After having an absolute blast visiting Finse (aka Hoth) in 2018 before COVID hit, Tatooine was the next logical step on the Star Wars road of adventures and I’m absolutely delighted to share my thoughts on this wonderful experience.
Firstly, a bit about Tunisia. Is it safe? Yes, absolutely! Not once did I feel in danger or threatened and all of the locals I met were super friendly – pushy? Yes but that is often the custom of countries in the North African region and it’s no different from Morocco, Egypt or Jordan in that aspect.
This adventure has been planned several times but for many different reasons it has never come off for me. Well, last year my wife and I decided on an Easter break and Tunisia made it into the destinations we considered. As it was a family holiday, I had to be based somewhere near a beach, with good facilities and all the features you’d expect on a typical family holiday and the flights which worked for me flew to Tunis so it was on the North East coast where I’d be based. I’m still not sure why we settled on Sousse, El Kantoui to be exact, but I guess it was (just) within driving distance of Djerba and other areas of interest without driving the family for several hours after having just got off a plane.
So, I thought I’d share some traveller tips for anyone wishing to make this journey by themselves in the future. Firstly, Tunisians do not hurry for any reason. They work at their own pace and I realised this pretty quickly as it took nearly 1 hour and 20 minutes to get my hire car. Every Tunisian stopped and chatted to friends, took phone calls or just were generally milling about and you need to get used to that pretty quick. Secondly, there are a whole range of different driving styles in Tunisia and from talking to a local police officer many do not have a driving licence. Give way signs, roundabouts, right of way… they mean nothing in Tunis where it’s every person for themselves but once you get out of the city it is far less stressful. As you’re doing 110 kph down the motorway you will get speeding cars (and buses!) right behind you flashing their lights but you just need to hold your nerve and allow them to pass when you can.
The exchange rate is fixed by the government, you can’t take dinah into the country, and it’s currently around 3.8 dinah to the British Pound. Tolls on the road were usually two dinah (50p) but sometimes the operator would charge as much as 7 dinah (£1.75) – taking advantage of tourists! It’s only small change but it’s worth keeping as many coins in your car as you can as not all of the booths gave the correct change.
When driving in the UK garages and services are plentiful and the same is true of Tunisia (petrol was around half the price of the UK) but they do not often serve drinks or food so that is something you need to plan in advance. You won’t be pulling over for a coffee or fast food anywhere on the A1 African Highway. Speaking of the highway, all of the roads are in good condition and I had no trouble at all in a typical 4 door family car.
Communication was rarely an issue. Tunisians speak Arabic and French but many could communicate in broken English, although some spoke perfect English which was a real surprise. It’s amazing how quick GCSE French comes back to you after 30 years of not using it!
Finally, buying a Tunisian SIM card was an absolute must as it cost me 22 Dinah (£6)in total and I still had data left after 9 days of usage. This was vital for the navigation on the transport system as signage is often few and far between.
Day One
So, I planned to take two separate days away from the family to go “Star Warsing” and Djerba was my first jaunt. I knew if I could tick the three main locations off my list in good time then there would be other locations I could do on the return to Sousse.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m an early bird so getting up at 4.00am is easy. I had my bottles of water, snacks and a full tank of petrol and was ready to go. Didn’t get 5 minutes away from the hotel before I was stopped by local law enforcement who asked where I was going. They were super friendly and I was off again in a few minutes. I had a four hour journey but my phone was loaded with Star Wars podcasts, and a bit of Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath to keep me company.
My first mistake was accepting the SatNav in taking me to the ferry to Djerba. From Sousse, there are two ways to Djerba – the ferry and the bridge. The bridge is another 30 minutes driving or so, and I fully intended to go that way but when I arrived at the ferry port I saw a queue of cars for the ferry. Online searches will tell you the ferry is hourly, the ferry was cancelled two years ago and decommissioned… all incorrect. The ferries were every 20-30 minutes or so but what I couldn’t tell from the main road is that you can only load 12 or so cars on at a time. Stupidly, I thought that the locals are taking the ferry for a reason and this would be the best way to get to Djerba – 1 hour and 40 minutes later I was regretting that decision but at least I was at the front of the queue by then. The ferry cost 1 dinah (25p) and lasted about 20 minutes. Off I rolled and off I went to my first location of Sidi Jemour Mosque.
Sidi Jemour Mosque (Tosche Station)
Sidi Jemour Mosque is very easy to find. It was only about 20 minutes from the ferry port on the one main road. You pass the even easier to find Amghar Mosque on the way but I wanted to start from the furthest point out and work back.
The majority of the scenes shot here were deleted from the original movie but most fans will know about the Tosche Station scenes with Luke, Biggs, Fixer and Camie so it’s well worth a visit.
When I arrived, maybe 10am, it was very quiet. There were no cars in the car park, a couple of fisherman at the bay and some locals sitting on the side of the Mosque conversing. Although the Mosque has changed, as has most locations, many areas were instantly recognisable and walking up the familiar steps was exhilarating. Some parts of the footway have suffered terribly from erosion although some repair work has been carried out. I spent around 20 minutes here tracing routes and steps of the actors before heading back down the road to visit Amghar Mosque.
Amghar Mosque
Amghar Mosque is only 5-10 minutes drive and is very easy to find. Again, the area was very quiet although there were fishermen in the bay and they use the building to store their motorbikes for the day. 
Amghar Mosque was used as the location for old Ben Kenobi’s house exterior shots but you have to walk inside if you visit. It isn’t in too bad a state of repair but I do think that the pixellated art work on the side spoils the overall aesthetic of the building and would prefer to see it removed. I maybe spent 10 minutes at this location before heading to Ajim for my final sightseeing spot in Djerba.
Ajim
Ajim is the location of the exterior shots to the Mos Eisley cantina and some other scenes such as the Stormtrooper checkpoint stop. All places are easy to find but this is in the village centre so there are a lot of locals about, including a school so it was amusing to see lots of school children looking at this Star Wars nerd taking photos and video of a building they pass everyday and probably not care about in the slightest.
The cantina building is now abandoned although inside the building the locals were using it to store building materials as they were working on the nearby houses. It is in quite a state of disrepair and sadly I can’t see this building remaining intact without some much needed love and attention in the near future. Again, a pixellated artwork adorns the side of the building which for me distracted a lot.
Mos Eisley square and the nearby side streets are easy to find but remember that these are used by the locals so can be busy with pedestrians. The local shop opposite is a good place to replenish snacks and drinks. I spent more time here than the other sites as I really wanted to be sure that I took in all the spots of Mos Eisley.
Tataouine
I really felt obliged to make a stop in Tataouine but it was further than I wanted to drive and there’s not a lot there so I made do with one of the many road signs that I saw on the route to my next chosen stop which was Ksar Ommarsia.
Ksar Ommarsia
I could have tried for Ksar Hadada which was the location of the slave quarters in Episode One but time was pressing and I didn’t feel that it justified the 90 minutes extra it would have taken. So Ksar Ommarsia was to be my Episode One visit and it didn’t disappoint. The area was busy, very busy! The locals used the majority of the area for a market place so once I parked my car I had to weave my way through the throngs to get to my destination. There are a lot of cats here, they must use the shelter as their homes, and the locals enjoy a rest from the mid-day sun in the shade but they must be used to tourists as I didn’t get too many stares. I could have easily spent an hour or more here as there is a lot of history in this town and I wish I could have known more about the maze of buildings and streets that I visited. But I had one more stop to visit and that was important to me.
Hotel Sidi Idriss
Hotel Sidi Idriss is the location of the Lars Homestead interior and is a working hotel to this day. It is also a Star Wars museum of sorts and this time I didn’t find the additions included to be obtrusive at all. The drive to the location is stunning and there are some amazing views of little villages and sand hills on the route. Outside the hotel you do get hassled a little from the street vendors selling tat, but generally they took no for an answer. On more than one occasion I was offered a guided tour of the “Star Wars house and gardens” which weren’t too far away – I bet many tourists have fallen for that one. I was more than happy purchasing a couple of glasses of blue milk and a nice souvenir from the stall. I didn’t even bother to haggle as the price was so low anyway that I didn’t want to insult.
When you walk downstairs there are a couple of interior areas, one of which has a nice array from behind the scenes photographs and some prequel and original trilogy posters. But it’s when you walk into the main pit, to the blare of the Star Wars fanfare when the magic really happens. It’s a shame that there isn’t a table and bench like there is in the movie to sit on but there are some chairs to take to sit back and gaze at the mural on the ceiling as you sip blue milk. I spent about 30 minutes here and there were other Star Wars fans arriving regularly to make the pilgrimage to one of the best locations and homages to Star Wars. Once I finished here, I headed back out onto the motorway and back to Sousse before putting the finishes touches to Day One.
Day Two
Although it’s shot cleverly, the exterior to the Lars Homestead is a long way from the Hotel Sidi Idriss. This was to be my main destination for Day Two along with Star Wars canyon and anything else was to be a bonus.
Adding more water this time, I learnt from my mistake about garages, I headed back onto the African Highway only to be pulled over by local law enforcement again. This time, one of them jumped into my car and asked to be taken to a small village near Tozeur. Lucky for him I was heading that way so I had the pleasure of a local for over 2 hours of a car journey. I learnt so much about Tunisian culture and politics and that experience is something I would never have had but for the day trip out. His words of advice when he got out, “do not pick up anyone between Tozeur and Nefta it is not safe.” I was dreading being pulled over again but it thankfully didn’t happen.
Chott el-Djerid
The Lars Homestead exterior was a little tricky to find but I had a location from fellow Star Wars adventurer Gus Lopez and using his notes I found the turning around 10km outside of Nefta. GoogleMaps gave up at this point as it told me that I was in a lake, which you are but it is dry during this time of year. A wonderful drive over the sand, very easy to do in a regular car, and it wasn’t long before I spotted the location which I had all to myself. The locals must visit here later in the day as there was a lot of tat for sale nearby, with an honesty box, but there was nothing to purchase I was interested in. There are a lot of animal bones for sale which I assume is some kind of miscommunication from the Krayt dragon skeleton! =There are a lot of locations at this point and it was nice to tick them all off without anyone else around. I had made good time so I thought I’d head out to Mos Espa… a big mistake.
Mos Espa
Mos Espa is an abandoned film set which is out in the middle of nowhere. There is a good road right up to it and it is easy to  find from the nearest village. As I was heading there I saw a very old camper van heading back away from the set with only one driver. I had hoped that he hadn’t dropped off a load of locals selling tat, sadly it did.
There is an area for a car park and the locals were congregated there with camels and quad bikes and arms of junk. I deliberately parked away from all of this but was immediately hounded by people who claimed “I was in the Star Wars movies”, “I know a secret location only 5km from here and I take you” and a half dozen people constantly harassing me for my phone so they could take photos and offering me camel rides. 
I nearly left there and then but luckily a minibus arrived with other tourists and they shot off once they realised they were getting nothing from me. I quickly learnt that “later” works a lot better than “no” to get rid of them. I had only a few minutes of reprieve as I visited what I can only describe as a worn set that is also in danger of needing repairs at some point before they returned. Even purchasing some tat did not deter these guys and I had to hurry to my car via a convoluted route to escape them. Sadly, once they realised I left they chased me on their motorbikes back towards the nearest village, knocking on my car window to get my attention, but foot to the floor I soon left them behind. This was the worst experience by far of the whole holiday I had and I would not recommend anyone visiting this set unless it’s perhaps very early in the morning or with a local guide to shoo them away. I was dreading Maguer Gorge by this point and really hoped it wasn’t the same.
Maguer Gorge
I chose not to visit some of the locations in the sand dunes as it was obvious from what I read online that the landscape has changed a lot and I had no interest in standing in the desert wondering what it used to look like so I headed to Star Wars canyon which thankfully was deserted! Well, there was a car in the car park but I don’t think they were interested in the gorge so I headed in alone. I firstly located the car park shots, it was obvious why the Jawa burning scene was filmed where it was, before heading in the gorge. At first, I wasn’t convinced I was in the right place. Neither of the two buildings you can see are referenced in the movies and there are no markings to explain its significance, but after about 5 minutes of scrambling it is clear where you are. 
I wore trainers on this trek but I would advise more sturdier footwear as once or twice my foot sunk in the mud and it isn’t obvious where is wet or dry in the low parts of the gorge. The scenes from Star Wars are cut well so you need to be careful to only look at scenes shot in Tunisia and not Death Valley in the States. I found all of the shots I wanted as below and the most difficult was by far the shot with C-3PO behind the rocks. I had a great time in this area and could have easily spent another hour just heading further up, past all of the Tusken sniper locations and off on an adventurous hike.
On the way back down I met a local guide taking a family from Pakistan on a tour. They’d covered some of the Indiana Jones shots and I gave the local my maps as I had no further use for them. He was delighted and suddenly grew in confidence as a guide so if anyone is booking a tour I’d do some research and use one of the more reputable guides like galaxytours.com
For both days I was back in my hotel for around 6.00pm after setting off at 4.00am. The roads are very easy and visiting Tatooine is one of the most incredible journeys I have done to date. I’d recommend it to all Star Wars fans.
- Hardcover Book
- Gratton, Tessa (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 448 Pages - 06/11/2024 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
