JIMI Hendrix and the 60s hippies didn’t beat their dope-fuelled path to Tunisia - but to neighbouring Morocco. Perhaps that’s why, four decades on, the likes of Marrakech and Essaaouria are stuffed with boutique hotels and chi-chi restaurants catering to the cool urbanites trailing in their wake.

Tunisia, whose language, food and culture is similarly laced with the French influence of its former "protector", has been more traditionally a cheap package destination for Brits seeking sun and sand.

But all that is changing as the capital Tunis - less than three hours flight from London - cranks itself up as a weekend and short break destination for stressed out Europeans.

A rash of boutique hotels or "residence du charme" have sprung up in an area which lays claim to a rich blend of history, beaches and great museums.

The Dar El Medina, in the heart of the twisting narrow streets of Tunis’ bustling medina, opened in August. This 12-room riad-style house with roof terrace, small restaurant and café has rooms, decorated in minimalist, traditional style, for £60-£80 per double. The communal areas around a central courtyard are cool, calm and spare - a welcome contrast to the sensory overload and hard sell of the medina’s souks and mosques outside the hotel’s elegantly wrought iron gate.

Tunis offers the same delightfully evocative collision of Europe and North Africa found in Casablanca (the film and the city) - a place where you can eat croissants for breakfast in a Moorish tiled café pungent with the scent of strong coffee and apple tobacco smoke, while watching white-gloved police directing traffic.

Walk past the glorious colonial Kasbah, black and brilliant white government buildings surrounding a square of fountains and trees to enter the medina, a Unesco World Heritage site. Run the gauntlet of souks packed with ceramics, slippers and jewellery to glimpse the outer courtyard of the 12th century Ziytouna mosque. Nearby, in Arab-Andalusian style, is the 18th century palace of Dar Ben Abdallah, which has become an attractive museum of traditional life. The tombs of the former Muslim kings can be found in a complex decorated in a riot of tiles and stucco.

A short bus ride away, the stunning Bardo museum packs a double whammy, housing the world’s best collection of Roman mosaics in a former royal palace.

The draped statues of Roman emperors, sheltering under Arabesque architecture is a visual feast. The mosaics, many almost intact with colours as lurid as the day they were made, were excavated from the sands across Tunisia and offer a fascinating insight into everyday Roman domestic life.

A brimming bowl of mussels and a bunch of grapes that once adorned a wealthy patrician’s dining room floor, the gladiator stepping out to face wild animals, or Ulysses tied to the mast as the sirens lure, are all depicted in vivid colour.

The collection traces the Phoenecian culture of several centuries BC - twisted funeral masks, grave markers and a carving that historians interpret as proof of child sacrifice through to the Christianisation of Rome when crosses appear on the gravestones. For the full immersion of the newly converted, there is a fifth century stone font.

Visit the scant remains of nearby Carthage, and you appreciate the mosaics’ detailed imagery of daily life is necessary to feed the imaginative leap from a pile of stones to the powerful city, founded by Queen Dido in 814BC.

Carthage was the birthplace of General Hannibal, destroyed by the jealous Romans in 146BC - then rebuilt by Julius Caesar to become the third largest city in the Roman empire. But aside from the giant hypocaust system of the Roman baths there is little to see. A guide would certainly enhance the experience - ours showed us the timeless view from Byrsa hill where the Roman forum overlooked the glittering ocean, and a large water basin with central island, which was once the dockyard hub of Carthage’s powerful military port.

The boutique option in Carthage is the one-year-old, 12-room Villa Didon, a retro chic makeover of a 60s building complete with trendy bar, Alain Ducasse restaurant, spa hammam and £160 per night price tag.

Further along the coast - accessible by metro from Tunis - is the 19th century 22-room four star Dar Said hotel in the ridiculously pretty hilltop village of Sidi Bou Said.

Opened four years ago, the hotel (£100 per double) is an oasis of calm with a small pool set above the main street of Sidi where busloads of tourists trek down the cobbled streets every morning to admire the sea views.

It’s easy to see why the village’s whitewashed walls, blue shutters and Andalusia wrought iron grilles attracted the likes of artists Paul lee and Louis Moilliet. Although it is something of a tourist trap, an overnight stay allows a quieter appreciation of its jasmine-scented slopes and traditional cafés.

There are other hotel options along the coastline between Side, La Marisa and Grammars. Just half an hour away from Tunis, the sandy beaches and blue and white 19th century colonial buildings make for an attractive coastal strip. The best of the resort hotels is widely held to be the 161-room five star The Residence with its spacious, light rooms and interiors based around petal strewn fountains. It has a vast outdoor pool, an excellent breakfast buffet and a thalassotherapy spa, where the mostly French clientele seem to hold the touching faith that a bath in jets of warm salt water will make them thinner and healthier.

As an alternative to the hotel’s eucalyptus scented steam room, try a traditional Hammam in nearby La Marsa where a strapping Tunisian lass will pin you down in your pants on a hot slab and scrub you raw with a pink mitt for just 70p, leaving you feeling more invigorated than the aforementioned water massage - if a shade like a skinned rabbit.

A republic since 1957, Tunisia may be 99 per cent Muslim but successive presidents have encouraged a liberated attitude towards women. Most wear Western garb, but it is still a treat to be allowed into this inner feminine sanctum to witness the social ritual of chatting, washing and scrubbing that has been going on for centuries.

The boutique hotel phenomenon will hopefully deliver a shot in the arm for Tunisia’s tourist infrastructure - improved standards in restaurants and transport and the development of the currently bleak swathes of suburb surrounding Tunis would certainly be welcome.

But for now, it is emerging as a fine place to turn on, tune in and drop out for a few days.