Best Things to Do in Sidi Bou Said: Viewpoints, Cafés, Streets & Nearby Carthage

The ten things below are in the order most visitors meet them, from the main street up to the viewpoints and back down. Pick five or six and leave time to sit.

1. Walk the blue-and-white streets

This is the reason to come. The cobbled main street climbs from the bottom of the village to the top, past white walls, studded blue doors, blue window grilles and bougainvillea. Walk it once, then turn off into the side lanes, where the doors are just as good and the crowds thin out within a few steps.

Come before late morning or after mid-afternoon if you can. Day-trip groups arrive in the middle of the day and fill the main street.

2. Find the Gulf of Tunis viewpoints

You do not need a map for the views. They open up as you climb, between houses and at the ends of lanes, and at the top of the village the whole gulf spreads out below you, with the marina directly underneath and Cap Bon across the water. Keep walking past the first good view; there is usually a better one a few minutes on.

3. Café des Nattes

Café des Nattes sits at the top of the steps on the main street and is the village’s best-known café. Go for the historic atmosphere: reed mats, low benches, painted woodwork and people-watching over the street below. Order mint tea with pine nuts. It is the local drink, and it is what everyone else will be having.

4. Cliffside café / Café Sidi Chabaane

For sea views and sunset, go to Café Sidi Chabaane, whose terraces step down the cliff toward the water. The view over the marina and the gulf is the one on the postcards. Late afternoon is the best time to go, and the terraces are busiest then too, so arrive a little before sunset if you want a seat at the edge.

5. Try bambalouni

Bambalouni is a ring of fried dough dusted with sugar, fried to order at the stall near the bottom of the main street and handed over in paper. It costs very little and fits neatly into a walking visit. Eat it straight away, while it is hot.

6. Dar El Annabi

Dar El Annabi is an eighteenth-century family house open to visitors. Go here to see the inside of a traditional Sidi Bou Said residence: the reception rooms, the courtyard, the Andalusian garden and the roof terrace, which has its own view over the village. A visit adds about half an hour to your day.

7. Ennejma Ezzahra

Ennejma Ezzahra is the palace that Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger built below the village in the early twentieth century, and it now houses a museum of Arab and Mediterranean music. Choose it over Dar El Annabi if architecture, decorative arts and music history interest you more than domestic life. The carved plaster, painted ceilings and marble rooms are the draw. Check opening days before you plan around it.

8. Explore quieter residential streets

Away from the souvenir shops on the main street, Sidi Bou Said is a lived-in village. The residential lanes are quieter and often prettier, with the same doors and the same blue, and almost nobody else in them. People live behind those doors, so keep your voice down, do not photograph residents without asking and do not sit on doorsteps.

9. Walk toward the marina

If you have extra time, walk down to the marina below the village for a different angle on the cliffs and a stroll along the harbour. It is optional: the path down is easy, but the climb back up is steep, and in summer heat it is hard work. Skip it on a short visit.

10. Combine with Carthage

Carthage is the best nearby add-on, a short ride away by road or on the TGM light rail. Carthage is the history, and Sidi Bou Said is a relaxed finish with tea and a view. See the ruins first while you are fresh, then come up to the village in the afternoon.

The Carthage and Sidi Bou Said Tour ($56 per person, 4.9/5 from 76 reviews) does the day in that order: about two and a half hours at six Carthage sites with every entry ticket included, then a drop-off in Sidi Bou Said so you can stay on as long as you like. If you are based in Hammamet and only want the village, the half-day visit to Sidi Bou Said ($33 per person, 4.2/5 from 127 reviews) includes hotel transfers and gives you about two hours here with no ruins on the itinerary.

Our guide to how much time to spend at Carthage and Sidi Bou Said helps you split the day, and the best things to do in Carthage covers which ruins to choose.

Final thoughts

Sidi Bou Said does not need a long list of attractions. Walk the lanes, look out over the gulf, sit down for a mint tea and stay long enough for it to be more than a photo stop. To have the lanes after the day-trippers leave, stay the night in Sidi Bou Said.

Most visitors see Sidi Bou Said at the end of a Carthage day. Compare the tours that include both or check availability for your dates.

Best Things to Do in Sidi Bou Said