WELL, EVERY ONE, I HAVE ENJOYED MY TIME ON CIAO, BUT PLAYGIRL27 HAS DELETED BECAUSE OF SOME SICK PER...
WELL, EVERY ONE, I HAVE ENJOYED MY TIME ON CIAO, BUT PLAYGIRL27 HAS DELETED BECAUSE OF SOME SICK PERSON. I WILL HAVE DELETED. missed you all shell x CIAO HAS BECOME NASTY SO I DIDNT WANT TO STAY X X X X
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My husband and I were fortunate enough to stay at the Marhaba Palace Hotel, at Port El Kantaoui, Tunisa. with my son and his girl friend, this sept. what an amazing time we had. at this 4 star hotel.
First off, I would like to advise people that the flight time is just over 2 and a half hours and not 4 hours like suggested in several Holiday brochures. When you change from the plane to the coach for transfer, you will drive through several other places including Souse. Whilst doing so, you may have an 'oh my god' thought running through your head at the sight of some of The Hotel's but I assure you it just makes the Marhaba Palace look even better than it already is. It is a bright white hotel in a very good central location surrounded by palm trees. On arriving we were greeted very warmly by the staff and given a very refreshing drink. The Marhaba Palace Hotel has a unique location in the heart of the resort of Port El Kantaoui, directly on a sandy beach, a few minutes walk from the Marina and from a 36 hole golf course.
Inside the hotel is very grand, everything is made of marble and they have a very nice water feature and a huge light hanging from the ceiling, it is very impressive. Another thing I did notice about the hotel was that it had very good wheel chair accessibility, with ramps placed in many places around the hotel.
This hotel is excellent & easily deserves a 4* rating. The location is perfect & staff are extremely friendly. If you go, to the American bar, (Take the
barmen a couple of CDS as well!) to play The air conditioning is good & worth it's weight in gold after a long day in the sun. The food is ok, if you don't like anything on the main meal there is plenty to fill you up on the buffet. (Chips, Spaghetti, soup, salad etc) We didn't go to the a la carte restaurant in the hotel but I'm told it is really good & quite reasonable
This hotel is located a few 100 yards from the port, whilst sitting on the beach!
First Impressions:- When you enter this hotel, you'll notice its brilliant marble surroundings in the sitting area. You will also notice its huge Chandelier hanging from two storeys. Straight ahead of you there is the piano bar, which is a brilliant chilling bar, whilst listening to the Stevie Wonder pianist. To your left is the main restaurant, the hotel shop & the Chicha bar (Hubble Bubble pipes- Brilliant chilling out place) And to your right, there is the main reception, Pool table, breakfast room, Indoor swimming pool, Americana bar & the night club!
A tip I found useful was, if it's your first visit; you go to breakfast in the dining room past the reception desk, on the right as you walk into the hotel from the main entrance.
The Rooms:-
The rooms are clean and well kept by the maids. The maids and all the rest of the staff are very friendly. They are very willing to please and most speak very good English. Although in the brochure it says that your room has satellite TV, it only actually has one English channel, which is BBC World News We intend to take a personal DVD player next time for my husband, whilst I read. The rooms are air-conditioned, based on a balcony, Toilet, bathroom & bedroom. There are Televisions in the rooms, a very old, and possible broken radio & a mini fridge (To cool down your local larger!) if you want a sea view room because of position of the sun, you don't actually get the sun on the balcony. So it's a choice you have to make prior to the holiday. A sea view without the sun on the balcony or the sun on the balcony without the beautiful Sea. The other views are either over looking a golf course or gardens. I personally would have given my high teeth to have a high floor with a sea view, a friend I made had upgraded to high floor sea view, it was stunning, You wont need the sun on the balcony, I can assure you.
The food is good quality, with a large range to choose from. Everything from Tunisian food to chips can be found. It is served in buffet style and the opening hours are - breakfast 0600 - 0900 and dinner 1800 - 2200.
When you go into the dining area, you will be asked your room number, and then allocated a seat. Once you're seated the waiter will ask if you would like anything to drink and then you're free to eat as and when you like.
Pool/ Beach:-
The Hotel is literally on the beach, it has its own beach side bar, that open's in the high season between may - October, Good pools and the beach is seconds away - both with their own bars. pure golden sands, and chargeable but at reasonable price water sports. These range from banana boat, Para gliding, jet ski and speedboat trips, not that I was brave enough for any of them The pool is shaped in the Port El Kantaoui snail, with a bridge running over it. The pool is 2.5 metres deep at maximum. If it gets to hot on the sun lounger, just walk a
Pictures of Port El Kantaoui (Tunisia)
camel drinking coala
few yards down to the sea, and have a paddle, it's that close!
The hotel has 2 swimming pools. The indoor one was nice and warm. The hotel also had 2 mini golf courses that cost around £3 per hour, although they were not tight on time keeping.
Nightlife:-
There are 3 bars; Pool bar, piano bar & Americana, & a nightclub, all with reasonable prices. The pool bar sometimes hosts a Karaoke now & again! But the nightclub is supposed to be strictly over 16s, which stays open till 2am. But whilst we were there, there were more teenagers than adults, needless to say we gave it a wide birth
The Staff:-
The staff, were excellent. Prepared to do anything for you, I couldn't fault the service, the staff are all friendly, especially the maids, and I love the way they spread your nightclothes on the beds!!
My husband left the shirt off his back and left it for a gift to the door man. Who often get left out of tips etc. If you go, to the American bar, (Take the barmen a couple of CDS as well!) to play we made some fantastic friends there. Both with the staff and guests who have become close personal friends. We made our own card school, playing chase the ace, often enlisting at least 14 other people. We really made our own fun and the alcohol flowed freely. The barmen were faultless.
Out and about
The local Supermarket is located next to the marina, where you can buy bottled water for about 20 pence per 1.5 litre's always make sure the seal is not broken when purchasing you water. Prices are cheap in the local gift shops. Like a lot of holiday places the Tunisians like a good haggle and you can achieve good value if you push your luck. Everything in Tunisia is very cheap. They have a close currency, which means you have to take your own currency and then change in at the Bureau de change, located next to the hotel reception. It's opening hours are from 9am-12pm and then again from 5pm-8pm. Be warned, you can only change back a maximum of 100 Dinar back when leaving, so make sure you don't change too much at once.
There is a mini zoo, small amusement park and water park all within walking distance of the hotel but that only takes up a few hours of your time. If you take your kids to the zoo watch out for the perimeter fence which has sharp spikes right at kiddie level. Your local health and safety here at home would slap a closure order on the whole street, but the Tunisians don't seem to care too much bout it.
We had the chance to visit The Sahara Desert and watch the sunset, but chose not to go!!!! you will also get the opportunity to do the same, then please do it. It's amazing I'm told. This is one of our biggest regrets.
I seriously would advise no one to attend Carthage land theme park trip there is very little there an hours ride away and you get stung £25.00 all classes. I have never wanted to request my money back as much as I did there.
Outside restaurants are cheap but service is slow and portions of food small, or is it I'm greedy, but highly recommended We dinned out on a few occasions and paid no more than £5 for the both of us each meal. Six of us all had a meal where I had a lobster, friends of ours had a lamb casserole, My son and daughter-in-law and husband had chicken, chips and all the trimmings, all for £45.00
The Marina is where most the action seems to take place. This can be found by exiting the main gates of the hotel and heading left. The walk should take about 10 minutes. When you're there, you will find a large amount of fixed price stalls with people trying to get you to buy things from them. I know at first this can be intimidating, especially as we don't have anything like that here, but all it takes is a firm no thank you and then you'll be left alone. At least until the next store. Although this can be quite scary at first the people are harmless enough and just trying to make a living in a very poor country.
When haggling over a price for anything, first off don't be pushed into something you're not sure about and just walk away, chances are that they will call you back and lower the price. Always offer about a third - half of the price they first ask for and go from there.
I hope if you consider this holiday, you will have as wounderful time as my self family and great friends we made had,
lots of love and thanks for reading
michele x x x x
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Oct 28th, 2005
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