El Jem and the chaotic public transport

The original plan was to take the earliest train from Sousse to El Jem, to see the amphitheater there and take the afternoon train to Tozeur but everything went differently.

We took the train at 8.50am from Sousse to El Jem and arrived there around 10 am. In El Jem there is literally nothing to do and see than the amphitheater. We took a ticket and visited the amphitheater very slowly. Our train was supposed to come at 1.30pm so after we still had plenty of time.

While having a coffee I talked to a local and he told me that he doesn't know from any train which goes directly to Tozeur therefore we went around noon to doublecheck about the train.

At the train we found out that our train is for 4 hours minimum delayed. We decided then to go to Sfax which got recommended by locals and try to take a louage from there to Tozeur.
Easy said but not done.

We went to the louage Station and the drivers told us that there are only louages to Sousse. We definitely didn't want to go back there as it is not even on the way to Tozeur. We waited with the hope that a driver might come from Sfax which didn't happen. They called the louage station in Sfax to find out if any driver left for El Jem but it seemed like nobody is on the way.

We got recommended to check if there is a bus from the train station. So we went back and luckily the guy on the counter was really nice and he even walked us to the bus station, which we wouldn't have find without him as it doesn't look like a bus stop at all. It's just a small kiosque.

Normally a bus was supposed to come around 1 pm but came 50 minutes late. That seemed to be normal as all the locals appeared after 1.30 at the stop.

We arrived in Sfax around 3 pm and all the louage drivers were trying to get us into their cars. They didn't care about our plans. One of them convinced us to go with him to Gafsa and to take a bus from there to Tozeur, seemed to be logic as Gafsa was on our way. Around 7 pm we arrived in Gafsa, it took waaay longer than expected. We found out there that we have to wait till 9.30 pm for the bus. We just wanted to arrive but seemed to be impossible.

While waiting there we met a young guy from France who went through the same chaotic ride as us. He was trying to take the same train from Tunis. He waited there for 2 hours and the train never showed up and no information was available so he decided to take a louage and they recommended him as us to get first to Gafsa and take from there the bus.
Around 9.50 pm the bus came and we arrived in our accommodation in Tozeur around midnight. What a ride.Læs mere