Golf Residence Hotel

11 readers found this review helpful

my husband and I have just returned from the Golf Residence Hotel in Port El Kantaoui
we had a great time,our twelve day stay,was one of our best holidays,hotel clean,food,
great choices every day.Lovely pool,plenty of sunbeds,staff all very pleasant.The resort
harbour is really pleasant to walk around,you do get the usual hassle but a firm NO is
all thats needed.The horse and trap to the beach was a pleasant surprise although I
don't think we would use it in high season wouldn't be fair to the horse,in high temeratures.He enjoyed his apples from the restaurant each day,off passengers.The beach
was very pleasant,with 2 sunbeds ,an umbrella and two comfy mattresses with a small table
one dinar each[£1 for both of us].All in all it was a great holiday,and we hope to go back
same time next year,to the same hotel.

2 readers found this review helpful

arrived at golf residence 21-12-2008 left 7-12-2009 wish we stayed only 1 day have tried to upload pictures of hotel but failed,but willing to send anyone emails with attachments, the hotel is a disgrace,1 star if that, bedrooms have 2 inch scews sticking through all cupboards tiles were smashed in bathrooms,the rooms stank,food was auful, beer is only local no english beer anywhere in tunisia,and the beer in this hotel was the worst i have tasted in 35 years,you also have to pay for a lot of the entertainment inthis hotel which is a disgrace because its not that good,new year was a joke they made us wait till 8-30 for our buffet instead of 6-30, at it was chaios,250 people plus trying to get trough 1 small door then waiting another 20 mins for a floor manager to find us a table as some were booked and others were not no info given then everyone had to queue in line for soup time we got there we were waiting for some new soup we walked out at 9-32without any food,the abuse you get in the harbour if you dont use there shops is insulting, even if you say no thank you, ther was a mugging in broad daylight a women in a wheel chair and her husband elderly, this is what you must be aware of we will never go there again worst holiday ,and i have been traveling since1972

6 readers found this review helpful

We had a great stay at "The Golf" for 4 weeks in January this year & booked up almost immediately to go back in Jan 09 for 5 weeks.
OK it is not the poshest hotel in the resort - but I'm sure it is the friendlest & most laid back & when you are there for an extended stay that is just what you want - & the clientele it attracts are friendly too.
During our stay one of our party was ill - Mohamed (Entertainments manager), Reception staff & the Panorama Team were fantastic in organising things & supporting us through doctors visits & a trip to the clinic/hospital.
Yes - the entertainment was the same each week, so it did get a bit repetative (but I am sure that would happen anywhere when you are there for 4 weeks) at least there was entertainment on offer & we just threw ourselves into what was on offer & made it our own.
The food is fine - we were happy to eat in the hotel dining room every evening during our stay (even on the evening of a family birthday!!) & there was enough choice to keep even the pickiest members of our party happy.
We are now counting the days till we go back (42 days today!!) and we can't wait to see how last January's renovations have gone on & if we will recognise any familiar faces (guests & staff) - maybe we'll see you there?

2 readers found this review helpful

Thomas cook airlines-rubbish...my partner is 6ft5 and coul not even sit because lack of room leg i am 5ft8 and also had a problem with that.
In monastir we had to fill a visa form but it did not take a long time.
Hotel nice but has got more than 233 rooms like it is in a catalogue.Tunisians girls can't clean at all-every day only floor was mopped nothind else.
Bed linen had to be change 2 a week but if you did not take them off the bed and put on the floor tunisians wouln't even notice that.So you had watched that.
Reception and drink bar staff very good. But can't say taht about restaurant's...in the evening you could order drinks with your dinks but had to wait for it for about 10 mins.
Pool area nice and friendly...laud music and not so much entertainment for kids.But always we could find a free place.
Beach not far away...was nice to walk there passing marina. Only minus of the beach was lots of smoking people leaving finished cigarettes in the sand...so not to good for kids too.
But...town nice, little and peacefull you can relax there and enjoy lovely sun.
Recomand to everyone!!!

2 readers found this review helpful

Most enjoyable stay friendly staff.good food.clean rooms.would certainly recommend this hotel.Resort is very good pleasant marina abundance of restuarants.

6 readers found this review helpful

Had a really lovely week's holiday in Tunisia, I had never been there before and didnt know what to expect. I had read all the previous reviews on this web site and thought i'll make my own mind up. This is my honest opinion of this hotel, i hope it helps you to choose your perfect holiday. The hotel is situated in the perfect place in Port El Kantaoui, its within a 10min walk of the marina and the hotels own private beach. The marina and surrounding area is lovely, lots of shops, resturants and a really cool musical fountain! The fountain lights up and shoots water in great displays in the time to music, the fountain goes every half hour. There are a few boat trips you can take in the marina, I suggest the 'hebe' it only cost 15 dinars(about £7.50) for two hours of peaceful sailing, it then anchors and you can swim for about half hour! It was well worth the money. The beach is so peaceful compared with the hotel pool area, Its owned by the hotel and reserved for hotel guests, sunbeds are 1dinar(42p) The beach is lovely and clean, the sea on the other hand is not as clean as it seems. The water isnt 100% clean, lots of rubbish on the sea bed and in the sea weed only a few meters out. If you have small children watch out, there are regularly small crabs in the shallow water. There is a basic gym and spa facilities at the beach, there is also a snack bar serving a few basic lunch time snacks. The hotel itself is clean and the staff are generally friendly and can speak some english.
The food in the dining room, breakfast and dinner were not good, no real variety and the food quality was poor! We only ate dinner at the hotel the first night, we ate out the other 6 nights, either in the marina or at the best place for food in the area, 'the saloon' a steakhouse set in a wild west theme with everything you can imagine, real cactus' everywhere. The food is very cheap and great quality, you can get a huge steak for about £9 and they do the biggest cheese burgers ever for about £6, its a must. The pool and surrounding area is great, the main pool is large and there is a children's pool. There is a pool side snack bar that serves lunch time snacks and meals, pizza for about £3 and large sandwiches for about £2. The main downfall of the pool area is the music they insist on playing all day from 10am until 4pm, its too loud and has no variety. I complained about the volume and lack of variety, it got turned down but it isnt peaceful at all, we spent most of the week down the beach, a much better option.
The hotel accomodation is comfortable and clean but is very basic, the bedroom and the bathroom need updating. There was o lovely balcony over looking the pool, sounds really good, during the day it is, its a sun trap and gives great views over the pool. At night it turns into a nightmare, as from the 15th september the air con was turned off, despite it still being 30+degrees everyday, the locals deem it not hot enough for air con! So you have to sleep with the balcony door open, this seems perfectly reasonable but for the dreadful evening 'entertainment'. Every night from 7pm untill gone 12.30am unreasonably loud music and noise is blasted out at top volume from the speakers right underneath the balconys although the guests are only a few feet away from the speakers. I complained but nothing was done about the volume. Try to get a room facing the road if you want to sleep. I suggest not to go around the second week in september unless the weather is cooler. Not too mant activities for children but i put this down to it not being in the summer holidays.
I really enjoyed the holiday, i would rate it at about 9/10, lots to see and do just dont stay at this hotel. I would have to rate it as a 5/10. Tunisia is a good place to come, the weather was great and most people are friendly. However everywhere you go you will get hassled, taxi men, market stall owners, shop owners, excursion people and beauty treatment people will all beg for you to either look at or buy something, just keep walking or say no thanks.
A top tip is to take some anti-bacterial hand gel/foam with you, as all there money is very dirty and personal hygine isnt good at all. Especially if you have small children, dont drink the water, its dirty and contains high levels of chlorine.
I hope this will help you to choose the right hotel for your holiday.
Our rep Jamal was very helpfull, if you dont have Jamal as your rep he will still help you with your problems, just ask to see him.

5 readers found this review helpful

Absolutely loved the hotel and resort, perfect for families and couples who are up for a laugh but not for groups of people who want to go out drinking all the time - so it was perfect for me and my boyfriend who are in our mid 20s.
Cannot fault the hotel, the staff were excellent, food was lovely - don't listen to picky people, it's not gourmet but what do you expect! I loved going for my dinner every night... salads, pasta, rice, couscous, soup, chips, curry, stew, lasagne, freshly battered fish + vegetables... breakfast was either continental, cereals, yoghurts, pancakes, toast or fried eggs, potatoes etc.. Pool was gorgeous and you could go down at any time of day and get sunbeds which suprised me! The beach was lovely, you could always get a sunbed and the sand was sooo soft. The sea was warm and clear... up until a point where the floor was lined with seaweed... this didn't really bother me as i don't like going too deep into the sea.
Lots of great excursions - would recommend quad biking, African Dream (Frigura Park) and getting spoiled in the hotel's spa (under £30 for 2hours of treatment!!).
Met loads of english families, british all spoke to each other and were really friendly.. not so for some of the other nationalities but not too bad!
Defo going back to the same hotel next year!!!!

7 readers found this review helpful

we were a family of four, three adults and 15 yr old kid.
Having never been to tunisia before we didnt know what to expect but we certainly weren't dissapointed. The hotel was just 30 mins from Monastir airport and upon arrival mid morning we were abit concerned about the waterpark opposite because it was making alot of noise however by 5:00pm it had stopped and as it turned out didnt affect us as our room wasnt facing it anyway. The room itself had a nice view from the balcony, looking out over the gardens and trees. as there was four of us in a room there wasnt quite enough space to put your clothes so we had to resort to putting it on the sides (however we did go over our limit for baggage by 14kg and had to pay £80 at eastmidlands airport, so space for other people mite not be a problem if you dont take so many clothes lol) but this problem certainly wouldnt ruin your holiday. one factor that may cause problems was the some of the rooms (including ours) had a small theme park about 200m and at night this was quite noisy till bout 1-2 in the morning but it didnt keep us awake at all. all in all the room was very good.
the grounds of the hotel were also very good, clean and well maintained. the pool area aswell was very nice, loads of sunbeds but well spaced out so it wasnt too cramped. there were areas that you could move the beds to so you could get away from the music near the poolside, but it was still quite loud. there were two bars by the pool that you could get drinks from, not too expensive; orange juice 3 dinars-bout £1.40, small beer 3.5 dinars - £1.60 and a half bottle of wine 8 dinars - £3.60. these prices were bassically the same wherever you went in the resort.
we spent most all of our days at the beach and i must say it was one of the nicest beach's i have ever been on. the sand was white and very soft and the sea was very warm and very safe, perfect for little children as the tide just gently pushed you back into shore everyday we were there. 1 let down was that about 15m in you hit the seaweed and it grows from the seabed so theres no shifting it. we also found that if you didnt mind stepping on the seaweed, at the bounday rope in the sea, the water was still only waist deep. a few tips for you, if you walk past the restaurant on the headland (about 100m) you reach the locals side of the beach and there the sea was walmer and there was much less seaweed. also the first day you go there if you tip the men who give you the sunbeds then they will try and reserve you beds on the front. beds were cheap 4 dinars for four beds and two umberellas bout £1.80
as we had never been half board before we weren't sure on what the food was going to be like, having read some reviews about it being better than 5* hotels we were optamistic, however we were quite dissapointed with the food. everynight we ate there, it was pretty bland but there was always alot to choose from and the salads and deserts were very nice. however the cats outside seem to enjoy the food so make sure you give them some! (cant comment on breakfast, we missed them all! lol. not morning people!) we ate out 3 nights (this wasnt because of the food) and we found a lovely restuarant on the other side of the harbour about a 15min stroll, it overlooked the sea but wasnt in the harbour itself, we were jus luky to find it as it is in a residential area. the food here was lovely.
at the beach bar, again the food was pretty bland and there wasnt much choice but again the salads were nice, and with the beautiful views it certainly compensates. the one waiter Nerja was lovely, everytime we went there we tried to sit at the tables he waited on, in the end we were given complimentary starter's which were nice. another tip is that if you tip the waiters they will certainly look after you and if you try and say thank you in tunisian or french, it goes along way.
a family member suffers from MS and because of this she isnt able to walk far or up hills. this resort is perfect because its very flat and everything is generally near by. The 24hr shop on the premises is good. it was very cheap in the shop specially the water (20p for a two litre bottle) there was also a complimentary horse and cart down to the beach which at first we thought great because the beach was to far my mom to walk because of her MS (fit family would be able to walk it) but as it turned out we decided not to use it because we felt bad for the horse. it was only a small horse and if it's busy it could possibly carry up to 12-15 people. we just got a taxi to the beach, only cost bout £1.20 and there were plenty taxi's about if you wanted to go anywhere.
overall it was a brilliant holiday and would like to go back to Port El Kantaoui next year, but probably not to this hotel. the food was the let down for us.
hope this helped!

2 readers found this review helpful

well what can i say third time at the hotel had a great time we were a party of 7 ages range from 5 to 74 and we was all well catered for the food was good and it was the first time they had a childrens menu which was great.staff very friendly and helpful it was great going to the beach on the horse and cart one thing i must comment on the rudness of other guests mainlly the polish waiting for the horse to take them to to the beach my nieces and daughter ages range from 5 to 18 first in que were pushed to one side and had to walk.

Im not usually a person that complains but here goes...................
Arrived in Tunis on 27th July from London, my family are south african passport holders, we knew that they would get visas on arrival but did not realize it would take an hour for them to get these visas. They had to wait for an hour before they were let through to collect their luggage and catch the Thomas Cook operator tour bus which had been waiting with all the other tourists, needless to say they were not impressed.
Thomas Cook should advise any other passport holders about the time it takes to get a visa on arrival and perhaps suggest they get the visa before arriving in Tunisia.
We stayed at the Golf Residence half board. The reception staff were increbibly rude and unfriendly however the cleaning ladies were the total opposite, they should have swopped with the reception, very friendly and sweet. Mr Habib the so called manager still has alot to learn when it comes to etiquette and manners. He was awful.
The breakfast was a dissapointment, the scrambled egg looked like water most mornings. So stayed clear of that. The dinner and desserts were great.
Second day into stay was asked to share rooms as they had obviously overbooked. I refused as I had booked and payed for this so called RELAXING holiday.
Opposite the hotel was the theme park which didnt stop playing extremely loud music till 3:30am every morning. The hotel next door decided to start playing their loud music till all hours. So I had to invest in some earplugs. Its great that they enjoy themselves, all Im suggesting is that if anyone is looking for a particularly relaxing and QUIET holiday then dont book into any hotel around or close to the harbour or fairground as it gets extremely loud.
It was great to walk around the Marina. People were very friendly.
The Beach was great and thats where I had the most relaxing time apart from the waiters from the Golf residence cafe who were rude and overcharged us and also never brought back our change. You had to constantly ask them for your change back. Some advice: Find out the prices on your first day. Always make sure you have plenty of change and pay them the exact amount. Do not give them notes!!!!!! You wont see your change and you will possibly be overcharged.
We eventually just used a little cafe next to the golf residence cafe and they were great. We didnt get done in and they were cheaper too.
The beach and water was great, the pirate ship adventure was fun.
I loved experiencing Tunisia but would probably not go back. I have now seen it and experienced it. Or possibly to not book a package holiday.
Thats all folks...................