سيدي بو سعيد
Charming blue and white clifftop village
Not far from the capital lies the small clifftop town of Sidi Bou Said, a picture postcard collection of charming streets with beautiful views across the azure Mediterranean. It can be easily reached by train within about forty minutes from Tunis, but I decided to stay overnight.
I spent too long wandering around looking for a place to stay – it’s not a large town, and I ultimately ended up coming back to and staying at first place I’d looked at anyway. I had dinner in a restaurant that Nicolas Sarkozy had dined at a few weeks prior, and accidentally stumbled upon some kind of presidential compound, where a man with a gun cheerfully directed me back from whence I came.
Old Sidi Bou Said was all little white houses with shuttered blue windows and woodwork. It was really pleasant to wander around in, and almost felt like being in an old Greek island village.
More blue windows and narrow alleyways. It’s no surprise that Sidi Bou Said is popular with artists.
This little lane was just around the corner from the small courtyard hotel I stayed at.
Pavement café in the middle of the old town. The large enclosed balconies are a very similar but smaller scale design to those of the Plaza Mayor in Lima, Peru.
Colourful touristy shops doing what they do best, selling all sorts of things which aren’t strictly necessary.
Looking up the main street in Sidi Bou Said. The black and white archway is the entrance to the famous Café des Nattes.
View of one of the old buildings at the top of the steep slopes down to the Mediterranean.
The Hotel Amilcar sounded adequate from the guidebook and is done in the same local colour scheme. When I arrived, it appeared quite disappointingly and obviously closed down. I later realised that the entrance was actually further around the building, and it was still operating at least a year later, but I didn’t fancy staying in a place that looked abandoned.
So instead I stayed at the very pleasant Hotel Bou Fares right in the old town and built around a private courtyard. The proprietor was an impeccably courteous Frenchman.
In fitting with traditional Tunisian stylings, my room was fully tiled and one of the most traditional-style places I stayed in the country.
At a few spots in town, the traditional blue and whitewash comes up against the standard sandy brown adobe-style desert finish.
North African style minaret of Alghfran Mosque near the railway station.
Being a coastal headland village, Sidi Bou Said is of course equipped with its own lighthouse at Ras Qatarjamah. The sign simply says Menara Sidi Bou Said. Unfortunately, the doors were locked.
The beautiful Mediterranean sea as seen from Sidi Bou Said. Every time I visit somewhere around the Mediterranean coast, I like it even more.
Created 2008 | Updated 2023
SnapHappyRoss 