Originally Posted by Waudiz

I'm back from my trip through TUN. My experiences with the airport:

- No problems at immigration / customs

- Baggage claim belt suddenly changed while waiting, making people run from the one to the other end of the baggage hall

- My bags did not arrive due to short connect at CDG. I had to come back to the airport and pick the bags up myself once they arrived. They pretended not to be able to send the bags to a hotel. That (go to the airport and back) cost some extra time and money, but in first line caused some problems with my itinerary because they are open from 8 am to 8 pm. Hard to combine with my itinerary with early starts and late endings of the day. BTW I can hardly believe they cannot send a bag to somewhere. What if I had travelled onward (I stayed in Tunis city for 4 days) or even took the next flight?

- Bag capacity is one of the shortcomings of this airport. When travelling with checked bags, be prepared that in most situations it won't be possible to drop the bags earlier than 3, maybe 4 hours prior to the flight. I suppose the airport just doesn't have enough storage. The situation landside at the check-in desks can be chaotic, particularly for Tunisair, and you should watch your belongings very carefully. It's a good idea to put your passport, wallet, smartphone in an inside pocket of your jacket while queuing amid an often chaotic crowd. AF/KLM and Lufthansa have an own check-in section where it's less chaotic. Also some flights from other airlines, including a small amount of Tunisair flights, are handled in that section. Don't expect people to queue in an orderly manner like Britons are famous for. It's pushy everywhere, and if you push too, you only act like a local, don't worry too much about.

- The lounge is nothing you'll want to write home about - and even if you do, then certainly not in a positive manner. F&B is non self-service, choices are restricted. As there is one lounge for all flights only, it can get very crowded, and the look and feel is from an age you always thought it was passed longtime ago. Sometimes the WiFi works well, sometimes it does not or is slow. Power outlets are few and mostly already taken.

- If flights are boarded by zone, you can bet you won't see where to line up for your zone, particularly if you come late. You'll just see one long queue at best and several queues in the worst case, having no idea which queue is what. At the end, noone cares too much. First come, first board.

- I've been staying at Hotel Belvedere Fourati in the city center of Tunis. Using Bolt it was somewhat less than 20 TND from/to the airport. The taxi meter showed about half that fare (one time it was only 7 TND on the meter), so if you take a regular taxi, it can be cheaper, but Bolt adds some safety features which you won't have taking a regular taxi. So it's up to you to decide. At the end, most Bolts are regular taxis, too, but using a different system when hailed using Bolt. And as other people already said, payment is by cash only. You can bet that some drivers will approach you offering "cheap" rides for "only" 50 TND or even more once you exit the baggage hall and step outside. If you dare and have the nerves, you can just walk towards the Bolt Pickup shown on Google Maps. The closer you get there, the more realistic the offers from drivers will become. Be aware you will not have Bolt's safety features when agreeing with one of the drivers approaching you. Also you should know that some drivers can really get aggressive and pushy, trying to take (and load) your bags so you can hardly step out of a deal anymore. It's normal to pay some addtional money for the bags stowed in the trunk, particularly when leaving the airport.

While at the other airports there are chauffeur services like Blacklane or Sixt, the big players are not active at TUN. I tried with a local provider called Mr Chauffeur (aka Carthage-Transfer) which I absolutely can NOT recommend. The car they used for the airport pickup was stale, and to go back to the airport they didn't even bother to show up or let me know about a problem that may occurred. After waiting for a long time, I went with a regular taxi and whatsapped the company about it. They said that's fine. No word of being sorry at first sight. Only later they pretended my driver had a car breakdown. OK, that happens, but they could have sent someone else or at least let me know about it in time. Fortunately, the transfers were not prepaid, so I didn't lose any money.