VIME Helya Beach, Monastair, Tunisia
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VIME Helya Beach Reviews
" I stayed here just over a week ago.... "
Submitted By: Mr T FOX
I stayed here just over a week ago. This is not a bad hotel at all. My only gripe was the lack of sunbeds around the pool and beach. I was getting up at 7am just to try and bag one and even then I was not always successful! However, the rooms and public areas were spotless and the rooms were cleaned every day, with all hotel staff very friendly.
The food was good and the drinks service was perfectly adequate. With regard to plastic cups in the evening, the reason that you could not take glasses out of the restaurant was because many people sat outside and around the pool in the evening. Broken glass is always dangerous and in the low lighting it could be trodden on or end up in the pool. The drive leading up to the hotel is all of 100M. (Though you would think it was a mile judging from the other review on this site!)If you do book a holiday here, DO NOT BOOK A TRANSFER!!!! The hotel is only 300m from the Airport terminal, but aircraft noise is not a problem at all. With regard to the entertainment not being in English, this is a good thing as it's not very good anyway!! Overall, I had an enjoyable holiday here, and if you want a beach-based holiday, Vime Helya is a good place.
The food was good and the drinks service was perfectly adequate. With regard to plastic cups in the evening, the reason that you could not take glasses out of the restaurant was because many people sat outside and around the pool in the evening. Broken glass is always dangerous and in the low lighting it could be trodden on or end up in the pool. The drive leading up to the hotel is all of 100M. (Though you would think it was a mile judging from the other review on this site!)If you do book a holiday here, DO NOT BOOK A TRANSFER!!!! The hotel is only 300m from the Airport terminal, but aircraft noise is not a problem at all. With regard to the entertainment not being in English, this is a good thing as it's not very good anyway!! Overall, I had an enjoyable holiday here, and if you want a beach-based holiday, Vime Helya is a good place.
- Date of Holiday:Sep 2008
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:beachcollection.co.uk
" WARNING ALL BRITS- DO NOT STAY AT... "
Submitted By: Miss N Coughlan
WARNING ALL BRITS- DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL!!
Brits are a massive minority at this hotel- therefore all the entertainment is catered for in other languages...so you wont know what going on!!
but before i get started with the negatives i will say that the hotel was very clean, a lovely building with friendly reception staff!!
now on to what was wrong with the place.... the rules for the bars are very extreme and the times they are open are very strict!! we were served drinks in very small plastic cups all day (which we could understand when by the pool!!) but then the drinks in the evening were still served to is these small PLASTIC cups!! we were all constantly thirsty even though we were all inclusive!! the ques for the bar were always long with people who have no manners just pusing to the front the whole time...the poor staff obviously being used to being treated badly by other guests were less then happy with their jobs- however we did find they they apreciated a smile and please & thankyou and so they were kind to us! during the day there was an half an hour gap where you couldnt get a drink...if there was we certainly didnt know about it!! the rules on where you could take your drink were so silly as well...you couldn't take your drink from the dining area through to the bar (most likely due to the fact that you could enjoy your drink in a glass in this area and they just couldn't wait to give us those inadequate plastic bloody cups again!!) the food was ok...however there were alot of flies about which could be quite off putting especially if you went through later in the serving times! sometimes there was limited tables, mostly due to not enough staff in there to clear tables etc.
bottled water wasn't included in the AI so we had to purchase these from the bar...which bar?? well depends what time of day it was!! so so confusing!!
snacks during the day were a joke...dried cake mmm...no thanks!!
i know this sounds like a trivial rant but it really stressed us out- we had to go to other hotels to get a decent bit of entertainment which meant spending money on taxi's and drinks...we went AI to cut back on having to do this.
speaking of taxi's....the drive down to the front of the hotel is quite long and on a couple of occasions the security wouldn't let the taxi's come down...which was just the icing on the cake really!!
RULES...RULES...RULES!! Thats all there was, which wasn't our idea of a relaxing holiday! we just wanted to chill out, have a few relaxing drinks on a night (in a tall glass with ice!!) and abit of a dance....but not here!! seriously i would recommend looking at staying in Saadia, Liberty or Neptunia they are 3* (Helya is 4*) but the staff at the other hotels are friendly, fun and the entertainment is good with proper drinks!!
Brits are a massive minority at this hotel- therefore all the entertainment is catered for in other languages...so you wont know what going on!!
but before i get started with the negatives i will say that the hotel was very clean, a lovely building with friendly reception staff!!
now on to what was wrong with the place.... the rules for the bars are very extreme and the times they are open are very strict!! we were served drinks in very small plastic cups all day (which we could understand when by the pool!!) but then the drinks in the evening were still served to is these small PLASTIC cups!! we were all constantly thirsty even though we were all inclusive!! the ques for the bar were always long with people who have no manners just pusing to the front the whole time...the poor staff obviously being used to being treated badly by other guests were less then happy with their jobs- however we did find they they apreciated a smile and please & thankyou and so they were kind to us! during the day there was an half an hour gap where you couldnt get a drink...if there was we certainly didnt know about it!! the rules on where you could take your drink were so silly as well...you couldn't take your drink from the dining area through to the bar (most likely due to the fact that you could enjoy your drink in a glass in this area and they just couldn't wait to give us those inadequate plastic bloody cups again!!) the food was ok...however there were alot of flies about which could be quite off putting especially if you went through later in the serving times! sometimes there was limited tables, mostly due to not enough staff in there to clear tables etc.
bottled water wasn't included in the AI so we had to purchase these from the bar...which bar?? well depends what time of day it was!! so so confusing!!
snacks during the day were a joke...dried cake mmm...no thanks!!
i know this sounds like a trivial rant but it really stressed us out- we had to go to other hotels to get a decent bit of entertainment which meant spending money on taxi's and drinks...we went AI to cut back on having to do this.
speaking of taxi's....the drive down to the front of the hotel is quite long and on a couple of occasions the security wouldn't let the taxi's come down...which was just the icing on the cake really!!
RULES...RULES...RULES!! Thats all there was, which wasn't our idea of a relaxing holiday! we just wanted to chill out, have a few relaxing drinks on a night (in a tall glass with ice!!) and abit of a dance....but not here!! seriously i would recommend looking at staying in Saadia, Liberty or Neptunia they are 3* (Helya is 4*) but the staff at the other hotels are friendly, fun and the entertainment is good with proper drinks!!
- Date of Holiday:May 2008
- Board Basis:All Inclusive
- Tour Operator:First Choice
This is really a four-star hotel with decent and helpful staff. Our room was spacious and comfortable, and there were no ants or flies as mentioned in other reviews. The room was cleaned properly every day, the towels and bedclothes were changed, the chambermaid was a very nice person.
The noise of the airport and the train was nothing as compared with the loud disco music which is constantly played in a hotel like this, but the balcony door was well insulated, so you could just close it to get rid of any noise.
There is air conditioning in the rooms, but we didn't really need it in September. The TV has two Tunisian channels, one in Arabic, one in French, BBC and CNN, and several other channels (Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, and Italian). There is no minibar or fridge, but you can get wireless internet connection for a small fee.
The restaurant was good with a reasonable variety of food, the waiters were clever and fast. Of course the food was different from what we are accustomed to in Europe, but after 2-3 days you knew what to eat and what you shouldn't. E.g. you should never eat chicken or pork in this hotel, because they are undercooked, and some of the salads and other things are too raw and tasteless, too, and their spaghetti and cous-cous are really terrible. But the fish was fine if you put some sauce or mustard or ketchup on it, they had some lovely cakes, very good pancakes, and especially the variety of breakfast things was great. And nobody cared if you took some cheese, a piece of meat or anything to your room for lunch if you were only on half board like us.
Drinks are, of course, very expensive in the hotel, and there is no shopping possibility nearby. But there is a train stop about 150 metres from the hotel, trains come almost every half an hour, and they take you to the centre of Monastir or Sousse very fast, and there you can get food and drinks in a supermarket much cheaper than in Europe. The ticket for the train is ridiculously cheap.
The hotel has a very narrow beach with a crowd of people taking all the deckchairs much earlier in the morning than we ever went there, but if you walk off a bit, you find plenty of space with almost no people around, and if you're friendly to the beach guy and speak just a bit of funny nothing to him and give him half a dinar, he will get you a deckchair even at noon or any time.
The beach is cleaned every day, and the sea is fairly clean, too. The water is shallow, so you must walk at least 50 metres into the sea if you want to swim. And there are motorboats, jet skis, bananas, etc. to disturb you, so you always have to watch out carefully when swimming.
The swimming-pools of the hotel are just like those found anywhere: I would never use them. But tennis, mini golf (this mini golf course is in very poor condition, however) and table tennis can be played free of charge, and there is even an archery court - and amazingly enough, we could always play when we wished.
So in one word, I was satisfied with the comfort of this hotel. I especially liked its location with the easy train service to other places all down the coast.