Discover a Mediterranean bargain - Tunisia

Within an hour of arriving in Tunis, Tunisia, my girlfriend and I wanted to dance -- and it wasn't because we heard the blasting beats of Rai, North Africa's infectious music.

We wanted to dance after seeing the bill that the waiter dropped on our table at our first Tunisian meal: lunch of fresh vegetables and grilled chicken panini at an outdoor cafe.

The cost of the entire meal for two? $6.

Cheap by any standards, but to better explain our celebratory mood, let me back up a couple of days before our Tunisia arrival, when we sat at a similar cafe, this time in Paris. There too, we had ordered some food and drink, yet far less: two coffees and one order of buttered bread.

That bill totaled $29.

Then and there, on that small Parisian street, we realized that we had joined the ranks of Americans who are currently priced out of Western Europe, even with some recovery of the dollar.

Enter our savior, Tunisia.

And we had a blast -- at a bargain.

Cities abound in culture

Perhaps the best way to think of a trip to Tunisia is to divide the country into three geographic categories: beaches, cities and the desert. And those beaches, while lovely, are perhaps best skipped outright, as they are crowded with all-inclusive resorts and thus packed with European tourists looking to enjoy a Mediterranean vacation on the cheap. (Even some Europeans are not exempt from being priced out of their own continent.)

We started our trip in Tunis, the capital, which is a short flight from several European cites: an hour from Rome, a little more than two from London. One can even travel by ferry from several European ports, including Sicily, which lies less than 100 miles from Tunisia's northern tip.

An estimated fifth of Tunisia's 10 million residents live in the Tunis area, and you should, too, at least at the beginning of a trip, as the city is a great hub for visiting surrounding sites and locales. It also has strong attractions in its own right. As a former French colonial capital, it exudes European chic -- the main boulevard is Avenue de Paris -- and its mix of cathedrals and mosques, smart boutiques and butcher shops, hint at just how much this city straddles two worlds.

French and Arabic are both national languages in Tunisia, and knowing some of either is critical here. Even if it's high school or guidebook French, a little goes a long way, and you'll struggle here without some basic French or Arabic vocabulary.

A place where you need neither language is the ruins of Carthage, because taking in the magnitude of the destroyed city needs no translation. Sacked in 136 B.C. and A.D. 698, Carthage exists today as an overflow of crumbling mosaics, columns and statues. It's stuff that an ancient Roman, time-traveled into the future, might see, shrug at and label "housing rubble," but the remains of the city, whose peak population grew to 700,000 or so, are impressive. Add the turquoise-hued Mediterranean in the background, and the eight-dinar taxi from Tunis seems like a steal.

And it can be even cheaper: If you take the light-rail train from Tunis, it's only 2 dinars. Plus, you can stop in Sidi Bou Said, the closest town to Carthage and only about 15 minutes from Tunis. Located on the coast, Sidi Bou Said clings to mountain cliffs, and with its blue and whitewashed walls and cobblestone streets it resembles the more famous Santorini, Greece. It's a great place for a day trip of shopping and al-fresco dining, cooled by a steady sea breeze.

Reveling in Tunisia's ample deserts

One place that is worth as much time as you have is Tunisia's desert, a region unlike anything you'll find on the European side of the Mediterranean. In fact, nearly 70 percent of Tunisia's land area is desert, which means you won't have any trouble finding sand. Several companies in Tunis offer day trips or 24-hour overland excursions to desert towns and ruins in places such as Dougga or El Djem, a breathtaking Roman amphitheater in all its "Gladiator" glory.

Of course, this area seems like another planet: with a Martian vista of mountains and dry lake beds, sparse sounds of wild camel grunts and the desert wind.