'Beautiful seaside city looks just like Mykonos but drinks are just 50p'
After months of counting down, the awaited trip that finally left the group chat arrived - and it's one of my favourite holidays so far.
Just 20 minutes away from the capital of Tunisia is La Marsa, a small seaside city situated along the Mediterranean Sea. Even though it's relatively close to Tunis, it has a completely different vibe which I absolutely loved. The streets and the colour of the houses reminded me of Mykonos, and it was far less crowded.
Mykonos has earned itself a reputation of offering rustic luxury to holidaymakers, and it's even a firm favourite among celebrities. But that's nearly always reflected in its steep price tag, with sunset viewing restaurants all demanding a premium.
Soaring in popularity in recent years, Santorini and Mykonos grapples with an influx of tourists every summer, but my friends and I wanted to get away from the typical holiday retreat.
We wanted to do away with an all-inclusive resort and be able to walk down the street with ease. So we opted for a more local experience, and, let me tell you, it was so worth it.
As soon as we touched down at the airport, we were greeted by the warm winds and a couple of stares from the locals. Our AirBnB was 100 metres away from the beach, which was ideal for us to just get up and head over to get some sun.
La Marsa is known for its lively atmosphere, beaches, and upscale residential areas. The houses and many buildings are painted in white and blue, and the streets are covered in pebbles, giving off a Mykonos vibe.
The one huge difference I found between the two were prices. Our AirBnB cost £450 for five days, whereas this premium would be required for just a night at a modern apartment in Mykonos.
During our five-day stay, we visited the Ruins of Ancient Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and the Central Market. We also came across a souvenir shop, where the owner spoke five different languages.
The people in La Marsa were not only the kindest and most genuine people, but they were also happy to see tourists visiting. We were recommended a lot of local restaurants and bars, as well as different areas to visit. No one was keen to gate-keep beauty spots across the town, and were almost willing to show it all off.
And it wasn't just the cost of the overall trip that was cheap, a full-course meal for five people cost us approximately £10 each, if not less, with soft drinks being as cheap as 50p. Overall, I spent around £100 in food, drinks and transport for a five-day trip which I find astonishing.
Doing a holiday in pure self catering meant we had a mixture of everything, from Tunisian tacos to fresh seafood and fresh-warm bread with Harissa sauce.
And, to get around the town and other areas, you could either walk or take public transport, which is super affordable. Alternatively, there are a bunch of yellow taxis that will take you anywhere you want and even blast some music during the ride. A 30-minute trip only was £5.
If you're looking to spend a couple of days away from home without spending thousands of pounds, Tunisia is the place for you. It's cheap, beautiful and the kind of place you'll definitely want to return to. I know I will.
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Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'Beautiful seaside city looks just like Mykonos but drinks are just 50p'
After months of counting down, the awaited trip that finally left the group chat arrived - and it's one of my favourite holidays so far. Just 20 minutes away from the capital of Tunisia is La Marsa, a small seaside city situated along the Mediterranean Sea. Even though it's relatively close to Tunis, it has a completely different vibe which I absolutely loved. The streets and the colour of the houses reminded me of Mykonos, and it was far less crowded. Mykonos has earned itself a reputation of offering rustic luxury to holidaymakers, and it's even a firm favourite among celebrities. But that's nearly always reflected in its steep price tag, with sunset viewing restaurants all demanding a premium. Soaring in popularity in recent years, Santorini and Mykonos grapples with an influx of tourists every summer, but my friends and I wanted to get away from the typical holiday retreat. We wanted to do away with an all-inclusive resort and be able to walk down the street with ease. So we opted for a more local experience, and, let me tell you, it was so worth it. As soon as we touched down at the airport, we were greeted by the warm winds and a couple of stares from the locals. Our AirBnB was 100 metres away from the beach, which was ideal for us to just get up and head over to get some sun. La Marsa is known for its lively atmosphere, beaches, and upscale residential areas. The houses and many buildings are painted in white and blue, and the streets are covered in pebbles, giving off a Mykonos vibe. The one huge difference I found between the two were prices. Our AirBnB cost £450 for five days, whereas this premium would be required for just a night at a modern apartment in Mykonos. During our five-day stay, we visited the Ruins of Ancient Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and the Central Market. We also came across a souvenir shop, where the owner spoke five different languages. The people in La Marsa were not only the kindest and most genuine people, but they were also happy to see tourists visiting. We were recommended a lot of local restaurants and bars, as well as different areas to visit. No one was keen to gate-keep beauty spots across the town, and were almost willing to show it all off. And it wasn't just the cost of the overall trip that was cheap, a full-course meal for five people cost us approximately £10 each, if not less, with soft drinks being as cheap as 50p. Overall, I spent around £100 in food, drinks and transport for a five-day trip which I find astonishing. Doing a holiday in pure self catering meant we had a mixture of everything, from Tunisian tacos to fresh seafood and fresh-warm bread with Harissa sauce. And, to get around the town and other areas, you could either walk or take public transport, which is super affordable. Alternatively, there are a bunch of yellow taxis that will take you anywhere you want and even blast some music during the ride. A 30-minute trip only was £5. If you're looking to spend a couple of days away from home without spending thousands of pounds, Tunisia is the place for you. It's cheap, beautiful and the kind of place you'll definitely want to return to. I know I will.
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I've found the simple, tried-and-tested solution to overtourism
The water pistols are back. On Sunday a wave of co-ordinated anti-mass tourism protests took place across southern Europe, from Lisbon to Venice via Palma de Mallorca. The Barcelona marches saw several hundred turn out. Flares were thrown into hotel lobbies. A hostel was taped off like a crime scene. Tourist or not, if you happened to be sitting at a café terrace in the Spanish city's Gothic Quarter that day, you had a high chance of getting spritzed. It's hard to argue with the demonstrators' points. Tourism, particularly the proliferation of short-term lets such as Airbnbs, is pushing up rents, exacerbating the housing crisis and forcing locals out of their own neighbourhoods. It is also changing the character of some of Europe's most magnificent cities. Historic restaurants and family-owned businesses are vanishing; in their place emerge yet more gaudy fast-food chains, bubble tea shops and vape stores. If that's your vibe, you may as well spend the weekend walking up and down Oxford Street. Much needs to change, clearly, but the emphasis hasn't always been in the right place. Mitigation tactics appear to come in one of two forms: either a) curbing visitor numbers through headline-making policies such as tourist taxes, limiting cruise ship arrivals or even a complete ban on short-term rentals, which Barcelona plans to enforce from 2028; or b) suggesting travellers try 'destination dupe' alternatives instead (Catalan neighbour Girona is the go-to when it comes to Barca-alikes, which I'm sure they love there). But I'm not convinced tourists are going to stop wanting to visit these cities in significant numbers. They are popular for a reason — the art! The architecture! The mini beers and salty snacks! — and shouting or graffitiing 'go home' or 'go elsewhere' is unlikely to work. So here is my proposal: send them to the suburbs. One city that is trying to pre-empt and stave off overtourism is the small but increasingly popular Ghent, whose tourist board is promoting what it calls 'spreading' — trying to distribute visitors throughout the city rather than having them concentrated in the historic centre. As anyone who's visited Ghent will know, it's a good 40-minute walk from the main train station to the city's central attractions, so it would make complete sense that more visitors stay overnight throughout this vast urban stretch instead of just the medieval core, which is what most tourists do (especially considering the city's impressive cycling infrastructure). The scheme is encouraging tourists to spend more time in less visited areas such as Dampoort, and wants more hotels to open city-wide. • 16 of the world's most underrated cities To take the example of an already overtouristed city, I can vouch for staying beyond Paris's Boulevard Périphérique. The suburb of Pantin, where I lived for six months (mainly because of the low rent), has all the edge of other northeastern areas within the ring road (the star turns being a host of canalside bars, dance theatre the Centre National de la Danse and the charming independent cinema Ciné 104). But you also get the sense of staying somewhere a lot more authentically French. Who needs the Pompidou Centre when you've got a massive hypermarché on your doorstep? For some cities, such as Barcelona, where tourism has reached such excessive levels that even the suburbs are sick of visitors, this might not be appropriate. But I have a back-up solution: commute. Faced with absurd hotel and Airbnb rates over Valentine's Day, I gave this a go in comparably overrun Amsterdam. We ended up in someone's garage in a seaside town called Zandvoort. The daily 20-minute train ride through a national park and Haarlem was gorgeous, and in the evenings we felt like the only Brits in town, doing our bit for the local economy at a time of year when it sees little custom. Similarly, this weekend, I'm off to a hotel in the mountains outside Alicante in Spain, and plan to pop into the city for tapas and a museum visit or two. I won't take it personally if they spritz me. What are your favourite city suburbs to stay in? Let us know in the comments
