A special place — Dar Said in Sidi Bou Said

We couldn’t have picked a better place for our first four nights in Tunisia than the Dar Said (Rue Toumi, Sidi Bu Said, Tunisia; www.darsaid.com.tn), a small, elegant boutique hotel with rooms set around small courtyards.

No two rooms are alike, but all are smartly decorated with lots of Tunisian touches. Some have views of the hotel garden and the Gulf of Tunis beyond.

The hotel’s superb Dar Zarrouk Restaurant is just across the street. The price for dinner for two, soup to nuts, was $83 — high for Tunisia but worth it; this is a 5-star restaurant. — Paul J. Lalli