Where to stay in Tunisia: the best resorts and hotels

Hammamet was Tunisia's first beach resort and it is still its most elegant. The old town is a compact, whitewashed medina inside sea walls, the beach sweeps away in a long curve of fine sand, and the town takes thalassotherapy, the art of the seawater spa, very seriously indeed.

Yasmine Hammamet, the purpose-built resort to the south, has a marina and many of the newest hotels, from Moorish-style complexes with family bungalows to grand thalasso resorts inspired by Granada's Alhambra. Enfidha-Hammamet is the closest airport; Tunis-Carthage is about 75 km away.

Port El Kantaoui was built around its marina, a postcard-white harbour village of cafés, yacht masts and boat trips, with golf behind and long sandy beaches either side. It's tidy, easy and very family-friendly, with resorts that have kids' clubs, pools and their own slice of beach.

Next door, Sousse is Tunisia's liveliest resort town, with a UNESCO-listed walled medina, souks and a busy beachfront of bars and clubs. Stay there for nightlife and a sense of place, or in Kantaoui for calm with the buzz on call. Monastir airport is about 20 km away.

Monastir is compact, clean and proud of itself, with a great golden-stone ribat on the seafront that film fans may recognise from Monty Python's Life of Brian, a small medina, a marina and the grand mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first president, who was born here.

Many hotels sit along the Skanes coast, between the town and Sousse, a few minutes from the airport, which makes Monastir ideal for a short break or for families who dread long transfers. Expect beachfront resorts with pools for adults and children, and in some cases a fine sandy beach right outside.

Mahdia is the coast's quiet achiever. Its old town stretches along a narrow peninsula, entered through the massive Skifa el-Kahla gate, with a Great Mosque, an Ottoman fort and fishermen mending nets in the harbour. The beaches here are among the finest in Tunisia: soft, white and lapped by clear, shallow water.

The hotel zone strings a handful of big resorts along the sand a few kilometres from the centre, with thalasso centres and long private beaches. It's calmer than Sousse or Hammamet, and the great Roman amphitheatre at El Jem makes an easy day trip.

Djerba feels like a different country. This low, sun-baked island off the south coast is a patchwork of palm and olive groves, whitewashed mosques and menzels, the traditional fortified farmhouses, with flamingos wading in the shallows. Houmt Souk, the main town, has the best market and an old fort by the sea.

The resorts sit in the tourist zone around Midoun, along wide sandy beaches with a golf course alongside. Expect large all-inclusives with spas and thalasso centres, several of them recently renovated. Djerba-Zarzis airport is about 25 km from the hotel strip.

The capital is the place for culture. The medina of Tunis is a UNESCO-listed maze of souks and mosques, and the Bardo Museum holds one of the world's great collections of Roman mosaics. Along the bay, the ruins of Carthage sprawl among villas and gardens, and Sidi Bou Said, all white walls and blue shutters, clings to a cliff above the sea.

Business travellers favour Les Berges du Lac, about 10 minutes from the airport. Holidaymakers should head for Gammarth, the beach suburb just north of Sidi Bou Said, where hotels sit on a sandy bay looking back at the village, or the nearby Côte de Carthage.

Tozeur sits on the edge of the Sahara beside a vast oasis of date palms, fed by springs and an irrigation system devised by a medieval mathematician. Its old quarter is built of distinctive patterned brick, and beyond town lies the Chott el-Jerid, a shimmering salt lake where mirages are routine.

From here you can drive into the mountains to the abandoned villages of Chebika, Tamerza and Mides, or track down the Star Wars sets out in the desert. Hotels face the palm groves, and a few go all out, with private pool villas, hammam rituals and Berber-style dinners under the stars.

Tabarka, near the Algerian border, is Tunisia's green surprise: cork oak and pine forests rolling down to the sea, a Genoese fort on its rocky headland and some of the country's best diving among coral reefs. It's small, low-key and a world away from the big resorts of the east.

Hotels mix a golf and thalasso resort among the pines, boutique stays near the fort and the port, and spa hotels a short walk from the beach. Tabarka has its own small airport, though most visitors come by road from Tunis.