Medina and Kasbah of Hammamet

A walled old town that sits on the sea

Hammamet’s medina is small, white and unusually pretty because it backs straight onto the Mediterranean — you can walk the ramparts with waves breaking below. Within the walls you get the familiar maze of whitewashed lanes, blue doors and a souk, but the key thing for a first-time visitor is the tone: it is much calmer and less pressured than the big medina at Sousse. Traders will still call you over, but you can browse and decline without the relentless hassle, which makes it a kinder place to find your feet.

The set-piece is the Kasbah, a 15th-century fortress at the corner of the walls. Wandering the medina costs nothing; climbing the Kasbah is a small charge of around 5 dinars (roughly £1.30), paid at the gate, and it buys you a walk along the battlements with a sweeping view over the bay, the marina in the distance and the tangle of white roofs below. It is the photo everyone takes, and it earns the few coins easily.

Doing it well, and the taxi catch

Treat this as a slow morning rather than a tick-box stop. An hour or two covers the lanes, the souk, the climb and a mint tea or coffee near the little fishing harbour just outside the walls. Carry small cash, as the Kasbah fee and most souk stalls won’t take cards, and go earlier in the day before the heat and the tour groups build.

The one practical trap is transport. Most people arrive by taxi from the resort strips or Yasmine Hammamet, and the honest advice is to agree the fare before you set off or insist on the meter — quoting a price on arrival is where overcharging happens. Get all that sorted and the medina is one of the easiest, most pleasant half-days on this stretch of coast: genuinely atmospheric, genuinely relaxed, and very cheap once you are through the gate.