"I’m still here at the moment with 2 days left and I have very mixed feelings. If you don’t have time to read the full review then a snapshot is that the hotel lacks in many areas and if it wasn’t for the outstanding entertainment team, then I may have be even left early.
A more detailed review is this:
Upon arrival (00:30) we were greeted with a glass of pineapple juice and then told about the tourist tax (we had googled it before so it didn’t come as any shock but when I went to pay on the card, I was refused and told that they could only accept cash and that I had to exchange money to pay it… suprise suprise there is a 12 TND charge to get this out of the cashpoint. Surprisingly though, a French couple arrived shortly after us and paid by card hmmmmm clearly not liking the English and very racist towards us. This theme continues a little bit throughout our stay. We were then told that they had kept a restaurant open for us so we could get something to eat! Great! We went and sat down, got given some pizza, pasta, a drink each and a selection of puddings. Just what we needed. We thanked the waiter and chef and went to leave…. “Excuse me, you need to pay “ I questioned it saying (but we are all inclusive) to that I got a response of “no, it’s 7 euros each” I went and questioned the reception about this as it was never mentioned to us. Next thing I know, I have 5 members of staff around me, including security and won’t stop having a go until I pay it. Guess what… another 12 TND charge on top of the 100TND (which the staff just shared between themselves) for what we later found out to be in the all inclusive restaurant daily for FREE.
The shop onsite are rip off merchants too, prices change daily even though each item has a barcode on it and scans through the till. 1 member of staff scans but the others just make up prices and then push you. I get it’s a pushy country but the hotel shouldn’t allow that. Just cross the road to the supermarket and it’s so much better.
The rooms are nice! Could do with a little freshen up but on the whole a good size (our sink plug didn’t work) please also note that the aircon is turned off even though temperatures were in the high 20’s every day. So don’t believe the information on that. It’s a bit of a maze too so bring a map lol.
The swimming pool could use a little tlc with quite a few tiles missing that your feet catch on. Other than that, credit to the pool cleaners as it’s really clean. It’s also massive! Plenty of sunbeds about too. DONT use the towels from the room, they don’t like that so if you need towels, you can hire them from reception at 30TND each.
The food, well it has a pattern of…. BREAKFAST: exactly the same every single day. LUNCH: the most enjoying one of the day and changed every day. DINNER: very hit or miss, don’t expect much for fussy eaters in the evening as there is really only pasta or bread. If you like your coffee, you can’t seem to be able to get this in the restaurant apart from breakfast time. The waiters, again we felt victimised by a few of them not wanting to interact with us but other languages, they did. I’d get it if I was rude but I’m really not. There was a couple of good ones though which we are thankful of. One that deserves credit is (I’ll update this when I see him on Monday)
The beach is really pretty and didn’t find many issues with haggling on there.
The pool bar, staff there are fantastic and a special mention needs to go out to Aladdin and I think his name is Farsi.
Now the entertainment. If it wasn’t for this team then I probably would have left early. Lots to do during the day and when they do announcements, it is French and English. Lots of dancing by the pool, aqua arobics, darts, archery, bowls, calligraphy?!?! Salsa, Zumba. Workouts, yoga. The team are fantastic and very very inclusive. Special mention to Diva, Osama, Choco, Poutchi, Kalou and Rio. They certainly made the holiday and so greatful to have them there. Evening entertainment is from 9-11pm daily and has a good selection of shows. Be ready for a lot of involvement.
Overall, we still had a good time because of the entertainment and a very select few members of staff but on the whole, unfortunately though, that is not quite enough to warrant us coming back. Unless there was an overhaul of staff on reception (especially getting rid of the bullies at night) and the shop"
