Entertainment in Tunisia
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Restaurant-Café Seles
Restaurant-Café Seles is a cozy little spot with cushion benches, perfect for a drink or food.
reviewed
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Stade Olympique
Five of the 14 soccer teams in the Tunisian first division are from Tunis, including archrivals Club Africain and Espérance Sportive de Tunisie. Both use Stade Olympique as a home ground. Matches are usually at 14:00 on Sunday.
You'll find fixture details in the Saturday press. The teams are referred to by their initials - CA for Club Africain, and EST for Espérance Sportive de Tunisie. Other Tunis clubs include Stade Tunisien (ST) and Club Olympique de Transports (COT) from the western suburbs; Avenir Sportif de La Marsa (ASM) from La Marsa; and Club Sportif de Hammam Lif (CSHL), from the southern suburbs.
reviewed
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Café Andalous
This old-time, teetotal café is worth a visit just to see the wall tiles, made long ago in Tunis by Jews; the wood-and-copper figurines of Ottoman Turks strung along the ceiling; and the chandeliers, which have to be seen to be believed. During the jazz festival, this is one of the venues for live music.
reviewed
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Théâtre de l'Etoile du Nord
This is a fringe theatre housed in an ex-garage. There are regular plays (in French and Arabic) and concerts (from reggae to heavy metal) - check the website for forthcoming events.
As boho as Tunis gets, this vibrant theatre has a unique artsy café (no alcohol) catering to a mixed crowd of men and women. Lone women will feel completely comfortable here.
reviewed
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Coffeehouses
There are a bunch of good coffeehouses in the medina including Café Sidi Bouraoui and Café Yasmine. Restaurant-Café Seles is a cozy little spot with cushion benches, perfect for a drink or food. And Café des Nomades is another small inviting spot like the Seles in the very southwestern corner of the medina below the kasbah.
reviewed
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Centre Loisir el-Niffer
Set deep in the palmeraie, this is a great place for a sheesha under the palm trees, or a coffee or cool drink. There's a swimming pool and a few courting couples and families sitting at the tables spread throughout the garden. To get here, take the road past the Restaurant-Bar Le Petit Prince and follow the signs (about 700m).
reviewed
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Café les Arcades
The open-air cafés stay busy till late in the night, especially during the summer months when the plastic tables in and around the souq area buzz with conversation. Café les Arcades is in the southwest corner of the souq. (Beer and alcohol are served at the restaurants and bars of all of the Zone Touristique hotels.)
reviewed
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Le Colisée
There are plenty of cinemas, mainly showing Egyptian films, Bollywood-style action movies or soft porn, but you'll also find recent Hollywood offerings, dubbed into French. The local press has listings. Admission costs around TD3 at plush places such as Le Colisée, though older films are often cheaper.
reviewed
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La Parnasse
There are plenty of cinemas, mainly showing Egyptian films, Bollywood-style action movies or soft porn, but you'll also find recent Hollywood offerings, dubbed into French. The local press has listings. Admission costs around TD3 at plush places such as La Parnasse, though older films are often cheaper.
reviewed
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Café de Dunes
Of course you can sip a tea, coffee or beer for that matter at most of the hotels out in the Zone Touristique, but it's also fun to hang out at the Café de Dunes, part of the Pegase outdoor activity centre, and watch the bustle when groups arrive and the calm after the storm.
reviewed
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Le Boeuf sur le Toit
Out in the up-and-coming suburb of La Soukra 'the beef on the roof' is named after a surrealist ballet; it's a restaurant with a dance floor and terrace, and regular DJs, live gigs and Sunday jazz evenings, attracting Tunisia's most cosmopolitan crowd.
reviewed
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Bar Jamaica
Zip up to El-Hana's 10th floor for fabulous views. This small bar is lit with funky blue neon, plays a mix of lounge and pop music, has tables outside, and attracts a mixed crowd of men and women, both Tunisian and foreign.
reviewed
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Oscars
The vaguely cine-themed (perhaps the name refers to the award ceremony) bar-restaurant upstairs is fun, though not for single women (the women here are generally prostitutes). There's live music and dancers at the weekend.
reviewed
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Café Ambaria
A cut above the rest in terms of décor and service, although again it's mostly all men. Sheesha cost around TD1.5 and they have a real live coffee machine if you're craving an espresso or cappuccino.
reviewed
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Café Theatre Municipal
This is one especially good café. Squeezed into the street corner next to the theatre, which at the time of research was undergoing renovations, it boasts one of the prime people watching spots in the city.
reviewed
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Café La Grotte
A step up from the street-side cafés, La Grotte, à la its name, is fitted out to look like the inside of a cave, albeit a cool, air-conditioned one. It tends to draw a younger crowd of men.
reviewed
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Café La Rosa
This busy café spills over onto the street and can get rowdy in the evenings but it's pleasant enough if you don't mind the choir of all-male voices.
reviewed
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Théâtre d'Art Ben Abdallah
This venue, in the converted stables of the Dar Ben Abdallah Museum, has theatre and cinema performances in French and Tunisian and a small café.
reviewed
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Café des Nomades
Café des Nomades is a small inviting spot like the Seles in the very southwestern corner of the medina below the kasbah.
reviewed
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Café de Paris
This is one of the avenue's main people-watching hubs, a café with a mix of men and women and lots of outside tables.
reviewed
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Piano Bar
A good place for a refined, subdued drink, this five-star hotel bar is Art-Deco and dark-wood heaven.
reviewed
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Parc des Princes
This is a strictly Tunisian affair for soccer fanatics; TVs play important matches of the day.
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Turkish Coffeehouse
Easily the best place to soak up the atmosphere in the medina is the Turkish Coffeehouse.
reviewed
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Brasserie les 2 Avenues
This has a good pavement location for a prime view of the avenue's people parade.
reviewed
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Maison de la Culture Ibn Khaldoun
Tunis' only art-house cinema is Maison de la Culture Ibn Khaldoun.
reviewed