TUNISIA | STAR WARS

TOURISM

THE CIRCUITS

Star Wars tourism in Tunisia can be divided into

three geographically dis!nct circuits spread
across the southern part of the country. Star
Wars franchise film sites are the must-see
des!na!ons in each circuit, complemented by
verified Episode IV and Episode I recce sites to
amplify the overall fandom experience. The
Star Wars connec!on adds a unique layer of
significance to the collec!on of film and recce
sites, the majority of which stand as important
historical and cultural Tunisian landmarks.
Travelers can combine all three circuits into one
extended mul!-day i!nerary or complete each
circuit separately. If combined, the most
advisable course is to tour the circuits in order
from #1 to #3.

north
A4
Annaba
alic Tunis C
Beja
짱
elma Jendouba

ElKef
-SoukAhras Al

Sousse
Äugu
Kairouan
üle Monastir
'Tebessa

Kasserine
ÜH.mail
SidiBouzid
P2
Mides
Sfax
Р3
OngJemel
Gafsa
Chebika A1 Hanout
SidiJemour
Eriguet P15 Mosque
el-Aouina
dunes MaguerGorge
Tunisia Amghar
P16 Mosque
Al-Hammah AbuMiswar
Gabes Mosque
Chott'el-Djerid wle
Hotel-SidiIdriss
GourBeniMzáb •
Ajim Bouregba
•KsarOuled
Mosque
Abdalläh P1

KsarHadada
nal Tataquine
i lNatio KsarOmmarsia
b
Je park Kala'aGuermessa
KsarOuledSoltane
P19
Kala'aChenini KsarOuledDebbab

Nalut

P19

Tunisia:
StarWarsLocations

Filmsite
GALAX
Reccesite
TOURS

ON THE ROAD

Ren!ng a vehicle is a necessity to navigate the

circuits. A number of interna!onal and regional
companies offer rental op!ons at Tunisian
airports. Well-marked highways, paved streets,
and hard-packed dirt roads provide unrestricted
access to all of the sites. Heavy rains and
muddy condi!ons limit access to mul!ple sites
in circuit #3 due to the absence of paved roads
directly to these loca!ons. Gour Beni Mzab
(circuit #3) is the only site not accessible with a
standard vehicle. Petrol sta!ons are not overly
abundant. It is best to tank up at frequent
intervals. Roadside fuel vendors, a common
sight on main roads, tend to only carry diesel in
their assortment of containers and barrels.

GPS connec!vity is reliably consistent

throughout all three circuits. Some
interna!onal carriers offer unlimited data
roaming service in Tunisia to enable no hassle
smartphone GPS usage. As an alterna!ve,
prepaid Tunisian SIM cards (with streamlined
data refill op!ons) can be purchased at Tunisian
airports. Power sockets in Tunisia are type C
(Europlug) and E.

Adaptors might be needed to charge

smartphones and other dual voltage
electronics. Portable chargers are strongly
recommended to ensure all-day device
func!onality.

DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

Tunis-Carthage Airport (TUN) func!ons as the

primary hub into Tunisia for most interna!onal
travelers. Tunisair, the Tunisian na!onal airline,
typically offers several one-hour domes!c flight
op!ons on a daily basis between Tunis and
Djerba-Zarzis Airport (DJE). The chance of
major i!nerary delays due to unforeseen
domes!c flight changes is less likely if Djerba
island is used as the star!ng point (circuit #1).
Some Tunisian holiday packages provide direct
charter flights to Djerba from interna!onal
des!na!ons.

Tunisair domes!c travel between Tunis and

Tozeur-Ne%a Airport (TOE) is typically limited to
just a single flight on three separate days per
week with an increased probability of
cancella!ons on weekdays. Sunday flights
between Tunis and Tozeur are the most reliable.
Airline schedule changes at the end of a
planned i!nerary (circuit #3) can be managed
by driving the P3/P12/P2/A1 route through
central Tunisia back to Tunis in a lengthy full-
day road trip. This detour scenario
coincidentally presents the ideal opportunity to
stop at historic Kairouan, a major Indiana Jones
franchise film site.

TRAVEL FUNDS

Tunisia func!ons in general as a cash-based

economy in most sectors. Interna!onal credit
and debit cards, however, are widely accepted
at hotels, restaurants, major grocery outlets,
shopping centers, and businesses catering to
travelers. The Tunisian dinar (TND) is a closed
currency with legal restric!ons on both
impor!ng and expor!ng the currency in or out
of the country. ATMs offer the most flexible way
to obtain dinars. Although 24-hour ATMs are
numerous in city centers and other high-traffic
areas (like airports), the availability to withdraw
funds from ATMs is some!mes hit or miss,
especially on evenings and weekends. ATM cash
restocking schedules vary widely. Visitors
should carry a prac!cal amount of dinars at all
!mes to ensure travel con!nuity.

DT (French: dinar tunisien) is the abbrevia!on

most commonly used for the currency in
Tunisia. 1 DT is subdivided into 1,000 milim,
which are used to express small, frac!onal
prices. Tunisian taxis—a safe and inexpensive
method of travel in ci!es—o%en quote fares in
milim. A taxi fare of 4,750 milim, for example,
equates to 4.75 DT. Bartering locali!es (like
street markets and roadside shops) also deal in
milim. Established commercial enterprises use
“whole” dinar prices. The term dinar is derived
from the Roman silver denarius, linking
modern-day Tunisia to its post-Carthaginian
past as the fer!le center of the Roman Africa
Proconsularis province, later iden!fied as
Ifriqiya by the Umayyads.

LODGING OPTIONS

Djerba (circuit #1) hosts a large number of hotel

op!ons, grouped primarily in Houmt Souk and
the Zone Touris!que Djerba along the northern
coast of the island. The Zone Touris!que in
par!cular is home to a variety of sprawling
beachside resorts. Smaller-sized hotels and bed
& breakfast bou!ques, which are easier to
update/maintain, func!on as viable high-
quality alterna!ves to the mega resorts. Quality
lodging op!ons in the mainland southeastern
governorates (circuit #2) are certainly available
but not numerous. Advanced planning is cri!cal
to avoid disappointment. Bou!que hotels
currently in opera!on at three Star Wars
loca!ons (Hotel Sidi Idriss, Hotel Ksar Hadada,
and Ksar Ouled Debbab) present travelers with
an immersive fandom experience. Tozeur city is
the tourism epicenter in the Tozeur
Governorate (circuit #3) with a large offering of
mega complexes of varying quality, bou!que
hotels, and a unique luxury resort overlooking
the Cho' el-Djerid salt flats. Ren!ng a house or
apartment from a private owner should only be
done through established professional
pla(orms to lessen the risk of fraud.

LOCAL INTERACTION

Arabic is the official language of Tunisia. Na!ves

speak the Tunisian/Maghrebi Arabic dialect.
French is widely spoken by the majority of the
popula!on. English and Italian, to a much lesser
extent, also serve as lingua francas.
Founda!onal German and Russian are spoken
on a limited basis in touris!c zones. Dialects of
the Tunisian Amazigh (Berber) languages—
collec!vely referred to as Shelha—are spoken
in dis!nct popula!on pockets in the
southeastern governorates and on Djerba
island, to include locales such as Douiret,
Chenini, Matmata, Tamezret, Ajim, Guellala,
and Sedouikech. Regardless of the language
used, responsible travelers will find it easy to
integrate into the proac!vely inclusive Tunisian
culture uniquely infused with Maghrebi, Arab,
Mediterranean, and European influences.

SAFETY

Touring the three Star Wars tourism circuits in

Tunisia is unques!onably safe. The geographic
areas in and between the three circuits fall well
beyond official travel advisory loca!ons. Pe'y
crime targe!ng tourists is rare. The Tunisian
proclivity to embrace, accept, and protect
interna!onal visitors is both genuine and
ingra!a!ng. Although the threat of a terrorist
event in Tunisia is a sustained possibility, the
overwhelming majority of Tunisians interpret
terrorism to be in direct conflict with Tunisian
ideals and values. Out of an abundance of
cau!on, visitors to Tunisia should register with
their respec!ve embassies in Tunis.

Interna!onal media outlets—especially since

the cluster of horrific mass-casualty a'acks in
Tunis and near Sousse in 2015—rou!nely paint
Tunisia as a hotbed for unchecked radical
Islamic extremism. This percep!on is
fundamentally false. Pivotal security
developments since 2016 to thwart Islamist
ac!vity in Tunisia—the only democracy to
emerge from the Arab Spring (2011)—con!nue
to dras!cally minimize the probability of future
large-scale terrorist a'acks inside the country.

The current security challenge posed by the

two organized Islamist groups based in Tunisia
—AQ-aligned Ka!bat ‘Uqbah Bin Nafi’ (KUBN)
and ISIS-linked Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia (JAK-T)
—mirrors a low-impact insurgency comba!ng
Tunisian security forces rather than a
protracted terrorist campaign. The two militant
groups, rela!vely small in number with no
capacity to seize control of any populated
territory, operate autonomously in
northwestern Tunisia, primarily in isolated
mountainous areas in the Kasserine and Kef
governorates. Separately, ISIS-
inspired/poli!cally mo!vated small-scale “lone-
wolf” a'acks occur infrequently in Tunis and
other main ci!es, predominantly targe!ng
security/military targets, patrols, and
checkpoints. The probability of a single-actor
a'ack in Tunisia is no greater than the rate of
such a'acks in regionally adjacent European
countries.

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