Dar Ben Gacem Medina Experiences

Dar Ben Gacem is a guesthouse in two restored medina houses, but it is also one of the most useful starting points in Tunis for hands-on cultural experiences. The team plans activities lasting anything from an hour to several days, around the Medina of Tunis and beyond, and these can be booked before or during a stay. The house is run as a social enterprise, and its profits go back into restoring historic buildings and promoting the medina, so the experiences connect visitors with local people and businesses.

The activities on offer include medina walks, food shopping, cooking with the guesthouse's chef and calligraphy sessions. A walk is the natural introduction: the medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with around 700 monuments, and many of them are easy to miss without someone who knows the lanes. Food shopping with a local is a good way to understand Tunisian ingredients, from spices and olive oil to fresh produce, and it leads naturally into a cooking session where you prepare dishes with the chef. Calligraphy offers a quieter, more reflective activity.

The founder, Leila Ben Gacem, has also opened Dehliz El Zliz, a small museum of Tunisian ceramic tiles in the basement of Dar Kahia, with more than 200 pieces tracing the Qallaline workshops from the fifteenth century to their closure in the early twentieth. It is well worth adding to any medina programme if you are interested in decorative arts.

The guesthouse also helps with transport, including airport transfers and minibuses for group travel elsewhere in Tunisia, so it can be a practical base for day trips. Prices and durations are not listed on the website, so contact the team with your dates and interests and ask for a proposal. The kitchen can adapt dishes to dietary needs and allergies if you give notice.

These experiences suit curious travellers, families, small groups and anyone who wants their spending to support the medina community. Combine a morning walk or market visit with lunch in the old city, then spend the afternoon at Tourbet el Bey and Dar Ben Abdallah in the southern medina.