Hotel Diar El Barbar in Matmata [Tunisien]

The Hotel Diar El Barbar in Matmata is located in a harsh landscape and despite the lack of facilities nearby such as markets and supermarkets, provided very decent accomodation, but I won't quite recommend staying beyond 1 night in winter.

While the hotel was three floors high, I was told the first floor rooms were really caves and the other floors built above the caves.  The hotel was big and I was assigned a room farthest away from the main building housing the reception and restaurant, which won't have been much of an issue in summer, but in winter....Walking to the restaurant for dinner wasn't a problem, but walking back when the temperature dropped further wasn't fun, especially since the heating system in the room wasn't strong enough to counter the cold air seeping in under the front door and through the bathroom windows.

My room had a double bed in the centre fronted by a small table and 2 wooden chairs which were really heavy to move around, and 2 smaller dugouts at the side which doubled as single beds, although 1 of the dugout did not have a mattress, so it doubled as a seat for my luggage.  There was a sorta genkan area before the bedroom proper where a dressing table sat opposite a built-in closet and next to the bathroom...Not a cozy place to stand in winter due to the cold.

The bathroom was designed rather oddly, with the bathtub right next to windows at chest height, and no heater there, so showering in winter was either sheer torture or a great wake-up call, depending on how one sees it.  Again, there was a stool in the bathroom.

Dinner was interesting with a pastry encasing eggs, something like a 蛋饼 and fried turkey which was quite delish but I was unable to eat even half of it as my stomach muscles were all still cramping from all that shivering as I finished showering.