived in the first half of the 20th century. The designs are geometric and floral, often with Andalusian influence. Most workshops sell directly and some will let you throw a pot or paint a plate yourself.

Visit a workshop to see how pieces are painted and fired, often in wood-burning ovens, and consider buying there instead of in the market. Agree the price before you pick anything up.

Nabeul is the Tunisian capital of floral waters. Families here distill orange blossom (z'har), rose and geranium in copper stills over a fire, and the town supplies much of the country with orange flower water, which goes into pastries, coffee and cakes. The blossom is picked in spring, so you will meet the scent in November only in the shops.

Have lunch in the covered market area or at a plain café nearby: lablabi, a chickpea soup over torn bread with a soft egg and cumin, is the cheap, filling local order. Buy a small bottle of orange blossom water as a souvenir, as it is light, cheap and easy to pack.

Nabeul's archaeological museum is small, but it holds Punic statues and ceramics going back to the 7th century BC, plus Roman mosaics from sites around the region. It is a good place to put Cap Bon in context before you go to Kerkouane tomorrow, or if you prefer a quiet hour out of the market's noise.

Check that it is open before you walk over: listings give Tuesday to Sunday, around 09:00-17:00, closed Mondays, but we found no official page. If it is shut, spend the time in the pottery workshops instead.

Neapolis, the Greek name for new city, was a Carthaginian trading post by the 5th century BC, was destroyed by the Romans in 148 BC and later became a Roman port. On 21 July 365, a tsunami from the Crete earthquake hit the coast and left part of the city underwater.

The Roman site is about 2 km from the town center. It is modest, a few streets and walls, but it gives a sense of how old this coast is. Bring a hat and a bottle of water.

The fort stands on a rocky promontory about 150 meters high, above the sea and the town. The first fort here was founded at the end of the 4th century BC by Greeks from Sicily and was quickly taken over by Carthage. The Byzantines partly restored it in the 6th century and part of their fortress still stands in the middle. The Normans of Sicily took the rock in the 11th century, and the Zirid prince Yahya, who won it back in 1112, had the fortress rebuilt.

It covers about 1.5 hectares and is among the largest fortresses in the Islamic world. There is not a great deal to see inside, and that is fair: the ramparts and the view over the sea are the reason to climb up.

Kerkouane is the only Phoenician-Punic city to have survived, and UNESCO listed it in the 1980s. It stood on the east coast for almost 400 years, perhaps from about 650 BC, and was probably destroyed and abandoned in the First Punic War, around 250 BC. Because it was never rebuilt, the streets, courtyards and houses were not built over. It was found by chance in 1952, and regular excavations began the next year.

Walk the streets and look at the houses. Each has a courtyard, an entrance corridor and a bathroom with a bathtub shaped like a slipper, coated in a red waterproof finish made of crushed pottery. Some floors still show the sign of Tanit, the goddess of Carthage. The small museum nearby holds the finds: pottery, figurines, coins and bronze objects.

The last stop is Ghar el Kebir, 3 km west of El Haouaria, a set of huge underground quarries dug by the Carthaginians and later the Romans, possibly from the 7th century BC. Stone was cut here, often by prisoners or slaves, and shipped across the gulf to Carthage. The workers cut square shafts from the surface and widened them into carafe-shaped chambers underneath, which is why locals call them caves.

Inside it is cool, dim and a little eerie. You enter through wider side openings, descend into chambers with light falling from the shafts above and walk from room to room. El Haouaria is also known for its falcon festival and the spring bird migration, but those are in spring, not now.

Kelibia lies on the way home, and it is a working fishing port, so this is the place to eat fish on the whole peninsula. Pick a simple restaurant near the harbor, ask what came in that morning and have it grilled with a mechouia, a smoky salad of grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions, mashed with olive oil and capers.

It will be a late lunch, because Kerkouane and the quarries come first and both close early in winter. Eat a proper breakfast and carry fruit or a sandwich for the middle of the day.

Kelibia's beaches are often named among the finest in the Mediterranean: long, fine sand and clear water, with far fewer hotels than Hammamet. Mansourah is the best known, a few kilometers from the fort, and the coast around it has several others, all reachable by car or taxi.

In the summer season this is a Tunisian family beach and fills up at weekends. In November it is nearly empty, and the sea is cool but swimmable on a warm day. Today it is a sunset walk, not a swim: the sun goes down about 17:05, and the drive back to Hammamet takes about 70 minutes.

Jasmine is the flower Hammamet is known for, and it gave Yasmine Hammamet its name. All over town you find souvenirs crafted from it, from perfume to soap.

Come back to the souk now that you know the prices. Buy the pottery you saw in Nabeul, a jar of harissa, olive oil or orange blossom water, and spend some of the morning on the cafés' terraces.

Hammamet Nord is the older resort, stretching toward Nabeul, and its beach is quieter than Yasmine's. The sand is fine and the older hotels sit in gardens, which is how the town got its reputation for greenery.

Walk a few kilometers along the water, stop for a coffee when you feel like it and swim if the day is warm. This is also a good place for a last look at the gulf in quiet light.

Spend lunch on the dishes you haven't had yet. Order a mechouia, a bowl of harissa with bread and olive oil, a brik and a grilled fish or merguez. Tunisian meals begin with this kind of small plates, and are slow: nobody brings the bill until you ask.

If you want to eat like the locals, look for a small family restaurant with a handwritten menu, where the cook is also the owner, and ask what is cooked that day.

The town's name comes from the Arabic word for baths, so a hammam is the right way to spend a last afternoon. A hammam is a steam bath with a scrub, followed by a rinse and often a massage, and the resort hotels also run thalassotherapy centers, with seawater treatments.

Choose a hammam run by a hotel or a recognized spa if you want set prices and an English-speaking attendant. Ask what is included before you start, and bring a swimsuit.

Finish where you started. The fort closes at about 18:00 in winter and 19:00 in summer, so go up around 16:30 and watch the light go warm on the medina walls. In mid-November the sun sets at about 17:05.

From the walls you can see the whole of your five days in a line: the gulf, Yasmine's hotels to the south and the long curve of the coast toward Nabeul.

For the last night, choose a proper sit-down dinner: a fish couscous or a full grilled platter, a bottle of Tunisian wine (more below) and a glass of boukha to finish. Boukha is a distilled spirit made from figs, a drink that began in the Tunisian Jewish community, where most of it is still made.

Book a table if you want the sea view, and confirm whether the restaurant serves alcohol. Leave a tip of about 10% in cash.