How cheap or expensive you think Tunisia is - and cards on the table I'm one of those who think it's cheap - really depends on three things. Firstly, how much you like to drink on holiday and what you like to to drink, secondly, how comfortable you feel with haggling and thirdly what you consider to be 'cheap'.

I don't mind Celtia but then I'm not a lager expert - I like it because it is light and refreshing and enjoy one by the pool of an afternoon. I also don't mind the local wine but prefer the red to the white and you'll pay no more there than you will here for a decent red. I don't really drink spirits - the one bottle of duty free gin for a G & T before dinner always lasts me and my Dad for the week. When I go on my own I end up leaving the rest of the bottle for the maids or give it to a waiter because I can't be bothered carrying a half full bottle home with me. But if you like imported lagers or spirits and can't get on with the locally produced stuff you'll find that you'll no doubt spend far more on alcohol than I do.

Similarly, I actually enjoy haggling - I usually start off by offering half of what I'm willing to finally pay for it. Which is why I'd never even make an opening offer for that 'Nike' football shirt :-) Over the years I've developed a good idea of what will be accepted in the end but if you want an idea of what the going rate is for souvenirs and craft goods then a quick visit to one of the fixed price shops will give you a good idea of what you should expect to be able to barter shopkeepers in souks down to. And I'm not really interested in buying much else other than a few small gifts and stocking-up on saffron which is much cheaper there than here. But if shopping is an important part of the holiday experience for you then then the biggest disappointment is likely to be not the prices but the limited range of goods on offer in the first place. Tunisia isn't really the best place to go if you want to bring back that 'designer' handbag bought at a bargain price.

So, I usually take £200 cash for a week's HB in a hotel and change it into Dinar as I go. It buys me lunch, drinks (though the water will always have been smuggled in from the enarest supermarket!) and few locally produced souvenirs and gifts, covers the taxi and bus fares for getting about and I still usually have some left at the end of the week. I always take card to use for any excursions and the Duty Free at Monistir on the way home but I've not always needed to - there's usually been enough Sterling left to cover that too. On my last trip with my parents we took £200 per head in cash and still had money left over despite amongst other things paying cash for a taxi to for the day to go from Skanes to El Djem and Kairrouan in addition to the usual things mentioned above. We put the cost of a day's hire for a rental car and driver on the plastic which came to less than £70 for a full day trip to Dougga which worked out at about 2/3rds the cost of going on the coach excursion and we did the same with the 'Beduoin' night - big mistake but my Dad wanted to go! I reckon that all in, even once the 'plastic' was added in once we got home that we spent well under £250 per head. I've only ever been to Tunisia fro a week at a time but on the basis of past experience I'd probably budget £400 for a fortnight though probably hoping that I'd have some of that left over because I'd probably still only do the same number of trips. So that isn't that far short of what Keiron spent but he draws a differnt conclusion about whether Tunisia is cheap or not.

So all in all, whether you think Tunisia is a cheap holiday destination or not really does depend on what you like to do on holiday. For me it is a cheap destination - others who look for something different to me from a holiday, will disagree and the best thing is to really carefully research what you are wanting and whether Tunisia is the best place to get it at the price you are prepared to pay or not.

SM