The Helpful Stranger

Providing an authentic and honest opinion on travel destinations

Louage: A Systematic Breakdown of Routes in Tunisia

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It can sometimes be difficult to find information on louage routes and stations online but I can confirm that we were able to make all of the following journeys by louage. Some of the louage stations can be hard to find and are not marked on maps, so for these I have included co-ordinates that you can paste into Google Maps. For all of these routes we got to the louage station as early as possible, usually no later than 10am apart from when we were returning from a day trip. Arriving early to the station greatly increases your chances of being able to get a louage. Of course, there are many many other louage routes operating in Tunisia. Most cities and small towns are linked by louage. However, the following are the routes that we personally took so I can vouch that they do indeed exist and that it is possible to get between all of these places by louage. For my guide to using the louage system in Tunisia click here!

Tunis

There are several louage stations in Tunis, each one serves a different part of the country. Bab Saadoun station serves louages heading to the north and west of Tunisia, Moncef Bay serves louages heading to the south and Bab Aliwa serves the east.

For more info about what we got up to in Tunis click here.

Moncef Bay louage station in Tunis

Moncef Bay station in Tunis, one of the best and most organised louage stations in Tunisia!

Tunis > Sousse – leaving from Moncef Bay station in Tunis, this station covers louages for the south of the country and is the most organised louage station in Tunis.

Tunis > Teboursouk/Dougga – leaving from Bab Saadoun station in Tunis. Bab Saadoun is a chaotic and disorganised station which serves the north of the country. There is no ticket office at Bab Saadoun and the louages are just parked everywhere, you will need to ask around to find the correct louage and then pay the driver during the journey. We were heading to Dougga via Teboursouk, when we told the louage driver this he asked for 1 TND extra and dropped us off a little further in the town of Nouvelle Dougga where we could walk to the archaeological site.

Teboursouk > Tunis – after visiting Dougga we got back to the town of Teboursouk around 2pm and were able to catch what I assume was the last louage. This is patchy and I have heard of people struggling to get louages from midday onwards so I think we were lucky. 

Tunis > Kelibia/Kerkouane – leaving from Bab Aliwa station in Tunis which serves the east of the country. Bab Aliwa is a little disorganised and does not have a ticket office but it is not as bad as Bab Saadoun, you will need to ask around though to find the right louage and pay the driver during the journey. We took the louage to Kelibia to visit Kerkouane archaeological site.

Kelibia > Tunis – after visiting Kerkouane we got back to Kelibia at around 1pm and were easily able to get a louage back to Tunis. 

Tunis > Bizerte – leaving from Bab Saadoun in Tunis, the louage drops you off slightly out of town in Bizerte.

Bizerte > Cap Angela – local louage for the northernmost point in Africa. This leaves from a roundabout in Bizerte at the co-ordinates 37.27602669479289, 9.869843647139247. Our louage driver took us all the way to Cap Angela and but usually the driver will drop you off at the nearest town, Ras Angela.

Bizerte > Tunis – this leaves from the inner-city station just outside of town (location 37.26482502339448, 9.886142090362949). We got here around 2pm and had no problem getting a louage back to Tunis.

Tunis > Jendouba/Bulla Regia – leaving from Bab Saadoun station in Tunis. We took the louage to Jendouba to visit Bulla Regia. There is no local louage from Jendouba to Bulla Regia as far as I am aware and we had to take a taxi.

Jendouba > Tunis – we got back to Jendouba at around 1.30pm after visiting Bulla Regia and had no problem getting a louage back to Tunis.

Other routes

Sousse > Kairouan
Kairouan > Sousse – we visited Kairouan on a day trip from Sousse and there were plenty of louages in both directions. The louage station in Sousse was very organised however the station in Kairouan only had information in Arabic, so we had to ask a local for help finding the right vehicle to Sousse.


Sousse > Monastir

Monastir > Sfax


Sfax > El Jem
El Jem > Sfax – we visited El Jem on a day trip from Sfax and had no problem getting a louage back to Sfax at around 2.30pm.

Sfax > Tataouine – the information in Sfax louage station was all in Arabic but the station was relatively organised though and there were a lot of helpful people around. The louage dropped us off at the inner-city louage station in Tataouine which is a little way out of town.

Tataouine > Ksar Ouled Soltane – leaving from the local louage station in Tataouine, which can be found at co-ordinates 32.92770894477118, 10.44765338311878. The louages here are just parked at the side of the road, ask one of the guys standing with the louages which is the correct one for your destination and pay the driver during the journey. We took this louage around 3pm and were able to get a louage back from Ksar Ouled Soltane to Tataouine around 5pm, although we befriended some locals on the way which probably helped with this. 

Tataouine > Chenini – departing from the same local louage station as the trip to Ksar Ouled Soltane above, at co-ordinates 32.92770894477118, 10.44765338311878.
Chenini > Tataouine – we got the louage back to Tataouine from Chenini at the same spot that it dropped us off on the main road passing through the village. We waited for around 40 minutes at the roadside for the louage to arrive, we were worried at first as when the louage did arrive it drove past us, dropped some passengers off in Chenini and then ignored us and sped away. Thankfully the louage then returned in the other direction around 10 minutes later and we were able to flag it down. We realised that Chenini is not the last stop on the route so the driver was completing his rounds before returning to Tataouine.

Tataouine > Houmt Souk (Djerba) – from the main inter-city louage station in Tataouine on the northern outskirts of town (co-ordinates 32.947860562149806, 10.457340556820627), get there early for this as there are limited louages on this route. Local louages were running in Djerba but I’m not sure what lines they were servicing as we were unable to get a louage from Midoun to Homt Souk, we just used taxis to get around the island which were cheap enough and the taxi drivers on Djerba were all honest and charged us the correct amount.

Houmt Souk (Djerba) > Gabes – Gabes is a transport hub, we needed to change there to get to Matmata and Douz.

Gabes > Douz – from the main inner city louage station in Gabes

Douz > Qibili – we were trying to get to Tozeur but when we arrived at the louage station in Douz we were told that no direct louages were running from Douz to Tozeur and to change at Qibili. This louage dropped us off at the local louage station in the centre of Qibili. 

Qibili > Tozeur – after being dropped off in Qibili we asked where we could get a louage to Tozeur, only to find that the local louage drivers immediately started trying to hail a taxi for us. We didn’t fancy a 2 hour journey in a taxi and so told them not to do this, we were eventually able to find a different louage station around 30 minutes walk away at co-ordinates (33.716988897633435, 8.974434264281692). This ‘station’ was basically just a parking lot with no louages and crowds of people standing around, every so often a louage would arrive and immediately be swarmed by the crowds fighting to get in. Worryingly all of these louages seemed to be heading to either Gafsa or Gabes and there didn’t seem to be any going to Tozeur. A local man told us to be patient and wait, after waiting for over two hours and almost giving up hope a louage for Tozeur did eventually arrive. A local woman in the louage told us that this route is not popular and some days does not run at all. I think we got lucky with this, if you’re trying to head to Tozeur it may be better to make alternative plans or use the SNTRI buses rather than louage. 

Tozeur > Tunis – this louage leaves at 6am only. Again, when heading to or from Tozeur it is probably best to use the SNTRI bus network which has decent service from Tozeur is just as cheap as the louage.

Matmata

Getting to Matmata by louage was quite complicated. There are two towns called Matmata, New (Nouvelle) Matmata and Old Matmata (also called Ancien Matmata or Matmata Kadeema). Old Matmata is the tourist location and Star Wars filming site, and probably the place you are looking for. Getting there meant taking two different vehicles; first going from Gabes to New Matmata, and then a separate louage from New Matmata to Old Matmata.

Gabes > New (Nouvelle) Matmata

New Matmata > Old (Ancien) Matmata

The louage from Gabes to New Matmata departed from the local louage station in Gabes (co-ordinates 33.8848189953241, 10.09068919138954, this is a parking lot just around the corner from the main inner-city louage station in Gabes). This louage drops you off at the side of the road in New Matmata, from there you can cross the road to a small parking lot where you can take another local louage to Old Matmata (ask the louage driver to point this out when he drops you off in New Matmata if you are not sure where it is). 

We were staying in Toujane, which became even more complicated as there is no louage available, after reaching Old Matmata we ended up paying 60 TND to the louage driver who then took us the rest of the way to Toujane.

When returning from Old Matmata you can retrace the journey to Gabes, from where you can get inner-city louages to most places in Tunisia.

For more Tunisia content click here!

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