Hi Davied - a Medina is usually an old town - often many hundreds of years old - and is usually surrounded by walls. Normally the streets are narrow and winding with lots of dead ends, so the ideal place to get lost in - we love the atmosphere there. Despite the lack of space, cars somehow manage to speed around the place with inches to spare and you have to be pretty quick on your feet to get out of the way. In Sousse and Monastir, the Medina is adjacent to the Souk (market) - so you'll be able to kill two birds with one visit! Nothing touristy happens there, just a traditional way of life, so well worth a visit if your interested in that sort of thing. All best - Jenny x

I dont want to sound negative but the medinas are a struggle !! we went and got dragged into every little shop that was there by the shop owners, we couldnt wait to get out of there.
the one we went to was in yasmine hammamet. the place itself is very beautiful and we want to go back one day but we wouldnt go back to the medinas.

we went to both monastir and sousse.a polite no did the trick if we wer'nt interessted.they were quite fun and also very interessting
to see the buildings and the way of life.the wife was amazed.

I do agree the shopkeepers try to get you into their shop, but they need the money from tourists and if you don't go into their place the shop next door might get your custom. As Seahunt says, a polite 'no thanks' or preferably 'la shokran' is quite acceptable and I love having a laugh and joke with them, even when I don't want to buy. If I'm in a hurry and don't want to stop I simply return their greeting with "aslemma" which means "hello" and seems more polite than simply ignoring them and doesn't indicate your nationality (they all speak many languages). Problem now is that I'm fairly well known there so usually get caught up in conversations so it can be a fairly slow progress. You will find plenty of useful phrases on here which will give the impression that you know your way around and it's not your first visit.