Think of Mediterranean islands and the chances are you conjure up scenes of Ibiza orgies, elegant Sardinian grottoes or sedate Maltese coffee shops. You don’t tend to dwell on images of desert palms, the scents of Africa mingling with Arabic heritage.
Djerba, lurking a short causeway drive off the southern Tunisian coast, isn’t exactly a secret Mediterranean hideaway, as the strident Germanic and Scandinavian voices echoing in its souks and restaurants and the white-turning-red northern European flesh roasting on the beaches will confirm.
Nevertheless it is a world away from the tired resorts of the Med, a holiday island that hasn’t yet parcelled up and sold all its complex history and identity into so many time-share packages.
Whether you choose legend or history, Djerba has a fascinating past. Homeric myth is a little more romantic. This is supposedly the island where Ulysses’s crew succumbed to a fatal addiction to the lotus fruit and declined to continue their travelling.
History has the island settled by Berbers, Phoenicians and Arabs in turn before becoming a notorious pirate stronghold in the 16th century, when the Barbarossa brothers, the Krays of Corsair society, terrorised Mediterranean shipping.
It’s a more peaceful place now, striking a tricky balance between popular tourism and the ancient traditions of fishing and commerce. Its climate is idyllic, the heat blasts of summer tempered by the sea breeze, with temperatures only rarely breaking into the 30Cs, while winter finds an average temperature of about 15C, making it an ideal January break destination.
Beyond the busy beaches, Djerba’s main appeal lies in its ancient architecture, its vivid identity as a fortress island. Mosques here aren’t the elegantly ornate edifices of the Ottomans, rather pragmatic forts toughened up with buttresses and uncompromising walls. The secular buildings are traditional minimalist, white-washed constructions, timeless Berber houses designed to keep out the sun, with rooftops cunningly designed to channel rainfall into underground storage tanks.
Beyond the tourist focus, the villages here can be outstandingly attractive. Before hitting the beach resorts it’s worth getting a feel for the island’s more ancient pastimes. Happily for tourists with twitchy wallets, one of them is shopping. Djerba’s main town, Houmt Souk, has been a market town for millenniums, which has, however, given local tradesmen a generational grounding in the techniques of the hard sell.
For those who have been to Marrakesh and thus possibly put off the bargaining process for life, there is a compromise. The cultural chasm between the bartering traditions of the east and delicate tourist sensibilities has been addressed in a pragmatic fashion, with many stalls now offering fixed-price goods for visitors who don’t like haggling, while slightly better prices await those who are prepared to.
There are plenty of places to take a breather, sip a sweet mint tea, and watch the bustle swirling around you. If you want to buy, handicrafts and ceramics are among the best in Tunisia, and the hand-woven blankets have been made in these parts for the best part of 2,000 years.
If you can escape the markets, take the time to check out the Mosque of the Strangers with several domes, and the Mosque of the Turks, where the rugged fortress aspect is only slightly softened by a pretty Ottoman minaret. Non-Muslims aren’t allowed in, but you can get a sense of their architectural beauties from outside.
The old fort overlooking the coast, was built by the occupying Aragonese in the 13th century, but eventually succumbed to the Turks in 1560, who slaughtered every last man of the Spanish garrison before piling up their skulls into a neat tower. The ghoulish will be disappointed that this edifice was eventually dismantled in the 19th century, but there is an illustration in the fort to show how it appeared.
The brilliant white fort now looks more like something you would see on a dessert menu than an intimidating military edifice.
For a quick overview of Djerban culture and history, the museum at Houmt Souk has a collection of costumes and artworks, although the ceiling decorations and elegant Islamic architectural interiors are probably more attractive than the actual collection.
There is a better museum at Guellala on the south coast, with a collection of evocative vignettes of island life through the ages, with mood-setting music. Guellala is renowned for its pottery.
A short drive past the causeway to the mainland, ceramic workshops loom into sight. The first of them is the most striking, mainly due to the family of camels lounging amid the rows of pots. Guellala is commercially laid-back by North African standards, and you can take all the time you need browsing among the vases and cooking vessels.
For a kitsch touristy introduction to the ancient pottery industry in Guellala, it is compulsory to stop off at the workshop of Ali the ancient Berber (who must be in his eighties). His place is built around a cave that he claims dates from Roman times.
Once he has a captive audience Ali hams it up shamelessly, demonstrating with vivid mimes and a smattering of several languages his potting techniques and a Roman period olive oil press, before ending the show by climbing into an amphora for photo opportunities. There is no admission charge, but you won’t get away without leaving a tip, although his showmanship is well worth it.
Cuisine on Djerba tends to be as hit or miss as anywhere in Tunisia, the occasional fragrant couscous raising the spirits, only for them to be assaulted by an oily deep-fried egg briq, which sits on the stomach with a heaviness worthy of its name. The tourist throng ensures a substantial supply of adequate if uninspiring restaurants by the coast, where fish and octopus are occasionally excellent.
Perhaps the most sensible option is to look out for the unprepossessing places where the locals are eating, in the knowledge that you will be bound to get something reasonably authentic rather than poor imitations of western dishes.
Some of the finest food to be found on the island is provided by the elegantly understated Dar Dhiafa hotel. This collection of shaded, airy rooms around a series of passages, pools, alcoves and tiled courtyards is a slightly out-of-the-way treat, in the village of Erriadh, where the only other attraction is the ancient El Ghriba synagogue.
The hotel attracts a discerning clientele who want to avoid the mass-market resort hotels on the coast and stay somewhere more sedately stylish. The restaurant serves North African dishes with a flash of French haute cuisine and a decent wine list, but even if the food wasn’t as superb as it is, the serene setting by the pool would make for a memorable experience.
For nightlife and beaches, Djerba’s Zone Touristique does exactly what it says on the tin, and there are stretches of the island’s eastern coast that are wall-to-wall upscale resort hotels. If some of them can be a little impersonal and corporate, Tunisia’s soft currency makes them far better value for money than their European equivalents. The downside is that few of them make much effort to reflect the character or culture of the island.
A sizeable percentage of those Germans and Scandinavians come for the spa experiences offered by several of the five-star hotels, and the Hasdrubal thalassa and spa, for example, has an impressive range of treatments, variously relaxing, invigorating or vaguely comical. Being gently poached over bags of hot rosemary in an all-enveloping inflatable duvet is worth a try, even if you begin to suspect that this “treatment” has been adapted from a cookery book rather than a medical manual.
Despite the prodigious development, the palm-fringed beaches retain their magic, although in the most built-up areas it can be hard to find a stretch of beach that doesn’t belong to a hotel. Escaping the main drag, Djerba’s east coast has a sun-baked allure. Sidi Mahres is a long graceful sweep of yellow sand stretching from Flamingo Point, where the birds gather in colonies in winter. It has a rare tranquility, especially around sunset, when the Mediterranean tides grow restive and the breeze rustles through the palms. You might be tempted to linger, even if Ulysses’s boys ate all the lotus three millenniums ago.
Details: Tunisair (www.tunisair.com, e-mail tunisairlondon@aol.com) flies from London Heathrow to Djerba, via Tunis, from around £240. British Airways and British Midland fly from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Heathrow. Prices start at £36 one way.
If you prefer to travel overland from Tunis, air-conditioned buses from Tunis to Djerba take between eight and nine hours and cost about £12 single.
In summer, there are numerous charter flights direct to Djerba. Check the internet for offers and availability.
Travel brief
The five-star Hasdrubal Thalassa & Spa hotel (00216 7573 0657, www.hasdrubal-hotel.com/english/djerba/presentation.asp) has doubles from £110.
The Dar Dhiafa hotel in Erriadh (00216 7567 1166, www.hoteldardhiafa.com/en.htm) has doubles from about £82.
Tunisian National Tourist Office: 020 7224 5561 or www.cometotunisia.co.uk
