Sorry to hear about this, but one bad thing surely could not have ruined the whole experience?

I've never known passport control at Monistir take that amount of time! I think that you must have been particularly unlucky but passport control systems in this day and age do need to be more security conscious all round. And Tunisia's nearest neighbours - Algeria and Tunisia - aren't the most stable of countries which must give them the jitters at times. Those of us who are EU citizens have got used to only minimal passport checks within the EU and the way we are fast tracked through in most situations doesn't prepare us for those situations were we aren't. It's easy to forget that visitors to this country who aren't EU citizens will often be subjected to similarly lengthy delays at our passport control checks. I try to look on the bright side when delayed at passport control - it usually means less time in the baggage hall waiting for the cases :-)

SM

i went to Monastir on the same day and I was through in five mins. Don't also forget that it was Eid on the tuesday thereafter so it would have been hectic because of tunisians going back home etc.

we went last year and we got through pretty quick, it took us no longer than when weve been to spain/greece etc.

roll on june as were going back and cant wait


mandy

Its always amazed me that a developing country can process so many plane loads of people arriving together so quickly. Its never taken us more then 30 - 40 mins from the plane to the coach with luggage in tow.

Amazing when it takes us up to two hours at Gatwick and thats without having to go through immigration

When I went with my mum last June we did have a bit of wait, what with everyone filling in the arrival cards but it (thankfully) it wasn't 2 hours. They did seem to give priority to families, which sort of anoyed me to be honest - we were hot and tired too!

I've never had that sort of delay but as said previouisly it may have had something to do with Eid. The only delay I had was when they looked at the screen and saw that I apparently hadn't officially left the country a few months earlier as I had mislaid the bottom part of my entry slip. Luckilly I sussed the problem and explained, after which the man just laughed and let me through. I found it rather reassuring that they were so efficient and on the ball.

When we went last year took us almost 2 hrs to get thru Immigration and Customs, but as the Rep informed us this was exceptional because for some reason unknown to them, 15 flights arrived within 30 mins. After we passed thru Immigration the Customs guy was standing in the door way with his hands on his head ..!!!!!! so most folks bypassed him....lol

Hi,
Well I arrived in Monastir on the 8th from Manchester and was in the thick of it too, but dont let it put people off its a normality, 2 wks prior to that my hubby went out on the same flight , times etc and it was the same he asked the immigration why it was so busy (hubby is tunisian) and he was told they wait for all the flights to come in to put everyone through together and only bring out all staff when all flights have landed,
Thats Tunisia for you!!

Arrived in Monastir on Sunday 29th along with a 2 other flights at the same time, passport control had all sections open however it was still queued right to the doors and took people a while to get through (i was lucky as at the front).
Having passed throught to collect my luggage thats where the problem began the other flights were unloaded first meaning all passport control had cleared and not a sniff of our luggage yet!
Once it finally appeared the next queue was for customes where only 2 sections were open and for some reason they were checking passports pictures again??????
All in it took me approx 1.5 hrs to pass through the airport, not the quickest.

Our last visit in November 2005 it took almost 2 hours to clear passport control squashed in like sardines ,then a wait for luggage, from landing to reaching our hotel in PEK was 4 hours, never had this delay before this was our 7th time to Tunisia,going again in 6 days so will let you know if it has improved,fingers crossed

thanks for this information. I hope i dont get stopped at passport control! coach trip is long enough without being delay anymore.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed as well as I'm flying into Tunis and have to catch the train to Sousse. I should have plenty of time but you know what they say about the best laid plans .......

Well got back just after midnight today, no change on arrival still squashed in like sardines waiting to get through passport control but a little quicker than in November only took 1 hour this time,didn't bother with the coach transfer got a taxi to hotel as I had had enough of hanging around
Departures was jam packed last night the Glasgow flight was delayed for 3 1/2 hours due to weather in Glasgow, but all went smoothly for our Birmingham flight.

Going back in May

Hi Lucky Bunny
we must have been at the airport at the same time - we returned home on the THomson flight to gatwick at 20.20 on 12th march. we arrived at check in at 18.15 to be greeted by a deserted check in desk which i was amazed at. appears we were the first of 7 thomson flights that evening so i bet things got hideous for those leaving later. when we landed at monastir on 8th at 11am (caught the 6.55 from gatwick) getting through immigration took 30 mins for just our flight. god knows what its like for those poor souls who land when multiple flight come in.

we went to Monastir a few years ago we went straight through and the best thing about it we were only on the bus for a bout 5 mins before we got to our hotel.

helloooooooooooooooooooooooo from the northeast.

We arrived there 2 weeks ago and was through in less than 10 minutes

Hi
we flew into monastir a couple of weeks ago on a sunday at the same time as about three other flights. To begin with there were only about 3 passport control desks open but then they gradually opened up some more which prompted a lot of queue hopping . I took a further 20 mins to get checked through and then about 30 minutes waiting for our baggage. I'm wondering whether the long wait in passport is intended to kill time while they sort the baggage out or it's the other way round and they delay baggage because of the passport delays?. Anyway we were too excited about being on holiday and the whole experience of being in another country to be too upset about the time it took to get out the airport. We did change some money while we were waiting though! We flew out on a wednesday which is a lot quieter. not so many flights and a very smooth process.

We flew into Monastir on Sunday 9th April on our first visit to Tunisia. We spent over 2 hours in the airport, mostly queueing at immigration/passport control. I felt very sorry for those travelling with young children who were left to stand and queue in the heat. We were led to understand by other passengers that these 2 hour waits were quite normal, especially with Sunday arrivals. The confused situation at Monastir made the process of arriving at even Cancun airport seem organised.