Occidental Allegro Abou Sofiane, Port El Kantaoui

We arrived at the hotel at 4am in the morning and the reception staff were very helpful and polite offering us a bottle of water soon as we arrived. The room was on the ground floor and slept 3 of us very comfortably it was cleaned every day and clean towels every other day. Sometimes the cleaner decorated the beds with swans made from towels and fresh flower petals scattered on them which was a nice touch. Plenty of wardrobe and drawer space for ...
...per week (approx £10) and pay deposit on towel hire which is refunded at end of holiday. You can change your £ to TD at reception every day between 10am-1pm and 5pm -10pm, there is quite a queue in the mornings. The staff we found to be all very friendly and courteous nothing was too much trouble for any of them. The food is always nicely cooked and displayed, there is lots of choices offered to suite everyone but do try the pool and beach bars for ... more

We arrived at the hotel at 4am in the morning and the reception staff were very helpful and polite offering us a bottle of water soon as we arrived. The room was on the ground floor and slept 3 of us very comfortably it was cleaned every day and clean towels every other day. Sometimes the cleaner decorated the beds with swans made from towels and fresh flower petals scattered on them which was a nice touch. Plenty of wardrobe and drawer space for storing clothes. You hire safety deposit box keys at 20td per week (approx £10) and pay deposit on towel hire which is refunded at end of holiday. You can change your £ to TD at reception every day between 10am-1pm and 5pm -10pm, there is quite a queue in the mornings. The staff we found to be all very friendly and courteous nothing was too much trouble for any of them. The food is always nicely cooked and displayed, there is lots of choices offered to suite everyone but do try the pool and beach bars for lunchtime snacks the roast chicken and salads are yummy and as for the freshly made pancakes with a choice of sauces,, absolute heaven.

The pool area is always kept clean and tidy and there are plenty of sunbeds to go round, the beach is stunning with white sand and very warm sea water also quite shallow there is a wide variety of water sports on offer. The bar staff are always busy but still manage a big smile and friendly service. Yes drinks are weak but tip the bartender a dinar or two and see how strong they get then :)

Now for the animation and entertainment team. They make your holiday absolutely complete what a bunch of stars, we had our 15 year old daughter with us and to begin with was a bit worried about the young blonde female syndrome but I can honestly say we had no need to worry about her, we should have worried about them. They tormented the daylights out of her and everyone else, she was thrown in the pool at every opportunity and joined in all the games with glee if at any time she had said " no thanks" they would have left her alone as they do if anyone doesn't want to play. That team work tirelessly from 9am until midnight to entertain and keep us amused and do a fantastic job the kiddie club rep ( Ali G ) relentlessly rounds all the little ones up and amuses them for hours with activities and fun, even when the club is not on he searches out the kids to still play with them. The whole animation team cannot be faulted in any way the shows they put on are brilliant, they are all dancers,
acrobats, fitness instructors, fire eaters, jugglers, and work very, very hard to make your holiday one to remember we made friends with them all (specially Shaggy) and for you girls the entertainment manager (mookie) is the Adonis of the hotel, My daughter will keep in touch with them all and was devastated to leave when we had to come home, not only are they fabulous entertainers they are all lovely people who actually do care if you enjoy your holiday or not. I could go on and on about them but you get the idea.

We did 2 trips the pirate ship day out and the Burkah night both of which were pretty dismal and in fact so dismal we got a refund on the Burkah night. Lots of people complained about it, badly organised and boring, one of our party was ill for 2 days after eating the supper there. The rest of us didn't eat the chicken in the cous cous and were fine so we can only surmise it was that.

Now on to Port El Kantaoui
Taxi should cost no more than 3 dinar and agree a price with the driver before you get in the car and tell him exactly where you need to go or you may end up in his brother's carpet shop.

We visited a few times for shopping and I have to be honest and say that it was not an experience I enjoyed, the marina and port are lovely but the hawkers and pushy shop owners make it a trial of wills, they can be overly pushy and rude in an attempt to get you to buy from them which made me more determined not to buy ( I love to shop and haggle ) but not in Tunisia and don't recommend any woman go shopping on her own here there are a few fixed price shops, stick to them cut out the stress.
Mozzies Please take lots of insect repellent a good brand. The mozzies are everywhere and lots of people had a bad reaction to bites.

While we were in Tunisia speaking to lots of other British in various hotels I have to say carefully read the hotel reviews on this site BEFORE you book as lots of people were unhappy and some were ill with food poisoning, a few families were moved to our hotel as theirs were too bad to describe on here. Please use Holiday watchdog for honest reviews from people who have actually visited these resorts and hotels and then make your decision. I would not hesitate to go back to Abou Sofiane and can recommend it to all ages of holidaymaker. I thoroughly enjoyed our stay here as did all of our party of 6.

I do have to say all the staff work very hard for little pay and they are glad of any dinar in tips and do return the favour in any way they can.

We travelled with Panorama Holidays which I will be leaving a separate review for once my argument with them about our return flight has been settled (watch this space) Just a tip they say that you have to get rid of all your TD before you enter the departure lounge at Monastir airport, once you do that and you are trapped in there any phones you may need to use ONLY take 1td coins,, so keep some 1 dinar coins just in case you need them. SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE HERE...
Jan :)
 

...less