The “Bloopers” of my Tunisia Trip

Oh, what an adventure Tunisia was…

This trip didn’t start out on the right foot, but quickly turned into one of my favorite countries yet! I flew Air France, which was great – other than heavy fog in Paris causing a significant delay in leaving for Tunis. The flight was delayed by over an hour, but we were able to leave Paris and arrive safely.

After arriving and passing through customs, I put my bags through the security scanner to leave the airport. Before traveling, I researched local laws and found mixed reviews in regard to drone legality in Tunisia. I saw enough indicating that they were illegal. I did not want to risk it being confiscated, getting fined, or worse! So with my basic camera gear in my backpack, I didn’t expect to have so many issues upon arrival.

The man watching the scanner questioned my camera bag and before even opening my bag, asked if I had a drone. I immediately said no, but he was still unsure. He searched my bag, looking at each camera, the gear, and questioning why I had it with me. He also asked what my profession was. I provided him with that information (my 9 to 5 job), but he still continued to question it all.

He then took me over to another area for additional searching… all while still having my passport. That made me nervous, having someone walk off with my passport in a foreign country! He soon returned it to me, after taking me to another “TSA” officer to search through all of my luggage and continue questioning me. I explained that I was not here for work, I was here as a tourist and it was to take photos while I visit. Eventually, a THIRD officer came over and bluntly asked if I was a journalist. Again, I immediately replied no! And explained that I am simply here to visit the country, not for work purposes. They did let me go, but I’ll admit after that my anxiety was through the roof. I have never been questioned to that extent, especially while leaving an airport in a foreign country. I wasn’t sure how to explain to them that I am just attempting to be a travel influencer in my free time and I bring multiple cameras with me in attempt to capture as much content as possible while I am there…

So that was quite a shake up at arrival, but I figured I was good to go from there and no other issue would arise. Wrong. Things always go wrong when I travel. I forget something, or am not prepared enough and quickly find out all while going through culture shock of a new country. This was also a trip that I decided to brave driving internationally in a brand new country. That doesn’t speak a lot of English – so no signs are in English. Why did I think that would come with little complications?!

For starters, I rely too heavily on my phone carrier having a global pass for a vast amount of countries and neglected to check if Tunisia is on their list. Well surprise, it’s not! So I had no access to data, only the WiFi at the airport to quickly purchase an eSIM. I never use an eSIM, so my knowledge on which to buy is nonexistent. (Another shocker – I didn’t choose a great one). After installing it on my phone, I went to find the Hertz counter to get my rental car. But I could not find the counter next to the other rental car booths. I finally stopped at another booth to ask where it was located. Hertz moved their location away from the airport, but has a driver there to pick you up and take you to their location. Great! I decided I would get some cash before leaving the airport. I never carry cash in the USA, when 99.9% of places take payment by card. So of course I forget to inform my bank that I am traveling out of the country in order to get cash from the ATM. Issue number 3 and we aren’t even out of the airport yet. Is this my sign to just turn around?

Of course, my online bank account is not on my phone, so my only hope is my husband will be able to help me out. A couple calls later and he was able to indicate on his app for our joint account that it would be used out of the country. So more to come on this issue, I just need to get my car!

The Hertz van took me to the rental lot. It was easy to get a rental car in Tunisia. Before arriving, I got my International Drivers Permit for 3 years (I wasn’t able to rent a scooter while in Vietnam because I didn’t have one). But in Tunisia at Hertz, they only asked for my passport and USA drivers license.

(I would recommend being safe and having your international license, but you may get lucky if you chance it without one!)

Awesome, now to drive in a new city and find my hotel for the night. Except the data on my phone isn’t working now that I’ve left the airport WiFi… I bought enough data on my eSIM, and it says it’s set up. So let’s try to find a hotel, in a place I’ve never been, where they don’t have signs in English, without any access to my maps…

Pro-Tip:

ALWAYS download an offline map of the place you are visiting, even if you think you will have data. You NEVER know what will happen!

So after driving around Tunis for a solid hour, trying to find the hotel I booked in the Medina in Tunis, I gave up… crying. I am exhausted from traveling, with so much anxiety piling on from each issue. I parked the car and called my husband. What do I do? I can’t find this hotel, it’s on a tiny street that I am afraid to drive down. What if I get stuck and can’t park? I’m not sure where to park. It is an unfamiliar place at night, and I don’t even know where to walk with my luggage if I did park somewhere. I said screw it, staying in the Medina (a more authentic place) was not worth wasting hours trying to find my hotel while my maps were not working. And it wasn’t worth crying over.

So I booked another hotel that was along main roads and indicated there was parking. Honestly, I don’t know how I was able to do that on my phone when my maps wouldn’t even load for me to see the streets to get to the original hotel. Maybe it was pure luck I was able to book a new stay, but either way I safely arrived to my new hotel. Finally, I had access to WiFi to at least download a map of Tunisia, take a shower, eat food, and sleep. I would start my Tunisian adventure in the morning!

After much needed sleep to destress, I am heading to Dougga. But first – an ATM. No worries, there is one right down the street from the hotel! I attempted to withdraw money, but continuously receive the “error” message that it was not approved. I tried my other cards, hoping for pure luck that one wouldn’t care an ATM in an African country was looking for my money without giving notice. No such luck! But my plans included driving on a toll road… with no money. I knew that wasn’t going to work. From everything I had read, Tunisia is a cash-favoring country. And that is very much the truth!

Back to the ATM… It was the middle of the night at home and I needed to get ahold of my husband to make sure he put the correct country for our bank account. After calling repeatedly until he finally woke up to answer (oops, it was 3 am there) I found he did put the correct country down… But then it clicked! That links to HIS debit card for our account. It didn’t indicate mine was out of the country. UGH. So here we are, trying to create my online account to get it taken care of while he is half asleep and I have limited phone use still. Too bad to indicate you are traveling to another country on the account, they send you a confirmation number via text.. Well my phone was not receiving it!

I was about to lose hope. I planned to go to one more ATM in a last ditch effort to get some cash, without blowing my plans for the day while waiting for the bank at home to open. Declined. Declined. Declined. But wait! Here’s my old credit card that I had used one other time to take cash out years ago.. Let’s take a chance and try it while we are at it. Soon I had 100 Tunisian Dinar in my hand. Woah, it worked! I honestly felt like Kevin McAllister at the hotel in New York in Home Alone 2. Let’s see if it works again, this time 200… It worked. Oh my! Suddenly my anxiety lessened and I felt like my time in Tunisia could truly start!

I told you, I am great at having quite an adventurous time in other countries. But it’s not always the fun kind. More of the anxiety-ridden kind always happens at least once in each country I visit. Maybe one day I will finally learn all of my lessons and nothing will go wrong. But then where would that exhilaration of being in a new country be? Next time I will aim for only 2 things to go wrong!