The way to Kerkuane from Tunis is a ride through three Tunisias in a day. You leave the capital on the motorway, with the Gulf of Tunis on one side and the red-roofed suburbs thinning out, and within an hour you are on the Cap Bon peninsula, where the country turns surprisingly green. Hammamet and Nabeul come first, tourist towns with beaches and a famous ceramics trade; Nabeul's pottery workshops and Friday market are worth a pause, and orange and lemon groves fill the plain around them. Beyond that the road bends north-east toward Kélibia, with the fortress that overlooks the harbour, and then runs out along the coast to a flat, windy corner of the peninsula.
What waits at the end is Punic Kerkuane and the necropolis beside it, listed by UNESCO in 1985. It is a town of the Carthaginians, abandoned in the third century BC and never lived in again, so the streets, wells and houses survive in an unusually complete state. The most memorable details are domestic: a bathroom with a built-in tub, a courtyard where someone once ate dinner, a seaside quarter where purple dye was made from murex shells. It is humbling to realise how comfortable these people were.
On the bike, the road is flat and mostly straightforward, with the occasional rough edge, so there are no great technical demands, but there are surprises: sand blown across a bend, a lorry heading to the fish market, a donkey cart on the shoulder. Take it steady. Fuel is plentiful in Hammamet, Nabeul and Kélibia, but there is little between Kélibia and the site, so fill in town. Lunch in Kélibia of grilled fish, salad with tuna and a pot of mint tea is a good reward, and the harbour is lively at the end of the day.
The return to Tunis runs back along the same corridor and ends at the medina, so leave in good time. In July and August the heat is heavy, and the wind from the sea can be strong, so spring and autumn are the best seasons for this ride.