Recent Mad Traveller
Anguilla 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Anguilla runs on the East Caribbean dollar, pegged at EC$2.70 to the US dollar since 1976, but nearly every price a visitor actually sees is quoted straight in USD, and it runs higher than the peg alone would suggest. This is a British Overseas Territory, its own jurisdiction, not a satellite of St Martin/Sint Maarten next door, even though almost everyone flies into Sint Maarten first and ferries...
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Anguilla 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Book seven days in Anguilla expecting seven days of new sights and you’ll be disappointed by day 5. Here’s the honest heads-up: the island runs on roughly 33 beaches, two boat-out cays, one wave-down lobster shack, and a 45-minute island loop, and that’s genuinely the whole inventory. A week here works if what you actually want is pace, slower mornings, a repeat afternoon at...
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New Caledonia 2 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
Two days in New Caledonia is a Noumea trip with one lagoon day bolted on, not a New Caledonia trip, and treating it as more oversells what 48 hours actually buys. Amedee Islet is the only lagoon excursion that genuinely fits inside a single day; the Isle of Pines and the Loyalty Islands both cost the better part of a travel day each way and need their own itinerary. Our 3-day itinerary adds...
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New Caledonia 3 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
New Caledonia 3 Day Itinerary (No Traps) Three days in New Caledonia covers Nouméa plus one Amédée Islet lagoon day; Day 3 is an honest fork between a calmer Grand Sud loop and a rushed Isle of Pines dash. Need more room? Compare the 2 day , 4 day , 6 day , and 7 day versions, or the full New Caledonia rundown .
Book these before you go New Caledonia’s tourism sector is still rebuilding...
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New Caledonia 4 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
New Caledonia runs on the CFP franc pegged to the euro, not the Australian dollar its neighbours use, so prices land closer to Paris than to Fiji. It is French territory, but it sits outside the EU and Schengen, so its own visa rules apply, not French ones by default. Four days buys the honest core: Noumea’s two real sights, one lagoon day at Amedee Islet, and one proper night on the Isle of...
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New Caledonia 5 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
Five days in New Caledonia buys Nouméa, one Amédée lagoon day, and a real two-night stay on the Isle of Pines, then an honest Day 5 fork: a Grand Sud return trip or one more day on the island. It still isn’t room for the Loyalty Islands too; five days is a two-of-three trip, Nouméa plus the lagoon plus one outer island, not a three-island tour. Prices track French-Pacific levels, not a...
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New Caledonia 6 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
New Caledonia in six days means Nouméa plus Amédée Islet, a proper Isle of Pines stay, and one Loyalty Island, Lifou, added as a second outer-island leg. That is already a full plate: this route deliberately skips a Grande Terre loop, because six days genuinely is not enough for Nouméa, both outer-island groups, and a road trip up the coast too. Call it an honest pick-2-of-3, minus the third pick...
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New Caledonia 7 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
New Caledonia’s seven day itinerary is still a pick two of three trip, it just picks two ambitiously instead of settling for one. This route does Nouméa’s lagoon and both outer island legs, the Isle of Pines and one Loyalty Island (Lifou), and it drops a Grande Terre road loop entirely to fit them in. Don’t read that as a compromise: a genuine grand tour covering Grande...
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New Caledonia: Worth It? An Honest Look
New Caledonia is worth it, but only if you stop treating Nouméa as the destination. The capital earns a day, maybe two, for the Tjibaou Cultural Centre and the Aquarium des Lagons, then the job is done; the lagoon and the outer islands are the actual reason to book the flight. The CFP franc is pegged to the euro at roughly 119.33 XPF, so this runs at French Pacific prices, not a cheap...
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Sri Lanka 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days in Sri Lanka is a Colombo-and-Negombo trip with one genuine add-on day, not a whirlwind of the whole island, and you will pay in the Sri Lankan rupee (LKR), a completely different currency from India’s rupee next door. Any itinerary that also promises Sigiriya, a safari, and the hill country inside 48 hours is overselling a rushed, exhausting schedule. This loop stays honest:...
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Sri Lanka 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Three days in Sri Lanka is a fork in the road, not a lap of the island. Colombo takes day one either way. Day two is where you commit: Kandy and a taste of the Cultural Triangle, or Galle and the south coast. Trying to stitch both together is exactly the rushed overreach that turns a 3-day trip into two half-visits and a missed flight home. Pick a lane. The rupee (LKR) runs roughly 310-345 to the...
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Sri Lanka 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days is enough to do Sri Lanka’s Cultural Triangle properly, provided you accept you are not also doing a beach day, Ella, or the south coast. This route runs Colombo to Kandy to Dambulla and Sigiriya, with Polonnaruwa built in as an honest optional fourth stop rather than a box to tick. You pay in Sri Lankan rupees (LKR, roughly 310 to 345 to the dollar through 2026), not Indian...
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Sri Lanka 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Five days is where the classic Cultural Triangle route earns a proper hill-country ending: Colombo, Kandy, Sigiriya and Dambulla, then Nuwara Eliya and Ella stacked on top, tea country and one of the world’s great train rides added to the culture loop instead of left for some rushed future trip. You’ll pay in the Sri Lankan rupee (LKR), a different currency from India’s rupee...
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Sri Lanka 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days buys you the classic loop, not the whole island: Colombo, Kandy, a Cultural Triangle day, hill country, one safari, and Galle. It does not buy you Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, the east coast, or Jaffna, and pretending otherwise is how a 6-day trip turns into six days of transfers. Pick this route because it commits to five real regions instead of grazing seven.
This is the same spine as the...
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Sri Lanka 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Seven days is a genuinely tight fit for the whole island, not a comfortable one: Colombo, the Cultural Triangle, Kandy, the hill country, and the south coast, strung into one loop with a car and driver as the backbone rather than buses or the country’s one truly scenic rail line. Pay in Sri Lankan rupees, not the Indian rupee, a mix-up the geography invites but the currency doesn’t...
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Sri Lanka: Which Regions Are Worth It
Seven regions, one island, and even a full week won’t touch all of them. Sri Lanka runs on the rupee (LKR, averaging roughly 318 to the US dollar through 2026 and drifting weaker), and the fact most itineraries get wrong is that its two monsoons hit opposite coasts: the west, south, and hill country are driest December through April, while the east coast flips dry May through September....
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Calgary 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days is enough to do downtown Calgary properly, as long as you stop trying to squeeze Banff in too. Day 1 covers the downtown core: Stephen Avenue, the Calgary Tower, Prince’s Island Park, and Studio Bell in East Village. Day 2 moves to Kensington and Inglewood, Calgary’s most walkable and oldest neighborhoods, linked by the Bow River pathway. Banff sits roughly 1h15 to 2h west by...
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Calgary 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Calgary’s honest 3-day trip is a downtown-and-two-neighborhoods city break, not a Rockies day bolted onto a city visit. Do the Tower and Stephen Avenue on day one, cross the river for Kensington and Inglewood along the Bow on day two, then spend day three at Heritage Park’s historic village, open daily only from mid-May through mid-October, or Gasoline Alley plus TELUS Spark the rest...
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Calgary 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days in Calgary is the full downtown-and-neighborhoods spine plus one big add-on: a day trip out to the Rockies. Day 1 covers the Tower and Stephen Avenue, day 2 crosses the river for Kensington and Inglewood, day 3 spends itself at Heritage Park (or Gasoline Alley outside the season) paired with Spark or the zoo, and day 4 drives roughly an hour and a half to two hours west to Banff and Lake...
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Calgary 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Five days in Calgary is enough to stop treating the Rockies as an afterthought and still get two full days out of them. Days one to three cover the walkable city: the downtown core, Kensington and Inglewood along the Bow, then Heritage Park with a science-centre or zoo half-day. Day four is the marquee Rockies run, Banff and Lake Louise, a genuine 1h15 to 2h drive west. Day five skips the obvious...
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Calgary 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days in Calgary is enough to stop treating the Rockies as one rushed errand bolted onto a city trip, but only if day six is honest about what that actually means: a real six-day Calgary visit is Calgary plus a Rockies base, not six nights parked entirely downtown. Days one and two cover the downtown core, Kensington, and Inglewood; day three adds Heritage Park with TELUS Spark or the zoo; day...
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Calgary 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Seven days in Calgary is long enough to expose an honest problem with the whole premise: this isn’t seven days in the Rockies, it’s four in a genuinely good prairie city plus three that work far better as a Banff or Canmore base than as three more rushed round trips. Calgary sits at the Rockies’ foothills, roughly 1,045 meters up, not inside the range itself; Banff is a real...
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Calgary: 15 Things Actually Worth Doing
Calgary: 15 Things Actually Worth Doing Calgary is not in the Rockies. It sits on the prairie at roughly 1,045 meters, foothills visible on a clear day, and the mountains everyone actually pictures start about 1 hour 15 minutes down the Trans-Canada Highway. That is the correction worth making before you book anything, right after this one: the Glenbow Museum has been closed since 2021 and will...
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Lima 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days in Lima works best based in Miraflores or Barranco, not a hotel wedged into the Centro Historico chasing colonial photos. This itinerary spends day one on the Miraflores clifftop, the Malecon parks, Parque Kennedy’s resident cats, Larcomar, and the pre-Inca pyramid at Huaca Pucllana, then walks day two into Barranco for the Puente de los Suspiros and its street art before a half-day...
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Lima 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Three days is our 2-day plan plus a third day given over entirely to food, because Lima’s real claim to fame is the kitchen, not another colonial church. Lima sits at sea level on desert cliffs, so skip any Cusco-style altitude worry, that’s a different city 570km away. The sol trades around S/3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, cards work in most restaurants, and the...
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Lima 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days is our 3-day itinerary , Miraflores, Barranco and Centro Historico, the Larco Museum and a food day, plus a fourth day given entirely to Pachacamac, the pre-Inca and Inca ruins about an hour south of the city. Here’s the honest math: Pachacamac alone, door to door with the drive, already fills a comfortable half-to-full day, so resist folding Callao Monumental’s street art...
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Lima 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Five days in Lima means adding the one day trip the shorter itineraries here skip on purpose: a genuinely long run south to Paracas and the Islas Ballestas, not another loop around Miraflores. Days one through four nest our 4 day itinerary whole, Miraflores, Barranco and the Centro Historico, the Larco Museum and a food-forward afternoon, then Pachacamac or Callao Monumental, before day five goes...
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Lima 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days nests our 5-day itinerary exactly, then closes with Callao Monumental, San Isidro, and a food splurge worth planning around. Lima sits at sea level on desert cliffs, no altitude prep needed, that warning belongs to Cusco, a flight away. The sol trades around S/3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, and the Miraflores-Barranco-San Isidro core runs on registered taxis and apps rather than street...
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Lima 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Seven days nests our 6-day itinerary exactly, then closes with a flex day, Chorrillos and its wetlands, or a second food day, whichever suits the trip you’ve had so far. Lima sits at sea level on desert cliffs, no altitude prep needed, that warning belongs to Cusco, a flight away. The sol trades around S/3.38-3.41 per US dollar in 2026, and the Miraflores-Barranco-San Isidro core runs on...
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Lima: 15 Things Worth Doing (and 5 to Skip)
Everyone lands in Lima planning to leave for Machu Picchu as fast as possible, which is the wrong plan: Cusco is a flight away and the ruins are a separate multi-day trip, not a day trip you tack onto this one, so trying to cram both into a short visit shortchanges a city that currently has two restaurants ranked among the World’s 50 Best. Lima sits at sea level, so none of Cusco’s...
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Lima: Worth It? An Honest Look
Lima, Peru, not Lima, Ohio: this is the Peruvian capital, a coastal city of roughly 10 to 12 million people sitting flat at sea level, so skip any altitude worry, that concern belongs to Cusco at 3,400 meters and a separate flight away. Is basing yourself here worth it? Yes, mostly for the food: Central and Maido have both topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and a solid ceviche...
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Santiago 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days in Santiago de Chile covers the centro and one cerro, not a vineyard or the Andes, save those for our fuller Santiago guide or a region-focused trip. This one stays in the city: Plaza de Armas and Mercado Central on day one, Cerro San Cristobal and Bellavista on day two. Skip any two-day plan that also promises Valparaiso or a winery; the centro alone fills a day, and a rushed vineyard...
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Santiago 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Three days in Santiago is enough to skip the wine bus and the rental car entirely and still see the city properly. This route stays inside the city limits: Centro on Day 1, Cerro San Cristobal and Bellavista on Day 2, then Lastarria, Barrio Italia and the free Museum of Memory on Day 3. Pay in Chilean pesos, not euros and not Argentine pesos, at roughly CLP 925-950 per US dollar.
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Santiago 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days in Santiago is enough to cover the city properly, centro, both cerros, Lastarria and Barrio Italia, and the malls and free museums on the east side, without tacking on a rushed Valparaiso run or a half-day winery bus tour that eats a whole day for one tasting flight. That’s what a Santiago Chile itinerary is for instead. Prices below are in Chilean pesos (CLP), roughly 925 to 950...
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Santiago 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Five days inside Santiago’s city limits is enough to stop day-tripping and start noticing how the place actually works: five different mornings, five different neighborhoods, and still zero trips to a vineyard or the Andes. This route builds Centro and the cerros over the first three days, adds Sky Costanera and the east side on day four, then spends day five on the markets locals actually...
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Santiago 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days nests our 5-day plan exactly, then adds a genuinely slow day plus a single half-day taste of the wine country most Santiago guides try to cram in as a full excursion. This stays a city itinerary throughout, not a Santiago-and-region hybrid: the Maipo Valley, Cajón del Maipo and the coast get their own multi-day plan under Santiago Chile, not a rushed detour tacked onto day six here. Price...
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Santiago 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
A week in Santiago is not seven days to chase Valparaiso, wine country, and the Andes, that trip lives one file over as the Santiago Chile itinerary . This one goes deep on the city itself: both cerros, Lastarria, Bellavista after dark, La Vega, Sky Costanera, and exactly one half day wine outing near the end, nothing more. Chile runs on the Chilean peso, roughly CLP 925-950 per US dollar, and...
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Santiago Chile 2 Day Itinerary
Two days based in Santiago de Chile is enough for one region day trip, not three. Pick a direction and commit: day one stays a light city anchor, a condensed pass through centro plus Sky Costanera for an orientation view over the valley and the Andes, and day two goes entirely to Concha y Toro in the Maipo Valley. Skip any two-day plan that also promises Valparaiso and the Andes on top of the...
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Santiago Chile 3 Day Itinerary
Three days in Santiago Chile is not three days in Santiago the city. It’s one day getting your bearings downtown, then two days out where this region actually earns its keep: the Concha y Toro vineyards in the Maipo Valley on day two, the Cajon del Maipo canyon and the El Yeso reservoir up in the Andes on day three. If centro, the cerros, and Bellavista nightlife are what you actually came...
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Santiago Chile 4 Day Itinerary
Four days in Santiago Chile is our 3-day itinerary , city anchor, Concha y Toro wine, Cajon del Maipo, with a fourth day bolted on for the coast: Valparaiso, Vina del Mar, and La Sebastiana. Be honest about that fourth day before you book it. The bus out is roughly 90 minutes each way, so a same-day Valparaiso trip eats most of a day before you’ve climbed a single hillside. If centro, the...
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Santiago Chile 5 Day Itinerary
Five days based in Santiago de Chile is enough to run this region’s whole loop once: a light city anchor, a full day in Maipo wine country, a full day up in the Andes, a full day out at the coast, and a last day at a second, cooler-climate wine valley on the way back from the sea. If centro, the cerros, and Bellavista are the actual draw, our Santiago 5 day itinerary covers the city on its...
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Santiago Chile 6 Day Itinerary
Six days in Santiago Chile is enough to run the whole region menu instead of picking one piece of it: a city anchor day, Concha y Toro’s Maipo Valley wine, the Cajon del Maipo canyon up in the Andes, a coastal swing through Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, a second wine day in Casablanca paired with Isla Negra, and a day six that genuinely depends on the calendar. June through September, that...
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Santiago Chile 7 Day Itinerary
Seven days built around Santiago Chile is the full regional loop, not seven days spent going deep on one city, that trip lives one file over in our Santiago 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps) . This one radiates outward: Maipo and Casablanca wine, the Andes at Cajon del Maipo, the coast at Valparaiso and Isla Negra, and, if the calendar cooperates, a day on skis. Prices run in Chilean pesos, CLP,...
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Santiago Chile: 10 Day Trips Worth Doing
Santiago Chile: 10 Day Trips Worth Doing Santiago’s best days out are not in Santiago. Spend one on Concha y Toro’s vines forty-five minutes south, another on the Andes at Cajon del Maipo, a third on Valparaiso’s hills ninety minutes down the coast, and central Chile gives you more than another day walking the centro would. You’ll spend Chilean pesos doing it, roughly...
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Santiago Chile: Worth It? An Honest Look
Santiago, Chile, not Compostela, not Cuba: this is the Chilean capital, sitting a flat 520 meters in the Andes’ shadow, so skip the altitude talk that belongs to Cusco or La Paz. Is basing yourself here worth it for the wine valleys, the Andes and the coast? Yes. Concha y Toro’s vines sit 45 minutes south, Cajon del Maipo and the El Yeso reservoir are 90 minutes into the mountains,...
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Santiago: 15 Things Worth Doing (5 to Skip)
Santiago: 15 Things Worth Doing (5 to Skip) Santiago runs on the Chilean peso, not the euro and not the Argentine peso next door, and at roughly 520 meters above sea level the city sits closer to Denver’s elevation than anything in the Andes proper, so skip the altitude worries you’d pack for Cusco or La Paz. What you do need is street sense: Chile carries a US State Department Level 2...
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Tunisia 2 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Two days in Tunisia is not a Tunisia trip, it is a Tunis-and-suburbs trip, and calling it more than that oversells what two days actually buys. You will change dollars or euros for dinar on arrival, since Tunisia’s currency cannot be bought before you fly, and everything below sits inside Tunis, Carthage, and Sidi Bou Said. That is genuinely the honest scope: the desert, the coast, and the...
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Tunisia 3 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Three days in Tunisia is a Tunis-and-suburbs trip plus one honest day trip out, not a lap of the whole country. Do Tunis and the Bardo, then Carthage and Sidi Bou Said by TGM, then spend day three on El Jem’s amphitheatre rather than the Hammamet beach day most 3-day itineraries default to as padding. The dinar (TND) is a closed, non-convertible currency: you cannot buy it before you land,...
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Tunisia 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Most four-day Tunisia plans keep you in Tunis and bolt on a rushed Hammamet beach afternoon. Skip that. Four days is enough to do Tunis and its suburbs properly, add Kairouan inland, then actually relocate to Sousse for a night, base yourself there, and pick off El Jem as a short rail trip rather than a round trip from the capital. You will change dollars or euros for dinar on arrival, since...
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Tunisia 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Five days is where a Tunisia trip finally reaches an honest fork instead of faking the whole country. Do Tunis and the Bardo, Carthage and Sidi Bou Said by TGM, one inland day at Kairouan, then relocate to Sousse with El Jem folded in as a side trip, the same spine as the four day version. Day five is the actual decision: Tozeur’s desert and Star Wars film sets, or Djerba’s beaches and...
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