Tunisia

With a soft curve of sandy beach, densely blue Mediterranean, little Noddy trains and all-inclusive hotels, Hammamet (‘the baths’ in Arabic) is Tunisia’s biggest resort. But early planning constraints said hotels should not overreach the height of a tree and, though there are some broad interpretations of this, buildings in Hammamet are restrained, and nothing like the brutal developments scarring Spanish coasts. Hotels, set back from the beach, are mostly surrounded by lushly planted gardens with lots of trees. However, there’s a strange equation here between the traditional elements of a Tunisian town (mosques, the call to prayer, women in headscarves and men in cafes) and a European-favoured resort, with skimpily dressed sunseekers – including Tunisians – wandering down to the beach.