Wintering in Tunisia - With a Kid

[sy-revolution]

Hi Folks,
I know it seems a bit early to start thinking about wintering but our choice of where to do it will inform our sailing, and how slow/fast we need to go.

We wintered in Portugal this year and our 8 year old son really didn't want to go to school there. We teach from home anyway so we respected his decision. however he found it a lonely few months, with no other kids in the marina to play with. So this year, finding him a school to attend, even for a few days a week is paramount. He's also happier about dealing with French, as he knows a bit already.

Our budget is tight anyway but this winter saw a good deal of money being spent on the boat (too much!) so we need to stop somewhere cheapish. Corsica/Sardinia/Sicily are out for that reason.

So we're down to Tunisia. We've heard some good and bad things about cruising Tunisia. We both love Morocco so the cultural thing isn't a problem. What's more important is that we can get Wes into a school and that there'll be at least some other yachties around to while away the winter nights with.

So what does the forum think? Does anyone have any experience with kids and wintering in Tunisia?

Cheers,

Crispin.

[Steve Pope]

Once spent a winter in Sidi Bou Said was a great little place, (might be bigger now) Take a trip down to Nafta (oasis) magic, they grew every known type of rose there, made perfumes, wine, etc. from the petals. Tunis wasn't a good place to get work done though as the locals didn't really relate to yachts etc., and the labour output slows to nothing during ramadan. A german UN aid worker ended keeping his yacht in Malta as he couldn't have it maintained at Sidi Bou.