Mouse Hunter - Karim2k Blog

warning! We were taken in by our cab driver to the souks market. We were lead to Le Palais D'Orient to look at carpets. He quoted us in Canadian dollars and we bought a nice piece for what we thought was a fair price. We paid for the carpet on our visa. When we recieved our visa statement the carpet was three times the price. Everything at the souks was all over priced compared to other places. the taxi driver tripled his fare at the end of our day as well. Our advise stay away. If you are on a cruise take a tour and buy nothing.

Via [TravellersPoint Forum]

It have to nothing with Tunisia, it's a major Tourism business everywhere: you are in a totally country with strange customs holding a mass of money and having no idea about the currency of local prices, going alone with no pocket guide or friends or a travel agency.

You can avoid all that by doing a little: some reading(I strongly recommend Lonely planet), taking a tour in several blogs and Forums and referring to local friends who have been there , ...

For those who wants to adsorb the sun, have fun and drink from the evening till the dusk, I recommend that you get into a whole plan through one of the touristic agencies easily reachable online. They will take care of you: Tour agencies and hotel are the most safe way to visit the country they will take charge of every little stuff for a complete comfortable holiday as Tunisian hotels are praised for their quality of service that did attract many people around the world, the diversity of the historic sites (Roman, Punic,Islamic, ... ) and its splendid beaches and desert are well and preserved tradition in Tunisia.

If you like to take control of your destiny having a back bag and a hippie looking style, you can do it safely by just having more information about the country and the people, every service have a reasonable range of prices depending of the quality and the place: for example coffee would cost 1 USD in a hotel and 2 in a downtown cafe while it would costs less (50 Cents) in other places, you can try to reach people sharing the same hobby as you like as photography blogging, diving, ... or just people who hosts travelers as couch surfing community.

The point is that coming to Tunisia is pretty easy and it's much easier than the most know Touristic resorts around the wold, all you have to do is just to try to get informed, choose the right plan you like thus you'll simply have fun avoiding to get scammed.