Riviera Hotel

we went for a 2 week stay at this hotel and I definitely didnt find it to be 4 star. The food was AWFUL and I didnt eat in the hotel at all from the 3rd day onwards when there was a maggot in the figs. Not to mention cold food (a microwave is provided for you to heat your dinner - hello food poisoning) and lacking in choice. It was the same sub-standard food every day.We changed rooms 3 times, the last one being a superior room after I had managed to run up a huge phone bill trying to get flights home and having a show down with the rep.Dont know why they would use the word 'superior' for a room where the curtains kept falling down and the t.v switched off every night in the middle of films on the only English speaking channel.The previous rooms had been alot worse though - leaking toilet that caused 2 injuries to name one problem.The hotel is tired,not up to 4 star quality and to be honest,very disappointing.I've never visited any other 4 stars that have wild cats eating on tables in the snack bar or drinking out of the swimming pool.The heating was broken for the first 3 days of our stay and it was very cold.The rep wasnt much help and dont even bother with Thomsons (no)help line.We made friends with 5 other families and all the opinions were the same.On the up side, the Marina is beautiful and shopping here is much more relaxing than the markets which were just plain scary.The people are absolutely fab and once you get used to the slightly over friendly approach,you will find them to be warm,friendly and memorable.The best part of the holiday for me was most of the staff at the hotel,they are FANTASTIC.The receptionist,Rim, is the nicest person you'll have the honour of meeting - a true gem. Ghazi,the manager,cannot do enough for you and is totally professional in his approach but friendly too - he must be the reason this hotel has 4 stars,if it wasnt for him I would have been at the end of my tether! Kimo and Mamdu on the entertainments team are really funny (particularly when they arent actually meaning to be).I found the only problem to be a few of the waiters and barmen that were just down right gross, very over the top and suggestive.The entertainment in the evening is lame to say the least but the Riverdance show is mildly amusing - Michael Flatley would have a breakdown if he saw this 'tribute' act!!!!!! The Grease show in the sister hotel will be the weirdest experience of entertainment you'll suffer here. The one interesting evening was Kimo calling bingo - it was total carnage!!! He didnt call any number over 60 and there were about 20 highly irritated bingo 'winners' at the same time - funniest thing I've seen for ages!!!!! There is a fantastic cafe outside of the hotel called Cafe Terrace - please visit,you will not be disappointed and the owner thinks he looks like Bruce Forsthye!!! He is friendly and will ask you every time you visit if everything is ok - a lovely man.If you like a drink then get duty free as it is a Muslim country and the alcohol isnt up to much, very weak and no named spirits.If you get time, visit the Golf Brau pub in the port that serve beer in huge test tube with a tap things, thats an ok evening and better than the hotel evenings.There is an Irish bar (in Sousse) I think but its not worth finding. However the Rose and Crown (in the shoppong centre) is a proper English pub and A MUST for a visit.So, all in all, definitely visit this wonderful country but dont expect too much from this hotel other than top class staff. Abit of money spent and alittle repair and redecoration would work wonders for this place. DO'S: Take duty free booze,tip staff you feel have made the effort,enjoy the shopping and try to barter - loads of bargains to be had,ask taxi prices before you get in - they'll try to rip you off big time,get the safe for your room - mobile phones went missing whilst we were there,be aware of the men that can become a real hassle for trying it on with female tourists. DONTS: Let yourself be bullied by the shop workers,expect too much from the accomodation,forget that this is a muslim country - different cultures,over pay for a holiday here - we paid the same price for this as a stay in the Dom Rep - 5 star hotel.

WELL WELL WELL once again i am amazed by this hotel! is my second time at riviera and i am going again early next year.. the animation team..although they have changed from last year(apart from momo!) were still absolutely fan-blimming-tastic! especially Ahmed and Ramzi! mamadou was fantastic too!i do tend to work there when i go though! i cant bring myself to stop!! i worked as part of the kids entertainment last year along side the animation team rehearsing for the shows(i was never in the shows,just help reheares for them!) and then again this year with Ahmed doing the mini-disco adn the dances and things! the bar staff were still there and funnily enough still remembered me and may i add also what i drank last year! i arrived at the hotel, step foot inside the door and the first thing i heard from a couple of barmen just changing shifts was... KIRSTY YOUR BACK...i was absolutely gob smacked to say the least! the food..well what can i say was brilll last year but this year..omg i didnt know what to eat first there was absolutely everything to choose from, in the snack bar and the restaurant..the italian never disapoints..just make sure you starve yourself for the day as there are sevral courses!!!!! all the staff love it and really appreciate it if you speak arabic/french to them ASALAAMA (ass-lem-aah)-hello bisslema(biss-lem-aah)-goodbye -SHUKRAN-(shock-ram)thank you le bis-(le beese))how are you?

Family of 4, 1 adult 3 children. Arrived in Monastir and waited a dreaded 45 minutes going through checks and then waiting for luggage, heat was a killer. After getting on coach to Riviera which took about 30-40 mins arrived at hotel around 11ish, went straight up to our room which was ok. A bit dated, toilet stunk and flush mechanism was rubbish. Shower did tend to splash everywhere as curtains were no use and floor ended up flooded therefore ended up using towels. Aircon was of no use and seemed to be fighting against the heat to work. First morning went to breakfast. Alot of coissants, bacon which is fat on rind, egg, cold meats, etc, food seemed to be the same with little variation here and there. Juices were unbelievably sweet. Lunch at the snack bar consisted of pancakes, pizza with dodgy cheese, a burger which was dry and shoved in a bun and chips and salad at the side which was free for flies to feast on. Dinner was occasionally nice but again bland with little or no variation. Drinks were sometimes flat so reordering was a must at times. Beach was located through a 10 minute walk through Abou Sofiane which is the sister hotel. It was ok but a killer to walk to in such intense heat. Excursions are a must to add variety to your stay but again, it really is down to who you go with and what you make of your stay, this is only my opinion and will obviously differ to each individual. Animation team really do work hard to get you to participate but again I found it repetative and poor. Each night the kids had 'agga doo doo doo' to dance to and many action songs which they seemed to enjoy. I however spent the evening watching 'Lost' in foreign which I found more entertaining. Each morning at around 8.30am you can guarantee all the sunbeds were gone with the early risers so if you are a sunworshipper I suggest you get up early and reserve. Overall the kids had a good time but a week was certainly enough. It was nice to go down to the marina as it was very picturesque (access it through mahaba palace hotel) cab costs 2 dinars. Don't however buy icecreams from the shop in reception unless your dying for them as they are overly priced as they are british icecreams and it'll cost you more than a cab fare. Leaving the hotel couldn't come fast enough. Definately not a 4 star, maybe a 2. I don't think i'd be coming back here again, didn't like the fact that you had to organise the transport for excursions yourself or maybe that was with my t-agent. Hotel is very dated and very dark inside. Hated also the fact that on vacating the room at midday there were no curtesy rooms available so spent 6 hours hanging around the bar lounge which proved intolerable but had no choice.

We arrived in the early hours of the morning (1.40am Tunisian time) to a dark and empty hotel lobby, signed in at Reception, given our daily bottle of water, and taken up to our rooms by the Porter. Our party consisted of myself (young middle age Mum of two teenagers), partner (same age), 16 year old daughter, and 16 year old daughter's best friend. The girl's wanted to go to the disco straight away but it closed at 2.00am and was in the adjoining Hotel Sofiane. Our arrival was a little dissappointing, having read some of the reviews beforehand we were a bit dubious to say the least. However, the next morning EVERYTHING CHANGED! What a great hotel, what great staff - the girls had a whale of a time with the hotel animation team who kept them entertained day and night. If you have read some of the previous reviews and are a little put off all I can say a holiday is what you make of it. If you are happy to join in and have fun then this is the place for you. If you don't want to join in and just relax that's OK too. You are not pressurised at all to take part in any of the games - there are so many people who want to join in y it's entertaining just to watch them. The staff are very accommodating and polite, the head bar man, as stated in another review, remembers your drinks and has them set up on the bar for you. We found the food good and there was always plenty of it, both in the main restaurant and pool bar. The Tunisian and Italian restaurants were outstanding. I can't praise the holiday enough. My daughter's friend told her mother on our return it was a holiday of a lifetime - what more can we say! P.S. If your tour operator does the Camel Caravan trip you must go on it!

what a great hotel the staff are very friendly but the shops on the complex are very dirty and could do with a good clean up also they sell gold which is a rip of as it is only plated not 100% gold other than that the hotel is exellent

we have just got back from a two week holiday at this hotel. the hotel was really great, and the staff were really friendly. the hotel was very clean, the food was great. i would recommend this hotel for anybody, as it is suitable for everyone. it is about a 25 minute walk to the marina, which is well worth going to, or you can grab a taxi outside the hotel, for a couple of dinars ( which is about 70p). they have two a la carte restaurants, which you need to book up, to go into. there is the main restaurant which is open for breakfast,lunch, and dinner. there is also a snack bar, which serves snacks and drinks by the pool. there are plenty of sunbeds. you can pay a deposit for a beach towel, i would recommend getting a safe. they like to try and close things up a little bit earlier.. ie the snack bar would close for food by 3.45pm instead of 4pm. apart from that i would definately recommend this hotel to anyone.

We have just returned from a wonderful week at the Riveria, In our party we had 4 adults and a 10,12 & 14 yr old. The hotel was great the rooms were clean and tidy, we didn't have a seaview but we looked out onto Port el kantoui and could see the sea to the left of the balcony. We had read some of the reviews and this helped us understand a little bit about the hotel. At the airport we had to queue for about 30 mins to have our passports stamped and we had no problem getting our luggage. The staff at the hotel were excellent, bar staff were great especially Wannase, the waiters always remebered us and had a table for seven ready at every mealtime. The animation team were wonderful and made the holiday for our 3 kids, who joined in everything Amaen, Sam and Ramsay were brilliant. The shows were good but you do need a sense of humour as some of them were quite amateur, but they did the best with what they had. The pool was always clean and we never had any trouble getting sunbeds and there were 7 of us. Food was great lots of choice, you can drink all day and not get drunk???? If you want to go to the beach you have to be an early riser as all the sunbeds are gone by 7.30am. We did tip 2 dinars here and there just because the service was so good. I would recommend this hotel to anyone going to Tunisia it was only a 20 min walk to the centre and there were shops just right of the hotel if you didn't want to go that far. We all had a wonderful time and definitely would return next time we choose Tunisia.

We had never been to Tunisia before, but we booked this hotel because of the reviews that we had read were very good. Well they where not lying, really fantastic hotel, people wonderfully friendly, rooms very clean and spotless. On the reviews that we read it stated that the shower leaked and water spilled on the floor, well we had no leaks in our room and the bathroom was very big and tastefully decorated, I have no complaints about the hotel room at all. We asked for a sea view and a bottom floor apartment, we were given a sea view but this was on the 4th floor, but that was fine as the bottom floor's were not sea views, but overlooked the pool, so I was thankful that we did not have a bottom floor room! If you are thinking of going to Tunisia go to this hotel it does state that it is only 4 star but in reality it is definately 5 star. The food was the best we have ever had on an all inclusive basis, we have had a few all inclusive holidays but I must say that this was by far the best ever, always hot and presented wonderfully and the best thing was that no queing for the food, Great. And the waiters in this hotel were the nicest people I have ever met, genually friendly, I really could not fault this hotel at all. If you go to Tunisia go to this hotel. Fantastic!

My husband and I (both aged 31) have just returned from 2 weeks at the Riveria and after reading the previous reviews we found them mostly accurate. We went for two weeks at the end of May and the weather was glorious with unbroken sunshine. One day it reached 44 degrees (55 degrees in the Sahara) which apparently is more like August. Hotel It is a large hotel with a lovely outside pool area and garden terrace area filled with flowers and foliage. Inside, the hotel is spacious and airy but it is dated and is like going back to the 80s. Some parts of the hotel are badly in need of refurbishment. For example, the padded cushions on the sunloungers were filthy. The bar is dark and gloomy, the restaurant is more like a canteen despite attempts to add romance via candles and flowers. The rooms are clean but shabby and the toilet smelt awful. I had to douse it with perfume before I could bare going in! The airconditioning system was just about working but was on its last legs and had no control other than 'on' or 'off'. Staff Some are incredibly friendly - to the point of being unbearablly friendly. The Animation Team (Entertainment) do not give you a minutes peace. All day they are pestering you to do water gymnastics, darts, mini golf, step aerobics, stretching, water polo, volley ball, etc, etc, etc. In the evening they are there again, this time trying to drag you onto the dance floor (and I mean that literally!). It took them two weeks to realise that we did not want to join in. A couple of times they remarked that we were 'lazy'! Even if you are like us and don't want to join in it is hard to relax as there is constant loud music playing, cheering and screaming as other guests play games. If you want a peaceful holiday then this is not the right hotel for you. If you love activities and joining in then it will be perfect. There is always something going on - at night there is the mini disco which the children seemed to enjoy and there are also entertainment shows which are funny because they are so awful. The Animation team is all male (bar one) and they can be intimidating. I found them to be slightly lecherous and inappropriate, for example telling my husband to 'take your hands off her' when he was holding my hand and saying to him 'I am going to kill you'. Most of the other staff are friendly, polite and helpful. The barman is great - and he really does remember what everyone drinks! The room maid was slightly annoying - she walked into our room three times without knocking even after my husband asked her to knock. The room was cleaned everyday and towels changed (which I would expect from a 4* hotel) but at random times - 9.30am one day and 9.30pm the following day. Sometimes we found ourselves without any towels - clean or dirty. But despite these above complaints after 2 weeks there we did get used to the hotel, the staff and their unusual ways and we did find ourselves getting more and more comfortable at the hotel. Food and Drink There is a lot to choose from but by the end of the two weeks I could not wait to get home. Most days offers a different variety of the same thing. We often went for the grilled meat or pasta. The bread and butter was lovely and became a staple. During our stay there was a bout of severe food poisoning (apparently it was the hamburgers) and several people were very ill. It did make me feel very wary about eating the meat. Breakfast offers pancakes and omelettes cooked for you on order which was a highlight. The pool snackbar offers more of the same. There is also an Italian and Tunisian restaurant which you can dine at. This is a Godsend and really broke up the two weeks - we particularly enjoyed the tunisian restaurant which was a bit more intimate than the main restaurant and is waiter service. Previous reports have described the wine as being horrible but we both liked it. We did have a couple of corked glasses but were unable to explain this to the waitress so had to just leave them. The lager was watered down but cold and refreshing (and did not give us a hangover). Activities We went with Thomson and decided to go on their Sahara 2 day excursion. We went in the middle of the two weeks and this broke the holiday up. I think 2 weeks just at the hotel would have got very boring. The excursion cost about £95 each and included meals and an overnight stay in a lovely hotel in the Sahara (nicer than the Riveria we thought). The first day of the trip included a visit to the El Jem Amphitheatre, a city Market (which was fascinating), the Star Wars set, some cave dwellings and a camel ride in the Sahara. It was a good day but incredibly tiring. The second day sounded fantastic in theory but was actually disappointing. The beautiful Grand Cascade waterfall was anything but grand, the tropical Oasis was more like a few market stalls amongst a bunch of palm trees. Everywhere was incredibly busy with queues of tourists doing the same trip and it felt like being on a production line. We were told that additional costs would be a camel ride and drinks. Additional costs did end up costing us much more because everywhere you go there are people to tip and extras that you cannot avoid paying and once or twice you do feel bullied into buying things. You have to be firm and sometimes feel rude but it is the only way to avoid being charged for having an opened coke bottle thrust in your hand whilst you are sitting on a camel in the middle of nowhere! We heard that sometimes people are bullied into paying twice by men denying you have already paid for something. It is something to be aware of - we found avoiding eyecontact, repeatedly saying 'no thank you' and keeping moving helps, but it can be stressful. The 4.30am start was not fun and the four hour drive back to the hotel was not fun either. However, we would recommend the trip because we got to see 60% of Tunisia and you really do get a good feel for the country and the people. Also, when we got back we were delighted to be at the hotel, it was like fondly returning home and so we really enjoyed having five more days to lie by the pool and do nothing. Overall, at first we thought 'what have we done' when we first arrived in the hotel but we did get used to it and settled in. We agree with the previous reports - this is not a 4* hotel - more like 3 or less. The weather was great and we did feel rested after 2 weeks. But we were happy to get home and we will not go back again.

I took my family to the Occidental Allegro Riviera in April this year for a week of sun. We had not been to Tunisia before and found the comments on this web site very useful. The holiday was excellent, the hotel was very clean, the food was very good with lots of choice, and the staff were friendly and extremely helpful. My family are grown up and we ranged in age from 40,s to 13, with an 18 and 20 year old in the party. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the two hotel complex with its own nightclub was ideal. The entertainment team around the pool and in the nightclub were very friendly and professional. There was a one hour stage show every evening -with dancers of very good ability showing off their skills - modern, humerous routines, break-dancing, etc -then joining everyone on the dance floor to get the evening "kicked off", which was very good. The added bonus of all inclusive, which covered free drinks in the hotel, by the pool and in the nightclub; meals by the pool or in the main restaurants, and if you were friendly to the waiters and tipped a couple of dinar they would keep a reserved table in the restaurant for all meals ! Port El Kantaoui was only a 15 minute strole along the beach, and the catamaran (glass bottomed) boat trip in windy conditions, in a choppy sea, was an experience ! Overall an excellent holiday - just what we needed.