Iberostar Waves Mehari Djerba

"It was a very good place to unwind and be pampered and just chill. So glad to come for Christmas saves me the hassle of worrying about what to cook and the actual cooking itself (tedious)… Food was plentiful. Yes a bit repetitive but at least you soon learn what are your favourites to go for everyday. Actually there are a lot of dishes. Christmas Eve the restaurant did special foods and they were different from all the other days. People really dressed up to go to the Christmas Eve dinner but I didn’t 😂 Breakfast: selection of french pastries, breads, jams, etc Juicing station that will juice in front of you whatever fruits you ask… Orange, apple and carrot juice are staples but occasionally they have other fruits like pomegranate etc There is a fresh omelette cooking station which cooks omelettes at your request in front of you. Also a fresh pancake cooking station which makes fresh pancakes on your request. There are also oats and cereals and cold meats and cheeses with fresh cut fruits on offer, and coffee machine always available for range of hot beverages, sparking and still water, etc. For lunch and dinner: Cold meats and cheese section, pasta cooking section, fresh handmade pizzas, selection of breads butter and jams, lots of Tunisian style foods which can be on the spicier side but it’s not a problem we’re British and used to eating curries, and I would say Tunisian stews are a bit like curries in terms of spice levels and what goes into the dish like meat and potatoes and carrots etc lots of grilled vegetables like grilled aubergines, red peppers, courgettes that sort of thing. Lots of vegetable dishes as well. Cooking stations which fry meats on a hot plate at your request - the kind of meat alternates every day and every meal - usually beef steaks, fresh fish fillets or whole fish, lamb, turkey, chicken. Fish was available everyday for lunch as well almost. And plenty of sides like potatoes, gratin, rice, pasta, couscous, etc. The cakes and deserts section is so large. So many types of cakes and cookies. Fresh fruits and fruit salads. 3 or 4 flavours of ice creams and chocolate fountain etc Spoilt for choice. And lots of different kinds of drinks there were your usual fizzy drinks like coke sprite and Fanta, and also beer and wine and lots of different juice based drinks like lemonade and mixed fruit drinks. Coffee machine always available to make espressos lattes, white coffee, hot chocolates, hot teas and other hot drinks.. and you can also get sparkling or still water. Between lunch and dinner is a 4 hour gap where you can go to the ice cream shop to get ice cream. There are always like 8 or 10 types of different gelato flavours to choose from like pistachio, caramel, mango, vanilla, chocolate etc. Also if you go to the main stage where the night entertainment is, there’s free flow of snacks - they make fresh pancakes with toppings but also waiters can bring you free flow of finger foods like TUC crackers, cheese, olives, salted roasted peanuts, etc and free flow of alcoholic or non alcoholic beverages. By the pool, there is a drinks station with a waiter/drinks server who can take orders around the poolside and bring the drinks to you, or you can go up to his station and order and he makes the drinks in front of you and gives to you. There were many gorgeous outdoor children pool slides and play area with water fountains that kids would love. If mine were younger they would spend all day everyday in the pools. But at this time of year it’s too cold to swim in the outdoor pools. There is a large indoor pool and it was hardly ever crowded. The large outdoor adult pool is gorgeous and massive. Would have been nice to come here when the weather is warmer. But it was still warmer here than in the UK. It was at around 16 to 18 degrees everyday during the day and it drops down to maybe 10 or 11 degrees at night. And when the sun shines on you it feels very hot, you could wear short sleeves and get a tan. A gym onsite with weights, exercise bikes, cross trainer etc Trampolines onsite which kids love to bounce on. Beach onsite very easy to walk to and it is stunning. Beautiful blue and clear waters, white sandy beach. Night entertainment was mainly dancing and singing. Can get quite rowdy sometimes. It is what our family liked. The staff and entertainment team are so friendly and inclusive. Cleaners really work hard and always replenished our towels and toilet rolls, gave our room floors a good clean and she even made a swan out of towels and spread flowers on our bed one day. A really nice touch. Only criticisms are: - floors in the restaurant are a bit worn - they’re like laminate flooring but are warping and peeled and you can accidentally trip on them if you’re not careful. Though I didn’t notice it until the 3rd day… so for me not really an issue - Shop in hotel is a total rip off. Yes it was handy to buy things we forgot to bring like toothbrush etc but they charge double of what a normal Tunisian shop charges. There are shops and malls within 20 mins walk out of the hotel and even better if you pay for an excursion to Djerba they take you to the souk and there you go into any normal super mart and you will find the real normal Tunisian prices are. Actually things in Tunisian supermarkets are really cheap compared to UK. And prices are fixed so no need to haggle. But if you don’t shop at a supermarket they will hike prices up. - We went on paid excursions which we bought from the EasyJet rep at the hotel. He told us not to buy from the other excursion rep at the hotel. But we were very disappointed with the desert trip we paid £80 per person with him for. Firstly the jeep that arrived was old and small. They squeezed 4 adults in there. We went on the back seats and it was so small there was no room to sit normally. I’m small and I could just take off my shoes to sit cross legged so I didn’t find the ride painful, but my husband couldn’t and he complained about leg pain after the trip. It was a lot of driving as well - like 6 hours drive in total. We saw other tour groups arrive with far better and bigger jeeps so feel like we were ripped off. Also once we went into Tatouine the guide expected us to buy him a gift and buy a gift from the gift shop to help the poor people living there. But they quoted 45 dinar for a small leather bracelet… honestly it was ridiculous. People keep trying to get you to buy stuff at ridiculous prices. I would recommend you pre book such trips with good well recommended tour guides/companies. Don’t just leave it till you get to the hotel and use the hotel reps. I think we were unlucky and other travellers who also used hotel reps didn’t end up with bad trips but I think to be on the safe side, if you don’t like bad surprises, pre book before going. To be fair we also booked a quad bike excursion and a Djerba city excursion and those went well. So I really recommend the quad biking and the Djerba city half day excursion. It was just the desert trip that was not worth it imo. But it’s one of those things you want to see and do once in your life. Don’t think I’ll be doing it again especially since my husband will certainly refuse to come along with me next time after his painful jeep ride. - we needed late checkout as plane to Heathrow from Djerba leaves at 8:30pm ish on a Sunday. On the hotel website it says late checkout cost 60 dinars for 6 hours from normal checkout time. But when we asked we were told 50 dinars for 3 hours from normal checkout time. Their sudden hike in price didn’t go amiss by us. But we wanted the late checkout so didn’t bother to argue. And then when we wanted to pay by card they wanted us to pay cash in dinars which we didn’t have, so they asked us for euros or pounds. We said we had pounds and they asked for £20 cash. We had it paid it. But we knew £20 was way more than 50 dinars… to us it’s not a lot of money but the dishonesty is unpleasant and it felt like they were pocketing money and it’s not really going towards the hotel - you still need to exercise common sense when ordering food at the restaurant on site. I ordered a turkey breast grilled in front of me. When I went back to table and cut it, found it was partly raw inside, so I chose not to eat it. If I did I’m sure I would have got food poisoning. I won’t be ashamed of food wastage in cases like this. Just because I took the food doesn’t mean I have to eat it. I will not risk a holiday by getting food poisoning. - the staff told us we can have 1 “à la carte” meal at the restaurant during our entire stay. We booked it and it turned out to be a fixed 4 course meal where we can only pick 1 of the courses and it was only 2 choices - beef lasagna or lamb I think it was. We picked the lasagna. The food and service was fine but just wanted to say that the “à la carte” title was misleading… it was a fun change from eating from the usual resort restaurant. - we got a ground floor flat and there were ants in the room. Giant carpenter ants. It was noticeable but not to the point where we felt we needed to move rooms. Also noticed the cleaner tried to clean up the ant nest in the bathroom on the 3rd day or so and the ant problem reduced. I think also with it being a ground floor room it is more prone to insects like ants. So it wasn’t a big enough issue to complain about. If you want to avoid this then I recommend you book a room on the upper floors. - the camel and horse ride sellers on the beach will keep trying to ask you to buy from them each time you go to the beach. I mean they did leave us alone after we said no each time, but I can see this can feel annoying to some people who don’t like this - I can’t state this enough but if you’re the sort of person who absolutely hates haggling for whatever reason, then you’re going to find some of these things irritating when you go to Tunisia, unless you stay in the resort all the time and don’t go out and don’t buy from the resort shop (which I know charges more but it’s possible to haggle). I don’t hate haggling but I couldn’t be bothered to haggle and I felt even if they overcharged me I was okay to pay it as overall the trip wasn’t very expensive. But my husband didn’t like it at all and he said overall he wasn’t very happy with the experiences and he don’t want to go again. Which is kinda sad… - some members of the entertainment team were going around asking hotel customers to give good reviews on Tripadvisor for the hotel. Then they asked to take a photo of the screen after you post a review to confirm you have posted the review. This felt a bit dishonest and pushy… but I also know that this happens in many establishments for e.g. my daughter who works in Wendy’s in England also was asked by her boss to post fake positive reviews … but this does make the whole review process a bit pointless. Well I still do believe in reviews and so I have decided to post a very genuine review with all the positives and negatives, rather than a purely positive one which I think the hotel would have preferred. In all honesty I created a fake throwaway account when the hotel staff was pushing me to do it, and posted a short very positive review for the hotel. Then I came back with my real account and posted this genuine review. All in all, I would only take away 1 star for the negatives. I would definitely return again if the opportunity presented itself, like maybe if other people wanted to go with me other than my husband lol My adult kids and their boyfriends loved it. And would still recommend this resort to everyone. Worth it even if you only do it once. You will not regret going here for Christmas!"

"We stayed at Iberostar Waves Mehari Djerba for 3 days to celebrate our birthdays and had a really lovely experience. The staff made us feel special from the beginning. We were upgraded to a bungalow and given all-inclusive access, even though it wasn’t in our original booking. They surprised us with birthday presents and a cake at the restaurant, singing for us, such a thoughtful gesture. The food was good, with vegan options available, which I really appreciated. The restaurant staff and cooks were very kind and welcoming. The animation team was fun and brought great energy to the hotel. There’s also a nice gym, a great pool area, and easy access to the beach. Overall, a great stay with amazing staff. We’ll definitely be back."

"The hotel is a good location, just 30 minutes from the airport. The taxi driver spoke good English and was very friendly and drove sensibly. We’ve been to a few North African countries and generally the roads and driving is shocking. The lobby and extra seating areas in the hotel are nice; there’s a little reading nook, with comfortable sofas, tv, and a bookshelf with books to help yourself. They’re mostly German with a couple of French books amongst them. The staff are really helpful and pleasant. The entertainment staff are great— the entertainment is repetitive, but that’s to any all inclusive hotel/holiday. Rooms: The rooms are comfortable and clean, they have balconies with a table and chairs and a drying maiden. The tv has many channels but only one American new channel that’s English. The rooms are noisy, we can hear trolleys, suitcase and shoes very clearly walking past outside and it sounds like they’re constantly moving furniture around in the room upstairs. Beware of the beds, we have two single beds pushed together and when the maid has been in, she tucks the covers tightly under the mattress, therefore, theres a pointed section exposed at the bottom of the bed, which both my husband and I have caught our legs on; mine is cut and bruised. There’s no iron in the room, you have to request it from reception and give a 50tnd deposit. Food: The food is plentiful, albeit slightly repetitive for dinner; they do have a Tunisian section, chefs specials each day, home cooked chips, fresh pizzas and pastas. We noticed they use far too much oil on the grills, some nights we’ve used napkins to dab down the turkey and chips as they were too greasy. There’s plenty of desserts each night and they go out of their way to make them look very presentable. Pools: The outdoor pools are like ice! It is January, so we wasn’t expecting them to be warm, but I can’t imagine they’d be much warming in the summer months. It’s been 22-23 degrees and the pools are still far too cold to even dip your feet. The children’s pool looks fantastic, there’s a large climbing inflatable with slides etc. however it’s too cold for the baby to enter. The indoor poor is heated which is nice but it’s cold when you get out, there’s a roof section missing and therefore if it’s been a cold day, it gets chilly in there! There is a heated shower inside though. Spa: I wouldn’t call it a spa, especially not a 4 star one! We booked 2 massages for my husband and I. I had a ‘De-stress massage’ and my husband a ‘Sports massage’. Mine was relaxing but I could tell the lady wasn’t really trained and didn’t know what she was doing. My husband had a man for the sports massage and he said it wasn’t good at all, he didn’t know what it was doing and it wasn’t relaxing in the slightest. The building is a little dingy, the rooms are upstairs and are just partitions, so if anyone else is up there and talking, or shouting even, you can hear them during your ‘relaxing treatment’. Beach: The beach off the hotel is nice, the sand white and lovely coloured water. There was a lot of seaweed however, maybe that’s the time of year? Additionally, there are some stray dogs that come close to you when you’re on the beach, they’re friendly but a little unnerving with a small baby. It’s a good hotel, for what we paid for the time of year it’s worth the money, but there could be some improvements."