Melia El Mouradi Palm Marina, Port El Kantaoui

During my recent work trip to Tunisia we stayed at two hotels - the second one was this, the El Mouradi Palm Marina. The hotel is located in Sousse, Port El Kantoaui. The hotel is a 5 star hotel and is very large set right on the beach. I thought this hotel was very nice and will give you my opinion on the hotel in as much detail as I can - I only stayed for 2 nights but I know if I had the chance I would go back to this hotel.

Location:
...beach which is ideal for beach holidays and the hotel is only a short way from the marina which has an good choice of places to eat and drink along with a a selection of shops. There is also a small fairground and miniature zoo and crazy golf course.

The hotel:
The hotel is really large and more than myself and my colleague got lost! The lobby is entered by walking through a small marbled courtyard first which has a small fountain ... more

During my recent work trip to Tunisia we stayed at two hotels - the second one was this, the El Mouradi Palm Marina. The hotel is located in Sousse, Port El Kantoaui. The hotel is a 5 star hotel and is very large set right on the beach. I thought this hotel was very nice and will give you my opinion on the hotel in as much detail as I can - I only stayed for 2 nights but I know if I had the chance I would go back to this hotel.

Location:
As mentioned the hotel is set right on the beach which is ideal for beach holidays and the hotel is only a short way from the marina which has an good choice of places to eat and drink along with a a selection of shops. There is also a small fairground and miniature zoo and crazy golf course.

The hotel:
The hotel is really large and more than myself and my colleague got lost! The lobby is entered by walking through a small marbled courtyard first which has a small fountain and really gives the hotel a luxurious feel to it. Upon going through the main doors you'll find yourself in a large reception area with the reception desk directly ahead of you. The hotel is shaped like the letter 'U' and so the rooms are off from both sides of reception. The swimming pool is in the centre of the hotel just behind the beach.

Check in:
Check in was a case of filling out another detail form the same as we'd had to do at our first hotel which was of the same chain and this took just a few minutes. The hotel had 3 members of staff on reception and so it didn't take very long to get checked in and get our keys. We were staying on an all inclusive basis so we were also given our band to wear around our wrist.

Rooms:
The rooms were very similar to the other hotel that we had stayed in in style and in the sense that being another 5 star hotel of the same chain, the room was again on the large size. The layout was pretty much the same with the wardrobes to one side upon entering and the bathroom to the other - the only difference to this hotel was that the bathroom, which had a tub and shower over it along with a large sink was actually separate to the toilet which was in it's own cubicle with door - personally I prefer it this way as it means if somebody is using the bath or shower you don't have to wait for them to get out - unless of course that doesn't bother you! The beds were twin and the room was carpeted not tiled. There was a table with a couple of chairs, along with a TV with satellite, telephone, in room safe, mini fridge stocked with soft drinks and a hair dryer. The bathroom also had a selection of complimentary toiletries.

Facilities:
The hotel has a really good range of facilities and I didn't get to use them all but just to give you an idea of what's on offer there are various activities you can do including archery, crazy golf, water sports on the beach, darts and table tennis. There is also internet access available in half hour slots which I know was free on the all inclusive option.
The hotel has a huge swimming pool which has lots of loungers and umbrellas around it and they also have an indoor section too for when the weather isn't that great which is good.
The hotel has it's own nightclub and also a children's play.

The hotel also boasts it's own spa which is quite large and offers a really good range of treatments. There are lots of treatment rooms and it has it's own pool along just off from the impressive spa reception which is very modern. The spa is across 3 floors and although impressive in it's size and range I personally didn't feel the actually treatment rooms were that impressive - however this again is just me as from visiting various spas in other countries this one didn't seem quite as on par but, don't let this put you off as my colleague was highly impressed by it and she''s a trained beauty therapist too! Now the best thing about the spa, especially if you do like to use the spa whilst your away on your holidays is that on the all inclusive basis the hotel include one free half hour massage per customer - other treatments are at a charge but prices seemed reasonable enough.

Restaurants:
The hotel has an impressive selection of places to get food and drink and the these include 4 restaurants. The main restaurant is where the breakfast, lunch and evening meal were served and these were all buffet style. There was a really good selection available at each and in the morning they had the chef on doing eggs made to order and also a chef doing crepes which were yummy!! There was quite a lot of staff to this restaurant which was good as it was quite large and they kept all the tables really clean. This restaurants is located just off of the main reception.
Whilst here I also ate in the Bellevue a la carte restaurant which was nice and the atmosphere in here was nice too as it had lots of low lighting and drapes everywhere.
Also some of us had a pizza from the pizzeria after being out to a show in the Belle Etoile Pizzeria and I have to say it was one of the best pizzas I've tasted in a long time! This was open quite late as it must have been gone 11pm when we went in there.

Bars:
The hotel has 3 bars to choose from and these are made up of the pool bar, the main bar where the entertainment takes place and a rather nice piano bar. The bar with the entertainment tends to be where you find all the families and the acts on tend to be run of the mill hotel stuff- we saw a bit of a show and it didn't look that great to be honest! I suppose though for younger children it would be quite entertaining.
The piano bar was the main one where most guests seem to meet up in before going to dinner as it was always quite busy but a lot of people seemed to have one and then go - I never actually saw anyone playing the piano but, it would have been quite nice if there had been somebody playing! This bar was dimly lit and decked out in a dark blue carpet and curtains. My first initial thoughts when I saw this bar was it reminded me of something out of the 70's but the staff were nice and it was a nice place to relax so by all means don't let this put you off!

Other information:
The hotel can be booked on a variety of different boards starting from just bed and breakfast and also half board, full board and all inclusive. The cost is pretty good for the range of facilities the hotel has and the standard of it and prices start at 230TND for 2 people on all inclusive per night. Current exchange rates are at 2.28TND per £1 so this works out at pretty much £100 for two people on all inclusive which for a 5 star hotel isn't bad at all!

Overall opinion:
This hotel has everything you could really need from a beach holiday and so I would highly recommend a stay here especially for families. The rooms are nice and big so for the price you pay you are really getting good value for money. The food is good, the staff are good and the range of facilities mean there is something for everyone to enjoy. If you were booking this hotel it is probably best to go directly to the hotel website as this offers the best rates but for a whole package it can be booked through various operators in the UK. 

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