"We travelled to One Resort & Aqua in Tunisia with easyJet and, unfortunately, this was probably the worst holiday experience we have ever reviewed. We always try to be fair and honest in our reviews, and there were definitely some positives, but overall we would not recommend this resort, particularly to British families.
THE POOLS AND WATERPARK
The pool areas are very nicely laid out and clearly well thought out. The surfaces aren’t particularly slippery compared with many other resorts we have visited, there are plenty of lifeguards around, and the whole pool area is kept very clean.
The bar staff regularly walk around asking whether you need drinks, which is a nice touch.
The waterslides are also good and probably one of the resort’s biggest positives. The only issue is that they were only open for four hours a day – 10am-12pm and 3pm-5pm when we visited. It makes very little sense when they could easily be open for considerably longer.
The pool itself, however, was extremely gritty, which we found quite strange.
Sunbeds were another positive. They were probably some of the best we have experienced and, importantly, there was absolutely no need to get up ridiculously early to reserve one. Even later in the day there were always plenty available, including good positions with umbrellas. Getting a decent sunbed was never an issue during our stay, which was a huge bonus.
Pool floats are also reasonably priced at the resort and there is plenty of choice. At other resorts we have found them massively overpriced, so we would actually recommend waiting until you arrive before buying one.
HOTEL GROUNDS AND TOILETS
The hotel grounds themselves are fairly nice and very well maintained. There always seemed to be cleaners and gardeners around keeping things tidy.
The resort toilets were also generally very clean.
One strange design issue is the men’s toilet by the waterslides. The urinals are clearly visible to anyone walking past because people can see directly into the men’s area. We found this very odd.
ENTERTAINMENT
The children’s entertainment doesn’t start until 8:30pm and only lasts around half an hour. For young children, this is simply too late, especially when the “show” is essentially some music playing rather than an actual children’s show or entertainment.
There isn’t even a bar open nearby during it, so if you want a drink you have to trek all the way back towards the reception area. The bar doesn’t open around the entertainment area until 9:30pm.
The evening entertainment starts at 9:30pm and, again, only lasts around half an hour. The fact that the bar doesn’t open until the entertainment actually starts is bizarre.
Of all the resorts we have visited, we’d put the entertainment here right at the bottom in terms of quality. Calling it a “show” is, in our opinion, being very generous.
We also witnessed some behaviour from members of the pool entertainment team towards teenage girls that we found extremely uncomfortable and inappropriate. On one occasion, a member of the team tried to follow a 13-year-old girl Into the toilets. Her father confronted the staff member, security became involved and, from what we witnessed, security sided with the hotel staff.
This is based on what we personally witnessed, and we are not suggesting every member of the entertainment team behaved this way. We did, however, find the behaviour of some individuals towards teenage girls concerning on multiple occasions. We also noticed that the staff members involved in the incidents we witnessed were from the African contingent of the entertainment team; this was not something we experienced with the Tunisian/Arab entertainment staff, who were extremely friendly throughout our stay.
ICE CREAM
The ice cream bar doesn’t open until 12pm, which seems strange when food starts being served from 11am.
The flavours rotate, with combinations such as strawberry, bubblegum or vanilla, and on another rotation hazelnut, pistachio or banana.
The choice changes throughout the day.
Unfortunately, the ice cream was consistently semi-melted and the portion size was absolutely tiny – roughly a quarter of a normal scoop. We honestly couldn’t understand the reasoning behind the portion size.
BARS AND DRINKS
The bar staff throughout the resort and restaurants were generally very friendly and helpful.
However, the cups are ridiculously small – around 250ml at best, and you’d be lucky to receive a full cup depending on which member of staff served you.
Our advice would be to take your own travel cup/Stanley-style cup. They were more than happy to fill our own cups with ice and drinks, which made a huge difference.
The alcohol was also extremely poor and extremely watered down. If you’re someone who enjoys spirits, we’d strongly recommend bringing your own.
FOOD
The food was, at best, edible.
There was a wide variety available, but very little that appealed to anyone who is particularly fussy, including children. Eventually we were so fed up and hungry that we actually started ordering food to the hotel.
If you find yourself in the same situation, there is a local delivery service called Serbini that delivers from a variety of restaurants. They communicate well in English and their WhatsApp number is +216 54 111 155.
The restaurants themselves were always clean, had some lovely outdoor seating overlooking the sea/beach and the restaurant staff were friendly.
So the issue wasn’t really the restaurants or the staff – it was the food itself.
THE BEACH
The beach is extremely small and they have crammed as many loungers onto it as physically possible. There is barely any room to move around.
The only comparison we can think of is how a can of sardines must feel.
The beach also wasn’t particularly clean, although this wasn’t necessarily the hotel’s fault. There was a lot of natural debris washing up and the sea itself wasn’t particularly clean either.
THE HOTEL ROOM – OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM
Unfortunately, the room was awful.
From the moment we entered, it smelt strongly of sewage. We went to reception and asked to change rooms but were told we were already in one of the nicest and most expensive rooms available and that they couldn’t move us.
We even offered to pay more for a different room, but there was no real attempt to help.
We were also located on the opposite side of the resort from practically everything.
The room looked nothing like the photographs online. It appeared to be in poor condition and, in our opinion, didn’t look as though it had ever received a proper deep clean.
The bedding was particularly bad. We found blood and faeces on the bedsheets on different occasions and had to repeatedly ask cleaners to replace the bedding.
The cleanliness was genuinely terrible.
We also found cockroaches on three separate occasions: one in the bed, one in the toilet and one in the wardrobe.
When we raised these issues with reception, they showed absolutely no concern.
There is also a back door to the room which can be forced open relatively easily. We would therefore not assume that the rooms are particularly secure.
KETTLE AND FRIDGE
There is a kettle in the room, but there is no convenient power socket near it, meaning we had to use it in the bathroom.
The kettle itself was absolutely full of limescale. When pouring the water, we were essentially having to filter pieces of limescale out of it. It was disgusting.
The fridge was another problem. It was switched on and stayed on, but it simply didn’t get cold, even on the coldest setting.
We raised this and received no meaningful help, so we ended up having to repeatedly get bags of ice from the bar to keep medication cool.
THE SAFE
We also had an issue with the room safe one day when it wouldn’t open.
We went to reception and were told they wouldn’t come and open it because our room was on the opposite side of the resort.
It was only after offering 20 dinar (£5) that someone suddenly became very willing to help and practically ran to the room.
ROOM CLEANING AND TIPPING
Initially, the cleaners were okay.
We tipped them, expecting to continue doing so every day, but bizarrely the standard of cleaning became considerably worse after we started tipping.
On the first day we tipped, they left us with no bedding, no pillowcases, no towels, no toilet roll and bins that hadn’t been emptied.
They also took everything from one side of the room and inexplicably threw it onto the other side.
Coincidentally, it was from around this point onwards that we also started finding cockroaches.
I have no idea what their problem was. We left 20 dinar (£5) and would happily have continued tipping daily, but after this experience we refused to tip again.
BELL BOY
Don’t expect much assistance with luggage.
The “bell boy” only appeared interested in taking our bags to the room if the room was relatively close. We were on the opposite side of the resort and, on arrival, there seemed to be absolutely no intention of helping us get our luggage there.
TAXIS – BE VERY CAREFUL
Do not under any circumstances simply take one of the taxis outside the hotel gate or ask reception to arrange one.
Our experience was that some of the recommended taxi arrangements involved what felt like classic taxi-scam tactics.
On both occasions we used a hotel-recommended taxi, we got into the vehicle, explained exactly where we wanted to go, the driver left the hotel and then told us we were going somewhere completely different of his choosing.
The price then changed and the drivers became extremely aggressive.
We raised this with our easyJet representative, who acknowledged that he was already aware of the issue. And even labelled it a scam himself.
He introduced us to a very nice taxi driver who charged fair prices and gave us absolutely no problems whatsoever. His WhatsApp number is +216 22 940 499.
We would recommend using him rather than relying on the hotel.
We’d also highly recommend visiting Mall of Sousse. There is some really good food, children’s arcades/play areas and proper shopping.
CURRENCY
The hotel currency exchange rate was roughly 1:3.8, whereas you can get a better rate at the airport.
The rate should be around 1:4, so we’d recommend changing your money before leaving the airport.
LATE CHECKOUT
One genuinely good option is the late checkout.
For around £15, you can extend your checkout until 5pm, which is very reasonable and was a really useful service.
The downside is that you can’t arrange it in advance. You have to ask at around 10am on the morning you’re leaving, and there is no guarantee that it will be available.
PHOTOGRAPHER
There is an on-site photographer and, being completely honest, he actually did a very, very good job.
The issue is everything that happens afterwards.
We were told upfront that photographs were £5 each, including the digital copy. They take A LOT of photographs and, to be fair, many of them are very good.
However, when we got to the end and explained that we only wanted to select 10 photographs, the sales pressure became extremely intense.
We eventually agreed to go over our original budget and spend £100 for 20 photographs, but even that wasn’t acceptable and the photographer became visibly annoyed and started having what felt like a hissy fit.
We had made our intentions clear from the beginning.
In our opinion, keep your money and have a professional photoshoot at home instead. Yes, the photographs are good, but the pressure and attitude at the end completely ruined the experience.
We would personally avoid it because of the way we were treated once it became clear we weren’t going to spend the £250-£300 he appeared to be expecting.
MONDAY MARKET
There is a market near the waterslides on Mondays.
Honestly, don’t waste your time.
We were quoted 380 dinar (£95) for a poor-quality copy bag. When they realised we weren’t prepared to pay that and mentioned that a similar copy would only cost around £15 back home, the attitude became aggressive and rude.
HENNA TATTOOS
The resort offers “henna” tattoos which they claim last around two weeks, including while swimming.
Ours washed off within two days.
Don’t waste your money.
CHILDREN WITH ADDITIONAL NEEDS
This was another particularly uncomfortable thing to witness.
There was a visibly autistic teenager staying at the resort and, on multiple occasions, we saw staff pointing, laughing, staring and gossiping about them.
We found this extremely uncomfortable to watch and could only imagine how the child’s parents must have felt.
We have personal experience of supporting an autistic child ourselves, so seeing this behaviour was particularly upsetting.
We appreciate that we cannot know exactly what was being said or what the staff were thinking, but the behaviour we witnessed was very obvious and uncomfortable.
GUESTS AND ATMOSPHERE
From what we observed during our stay, the guest mix was approximately 35% Arab, 35% French, 10% British, 15% Russian and 5% other European.
We would not describe this as a particularly British- or English-speaking-friendly resort.
The majority of staff spoke very little English, if any, with only a small number being able to hold even basic conversations in English.
We also noticed that many of the British guests appeared to be placed towards the furthest parts of the resort, while many Arab guests appeared to be accommodated closer to the main facilities.
That was simply our observation during our stay and we can’t say whether this was intentional or coincidental.
THE RESORT GENERALLY
This is very much a resort where you go on holiday intending to stay inside the resort.
There is zero places within walking distance and, once you leave the resort, the surrounding area felt extremely uncomfortable and chaotic to us – almost like stepping into a completely different world.
THE REVIEWS
One thing I would strongly recommend before booking is looking very carefully at the reviews.
We were heavily influenced by the large number of positive reviews when booking, but having now stayed here ourselves, some of them don’t appear genuine to us.
We noticed what appeared to be the same people leaving repeated reviews for the same hotel, sometimes in a way that made the reviews seem more like promotional material than genuine guest experiences.
We obviously cannot prove who wrote them or whether they were connected to the hotel, so this is simply our personal impression after comparing the reviews with our own experience.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that the large number of positive reviews necessarily reflects what every guest experiences.
EASYJET
Ironically, easyJet themselves were brilliant throughout our holiday.
The airport and flight process was smooth, the flight staff were excellent and the transfers in both directions were extremely well organised.
Our easyJet representative was also very helpful when we raised the taxi issue and immediately acknowledged that he was aware of the problem and put us in contact with a reliable driver.
For us, the disappointing part is that easyJet promote and sell this resort because, based on our experience, the hotel is a huge let-down compared with the standard of service we received from easyJet themselves.
OVERALL
There are definitely positives here.
The pools are excellent, the slides are good, the grounds are well maintained, the sunbeds are plentiful, the bar and restaurant staff are generally friendly, and there are some genuinely useful services available.
But those positives don’t outweigh the negatives for us.
Our overall rating would be 3/10 and we would not recommend this resort to others.
The room cleanliness, sewage smell, cockroaches, bedding issues, poor food, watered-down alcohol, disappointing entertainment, tiny drinks, taxi problems, aggressive selling, lack of English communication and some of the behaviour we witnessed from staff made this a very disappointing holiday.
We will not return to this resort and, based on this experience, we have no intention of returning to Tunisia either.
For the amount of money we paid, we genuinely believe you can find much nicer resorts and have a significantly better holiday elsewhere.
If you’re British, we’d personally think very carefully before booking this particular resort.
Use easyJet – absolutely.
Book One Resort & Aqua again – absolutely not.
This is the most honest review we can give based on our own experience. We have written plenty of holiday reviews before and always try to be fair, but this is by far the worst holiday review we’ve ever had to write.
In short: use easyJet, but avoid, avoid, avoid this resort."
