After the Tunis-Carthage Marathon: The Medina and the Bardo

The Route: Avenue Habib Bourguiba → Medina → Bardo Museum → Avenue Habib Bourguiba Logistics: On foot to the Medina, about 400 m from the finish, then a short taxi or Metro line 4 to the Bardo, about 4 km west. Marathon Month: December Duration: Day trip

Avenue Habib Bourguiba ──(5 mins walk)──> Medina ──(10 mins taxi)──> Bardo Museum
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          └──────────────────────(10 mins taxi)──────────────────────────┘

The race runs on a Sunday, which makes the day after a Monday, and the National Bardo Museum is closed on Mondays. Do the Medina on Monday and keep the Bardo for Tuesday, or go on the Saturday before the race.

December in Tunis: days average about 18°C and nights about 9.5°C, with rain on roughly eight days of the month. Both the Medina and the museum are partly outdoors or unheated, so a light waterproof layer is more useful than a heavy coat. Winter opening hours apply from mid-September to the end of April, and light fades by about 17:00.

The Medina

The UNESCO-listed old town begins about 400 m from the finish, at the inland end of Avenue Habib Bourguiba. Walking in costs nothing. The lanes are flat but crowded and the surface is paved, with some steps and uneven stone. A slow circuit of the main souks takes an hour and a half. Expect to haggle over anything you buy, and take a first price as an opening offer.

Three sites repay the effort. The Zitouna Mosque is open to non-Muslims only on a viewing platform at the edge of its courtyard, for a small fee, and modest dress is required. Dar Ben Abdallah is a small folk museum in an 18th-century palace, and the Tourbet el Bey is an 18th-century mausoleum where Tunisian princes and ministers are buried. Check opening days for both, since small museums often close on a different day from the Bardo.

The Bardo Museum

The Bardo is a former beylical palace and holds one of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics. Winter hours run from 09:30 to 16:30, entry for foreign visitors is about 13 TND, and the museum is closed on Mondays. Allow two to three hours, most of it on your feet and some of it on stairs, so it is a better stop two days after the race than the day after.

The Bardo is about 4 km west of the finish. A taxi takes about 10 minutes, and Metro line 4 stops at Le Bardo, though signs are sparse, so count your stops. Bring water.

Getting back

Take a taxi back to the centre, or use Metro line 4 for the return. The Medina is a short walk from any central hotel. Keep some small notes for purchases in the souks.