Medina Solaria and Thalasso

"This is my second review of the hotel. This one is my own, considered, personal view - more will be explained later and why it's 4 not 5 stars. From a service, room, food, staff, overall hotel experience I would give this place 5 stars. Room (4045) & check in : Rooms are perfectly big enough, lovely large balcony, big bathroom. Air con works well but we did notice that it wasn't quite as efficient when capacity was higher - more strain on the system = not quite as cool. Decent shower, if slight odd positioning on a side wall of the bath rather than the end ! We arrived around 1pm, room was ready. Good room position and very little (none) noise of any note. Pool : Amazing space. I love the relaxed approach, no stopping grown adults having an early morning dip (0700 onwards). Bar was great - big shout to Hassen the server, he was polite, efficient, running around all day. Top, top guy. Plenty of sunbeds & brollies, all the staff happy to help. Food : Yeah, by day 10 a bit repetitive but a very good standard, excellent service, again, all the waiting staff a credit to the hotel. Very much what you would expect for a hotel in North Africa on the offerings. Brilliant egg station for breakfast, the chef there is an absolute star. Lobby Bar : Again, and it's worth repeating, all the staff are happy, hard working, running around after you, checking in, saying hello, they're all excellent. Location : Pretty much perfect. Go beach side for the marina, out the front and turn left a very short stroll to the medina and the fun parks. Beach : Not beach people, used the bar once (after drinking all day) so can't comment as don't remember ! Entertainment : Work long hours, Luca was our favourite, top lad, always cheery and informative but they all work, no surprise, very hard and long hours. Now for the bitter taste that was left. I contacted Tripadvisor a long time ago about 'fake' reviews on this hotel. Their algorithm didn't notice anything wrong. I can tell you, 100%, from personal experience of both my wife & I, the entertainment team are targeted with getting 5* reviews of the hotel. They must take a photo of the review and show it to their boss as proof. They even take your phone and do it themselves. To the point (hence the loss of one star) they've changed my profile name !!! The huge shame is, they really don't need to. I would come back to this hotel in a heart-beat. The Tunisia of now is a whole world away from the one of 25-30 years ago. The whole area is making a massive effort to accommodate the tourist $$. Great value, lovely hotel, decent weather, excellent service. Leave it up to us to write the reviews though, please?"

"The hotel is beautiful and staff are very friendly"

"Staff very friendly apart from the reception staff not very helpful we wanted a late checkout they left us hanging around until the last minute only to tell us no room available meaning we had to rush around to leave the room by 12 then a 6 hour wait in the reception to be picked up to go to the airport, no chance of a shower to freshen up wouldn’t recommend this hotel more of a 2 star not 5 shame really most staff very kind"