Tunisia · Gouvernorat de Gabès
Where to Stay in Gabès, Gouvernorat de Gabès
Gabès is a city of southeast Tunisia on the Mediterranean, a rare seaside oasis where palm groves grow down to the sea, on the edge of the Sahara near the caves of Matmata.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Gabès
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Where you stay in Gabès turns on the town or the oasis. The centre near the medina keeps the market, the mosque, and the seafront within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the town. The gulf lies just east.
Palms shade the old streams. Out into the oasis and the hills, the town gives way to the palm gardens, the henna groves, and the road up to Matmata. A room among the palms trades the streets for the cool shade, the running springs, and the quiet paths under the trees.
The desert runs west. Stay downtown for the market, or out for the oasis. The seaside oasis and the old medina hold the gulf town.
About Gabès
Gabès is the oasis city of the Tunisian coast.
What is Gabès known for?
On the Gulf of Gabès in the southeast of Tunisia, it grew as an oasis and a caravan town, and it keeps the great palm oasis running down to the shore, the old medina and its market of henna and spice, the ruins of Roman Tacapae, and the road to the cave houses of Matmata. The sea laps the edge of the palms. Date palms shade the streams.
What are the main landmarks in Gabès?
The seaside oasis is the pride of Gabès. The great palm grove running from the town down to the sea, a rare coastal oasis, is the emblem of the place, out of downtown. Caves lie in the hills.
The dug-out cave houses of Matmata stand in the desert hills inland nearby, while the old medina, the henna gardens, and the Roman ruins mark the country around Gabès.
What is the history of Gabès?
Gabès has watered travelers for ages. Its great oasis has fed the caravans that crossed between the desert and the sea since ancient times, and a town grew among the palms. Rome held the oasis.
In classical days the port of Tacapae stood here on the gulf, trading with the towns of the coast and the desert beyond. The oasis kept its gardens. Under its palms the people grew fruit, henna, and vegetables in the old three-tier way, watered by the springs of the oasis.
The desert lay just behind. Inland stood the cave villages of Matmata, dug into the hills, and the great sand sea beyond, and Gabès grew as the market of the southern coast, keeping its palms, its medina, and its shore. The springs still feed the palms.
Gabès keeps its seaside oasis on the gulf.
Where is Gabès?
Gabès lies in the southeast of Tunisia, on the Gulf of Gabès where the desert reaches the sea. The city sits at the mouth of a great oasis by the Mediterranean, on the edge of the Sahara, with the sea and the gulf to the east and the palm groves and the desert hills rising inland to the west. Warm gulf water washes the beach below the palms.
Dry hills climb behind the palms.
What is the climate of Gabès?
Gabès has a warm, dry semi-desert climate. Hot dry summers and mild winters cross the coast, with fierce desert heat in summer and a little rain in the cooler months. Dry heat lies over the oasis.
Sea air softens the coast.
How do you get to Gabès?
Gabès lies on the southeast coast of Tunisia, at the edge of the Sahara. The coast road and the rail run to it from Sfax and Tunis, and a road climbs inland to Matmata. Cars cross the desert.
Sfax lies north up the coast.
Good for
Updated August 2026