Intrepid travel is a must if you want to enjoy all the world has to offer. Katherine Parker Magyar joined us for Episode 17 of the TripCast360 podcast Distant Adventures for the Intrepid Traveler. She was kind enough to leave us a couple of nuggets of her travel wisdom by sharing the post below.

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“I think a mental health trip to North Africa wouldn’t be the worst thing for you right now,” my father told me, as I booked my flight to Tunisia.

The trip was on a whim, in the wake of a break up, and though I’m unsure my mental health improved, my Instagram feed certainly sparkled. 

We picked the country on a map. My sister was living in Jordan, and we decided to meet halfway—or what seemed like halfway: The Maghreb is far closer to the deserts of Jordan than the skyscrapers of New York. But the moment I landed in the Tunis airport, I was grateful for my geographical shortcomings. Less popular than Morocco or Egypt, Tunisia is a hidden gem for most Americans in North Africa—and a quick ride on the TGM train revealed the country’s biggest surprise of all.

Only 12 miles north of the nation’s capital, Sidi Bou Said is an ancient blue and white town overlooking the Gulf of Tunis. Perched atop a steep cliff, the town, aptly nicknamed “Ville Bleue,” sparkles above the Mediterranean. As everyone with a social media account knows, this two-toned ambiance is most famously found in Santorini. Although travelers are obsessed with blue and white architecture, Sidi Bou Said has yet to be swarmed by Yacht Week castaways or selfie-stick wielding families of six. 

The town’s lack of social media exposure is sure to appeal to the discerning traveler, as will its mixture of North African influences, Arabic hospitality, and Mediterranean ambiance that is unique to the Maghreb. The village by the sea remains relatively untouched by mass tourism influences, astounding in this age of digital globalization when it feels like no corner of the world has yet to be geotagged.

This town of endlessly photogenic proportions has long been a bohemian retreat. In the early 20th century, Tunis was an alternate Paris for artists of the Lost Generation, and Sidi Bou Said its glittering Montmartre. It inspired French writers (Simone de Beauvoir, Collette, Michael Foucault) and painters (Henri Matisse, who painted its famous blue doors).

Upon visiting the city, the artist Paul Klee declared, “Colour has taken possession of me. No longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever.”

A century later, Klee’s words hold true. But you don’t have to be a famous painter to capture this dreamy ambiance: This painted city is an Instagram lover’s dream. The color scheme reflects the natural environment: the icily gorgeous North African sky, the cerulean Mediterranean sea. The light in North Africa is unlike anywhere else in the world—pale, nearly iridescent—and never is it more beautiful than in Sidi Bou Said. If this sounds dramatic, I assure you one trip to the Maghreb would demonstrate my point.