Sindbad Center Aparthotel

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27th March 2006 for 2 weeks - Wayne & Inez, Southampton.
Essentials:-
1) Take your own alcohol (spirits) as it is very expensive for whisky etc - about £4 a shot! Lager is about £1.20 a bottle.
2) Bring your own sun tan lotion as this too is expensive.
We both enjoyed our 1st holiday to Tunisia and have fond memories of the characters we met, both in the hotel & on the trip.
I wouldn't hesitate to go back to Tunisia, especially as you can walk around without feeling at risk, although you do occasionally get hassled to buy something - just be firm and say NO. Even though the staff at the Sindbad are really friendly and the rooms kept spotlessly clean, I wouldn't stay at the Sindbad again as there are just too many other decent hotels on offer, especially 2 miles up he road at Port El Kantaoui...
After the 35 minutes trip from Monastair Airport "Bashir", the really friendly porter at the Sindbad, carried both our cases up the 30 steps to the lifts (disabled beware).
We were allocated room 717 on the corner of the top floor and has a decent size balcony overlooking the pool area. Our first impressions were rather disappointing at how small and basic the room was. It is listed by med holidays as a 3* hotel but trust me, it is more like 2* tops! My partner wasn't happy at all and wanted to move to a more appropriate hotel just down the road (Royal Salem) but it would have cost us £140 to upgrade plus whatever Sindbad would have wanted for canceling.
We eventually decided to stay at Sindbad, despite the terrible breakfasts which were always cereal, boiled eggs, tomatoes and cold salad - never any toast! Take your own tea bags as the tea on offer takes a lot of getting used to. Also, the utensils on the buffet section were "Red Hot" & usually dangerously too hot to handle!
The evening meals ranged from well scrummy to dire but as it is SO cheap to eat out - 20 Dinar (£8) gets a decent 3 course meal for 2 in the cafe just a few yard up the road.
The Sindbad hotel is located right on the main road between Sousse and Port El Kantaoui, so be warned that you can hear the road through most of the night accompanied by a blind cockerel who starts yakking at around midnight accompanied by several dogs!! Our Medhotels rep said that this was a common problem all along the road, but when we visited other hotels during the day, we did not find this to be true, although we weren't there in the evenings.
The beach is about a 5 minute walk, although you have to cross the main road, so keep your wits about you! It is quite shallow, so safe to swim although you do occasionally get the odd beach trader selling his wares.
Sindbad has a sister hotel in Port El Kantaoui, this is supposedly a 3+ star hotel but is worlds away from the Sindbad. We spent quite a few days here enjoying both the indoor and outdoor pools. Wherever we went we had to pay 1 dinar for a sun lounger for the day, but well worth it. We also took water everywhere, we found the best value to be in the supermarket attached to the Sindbad (3 dinar for 6 x 1.5ltr bottles).
Take an ordinary TV aerial coaxial lead, so that you can watch the TV (if you have one) in your room, otherwise you will be charged to borrow a cable. We also took a small "one for all" type remote that cost us a quid from a pound shop in Southampton :)
There is only one English channel (BBC World) but it keeps you up to date on what's happening around the world & as there is virtually no evening entertainment (we only had 1 nights entertainment out of the 2 weeks) you'll be grateful for the telly.
Also, invest in a safety deposit box by the reception - it cost us 7 dinar per week to hire and a 25 returnable deposit. I managed to get a large one that I could put my camcorder as well as all our money & passports etc in. By the way, take pound sterling traveler cheques, as theses are accepted at the hotel - £1 = approx. 2.3 Dinar.
The weather was FAR hotter than expected - 25C+ every day, although 2 weeks before it was apparently quite chilly. Taxis to Port El Kantaoui were about 2 Dinar each way, buses less than 1/2 Dinar and so our favourite method of getting around was buses - only 1 Dinar to Monastir (40p) which is about 15 miles. The majority of the conductors speak English, so don't worry about not being able to communicate.
We were very spoilt in the first week as there seemed to be very few guests around and no kids at all, therefore, there was never a problem with getting a table in the restaurant and the pool area was always peaceful and relaxing (as long at the pool boy and his mates were not there!!). Unfortunately for the second week the Spanish Students descended and behaved like they were the only people around making lots of noise no matter where they were or what time it was, even at 2:30am around the pool, but if you threatened them with calling the police they seemed to disappear.
Incidentally, we booked 4 massage sessions which included a facial for 75 Dinar (£32) - we had 2 each and although not a vigorous workout, it was well worth it and SO relaxing.
We did the 2 day Sahara Safari, which although sounded good when John the rep sold it to us, turned out to be a mare. If we had been told that we would be up at 4:30am and spend about 12 hours+ per day on the road, then there's no way we would have bothered. That and the fact that we only got about 40 minutes or so at El Jem (the Roman Colliseum) and constantly hassled by the local traders everywhere we went - our coach's air conditioner wasn't working either, so it was warmer in there than outside!
And what was the point of the 4x4 off road vehicles that we had to pay an extra 35 Dinar for? We all thought that these would take us off road into the desert or whatever but all they did was stay on the roads!!! I don't get it, we may as well have stayed on the coach. The only real decent stop for us was the salt lakes to watch the sun rise - such a cool and tranquil place :)
Our hotel was home to the local Tunisian men for their evening drink & games of pool etc. I found this a little uncomfortable as they were everywhere, even in our restaurant - they nearly all smoked heavily and were sometimes quite noisy. All the other hotels of any merit had guards on the entrance keeping the locals out.