Trip to Carthage

So I thought I'd start a thread about the trip to Carthage (modern Tunis, Tunisia) which myself and a few others have expressed interest in. I'm wondering who would be satisfied with a weekend trip, as opposed to holding off until after classes are done? Also, as a weekend trip, which weekend would be best? I'm not even sure offhand which ones are still free.

Oh, one other thing; I'd love to make the trip by ferry but I'd guess there might be cheap flights there, and it's probably a relatively long trip by water. Maybe ferry one way, plane the other? I remember somebody said they didn't handle boats all that well in a different thread. I believe Eurail passes might offer discounts on the ferry and if I remember correctly I'm pretty sure the Trenitalia Winter pass does.

Dave I think this is a wonderful idea, I don't particularly care when we go since I will be staying a while after classes. Also I don't think I would handle a ferry ride that well either so charter for me would be ideal.
I think it depends more on my bank account as to how long should the stay be for me, etc...
But yes count me in!

awesome idea Dave! this looks amazing.

if i'm not wrong, i believe the weekends that we have free are Jan 19-21th, Feb. 23-25th and Mar. 2-4th. (someone correct me if i'm wrong on this)

anyhow, i'm most definetly in. it doesn't really matter to me whether we do ferry or plane...i think timewise, flying would be a lot easier. it's only about an hour and a half flight, so we could leave on thursday night and come back sunday afternoon-evening??

Yes I would be satisfied with a weekend trip there, and coming home on monday night-ish, I hear that it is just beautiful and an amazing cultural experience. A bunch of us are going to Florence for Jan.19-22 though (Elise, my agenda tells me that you and Maria and I are sharing a room there), so the Feb23rd weekend and March2nd weekend are the ones that no trips have yet been planned for I believe. Also I would be fine with a plane or a ferry trip (Don`t worry, I`m bringing a good supply of Gravol!), whichever is cheaper and more conveniant.

ok so are we ok planning this for the weekend of the Feb. 23rd?? i'm going to try to have a look at hostels, but just so i know, we're looking for a hostel in Tunis right? how far is Carthage from there??

sorry i'm just completely clueless about this

Yes, I believe that Tunis is the capital of Tunisia....or is it the other way around? Anyhow, I`m sure the hostel search will tell you

Tunis is the capital city of Tunisia. Carthage is largely within Tunis, a few sites scattered through the western part of Tunis mostly. Tunis also has an interesting sounding medina (think old-style Arab city, with really tight, winding streets and lots of bustle and activity). There's also lots of other old buildings from throughout the history of the area but I don't really know what's there. The city has train transport, above ground I think.

For anyone that isn't sure Tunis is on the north coast of Africa, just southwest of Italy. Also the Tunis-Carthage International Airport (TUN) is right in the city as well so local transport should be easy. Oh, and apparently a part of the modern city is called Carthage as well so it might make looking things up a tad confusing though I assume the area they call Carthage today would most likely be the part of the city that historic Carthage is in. I only wish there was more to see of the pre-Roman version of the city but I'll be happy with what I can get.

ok so here's what i've found. http://www.hostelworld.com/availability.php/HotelOmrane-Tunis-2603. this is the only hostel that looks like it's available for that weekend. so i figured we could take the early train to Rome on the friday morning, then fly to Tunis. then we could fly back on sunday afternoon, so that we can do our travelling to Carthage and such on saturday.

let me know what you think!!

Yeah that looks like our only option so I guess it will have to do, it seems just fine though. Do we want to stay only until sunday or head back monday instead? Or just take a late flight back home on sunday if that is an option so that we get as much time as possible to explore - I feel like we could spend a few days in that area.

yeah i agree with you on that Stephy. i don't have a class on monday, so i would love to stay another night.

I hope someone else has better luck than me, because the cheapest return flight I'm coming up with for this weekend is $319 with taxes, etc. I haven't yet checked every place I can think of but so far that's the best I've seen.

yeah that's the best that i've been getting too. i'm going to try to get ahold of my travel agent tomorrow and maybe he'll be able to find us some better deals, so i'll keep you guys posted.

i'm really set on going here though, and i kinda need to get out of the EU, since i'm staying over 90 days and i just now applied for a visa, so ya...

ok so i just spoke with my travel agent and he said the cheapest flight that he can get for us is with taxes and everything included it's 341$ with Tunis Air. he also mentioned that a lot of the charter flights (cheaper flights) don't fly out of Rome. so i'm going to have a look at if we leave out of maybe another city, if it's at all cheaper.

charters don't fly out of the main airport in Rome (da vinci) so i think they fly out of the other one-- Ciampino

when im not so stressed with finals etc... i will look at some websites

ok so out of that airport, it's 292$. now i don't know if that includes everything, taxes and such. it says that it does, but it always seems to cost a little more than what they say.

what are our working dates for this trip?

Maria, it's March 9th (Friday) to the 12th (Monday)

Isnt that our weekend in Venice????

nope, Venice is in Feb.

OOPS!!! ok so the weekend we were wanting to go is Feb 23rd! sorry!!

ok so now that i just noticed that the interd. class has a fieldtrip on Feb24th, how many of you guys have this class??

I do not have that class, I can see how that my cause problems though. Also, that plane flight seems really expensive! I`ll have to take another look at my budget

I'm interested to see where this discussion goes, but given the apparent cost of the flight (so far) and the fairly short time I could be there (I have class Monday) I'm really leaning towards doing this when classes are over after all. That said, if somebody finds an amazing deal or something I'm still in but I'm not sure about the weekend anymore.

Of course, doing this during the term means a little less to fit in afterwards so.... Heh, there's just so much to plan for in such a relatively short time.

This sounds like an amazing trip but I have hesitations with the time limits. I would be interested in doing this after the term to allow for a little more time to explore. Also I can't go that weekend in February.

money issue is #1 for me at this moment. so if that is the cost for the airfare i would like to make the trip totally worth the time/money. (not that it wouldnt otherwise it is an aweseome experience) but you know what i mean.
so yes i would prefer going there after term is done