The east of Djerba is the island's holiday coast, with long beaches, a line of big hotels and the busy market town of Midoun just inland, but the older island is not far behind. The Mosque of Medrajen, in the countryside between Midoun and the sea, belongs to the group of fortified Ibadi mosques that dot the interior, and it reminds visitors that the island was farmland and olive groves long before it was a resort.
Midoun, with about thirty-two thousand people, is the island's second town, and on Friday its weekly market fills the streets with stalls selling vegetables, spices, fabric, pottery and animals. Locals come to buy and sell, and visitors can browse and bargain in a good-natured way. The town also has a small museum of folk art and traditions, and cafés where men play cards and drink tea.
The coast road is a long ride, flat and straight, with palms and low white houses on one side and the sea beyond the dunes on the other. Beaches are broad and white, with shallow, warm water, and the Mediterranean here is gentle. The flip side of the resort strip is traffic, with tourist coaches, rental scooters and quad bikes, and the roads can be busy in high season, so look out for sudden stops and turns. Inland, in the olive groves, the lanes are quieter, sandy at the edges and often shaded by palms. In midsummer, afternoon heat is harsh, and wind can lift sand across the road.
Fuel and services are easy to find in Midoun, which has stations, banks and workshops. Restaurants along the coast serve grilled fish, and in the town you can find simple places selling brik, lablabi chickpea soup and fresh bread. The sweet shops sell makroudh, date-filled semolina pastries, and the best are warm.
Go in the shoulder seasons, April to May or October, when the weather is warm and the beaches are less crowded.