Family Holiday to Tunisia 2010

Little did we know that this would be our last family holiday for a long time. It was after we returned from this trip that we were asked to move to South Africa and we’d be gone from the UK within 4 months.

Our last major vacation had been to the West Coast of America in 2007 where our eldest turned 18 and left home the following month to join the army.

We’re not ones for booking resort style holidays and in fact have always shied away from them, but we managed to convince hubby that now the boys were older that a resort with pools and on the beach would make for a more relaxing holiday all round. So we booked 2 weeks in Yasmin Hammamet at Villa Noria, full board.

Of course travelling as a family of 5 this meant with hiring a 2 bed villa that one child would end up sleeping on the sofa and of course there were the inevitable arguments. 

Our villa opened up on to the pool side with a little court yard garden out front, we had one set of very loud neighbours whose holiday crossed over with ours for a few days and although they were loud, the kids were actually quite nice and after a few days of constantly returning them to mum and dad we decided it was better to have their kids play with ours at the pool than have them unsupervised, fighting and screaming their heads off near by.

We met another family with 2 boys similar ages to ours and although we don’t see them much due to the distance we do keep in touch on face book and there have been a couple of visits when we’ve travelled back to the UK.

Unfortunatley it turned out that the beach was a short walk from the complex so our idea of letting the 3 boys on the beach alone were cut short as although they were competent swimmers it was hardly fair to ask the 18 year old to supervise his competitive 15 year old brother his ‘stroppy’ 11 year old brother. 

But with the other family and their kids we did end up making sure there was at least one adult present on the beach when the kids were there.

The 18 and 15 year olds were able to use the local taxis into the town and the 18yo often returned to the villa after evenings out in Hammamet.

We did book a couple of local trips and went out on the pirate boat, the kids were able to jump off the side and we all swam and snorkeled and food was served. The kids and I climbed into the rigging to join in with the pirate show which was very entertaining.

Hubby persuaded us to join him on a trip further a field and the kids and I gave in to pressure and agreed to a day out in Tunis. It was the hottest day of the holiday at 37c and on the morning at 7am hubby announced he wasn’t well enough to go, so the kids and I reluctantly set off on a 3 hour coach trip.

We stopped at the town of Sidi Bou Said which is painted blue and white, there was a museum and plenty of stops for a cold drink. 

Next we headed off to Carthage for a self guided tour and we did actually enjoy ourselves.

On into Tunis and the souks which was also enjoyed by all and we returned later that evening. Hubby did manage to get on the tour the following weekend with the friends we’d made and the boys and I stayed poolside for the day and chilled out.

We spent most evenings in Hammamet, a short taxi ride away. 

One evening the youngest and I were in a taxi and set off first. By the time we arrived everyone else had been waiting for nearly half an hour for us and were getting worried. The taxi driver misheard me and set off down the dual carriage way, he tried explaining it was a 20km trip before the next turning to return to the Hammamet, for a moment I was actually quite scared we were being abducted.

We visited a water park, fun fair and found plenty of play areas.

There was a lot of chilling out on the beach in the day and the evenings.

And the most amazing sunsets

A lot has gone on in Tunisia since we were there and we hope one day we can return for another holiday, as it really is a beautiful country and there is so much more to see.

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