Sindbad Center Aparthotel

Having read other reviews, I feel that I have to write praising the staff of this hotel for their helpfulness and great attention to their guests. I travelled with my 2 teenage daughters and their friend, so we were an all female group. We quickly found that although out and about, we did come across a certain amount of hassle from young tunisian males, we felt very safe and not at all hassled by the hotel staff; in fact they were quite protective (my daughter was 'watched' to the pizza shop down the road). The food I found to be good, although my daughters would probably not agree as chips were definitely not on the menu every night. There was a good choice, always a veggie option with the evening meal and the waiters were very attentive. The guests' restaurant was pleasant enough and overlooked the pool area. Breakfast was continental. The pool area was pleasant. It's not massive, but extremely clean with plenty of loungers (1 dinar to hire for a day) and enough room to bathe without being squashed or bumped by other bathers. I've been to larger pools and have found them far busier. The hotel has its own bar at the beach where, again, staff are friendly and helpful. We had 2 rooms on the top floor overlooking the pool which were clean and with an ensuite. The air conditioning worked and we didn't spend much time in them so didn't need much space. Maid service was daily. In the evening, the bar was open and the pool area available with tables, chairs etc. There was some entertainment organised; karaoke, fakir show and fire eating and comedy(?!) games, but it was quite pleasant to just sit and relax over a drink. The drinks were cheap (bottle of lager 2.2dinars - £1; soft drinks 1.2 dinars-50p) The only thing I would fault the hotel on is the incessant loud music from about 11am until about midnight, with breaks only for when the pool closed (6ish) until 7.30ish. On this stay, it didn't bother me too much and the girls enjoyed it, but if I had been travelling with my husband, it would have definitely bothered him. Inside our room, with the patio door closed, the music was not a nuisance. Overall, we had a most enjoyable stay and would return again. We paid about £86 per adult for half board for a week and I found this extremely good value for money.

We expected a nice hotel, since it has 3 1/2 stars. The opposite was true. We started at the right wing of the hotel, which turned out to have all the bad rooms. We complained three times about the fact that the water in the shower did not drain, and that we had two small beds that did not allow us to sleep together. Apart from that the room was not very clean. After three days of complaining and no results, we discovered that the left wing of the hotel had all the better rooms! We asked to switch rooms, but they did not let us move until the next day. We went on a two-day trip that morning, so we asked if we could change rooms sunday evenening when we would be back. When we arrived on sunday, the hotel clerk claimed to know nothing about the agreed deal. We made a fuss about it, and got a new room after all, but had to pay the clerk for it in order to get it done. Apart from this, the pool is dirty and the breakfast very uninteresting. Go only to this hotel if you pay a VERY low price...

Checked in 7pm ish on arrival. Staff pleasant and nice - couldnt fault them at all. Single parent traveling with 2 year old and hotel definitely not suitable. 30 steps to hotel from foyer. The room was tiny with hardly any waredrobe space, kitchenette that looked very old, the balconies were all joined together so no privacy and so low my son could have easily stepped over it and fell over. The hotel is on very busy main road (dual carriageway) and have to cross to get to beach. The pool also overlooks main road so very noisy and it was also tiny. Food - not actually in restaurant but put in room at back of hotel, with patio chairs and tables - very very limited selection of food - chips, pasta shells in tom sauce, plum tomatoes and salad with bread. Breakfast - boiled egg, bread, and yes, salad. The bathroom was so tiny and cramped and although not dirty, it was very old with rusty equipment - bath rail etc. Checked out the next day at 9am and went to hotel up the road to stay.

27th March 2006 for 2 weeks - Wayne & Inez. Firt things first - take your own alcohol (spirits) as it is expensive in Tunisia (£4 a shot), although the local lager is reasonable at £1.20p a bottle. 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. Even though the staff at the Sindbad are really friendly and the rooms kept spotllessly clean, I wouldn't stay at the Sindbad again as there are just too many other decent hotels on offer just 2 miles up the 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 with 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 cancelling. We eventually decided to stay at Sindbad, despite the terrible breakfasts which were always cereal, boiled eggs, tomatoes and cold salad - never any toast! 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. Also, the utensils on the buffet section were "Red Hot" & usually dangerously too hot to handle! Take an ordinary TV aerial coaxial lead, so that you can watch the TV in your room (if you have one), otherwise you will be charged to borrow a cable. There is only on 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 Dinar 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 traveller 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 Monastair (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 decended 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. 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 barking!! 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. 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. By the way, we saw several women topless around the hotel pool areas so if you are inclined, feel free :) 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). 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 each 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 noisey, as well as hogging the pool table and TV in the "Lounge". All the other hotels of any merit had gaurds on the entrance keeping the locals out.

1) First 2 days had very cold room as unable to find any heating & unaware that hot air should be available. Found out it was broken but then repaired on 3rd day okay. 2) Medhotels (with whom we booked) descriptions on website & in hotel says all 120 rooms have seaview or pool view -Room 534 (& others) do not have this view. 3) Kept awake all night Tues 7/3 with very loud Spanish students. Didn't complain as we thought they were out in street. Weds 8/3 breakfast restaurant with still few Spanish students was a tip - food on floor, broken crockery, dirty plates everywhere & no cutlery - it was disgraceful. We complained about noise & promised it would be ok Thurs 9/3 night. Well it wasn't - kept awake - friend & me made 2 separate visits to reception to complain & then another phone call. Spanish student surprised we were complaining at 0130 as it was still early!! So 2 sleepless nights. Asked to move room -refused as told it would not happen again. Well it did Saturday 11/3 - our final night but noise was stopped after about 30 mins after complaining. and then woken up by them Sunday 12/3 at 0645 by them drumming, singing, whistling. Seeing it was our going home day and didn't get to bed until midnight it was very upsetting to have had a disastrous night leaving me so tired I'm lucky I didn't have an accident driving home from airport. I now feel like I need another holiday! 4) we were told Thurs afternoon we could change room if we went to reception before 11AM next day. As we were sightseeing each day we did not want to waste our time changing rooms. Why they could not change our room in evening I''ll never know. 5) Otherwise hotel staff mostly helpful & friendly & food was excellent but something must be done about the students.May be a regular visit by them during 2006 as stay for 2 nights on way to a desert safari 6) Avoid Room 534 & others close by on same floor as above room where pool is played - very noisy especially when Sp. Students kept hitting balls onto the floor after midnight. 7) Had permanent leak on floor around toilet which was never cleared up (despite telling reception) 8) Out of season, evening meals taken in small hotel restaurant at front of hotel - frequented by many Tunisians (I said food was good) but most smoke heavily so was very smoky.

My friend and I went there to chill, we arrived quite late in the evening so we didn’t have chance to see the views. The rooms were very basic and needed a few repairs, but I would like to point out that we had cleans bed linen regularly and clean towels every day. The people in the hotel were extremely friendly and helpful. Our patio door didn’t lock and we never had enough coat hangers in our room, within 20 minutes the door was fixed and we got our coat hangers. They were very efficient. Whilst we were there it was very cold, so please make sure before you visit this time of year find out the temperature. We wore the clothes we travelled in every day. (The tour operator told us it would be warm) we did have two lovely hot days. The area is really lovely and we enjoyed ourselves very much, hoping to go back. I would recommend this hotel. One other point I would like to make is when you buy a bottle of wine check the price list as a few of us were overcharged, this was reported and I do know that action was taken.

Sinbad Hotel is a clean and well organised hotel. The staff at sinbad are very friendly and make you feel very welcome at the hotel. The entertainment is also good, with different entertainment each night. The entertainment starts about 10.30pm onwards, but there is music playing from 8pm if want to sit by the pool and have a few drinks. During the day you can sit by the pool all day and enjoy the sun and top up your tan's. The life gaurd is always around watching the children and he is so lovely, always smiling! we stayed at this hotel for 2 weeks and we are 4 young girls who had a brilliant holiday, and we hope to return to Sousse again. There is so much to do during the day, from going to the shops & hagaling or just lazying by the beach all day. Port El Kantoui is just up the road from sousse, just get a taxi, 5 mins drive. its lovely there, the beach is so clear & clean & if you fancy just relaxing during the evening, Port is also really nice for that. You can choose from so many restaurants /cafes/ice-cream parlours and there is an area where there is live entertainment all night. There are so many clubs, discos as they say in tunisia, so if you fancy dancing till 4am, there's plenty! A little tip dont go to a disco before 1am, it doesnt get kicking till after 1am, but if you want a few drinks, go ahead. oh & the drinks are a little expensive at the clubs, so i advise you to drink loads before you go, & plus i heard the vodka is mixed with water, so we just drank loadz at sinbad before going out, & had a couple in the club. we found sinbad really good because this hotel is smack bang in the middle of sousse & port, so your lucky because you have a choice of 2 resorts you can visit. Before we went to sousse, we were a little worried because all the review's we read didnt do the hotel any justice, thats why i had to write this, because i would recomand this hotel if you want a nice relaxing hotel, with friendly people, who cater for your needs, & the hotel it self is 3 star, and everyone who stayed here never had a bad thing to say about it. So im just easing everyones minds. There are shops right next door to the hotel, so you can buy lots of bottles of water which you can put in your own fridge which you have in your room. Which is very handy! There is a beach across the road from sinbad, but we found the shore a little small, there is a beach in sousse and also the beach at port, which is beautiful! Yes there is a busy road you have to cross to get to the beach across the road from sinbad, but its not that bad....the roads are different from here, oh yeh the zebra crossings dont mean anything. you have to basically decide when you think its safe to cross.i just want to tell you that its not that bad, honestly. Anyway i hope this review is helpful. if you need to know anything else, just let me know & we will try & help. Have a brilliant holiday, cuz we did!!

This hotel must have improved dramatically over the last few months, we booked a late deal and were a bit unsure about what to expect from a 2* hotel in Tunisia. OK you haven’t got acres of land to roam like you do in the 4* hotels but what you do have are spotlessly clean rooms, spotlessly clean pool and public areas, friendly, helpful staff and a choice of well cooked food. The hotel is on the edge of the town but it’s not too far out to cause a problem, you do have to cross a busy road to reach the beach, but again that didn’t cause us any problems. If you don’t want to walk anywhere there are many cheap taxis waiting to take your trade. We found it hard to believe that the Sindbad was rated a 2*, I’m sure it will be upgraded the next time it’s assessed.

I stayed there with my partner, we were not impressed atall the hotel should have been called ghost appartments. My occupation is animation which means i organiose and run evenog entertainment, well i should have taken my work there as there was nothing to do within the evening, i mean it was like " what should we do tonight babe.... urm lets think!!! What is there to do?????" I like to go away and have options, not having to rack our brains all the damm time to amuse ourselves.... The evenig entetrtainment was poor, but hey we got there whewre it was ramamdam, which meant no alcohol... like we should have to follow there religion with them... We ended up staying in other resoureces throuhout the day which was the same star as ours but very very different.... BETTER!!!!!

We booked Tunisia as a very late package deal and booked up for a 3A HB. allocation on arrival deal we ended up in the Sindbad (name says it all!) This hotel is actually a 2A hotel (A being the offical rating so don't be fooled like we were when they describe it as 3*... *'s and A's are very different!!) We got there.... and felt like an out-take from holidays from hell... You have to cross a very busy main road (note the traffic doesn't stop for pedestrians on a pedestrian crossing!) to get over to the other side of the road to go to the beach.( I would imagine quite frightening if you are a family with young kids). The facilities are dreadful!! the pool area was v. small and for all sun worshippers.. the sun disappears at one end of the pool sunbathing area around 2 p.m in high season therefore all of the guests cram themselves at one end of the patio'd area to get the sun all day... not pleasant when you're lined up like sweaty sardines on a grill!! Our room was grotty... dirty/stained bedding, smelly pillows, thick dust behind appliances and a grimy bathroom (we resorted to sleeping in our clothes and put our own beach towels over the pillows for the one night we stayed there !!) To say this hotel is basic is an understatement, Tunisia normally has high standards of accomodation when you compare like for like with other hotels of the same grading in the Mediteranean... not this one! Steer well clear! We got moved the following day and we paid to upgrade to the Imperial Marhaba (Port El Kantaoui) which was fabulous and our holiday was salvaged... however a point worth noting is that the Sindbad's sister hotel (Golf International) in Port el Kantaoui and is really quite pleasant... opt for that one out of the two...plus Port El Kantaoui is a much nicer and safer area than Sousse.