Djerba is a place of contrasts, where as you find tourist hotels filled with Europeans sun bathing on the beach, to conservative old town, where you’ll find most women are covered and minarets dotting the skyline.
Before heading to Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, I already
had spent one night an appropriately named one star hotel, where hot water was
scarce and the room was quite dirty. On the plus side, there was running air
conditioning and the courtyard was beautiful.
I’ve always been a casual Star Wars fan, as in I watched all the movies a couple time and enjoyed the movie, but I wasn’t a particularly die hard fan.
However, since I was in Djerba, I knew that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the real life sets where the original Star Wars movies were shot.
Unfortunately, there is no real easy way to this yourself. Public transport is not reliable, and renting a car in Tunisia is quite the hassle. I decided to suck it up and go with a private tour operator.
We went back and forth and eventually agreed on a private tour that would see the following star wars landmarks along with other local cultural sites:
Anakin Skywalker’s Home
Slave Quarters exteriors from Episode 1
Lars Homestead (Luke’s home)
Toshi Station
Ben’s Hermitage (House of Obi-Wan Kenobi)
Mos Esley Cantina
My flight landed in Djerba at around 8:30 am, my guide quickly greeted me and we were on our way.
The first thing we had to do is take a ferry that separates Djerba Island from the mainland. There was a long line, and it was easy to see why. The ferry’s were quite small and could only fit a few cars at a time.
Actually anything with wheels was allowed on board; It was quite odd to see a bus full of passengers who didn’t get out on the ferry.
We then headed straight into the mountainous dessert, the roads were well paved and occasionally you see a local with his donkey walking on the side of the road.
Our first stop was a traditional Tunisian house occupied by a Berber family. The houses are all underground to keep cool during the hot days and you can easily see where Lucas got his inspiration for Luke’s home.
Our next stop was the famous Lars Homestead, where the scenes inside Luke’s house were shot.
It has actually been converted to a hotel complete with all sorts of star wars memorabilia and pictures from the actual set when it was filming.
I then toured around the courtyard.
And then the famous dining room
Finally, I toured the sleeping quarters. You can actually lie down where Skywalker slept!
To stay at the hotel, it is actually quite cheap, although it is a bit rough, so I’d probably do a day trip rather than stay overnight.
We then drove through the mountainside, passing by various Berber villages that looked like they’ve been there for many generations.
We finally made it to our next stop, Ksar Hedada, where a couple shots from the Phantom Menace were filmed. However, the area has been turned into a hotel, but it was still nice to take a look at some more unique Berber building styles.
We then headed to a Berber village to have an early dinner. Unfortunately, the host family was not there, so we ended up taking a few photos and leaving early.
We then headed to Ksar Medenine, where Anakin Skywalker’s home was located. An interesting fact was that there were people actually living inside most of those rooms.
It was getting dark and we headed back to Djerba, but stopping at a small salt flat first to watch the sunset.
I had some minor complications with my guide, and the next day the owner of the tour company came to apologize and gave me a tour of all the Star Wars sites in Djerba.
Our first stop was Toshi Station, which now had a loudspeaker attached to its roof
We then went to Obi Wan Kenobi’s house, which was currently being used to store building materials
Our final stop was the exterior of the famous Mos Eisley Cantina.
Unfortunately it seems to have fallen into disarray, with the inside filled a bunch of building materials.
The tour operator dropped me off and then I had a lazy day at the pool before flying back to Poland.
Overall, I really did enjoy my Star Wars Tour, especially my visit to the Lars homestead. The only drawback is the amount of driving you would do daily. I’d say at least 80% of the tour was driving from one place to another.
HOW TO GET THERE:
Many European charter airlines fly to Djerba from Europe, you may be able to score a deal by waiting till the last minute. Quite frequently they sell their last tickets at a loss.
There are no airlines with frequent flier programs that fly to Djerba, you will need to instead fly to Tunis first and then book a separate ticket to Djerba.
The cheapest miles redemption would be via British Avios and could cost between 24,500 to over 40,000 miles each way depending on which US city you leave from. (Avios is a distance base mileage award program).
Alternatively, you can redeem 37,500 miles American Airline miles or 40,000 United MileagePlus miles each way.
You then will need to take a quick 1 hour flight on TunisAir (the national airline of Tunisia). Make sure you book tickets directly on their website, as if you search via Kayak you will be charged a higher price.
My recommendation would be to fly to Europe on an award ticket and then wait for a last minute flight deal. Polish charter companies are quite notorious for having very cheap last minute tickets (make sure to use google translate).
