21st Century Complete Guide to Tunisia: Encyclopedic Coverage, Country Profile, History, American Government Information (DOD, State Dept., White House), CIA Factbook (Two CD-ROM Set)

by U.S. Government

Amazon Price: $25.00 (as of 10/11/2008)
List Price: $25.00

Lonely Planet Tunisia

by Anthony Ham, Abigail Hole

Reviewer: wanderlust (Istanbul, Turkey, NA Turkey) - See all my reviews
All in all, I was very happy with this guide. It was the right size (not too thick, not too sparse), was very informative, and had great maps. I even liked the recommended routes (since Tunisia is small, it's very possible to "do" the whole country in a month), if one can "do" a country at all without living there.

Two recommendations I had for them. The first is that I did miss the recommended itineraries if you have 4 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, etc. It would have helped.

The second and more important issue I had was with the authors. Yes, they had a token female author but she reviewed the more women-friendly places such as Sidi Bou Said. The amount of harassment we received wasn't surprising, as I didn't solely rely on Lonely Planet and read up on those issues; but it really wore us down over the three weeks (I was traveling with a female friend and we are both attractive women in our 20s and 30s.)

My friend and I found ourselves in hysterics when the male author
recommended that we sit down with men in a cafe and talk to them about their lives. Yeah right!! I come from Turkey, so I am in no way ignorant about Muslim tradition (although North African culture is obviously different than Turkish), but nearly every single man we talked to hit on us.

That's ok, that's life. But I was infuriated to read that covering our heads would invite ridicule, because finally, in our last week, I started covering my head in Jerba and I felt an IMMEDIATELY positive difference. Yes, if I had been a tall blonde perhaps the reception wouldn't have been the same, but is Lonely Planet only geared towards men and tall blonde women? What about Mediterranean types like myself who can easily pass as native Tunisians? I wish I had known beforehand and would have covered up the whole time (by the way, we dressed EXTREMELY modestly and after seeing how some tourist women acted in Tunisia, we are definitely sympathetic to the stereotypes the men have there towards women like us).

Tunisia is a great place to visit and I still have to admit that this is a good guide but ladies, read up on your own. Or should I write my own guide for women? :)

Amazon Price: (as of 10/11/2008)

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