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Do you dream of an exotic holiday, white sands and blue lagoons, vineyards and orange blossom? You won’t need a magic carpet to reach these sunny shores for Tunisia is just 2½ hours away. It’s safe and friendly, English is widely spoken and with 700 miles of beaches, there’s room for everyone.

We opted for Hammamet at the foot of the Cap Bon peninsula jutting out to the north east. In the sweeping bay framed by hills, families paddle and swim, build castles on silky sands or picnic under the parasols, gazing at multicoloured sails and pedalos bobbing on the water. Later they might head for the thrilling rides of Carthagena, the historical theme park, or the ice rink catering for 100 fans at a time. Palm trees and outdoor restaurants give the seafront an air of French Riviera while the medina nestles behind ochre crenellated walls, in a warren of alleyways which seem to belong to a bygone age.

Along the coast, the resort of Nabeul glows with colours, especially on market day. Nabeul is a traditional pottery centre and every Friday, ceramics in all shapes and sizes spill out into the streets, alongside Berber rugs and African drums, ethnic jewellery, desert stones and more fruit and vegetables than you could eat in a week. You can shop if you wish in the supermarket but you won’t beat the stalls for fresh produce or meeting the locals. You’ll be welcome and offered the best.

Make your way around the Cape and you soon discover the lush ‘Garden of Tunisia’, its vines and citrus orchards, farms, flowers and birds, secluded coves, fishing villages and the seven springs of Korbous gushing into the sea. The Romans long discovered their healing properties and scores of visitors still bathe on the spot.

If you’re interested in the Romans, the extensive but scattered ruins of Carthage are a short drive away, just one of many ancient sites across the country. We shuddered in the vast amphitheatre of El Jem but we loved Dougga, deep in the hinterland, lost on a lonely hilltop where sheep grazed unconcerned among temples and olive trees. We completed our cultural escapades in the superb Bardo Museum in Tunis, a ‘must see’ for its Roman mosaics and palatial décor, graced by an indoor garden and stunning vistas through sculpted archways.

Beyond the Bardo, Tunis’ New Town oozes French flavour along Parisian-style boulevards. Flower stalls and newspaper kiosks compete with coffee shops, pavement cafés, gleaming stores, pâtisseries and an eclectic mix of colonial and modern buildings. We lost our way in the Old Town beyond the ‘Sea Gate’, wandering around mosques and religious schools and palaces turned into museums. In the cool alleyways of the souks, temptation follows you every step of the way, perfume, gold, leather jackets, babouches, engraved copper trays, bridal baskets and anything else you could ever want. We lunched on couscous and unleavened bread and on the terrace of the Oriental Palace cum carpet shop, we looked down on one of the best medinas in the Arab world.

Tunis is a busy place but parks and lakes give it plenty of breathing space. Take the road or railway along the spectacular causeway crossing Lac de Tunis and you might spot great flocks of flamingos skimming over the water like a mirage. Then you reach La Goulette and its scrumptious seafood restaurants and the pretty blue and white village of Sidi Bou Said, named after a holy man. Perched on the cliff top, it’s a maze of steep meandering lanes where artists set up their easels in the shade and the fragrance of jasmine and mint tea lingers on the café terrace overlooking the dazzling waters of the Med.

Lakes or cities, beaches, desert, Tunisia has much to offer but it’s easy to explore. The country is relatively small, roughly the size of England and Wales, and most destinations are served by public transport or shared taxis (louage). Main roads are good so hiring a car is a convenient way to take the family around though in the high season, you should expect prices to match and book in advance to avoid disappointment.

The beach is alluring but if you feel the urge to move, head for a golf course or riding stables, treat yourself to a seawater spa, ramble in the hills or go bird watching on Lake Ichkeul, one of only two wetlands designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Or you could explore the countryside where mud farms hide behind hedges of prickly pear and women wrapped from head to toe ride side-saddle on the donkeys. Here and there a lone shepherd snoozes under an almond tree.

Barely an hour south of Hammamet, Sousse and its neighbours promise hours of fun, fine sands and watersports, an Acqua Palace to relax or splash to your heart’s content, and a botanical garden full of rare exotic birds. Not far away in Friguia Park we watched lots of wild animals, including endangered African species, roaming semi-free in a natural environment.

Sousse is delightful, a place to stroll on an endless ribbon of sand or ride along the promenade in a horse-drawn carriage garlanded with roses and marigolds. Minarets bristle above the medina walls and if you climb to the top of the Ribat, you can enjoy stunning views over the Great Mosque, town and sea. Far below, the Noddy train rattles along to el Kantaoui, a purpose-built resort in Andalusian style, where musical fountains dance on the square, white villas are draped in bougainvillea and sunny restaurants mirror themselves in the marina.

On the other side of town, a ‘metro’ takes you past the lake and its wading waterfowls to the elegant city of Monastir, crisscrossed by palm-lined avenues and gardens, crowned by the golden dome of the Mausoleum erected for Habib Bourguiba, the country’s first president. The town has its share of lavish mosques and glowing ramparts and a fortified monastery, haunted by tales of ‘A Thousand and One Nights’. We were just in time for the huge Saturday market, a colourful display of woollen blankets and underwear, T-shirts and toy camels and farmers’ stalls selling oranges and dates straight from the trees, fennel, coriander, live chickens by the dozen. The sea glistens turquoise and blue and the donkeys wait patiently to go home. Further south, the holiday island of Djerba dozes among olive and palm trees and you find amazing ksour villages dug like honeycombs into the craggy hills.

Ready for adventure? The desert is on the doorstep. Join a tour or hire a guide and see the children’s eyes light up as you hit the tarmac in a four wheel drive, heading west on the edge of the Sahara. First stop is Matmata, home to troglodytes and ‘Star Wars’ who couldn’t have wished for a better setting. All around is a lunar landscape, barren craters rolling as far as you can see, and you might as well be on another planet.

Dreaming of aliens, we reached Douz in the setting sun, just as the dunes turned fiery gold to cast eerie shadows in the hollows. ‘You ride camel?’ Why not? We set off in a long caravan, not very far, but we felt like Lawrence of Arabia and some of us even dressed up for the part. There was time to climb a dune or two, no easy feat, and make friends with a baby camel, fluffy and white like cotton wool.

Next morning the sun rose over the vast salt lake of Chott el Jerid, all glistening sandroses and coloured minerals, and we enjoyed the palm-filled oasis of Tozeur dripping with dates and the wild Chebika Gorge where scenes from ‘The English Patient’ came back to mind.

Beyond the purple hills of the Atlas, rising dragon-like in the distance, we returned to civilization in the holy city of Kairouan, stranded all alone on a sun-baked plain, and before long our lovely stretch of coast was in sight, fanned by a gentle breeze. ‘Can we go to the show tonight? There will be horse riders, jugglers, drummers, dancers balancing with pots on their head’. It was a brilliant Tunisian Fantasia, a swirling kaleidoscope of music and colour and the perfect end to an exotic dream.

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