General: Tunisia

Please note before you start reading this review, that this is a review on the hotel and my holiday in a specific part of Tunisia. Unfortuantely only the general category is available to place the review, and in my opinion its better to write the review then not to.

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Oh there is nothing better than lying on the beach with a cold one in your hand and the sound of the sea……..

Tunisia - You gonna like or you gonna hate, but it's your choice.....

The decision Factor..........

A friend and myself decided to go on a girls holiday, cheap as chips was the key word and destination anywhere was the landing point. Using the power of the internet we trawled for hours looking for great deals. Finally we decided on a package deal to Tunisia, which seemed a good place to go and had some good deals.

We looked at various agencies and decided on Thomas Cook who had the best range of deals available. Our first job was to short list hotels and places and check out all the reviews that we could find (these sights are easy enough to google). This is vital because as we all know package holidays can be a nightmare.

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Thomas cook holidays .......................

We decided to go with a hotel called Dar Khayam which is in the Hammamet region of Tunisia, after reading a few good reviews on the place. I had problems booking over the internet through the Thomas Cook website so they allowed me to have the same prices over the phone (I do recommend phoning though sometimes they can find you great deals that aren't listed).

The whole package included flights, meals on the plane (£10 optional) transfers, accommodation, three buffet meals a day and all local drinks coming to a total of £ 280-00.

What a pleasure to book all we had to do is wait for the day, and no visas to organise as they are not needed going into the country if you are on a British passport.

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Thomas Cook airlines

I must say I did expect the plane to be rubbish and resembling something off the Ryanair lot, but was pleasantly surprised. Other than the fact that we landed the bad row 30 seats which you can't put back the flight was very pleasant. The flight attendant moved the man next to us so that we could have an extra chair to make up for the squash. The seats were comfortable and you can watch a movie on the way out which takes up a huge amount of time, and best of all it was really clean.

The flight is only 2 1/2 hours so after a good meal (reasonably good meals served).
Flights are from Gatwick to Monastir. We flew out on a Wednesday flight which leaves at around 8:40am, there is also flights out of Manchester.

Monastir airport is quite small and clean, we seemed to land at a good time and got out fairly quickly, but I did hear a few nightmare stories from some people about the airport.
They have a great duty free on the way out so be sure to save a little bit of money coming home.

Thomas Cook did the transfer which took 1 ½ hours and wasn't too bad except for our rep screaming and waking everyone up when a dog ran in front of the bus (he was fine!). I must warn you though drivers in Tunisia are not the best and are quite scary at the best of times!

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Quickly lets talk currency……

The currency is the Dinar, and is only available in the country and is illegal to export. Please use a currency exchange outside the hotel, as the hotel will give you a lower rate. It is roughly 2.2 DT to the pound.

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Dar Khayam hotel

The Dar Khayam is quite a large hotel with over 260 rooms and bungalows available. On walking through the entrance you come into the main foyer which is clean and quite pleasant. There are couches all over and a bar to the right. On the left is the reception area, nearly all staff speak a variety of languages such as English, Dutch, German and French so its easy for everyone.

A warning there are no lifts in this hotel and access to the rooms is by stairs, making it unsuitable for wheelchairs. There are ramps in the downstairs areas and to the beach, but these are more suited to pushchairs.

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The rooms

The rooms are down a long corridor some overlooking the pool and sea, and some overlooking the street side. We had ordered a sea view room, well we could see the sea and a bit of the pool, but mostly we saw the roof of the indoor swimming pool.

The rooms are basic and depending on what size and type you ordered will be the amount of single beds or bunk beds you have in your room. We had three single beds in ours, the décor is all in greens and yellows and the cleaners change the bedding and sheets nearly every day, and sometimes leave you flowers. There is no television in the room so be warned if this is important to you. The bathroom has a bath and shower (which has a great water pressure!), and you will find some lovely big towels in there too.

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School dinners but no Jamie in sight!!!

I must say eating at the Dar Khayam gave me an insite of what it would have been like to eat at boarding school. You are given an allocated table on arrival and that is the only table that you are allowed to eat at for all three meals for the duration of your stay (if you are brave you can face the roth of the staff and ask to be moved). You are seated at long tables with check table cloths and generally a few other people who do not speak your language.

Being an all inclusive you do not expect a five star meal, so remember you get what you pay for. In all honesty the food was not bad, and if you are vegetarian there is plenty on the menu to please you. My biggest gripe was it was nearly always the same with a few basic changes. The freshly grilled stuff was always great and any local foods that were made were a great treat! I am in no doubt that a lot of the food is recycled a few times.
I have included a basic list of foods you can expect on the menu with the times of the meals:

Breakfast 6:30-9:30 on the dot

Turkey sasauges with onions
Fried tomatoes
Scrambled or fried eggs
Fruit - melon and apples sometimes others
Crossaints
Choc pastry
Mixture of cereals such as bran and corn flakes
Sometimes pancakes
Cheese on bread
Rice
Toast
Pastries available from 10am around the bar areas

Lunch 12:30-2:30pm
Dinner 7:00pm - 9:30pm these meals are always relatively similar

Salads -beetroots, tomato and onion mix, cucumbers
Various salad sauces
Fried Tomatoes
Pumpkin
Rice
Carrots
Coriander potatoes
Chips
Tazine
Beef stew
Mixed vegetables
Skinned chicken in sauce

Grill food - flat bread, omelettes,beef,pancakes,fish
Deep fried pastry stuffed with aubergines, rice or fish

Kiddies menu

Spaghetti Bolognese
Mash potatoes
Chips
Tazine

Desserts

Various pastries
Mousse chocolate and coffee
Greek yoghurt

The one thing you don't have to worry about is food here because other than the set course menu they also have snacks arount the pool, which can include anything from make your own sandwiches, to pasta and shawarmas. Be warned though when breakfast ends there is a gap of a few hours where they only serve croissants.

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Drink, more drink and even more drink but don't expect to fall down....................

Lets be realistic here, ITS ALL INCLUSIVE! Don't expect there to be Stellas or good fine wines. All the drinks are local brews and are severely watered down, the good news though is you can never get really sozzled! But seriously if you do want to fall down a bit bring a few bottles from duty free with you. Don't worry they don't water down the coke and fanta, a list of drinks available include:

Whiskey
Vodka
Gin
Rose
White wine
Coke, lemonade,fanta etc
Sometimes cocktails
Tea and coffee
Sweet squash drinks

There are 3 bars in the hotel, one in the foyer, one by the pool and one at the beach, no alcohol is served at beach bar as it is not allowed on the beach.

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And you ask me what you do for fun???????

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Pools

There is an indoor and outdoor pool, both are kept very clean which is great. There is also a kiddies pool next to the outdoor pool. Around the pools the 'animation' team work there magic from around 11am. I must say they are a bunch of very good looking guys, especially with there shirts off. The sounds of Midou's voice can be heard echoing throughout the hotel as he screams for you to join him for a game of water polo or water aerobics! They do a great job at keeping everyone amused for hours. Some of the games they will try get you involved in are:

archery
water polo
games
aerobics beach and water
darts
Arabic lessons

They do blare the music all day in the pool area, which is usually the likes of Celine Dion and Bryan Adams. This only stopped when in the last few days the crowd changed to a much older persons. Taking a nap in your room during the rowdy times at the pool are impossible, all napping should be reserved for the beach! Sun loungers round the pool are free but the mattresses will cost you 1.5 DT.

There is also a Mickey Mouse club for the kids run until 4:30pm, where they play games and dress the kids up in traditional clothing.

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Turkish baths and all that Jazz…….

For 25DT you can have yourself a full body massage in the hotels beauty and therapy salon, I didn't find this great but there is another salon just outside the hotel.

The hotel also offers facials, Turkish baths, various types of massage and much more.

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For those of you who believe in exercise…

There is a lovely small gym run by Hassem, with some weights and cardio machines. It is very pristine and in good condition.

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And the good old beach….

Of course you have to get out of the hotel, so if you take a wonder down the path passed the bungalows you will find a lovely beach, where you can lie under a thatched umbrella. Again the loungers are free but the mattresses are 1.5 DT.

There are many water sports on offer, anything without a motor is generally free, but the motorised sports such as paragliding and jet skiing will cost you around 30 DT a go.

Now for the star recommendation, when you get sick of hotel food, take a wonder a mile up the beach to the left. There you will find Tahiti beach, when you come across the beach restaurant you have struck gold. We went early got ourselves some loungers. Some great beer without water, and a cold bottle of lovely white wine on ice. Then for lunch we had only the most sensational massive beautiful words cannot describe prawns! For the huge amount of 25 DT (£12). Afterwards we indulged in some great espressos and the local liquor Bourka, which is made of Figs.
We walked back to the hotel that night towards a beautiful sunset with the best meal of our holidays tucked firmly in our tummies!

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Animation! Animation!

Back at the hotel you can enjoy an evening show put on by the animation team, each night has a different theme. I would recommend staying around for at least one show.
Fans of bingo will be pleased to know this is done before the show, but I wouldn't recommend winning…….this you will have to wait for.

As you lay back in the couch chatting away with your beer and water, the sounds of mini disco, bingo and showtime play in your ears…..

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Please remove your all inclusive armbands…

Now let's wander a bit outside the hotel then and see a bit of Tunisia. (Oops we didn't realise it was Ramadan and everything is closed for the first two days!). We unfortunately did not go at the best of times as it is off season a lot of the tours are subject to cancellation due to lack of interest, the tours we booked on got cancelled so we had to do a lot of our own investigating. We were lucky to meet up with some nice locals who took us up to Yasmin Hammamet and around the harbour on a tour, this is a must as they have a new Medina which is great for shopping in, there is also some beautiful five star hotels and plenty of casinos around there. It is roughly about 5km outside Hammamet and should cost you around 10DT in a cab.
We went to visit the old Medina in Hammamet, please remove your wristbands for this! Some of the lines you will hear range from Cheap as chips, Asda prices to I am the Waiter from your hotel! The best way not to get hassled is to not meet anyones eyes and be quite forceful and almost rude. We managed to get around without any complaints this way. There are great deals and it is there for haggling so any price that you get given make sure you get them down to a tenth of their asking price, don't be shy!

The Medina is an old fort that use to house the whole town, and has a lot of history around it, I will let you discover this on your own though as I don't have enough space for history.
Outside the Medina is the most beautiful tea house over looking the sea. There you sit on traditional carpets and pillows and sip on local mint tea with walnuts, you also get to smoke a traditional Shisa with its pleasant smelling apple tobacco.

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Janine the camel and her snotty nose…..

Latif the camel man hangs around the hotel waiting to offer you a camel ride, and for 30 DT it is definitely worth a go. It takes around three hours, but you have a few stops along the way including a tea break with some traditional costume dress ups and dancing (did not like this though). The camels have mouth pieces so don't worry about getting bitten, worry more about a camel wiping its nose down your trousers (such as in my mates camel doing this to me!). Do expect a few aches and pains the next day though.

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Thomas Cook Tours on offer

Various tours are offered by Thomas Cook, I cannot give you to much information as I did not do these due to cancellations and Ramadan. Some of them included

Pirates Tour - (not sure price) Pirate ship out to see which takes half a day, you can take a dip in the sea, goes out to the theme tune of the Titanic

Gardens Tour - 44DT a full day tour taking you to see the fishing villages and gardens around Tunisia.

Past to Present Tour - 50DT a full day around various historical spots in Tunisia, including Roman Ruins.

Sahara Two day tour - 150DT I personally would not do this as apparently you can have up to 50 people on it. This takes you across to the Sahara where you ride camels, go 4x4 through the desert and get to see a lot of the Sahara it does include a very long bus journey, and a three star hotel.

There are also a few evenings put on by the reps as well as a traditional evening both I have been told are not very good.

There are many more options and these will be given to you by your rep (who hopefully has a little better knowledge on customer service than ours did).

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Evening clubbing...........

I did stop outside the clubs the one night, but did not go in due to a personal issue. There is a whole stretch of clubs and bars in Hammamet and also around the resort, take a look around I promise there is more than everyone thinks there is. If in doubt ask a local.

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And now a few odds and ends to tie it all up……………….

-The best way to get around is Taxi as they are reasonably cheap. I would not recommend hiring a car, as the roads are pretty dangerous, but if you feel otherwise the reception will be able to help you with this.

-The best way to phone home is by Taxi phone (pay phone) they are much cheaper than your hotel.

-There are a few mosquitoes but only really in the summer months.

-Temperatures vary depending on the season, we went in November, where the days ranged in their early twenties and the nights dropped to a bit of a chill (roughly 16 C), so take a light jersey for the evenings.

-Remember you get for what you pay!!

-Please don't buy tortoises, no matter how ill treated you think they are being kept. This only tends to encourage them to get more. I know it can be hard, the best thing to do is to refuse to buy anything from the trader because he is selling them.

-Diving is difficult to come across but speak to the reception at your hotel or if in the same area speak to Latif the camel man ( I found this out too late).

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And in conclusion…..

My mate and me went on a cheap vacation we took £100-00 in our pocket and it lasted us right through. It was great fun and we came home with plenty of friends. Our expectations were low so we were not fussed.
Although in truth a package holiday for me is not something I would normally do and won't do again for a long time. The people are generally great (minus a few leery eyed men), and I think Tunisia is a country that can be a real let down or a great time. It all depends on what you want and how willing you are to go out and find it.

I hope I have been a help to you in your decision making. I have tried to stay as neutral as possible on this review because of my opinion above.