Djerba is a great place to spend a holiday. If you don't like the organised trips hire a car (with a.c.) and drive to the grottes in Tatouine. The causway was built by the Romans and is now a main road. Alternatively you can take the ferry from the south western side of the island. Apart from that there are the usual tourist things like the souks, mosques camel rides etc.

Gareth WYNNE

Many thanks Gareth!!!

It's a very popular place for german tourists, though I believe more and more Uk travel companies are using the island now. It has some lovely hotels and is a great base for taking tours out into the desert .
Midoun is Jerba's second largest town and has a great market on Friday's.
Guellala is a pottery producing centre and there are loads of shops and workshops where you can buy lots of colourful pots and plates, you must haggle though.
I had a holiday there a couple of years ago and hope to return sometime.

Brilliant Judith! I'm passing all these straight onto her while she's at work. Anything else she should know???

Matmata might be worth a visit, it's where the people live underground and you can visit some of the houses.
A lot of the hotels in Jerba have spas so your friend might want to pamper herself one of the days. Can't think of anything else right now.

Oh many many thanks! I'm sure she'd love that!!!

Thanks Briar! I'd given my friend the link and told her to keep checking it! I'll even ask her to join HT and put a report on when she gets back! (or she can give it to me and I'll post it for her! ) I told her this was an excellent site!!

It's the best site in the world Pam, with the friendliest and most helpful posters

Came back from a really pleasant holiday at the Iberostar Djerba Beach a couple of weeks ago.

Djerba is a fairly flat island, the main industry tending to be tourism and some agriculture. The isalnd seemed to be a bit 'cleaner' than the mainland and a lot less developed. The locals I came across were very friendly and polite. Arabic is the main language and then French (if you can speak any French they really seem to appreciate the effort) and of course German due to the number of German tourists. There also seemed to be Italian and Dutch tourists too with English very much in the minority.

Did not do an awful lot on holiday as the purpose was just to relax for a week. We went on an island tour - museum about life on Djerba (spotlessly clean and staff very willng to help), pottery demonstration and buying opportunity at Guellala and a visit to a carpet place in the capital Hount Souk as well as some free 'shopping' time in market.The carpet demonstration was reallly just a selling opportunity so some people just
chose not to go to it!! I think there is normally a visit to a synagogue on this tour but as there was a Jewish festival (resulting in very heavy security) this stop was not available when we went.

We also went on the pirate ship organised by Mytravel. A trip on sailboat to Flamingo Island where there was an hour or so to swim or sunbathe followed by lunch and entertainment by the crew. Quite a good day.

A couple of times I left my husband chilling by the pool while I went out by myself. I caught a taxi to the Djerba Experience where there is a museum, 'living' museum and a crocodile farm. There is cafe at the crocodile farm and shops and restaurants outside the complex. Again everything was immaculate.

Another morning I took a cab to Houmt Souk to wander through the market and drink coffee at a beautiful, photogenic cafe. Of course salesmen did try to get my attention to shop in their stores but at no time did I feel threatened as a lone female. Taxis are very cheap and (should be) metered.

Hope this helps, I'm sure your friend will have a great time. It is a very relaxed holiday destination.

Many many thanks! I've passed this info straight onto her!

Hi
We have been back home two weeks now from our first and not the last visit to djerba, what a great place.
We only went for a week and were due to stay at the Djerba Vincci resort 4* HB 5mins walk to the beach, when we arrived at the airport we were offered a free upgrade to it's sister hotel 5* Vincci Alkantara FB on the beach.
well we all thought whats the catch, there was none, we got a sea view room its right on the beach and the food was great,(all for £250) a bit out of the way as it's either FB or AI, but just 3 miles from Midone (sorry about the spelling).
we went there on the friday as its market day had a few good hearted haggles we thought we did good deals anyway, and not really any hassles, there are also fixed price stores if you don't fancy the haggle, really nice people can't fault it, and the airport is as good as anywhere, really good duty free and the cafe's etc are not the usual high prices in fact much lower than the hotels.So all in all a great holiday and yes would go back tomorrow.
Happy Hols
Pete