Vincci Nour Palace Resort

2 readers found this review helpful

First of all i suggest that you ignore the negative reviews for this hotel, as with everything everyone has different opinions! People have different expectations and over criticise. It is probably a 4* rather than a 5* but still a lovely hotel.
Have just got back from a weeks holiday and had a brilliant time.
The food was lovely and all cooked freshly in front of you. Also have the option of Tunisian AlaCatre and Italian AlaCarte. The Italian was lovely until the main course, which was a whole fish - very bony!
There were alot of German and French people in the hotel, so in the buffet restaurant there was alot of pushing in as you can expect!
The waiters all work really hard, and are very friendly. Will usually expect a tip of some sort.
Can also eat lunch and late breakfast at the pool bar if you wish.
The beach is lovely with beautiful white sand and turquoise sea, with the pool bar nearby and beach bar just inside.
We went with Thomas Cook and did the trip to El Jem, was a nice morning out, but that mosaic museum afterwards was a bit boring!
The entertainment at night wasn't great, but you can't fault the effort put in. Daytime activities were very good! There is also a small golf course next to the pool, for a 24 dena you can play all day. Also bowling alley and spa for extra charge.
Would definately recommend this hotel, and would go back again!

For a cheap (£425 per week all inclusive) holiday with plenty of sun in early May, you could do much worse than choose this hotel. While I agree that it is not 5 star, externally I feel it to be 4 star and internally certainly three. You have to have an open mind in terms of food, so if you are a brit looking for roast beef and fish & chips, this is not for you. However, if you want to try a wide variety of different foods that are as fresh as you can expect from a buffet, you can have a surprisingly varied culinary experience. Try the breakfast omlette!
You will have to find your own entertainment so I suggest one week rather than two. The staff shows are dreadful, but if you are with or make friends (who also have children to keep yours entertained) then the pool is excellent with superb service from bar staff and plenty of space and availability around the pool. The beach is only 60 seconds from the hotel, and there is very little hassle from locals selling you rubbish that you don't want.
I suggest that you tip your waiter 10 dinar on the first night, and they will have your table set up with drinks, flowers and a large smile each evening. Rooms are clean but basic and again, if you are after sky sports and Eastenders you will have to speak Italian, German or Arabic to understand it as there are no English channels.
There is a small golf course and ten pin bowling, which you have to pay for. Also free, there is archery, volley ball and aqua aerobics.
In summary, my wife, young daughters and I had a very enjoyable time which was enhanced greatly by the weather. Without that, things would have certainly gone down hill but you would be very unlucky to not have at least five sunny days out of seven. Red wine / beer enjoyable despite being served in smaller than average glasses, but if you cannot be bothered to walk 10 yards to the bar for another, then you are someone who will never be satisfied with life.

We stayed in Vincci Nour Palace for 2 weeks all inclusive in september 2009, We loved Tunisia, we havent been before so we didnt know what to expect really. The hotel was a let down, how can they call this hotel 5* i agree with other reviews this is a 3* hotel at best. Food was repetative and poor, it was just constant queues for breakfast, lunch and dinner it got so tedious we would just eat salad or sweets because our food was usually cold by the time we had waited for it and then negotiated our way back to our table! Waiters were very attentive, but some days they had a lot of tables to take care of, we always tipped as they work really hard. Please do not bother booking the Italian restaurant, it was a poor meal we waited over 25 mins to get a bottle of wine, food was cold and tasteless, the waiter was rude and didnt understand english very well it was an awful experience, the Tunisian restaurant however was much nicer and food served quicker, i would recommend this one. I wouldnt bother with the hotel pool bar the drink is served in beakers! larger tasted awful, we always drank in lobby bar at least you get glasses there! Philip the Thomas Cook rep is a great bloke! we went on his ramble, he is very informative and friendly, we also done the Sahara explorer 2 day trip, it was brilliant i can recommend this, it was very exhausting but worth it. We visited El Jem, matmata, camel riding in the Sahara Desert, sunrise on the salt lakes was amazing experience, we loved this trip and got a feel for Tunisia which we liked! I would recommend Tunsia but not this hotel, it was very disappointing, the only good part was the lovely beach which we visted nearly every day and doing archery! we only discovered this 3 days before we went home and it was great fun, I hope to visit Tunisia again but i will be very wary which hotel i book!

1 reader found this review helpful

Just arrived back from a week from hell with my parnter and 2 year old daughter. Lets start with the ROOM - walked into the allocated room to find splatters of poo on the toilet wall,un clean bed linen and ants running round. We were offered a change of room on the 4th floor but refused it due to very low balcony and the fear of our daughter going over the edge. FOOD - we believed for 7 days that we were in the staff canteen or the film set of porridge. What you had for lunch came back for dinner with a different sauce over it. Food was under cooked, raw, stale, repetative and not fit for a so called 5* restort. Philip the rep was seen on many occasion in the local restaurants where we ate......he didn't need to say anymore nor did we. BAR/DRINKS - the bar staff were very slow at serving and always expected a tip, glases were best described as plastic thimbles (also used as ash trays), if you were lucky you could find a coffee cup, soft drinks were available at a slow speed as it wasn't self service. Speaking to 8 UK famlies they had all changed rooms and had lost about 3 stone in wait due to the lack of hot, fresh decent food. At very best this was a 2* hotel. CULTURE - well this was an eye opener to even a well travelled individual. On the opening of a new shop in the UK a cork would normally be popped......well the shop opening across from the hotel was certainly different!! Lamb, knife, throat, blood.......blooded hand print on the front door.....yes I saw it with my own eyes with ones mouth catching flies. PLEASE PLEASE save heartache & your hard earned money DO NOT OPT FOR THIS HOTEL. Thomas cook if you are reading this, PLEASE remove Vincci Nour Palace Resort from your brochure ALL the comments that I have found on return speak volumes and somebody may die from food poisioning.

Good start but rapidly fell. Very impressive lobby. Uniformed reception staff - who were unhelpful and rude.
Good view from lobby over the pool area. Pool was big and never crowded. No probs getting sunbeds and parasols. Rooms a good size and the single room booked for our 90 year old mother was the same size as ours with the same facilities.
Dining room was very large with a high ceiling. The light fittings were used as perching points for the sparrows that frequented the room! The food was indifferent but, on the whole edible. It is self service and the layout is haphazard to say the least. The main problem was the constant lack of plates and cups - breakfast being the worse time.To get bread, butter, jam, cheese, eggs and coffee was a mammoth undertaking.
The pool bar was a disgrace. All cold drinks served in nasty, rough plastic beakers.Poor choice of drinks - coke,sprite, beer or wine.
By day 4 I had succumbed to a vile tummy upset and 7 days later and at home am still ill, awaiting the results of hospital tests. I am unable to eat, am confined to bed and feel dreadful.
Will never go there again despite the fab weather.

1 reader found this review helpful

As relatively seasoned travellers to Tunisia over the last 25 years, this hotel was disappointing to say the least,it is not 5star(although the facilities will say otherwise). We have been in better 3star hotels than this in Hammamet,Port El Kantoui,Djerba, etc.The hotel generally looks and is quite impressive, however certain things let it down, for example the lounge area- upholstery stained and grubby, waiter service almost non-existent,reception staff unhelpful if you are English.The dining room/restaurant,a mixture of UCP.(for older reviewers)and Macdonalds.First night the manager escorted us to a table for two, on discovering we were on half-board at the time we were ushered outside to a patio area.The following morning at breakfast self service, coffee cups but no saucers on enquiring at lack of same the maitre de hurried off to the kitchen and returned with just two saucers, also cutlery was hard to come by.Overall we wholeheartedly agree with comments by another reviewer, a delightful young lady, Micheala whom we `adopted` for the week.To reassure her parents, she was in safe hands at all times,we miss the Brummie accent,you have our e-mail address Micheala if you would like to get in touch!In conclusion we would NOT reccommend this hotel, in fact sad to say we will not be returning to Tunisia again.

I'm a young lady and I stayed at this hotel for a week on my own, and apart from two days of rain it was o.k!. The hotel is advertised as 5 Star, but I'd rate it at 3. It's a nice big hotel, but my room wasn't ready when I got there, and I had no rep to help me check in (he was still at the airport!) and I was concerned as I was on my own. I had a car-park view room, even though a pool view was requested, but for 25 pounds, I could upgrade!. Anyway, couldn't fault the room service, it was great and the staff could be trusted with personal belongings.
When I read these reviews before I went, NO-ONE mentioned, it was a NON-ENGLISH hotel!!!!!. Even my tour operator didn't tell me, had I known..I wouldn't of gone!. There was TEN of us English in the whole hotel!. It was full of French, Germans, Russians, Dutch and Italians and ALL were rude and VERY annoying!! It was very hard to communicate with the staff aswell as they couldn't really speak English and us English felt like the minority and not very important.
I was half board here, but I soon found how expensive everything was and the rep(when he showed up), told us we could up-grade to All Inclusive at 8 pounds a day, which me and a few others did as it cost my newly made friends nearly ten pounds for two brandy and cokes!!. I worked out I would be saving in the end, and we were all soon treated differently with All Inclusive bracelets on!, but I still had to pay for a small bottle of coke to take back to my room and in some restaurants and bars, All Inclusive guests weren't allowed in!.
The stairwell lights in some parts of the hotel, weren't working, even the 'back-up' lights weren't and everynight my friends had to nearly crawl down these stairs as you couldn't see anything!. Also the corridor lights are meant to click on when someone walks through, but no, most weren't working at all so again, couldn't see in front of your face, let alone your room number!. Health & safety wasn't their priority, as we witnessed two people with plastered arms after falling in the hotel and someone fell in the inside pool (which isn't heated in the 'out of season'!!) and there are NO lifeguards anywhere on the complex. The swimming pool itself was 1.50m deep all round, no shallow end, so if your short like me, hold onto the side! The other problem was that the pool for adults and children were freezing, so a 'dip' was literally a dip, which was a shame as it looks really nice and inviting.
I didn't go on the beach as it was packed all the time and everyone was squashed in like sardines!.
Not much to say on the entertainment side, other than it's not in English!.
Eating here was o.k, DON'T eat at the pool bar unless you want your food with a portion of flies!!. There are flies everywhere, I've never known a country like it!. They are a constant headache.
It was nearly the same food everynight, not very exciting, I got used to eating the same stuff everynight, but you do have to wait for a table to be laid first and watch out for those flies!.
I won't be going back to Tunisia, I thought it was a dirty place and the only things I'll miss are the weather and the friends I made.

Initial thoughts when we entered the nicely air conditioned lobby were wow!!! Very impressive. Things started to go down hill from there. We were pointed to sit down and handed forms to fill in (along with another English family). We were left there for about 30 mins not knowing what was happening. Eventually a receptionist came over and gave us our keys only telling us that the evening restaurant was open from 6.30 for the first sitting and closed at 10. Never did figure out when second sitting actually starts!! Breakfast was 7-10.
Room was clean and comfortable - no complaints there. Maid always cleaned it to a high standard.
First day by the pool and we were relaxing watching our 5 year old daugher play in the baby pool. Suddenly, very loud music comes from the speakers. Once our ear drums had become adjusted, it was ok - until.... a "song" repeating the words "mother [--]". I'm sure you can imagine that we weren't expecting that, especially not during the day on a family resort with the kids around the pool. They forget that there are some English. During our visit a total of 16 in a hotel that slept over 1000!). A couple of days later the same song gets played. This time I went over to the DJ and asked him not to play it again as it is extremely offensive. (I would just like to say that it's not like I don't swear - I just don't want to hear it when I'm relaxing by the pool with my 5 year old next to me!). Some other people told me the next day that it had been played again but we were at the beach.
The evening "entertainment" - where do I start. Well, "entertainment" being in inverted commas should give you some idea about the quality of it. It was never once introduced in English or any of the content English. It's ok if you're French, German or Italian - at least you can understand it. Then, one evening during a dance show in which 3 adults were street dancing, they played a certain 50Cent (that's who I was told it was) record that contained "mother [--]" and other hurtful lyrics to some people.
We did raise this with our rep who did speak to the manager and entertainment manager and he was assured that they had been destroyed. Interesting to hear if anyone else who goes after Aug 08 heard it!
One of the reasons we chose this hotel was because it has a kids club. We weren't given any information about it and had to go looking. We soon realised that our daughter would have been the only English child so wouldn't have had anyone to speak to and the children's reps couldn't speak enough if any English for a 5 year old to understand!!
Clean, pool clean (except for the music!!) and beach lovely. Food was fine (though trying to figure out what some of it was was interesting - even when it was translated, it was wrong (potatoes were translated into English as apples!))

7 readers found this review helpful

Hi,
I would like to comment on the Vinicci Nour Palace in Madhia, Before we left we read some of the reviews that have been posted and to be honest i was not really looking forward to my holiday and at one point considering pulling out, What a mistake i would have made.
I feel that this hotel has not been given the credit that it is due, I found it really hard to find any justification on the bad reports and believe me i tried.
The staff were friendly and warm an yes some may have had a problem with the english language but they tried to accommedate all the languages - My husband speaks a little french so we mangaged to get by.
The food was to die for it was warm mostly cooked fresh in front of you - salad bars, Harrissa ( very hot ) but fantastic if you go its a must that you try some, we were half board breakfast was fantastic so much to choose from and lets be honest you don't go on holiday to have a big fry up you go to experiance new ways and new things. our only problem with breakfast was the eggs the did not mark 3-4-5 min eggs and we picked up 3 mins instead of 5 no big problem though leave to the side of your table and go get another one.
Tunisian night was fantastic i did not know that you could flavour rice in so many ways they also put on Italian night which the waiters all have diffrent uniforms for.
on the whole the food was fantastic there was not one bad meal - if there is any complaint it would be the amout of diffrent this to choose from.
Deserts - if you love your pud this is for you AMAZING and the do all the main big desserts in small bite size version the dispays - perfect.
As for the waiting staff - we sat at the same table for the 14 days our waiters were Moncep and Samia - Always had a smile and a kind word Moncep spoke good english and Samia a little but french was her main language although she tried and i don't speak french i tried a little to these guys work from about 5 in the morning right through to midnight they are hard working .
Pricing we paid for our drinks with dinner as we were half board large bottle of water and 2 small beers 9.350dr about 3.60 GBP. this never varied always the same price as in other comment they said the prices vary.
the lobby bar was slightly cheaper for beer than the piano bar as the piano bar was a smoking bar and did not serve all incusive which was good it was very quiet again the staff worked really hard in the bars.
Our room when we first walked in i though i was in the wrong room - it was huge had veiws of the pool, and the sea it was of a very high standard and the rooms were cleaned every day - we had 1 light bulb out which we reported on the form that you hang outside your door - this was never replace but this was my fault as i put a passed date on it (lol).
The marbal floors were buffed every day and the gardens are fantastic I was surprised to see that i had some of the same plants back home yet mine look terrible, the gardeners all take pride in what the have created.
The beach was sandy and clean and yes there are vendors that walk up and down trying to sell their wares - However they are not allowed to approch your bed or come on the the vinnic area - However there are some vendors who do try and they are usually moved on by the life guard or the security very quickly although the beach is private we have to remember that the front streach is not as no one can own the sea!
Would we do it again YES in a heart beat we may return next year.
eveyone is allowed an opinion and I would encourage people to do so - but remember when you choose your holiday you are going to immerse your self in an other culture relax and enjoy experiance new things learn and develope a greater understanding of how other countries work and most of all respect how hard working the staff are.

3 readers found this review helpful

my husband and i visited vincci nour hotel in feb 2008. what a fantastic holiday we had. the hotel was cleaned to an impressive standard every day 24/7.the dining room was very impressive with the wonderful waiters who wait on you hand and foot, nothing too much trouble, even decorating our table with flowers on our last evening meal, which made that evening meal rather special, although my husband wished he could of sat somewhere else, but thats just men for you!! i fully appreciated the kind jesture. if you are of the older age bracket , aerobics daily, afternoon tea dances, evening dance themes are available and as you can imagine, very entertaining for the younger age group of 40 plus!! the re arranging of the tables by the older age groups gives the waiters a full time job re arranging them to there original position after every social function!! the beach is straight out of the back door, cheap cafe on the beach as well as the well mentioned greasy spoon , right turn out of the main enterence and a short distance down the road is well worth a visit. we will be going back again in feb 2009, to totally unwind and relax watching the world go by, but also having the odd laugh to ourselves. vincci nour palace is well worth a visit.