Cheap flights to Hammamet

Quick summary

Identity

The jasmine resort that stayed low-rise

Hammamet is the oldest seaside resort in Tunisia and one of its primary tourist destinations. It sits on the south-east side of the Cap Bon peninsula, facing the Gulf of Hammamet. Its emblem is jasmine: posies of the flower are sold everywhere, and it gave its name to the purpose-built resort of Yasmine Hammamet.

The town is low-rise by rule. Houses, it is said, "must not be higher than the cypresses", so the resort has kept gardens instead of towers. The site has been settled since the 1st century, when it was called Pupput, a Roman colony by the 2nd century.

It suits families, couples and first-time visitors, and anyone who prefers a gentle resort with a real old town attached.

Old town

A small walled medina and a fort on the water

The medina is a small walled old town set directly on the sea, with whitewashed lanes and a souvenir souk. The town walls go back to the 13th century and the medina to the 15th.

At the harbour fort, the kasbah, you can walk the ramparts for the view over the roofs, the fishing boats and the bay. Explanatory panels are provided in several languages.

The International Cultural Centre, Dar Sébastien, is open to visitors, and the Hammamet International Festival takes place in summer. In the medina, bargaining is expected. Good things to bring home are Nabeul pottery and tiles, jasmine souvenirs and distilled flower waters.

Seaside

Beaches, Yasmine Hammamet and Roman Pupput

Hammamet is known above all for swimming and water sports. Hammamet Sud is the water-sports strip, with parasailing, jet-skis and tubing, as well as camel rides on the sand.

Yasmine Hammamet was created in the late 1990s as a purpose-built resort of 277 hectares, with five-star hotels and entertainment facilities. On the southern seafront, the ruins of Pupput recall the Roman colony.

Taxis link the medina, the hotel zones and Yasmine. Everyday costs such as taxis, shared taxis and simple meals are inexpensive, and lobster dinners are the costly exception.

Cap Bon

Nabeul, capital of Tunisian pottery

Behind the beach lies Cap Bon, Tunisia's garden, a peninsula of citrus groves and vineyards. Nabeul, the capital of the governorate, was founded in the 5th century BCE as Neapolis by Greeks from Cyrene. It later became a Roman centre for the production of garum, a fish sauce, and was wrecked by the tsunami of 365 CE.

Today it is the pottery capital of Tunisia, known for painted dishes and wall tiles, a craft revived in the early 20th century. The souk is held on Fridays, and the archaeological museum shows Roman mosaics and Punic statuary.

Nabeul also distils bitter-orange blossom, geranium and rose. Harissa is a local speciality, said to date from the arrival of Andalusians in the 16th century. Shared taxis and buses run there from Hammamet.

Cap Bon

Kelibia and the Punic town of Kerkouane

Kelibia is a fishing town near the tip of the peninsula, the Punic Aspis and Roman Clypea, and the scene of a siege in 255 BCE during the First Punic War. Its fort stands on a rocky promontory high above the sea, a citadel on older foundations with a Byzantine chapel inside.

The town is one of the country's leading fishing ports, and its boats fish at night by lamplight for sardines and mackerel. Its sand beaches are counted among the finest in the Mediterranean, and Muscat de Kélibia, a fruity white wine, is rated among the best in Tunisia.

Close by, Kerkouane is the only Punic city in the world never rebuilt by the Romans. It was probably abandoned around 250 BCE and never reoccupied, which is why its street grid, house plans, private baths and floors survive untouched. It probably never had more than about 1,200 inhabitants, fishermen and craftsmen who produced purple dye, salt and garum. Its ancient name is unknown, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Cap Bon

El Haouaria quarries and the hot springs of Korbous

El Haouaria is a small town at the northern end of the peninsula, the Greek Hermaea. About 3 km to the west are the seaside sandstone quarries of Ghar El Kebir, cut by the Carthaginians and later the Romans. The blocks were shipped across the gulf to build Carthage.

On the west coast, Korbous is a spa village in a deep ravine opening onto the sea. Its springs run at more than 50 °C and were known to the Romans as Aquae Calidae Carpitanae. The peninsula itself was the ancient "Cape of Mercury".

A hire car or a driver is the practical way to make the loop around Cap Bon.

Why track Hammamet with SniperAir

You don't need to compare prices every day

Hammamet airport

Enfidha-Hammamet, about 40 to 50 km from town

Tunis-Carthage and Monastir airports are alternatives, each around an hour away by taxi. By rail, mainline trains stop at Bir Bou Regba, 6 km inland, and few services run to Hammamet itself. Shared taxis, called louages, run to Tunis from the Hammamet louage station.

Cap Bon

Three possible airports

Orders of magnitude — the actual trip depends on traffic and route.

When to go

When to visit Hammamet?

The climate is Mediterranean. Winter is mild and the wettest season, with the sea too cool for most people. Spring brings warm days and a cool sea. Summer is hot, dry and the peak season, when the population of the town is said to quadruple. Late spring and early autumn are best for touring Cap Bon, and high summer for a pure beach holiday. December to February is the least suitable period for swimming.

Food and planning

Cap Bon flavours and one way to organise three days

Fish features strongly in Cap Bon cooking: tuna, sardines, anchovies, mackerel and sea bass. Add harissa from Nabeul, couscous, brik and mechouia salad. The peninsula grows oranges, lemons and bitter oranges and makes orange-flower water. Local wines are easier to find here than in the restaurants of Tunis.

One way to organise three days: start with the medina and fort in the morning, Dar Sébastien and Pupput in the afternoon, and an evening at Yasmine Hammamet. On the second day, visit the potters and museum of Nabeul, then drive up the east coast to Kelibia for the fort, a fish lunch and the beach, with Kerkouane before closing time. On the third, see the El Haouaria quarries and the cape and return by the west coast through Korbous, or spend the day in Tunis, Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, about an hour away.

Three nights cover the town and Cap Bon. A week makes sense if you want Hammamet as a beach base.

Three days at a glance

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FAQ

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