BudgetTravel

The next morning you can opt for a $45 per person visit to the village of El Djem, which houses a grand Roman amphitheater, or simply enjoy the day in Sousse. The town is another excellent one for shopping. Tunisian wooden dolls dressed with traditional costumes, and natural sponges from the nearby Gulf of Gabés are among typical local products.

The following day, you'll journey inland to Kairouan, founded in A.D. 670 by Oqba ibn Nafi (legend says he slipped on a golden cup that came from Mecca—it was hidden in the spot where the town is now located). It's a holy city full of mosques—and you'll get a personal introduction to one of them during an "Introduction to Islam" discussion and tour. Afterwards, you'll tour a carpet factory, as Kairouan is also Tunisia's center of carpet manufacturing. Finish your day trip with a home dinner hosted by locals and an overnight stay at the La Kasbah Hotel in Kairouan.

Tiled archway and minoret of the Great Mosque (Michele Burgess/Corbis)

Your jaunt into the desert will begin the next morning. The first stop is in Sbeïtla to see the ruins of the southernmost Roman town in Tunisia. Then it's on to Kasserine Pass, an important WWII site, and then into Gafsa. This oasis in the Sahara has 250,000 date palms. Finally, end today's journey in Tozeur at the 142-room Ras El Ain Hotel, with an outdoor pool and Internet access. This will be your home for three nights.

You'll have two days free to roam Tozeur, along with an included horse-drawn carriage ride, during which you'll see canals, date palms, flowers, and crops of plums, grapes, pomegranates, and strawberries.

While in Tozeur, you can choose to take advantage of two optional events. There is a $60 per person excursion to Chébika, Tamerza, and Midès—set in beautiful mountain gorges—that includes a lunch. And there's also a desert presentation about the culture of the Berbers, a nomadic group in North Africa, for $50 per person (including dinner).

To begin the last third of your trip, you'll set out for Douz, from which point the Sahara stretches, little traveled, to the south. On your way, you'll spy the Chott el Jerid, an expanse of 20,000 square miles and the largest salt flats in the Sahara. After this 100-mile trip, you'll arrive in Douz and take a tour of the oasis town via camelback. You'll stay in the 131-room Sun Palm Hotel and enjoy an included dinner.

Back on the road the following day, you'll stop at Matmata, a town of underground houses built in sunken craters for protection from the heat, as you head east toward Djerba, an island on the Mediterranean Sea. You'll get there by ferry and take a tour that includes El Ghriba. This neighborhood is home to a Jewish community with a history going back to the 6th century B.C. Your accommodations for the night are in the Maritim Yadis Hotel, where you'll stay for two nights.

You have a choice of exploring Djerba on your own or taking an optional tour of the city of Gabès, a four-mile-long city on the Mediterranean shore. This tour costs $85 per person. Otherwise, explore Djerba's capital, Houmt Souk, which means market quarter. Here you can explore shops, or historic tombs and mosques. This evening is your farewell dinner with the other members of your touring group.

After breakfast, you'll take your included flight from Djerba to Tunis.You have one more night of accommodations provided (back at the Tunisia Palace Hotel), and then it's back home to the U.S. Not ready to go? You can tack on a few more excursions, such as a post-trip extension in southern Tunisia for $795 per person for three nights. There's also a pre-trip extension in Morocco for four nights, also $795.

Tunisia stays warm in the winter months, so expect high temperatures in the 60s in December. The winter (October to April) is also prone to rain. The Sahara gets very hot during the day and cold at night, so packing with layers in mind is a good idea.

For more tips on what to do, visit Tunisia's official tourism website and see the U.S. State Department's travel fact sheet.

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