Sahara Beach Hotel

Just got back last week from the Sahara beach hotel. We booked a few days before departure with Thomson's on a last minute all inc deal AOA. We had a great time but we won’t ever go back. We where glad to get out of there for 2 days when we went on the Sahara trip. Thomson’s charge £75 pounds for the 2 day 1 night Sahara trip, but be warned you travel 1100+kms in 2 days!! Ok I'll keep this brief as possible, Plus points: Hotel facilities (mini golf, loads of water sports, archery, mini zoo/park, excellent pools, beach front location, tennis, volleyball etc... etc...), great gardens, very clean and tidy, Air con in the rooms at no additional cost, some evening entertainment, 10 min transfer from the airport, arcade, road train comes 2 or 3 times a day and takes you to monastir for a couple of pound return. Some friendly staff. Disadvantages: Food is very very poor, Allocated seating in the huge dining room that’s never full?(more on that later), small basic rooms, very noisy rooms (we where on the 5th floor), customer service does not exist your just a number to them, very impersonal hotel, no sunbeds after 8am, "commercial street" on the way to the dining room is an absolute rip off, if you go into town (monastir) you see a huge difference in prices. Hotel is on the beach but its miles to anywhere, only the front gate, palm karting and if your fit a supermarket is in walking distance everything else is a taxi ride, paper cups that leak after 10 mins for soft drinks. I would give the hotel 2 Stars for the accommodation and 3 stars for the hotel facilities. They allocate you a table the first time dine and tell you to sit there for every meal, the next meal we had someone else was at our table, the waiter said "you don’t like share?" I said "yes but with people that speak English would be nice!" he moved us to another table quickly. During the course of our stay we sat at 4 different tables, the waiter tried to move us once when we had already started eating!!, anyway he wont be trying that again. The thing is that the dining room has loads of tables and it only ever seemed half full SO WHY ALLOCATE TABLES!!!! (for tips!!) Anyway at the end of our stay they looked to me for a tip... "Don’t allocate tables and don’t move people when they are eating" was a very good tip. Anyway we defiantly would not go back to this hotel, but if you’re a family needing kids entertainment, as much food and drink as you can consume whilst you sunbathe the days away then this is the place for you.

i have been reading all the latest reviews of the sahara beach hotel and beginning to think some people have stayed at a different hotel to me my family and friends! 23 of us went to this hotel for a week and we found it a wonderful expeirience. 1st reception staff. we arrived at midnight on the sunday yes it was a bit hectic but then with 300 guest booking in at the same time its to be expected.we were greeted with a cold glass of lemon and shown into a room to fill the required registration forms in. then over to reception for room allocation and our tempory passes. the reception staff were quick to deal with everyone and polite. unlike some people we understood that the cards for the duration of our stay would be done in the morning. rooms i was extremly pleased with the room i and my husband recieved it was clean and well looked after surprisingly no dirty marks anywhere from children which you would expect from being a family hotel. the maid service was excellent our maid was a delightful lady and made the effort to say hello everyday.we tipped her everyday usually 2 or 3 dinar.which to us is nothing to people who only earn 160 dinar a month it is a god send and with the tip you ensure that you are looked after. resturant i am a little fussy on what i eat but even i found something to eat everyday for people who didn't want to taste local quisine there was a salad bar at both lunch time and evening meal.the food was excellant varied even my husband who doesn't like to much in the way of spicy food tasted some local dish everyday.the breakfast menu did surprise me there were boiled eggs 2 different types of croissants for those who looked properly and there was always fruit and cerials there was also egg and bacon on the menu although it was cooked in olive oil i did enjoy it overall they managed to produce a wonderfully varied menu and i give the cooks 3 cheers facilities these i found excellent although my 1 gripe is they shut the indoor pool too early 6pm no good for anyone wanting to go for swim in an uncrowded pool we had my young grandson with us so we chose to use indoor pool as outdoor ones were a bit busy.it would be nice though if indoor pool could stay open till at least 9pm to give day trippers a chance for a dip at the end of a hot day sight seeing.the pools were extreemly clean and very well maintained. entertainment the shows that were put on outside at the theatre were for children and as such from what i saw the kids loved the shows. i saw 2 show while i was there and that was the light show and they did a grease review they were both well worth seeing.i noticed a bad comment about the entertainment as far as im'e concerned they did an excellant job concidering they had already done a full days work and then they went on to put a show on every night wtg all of them i found all the reps and the entertainers polite and charming that includes all the reps from the other holiday companys aswell they were extreemly helpfull and chatty resturant staff well what can i say our waiter was excellant after the first day we never had to tell him what drinks we wanted he just went and got them. on the third day we decided to have a glass of wine with our lunch time meal and not once after that did we have to ask him for the wine.he was polite and attentive and how he managed to remember what e1 of his tables wanted to drink well i couldn't do it. bar staff we found the bar staff helpfull and fast at serving at times there was a queue but we were dealt with as fast as possible obviously theres no pleasing some people. local transport the tuk tuks are excellant we went into monistir in a tuk tuk we laughed all the way there and back its a long time since i have laughed like that i shall make sure i go on them again next year. taxi well what can i say better to shut your eyes and pray lol.i thought english taxi drivers were bad but the tunisians beat ours hands down the drive in the middle of the on comming traffic lane scarey but they do get you too souuse in one piece lol trips we went on 3 excursions through our tour guide the half day pirate ship and the camel excursion and the reps caberat night first the pirate ship excellant we had a wonderfull morning some had a did in the sea i wasn't that brave but quite a few others did.the crew were very friendly and the belly dancer very good.we had a lunch on board which i only had the salad but ohh what a salad it was there is a bar for soft drinks and bottled water is provided the camel ride excursion was very good it was all afternoon .your camel ride lasts for about 30 mins which i was surprised at the length of it. if you do go on this trip however i would warn you it is very hot and there is not much shade but never the less was excellant value for money. the reps caberat night this took place at a five star hotel in sousse.it was excellant.this was put on by all the first choice reps and they did an excellant job was thouroughly entertaining and a good night out well worth the 20 pounds all drinks were included in this price. haggling there is an art to this while i was there i bought a leather jacket and leather waistecoat for my husband a pair of leather trousers for me and 2 leather jackets for my grandchildren and a large leather carryall all together we got the seller down to 260 pounds sterling from 800 pounds sterling to get good deals you have to grit your teeth and say no show no weakness or they will get you.i loved the haggling and look forward to my next trip just to put in some practice. one more thing take no notice of the hard luck stories the sellers try and tell you its done just to try and guilt you out lastly i would reccomend this holiday to all my friends and family its a wonderfull place to stay and a wonderfull place to visit can't wait till next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mrs shirley bent manchester uk

Just returned from a two week break at this Hotel. There were four of us in our party, ages from 25 to 55. This was the first AI holday for my wife and I, but the second for my daughter and her chap. They stayed in Tunisia earlier in the year, at a hotel a few miles north, and it was on their recommendation we booked this trip. After an un eventful flight we arived at the hotel and we were allocated rooms on the 6th floor of the 3rd block....little Germany. I think we were the only English in the building, and every one assumed therefore that we were German and rattled on until they realised from our blank expression that were not. That said we did find that the bar situated opposite this reception was probably the best and tended to use this one and the Asfar bar by choice. They had a habit of running out of glasses and serving the cocktails in paper cups! Even worse is the fact that these cups couldn't cope with the Gin and often the bottoms would just fall out dumping everything into your lap. I think we all would agree with the majority of the comments from recent reviews about the food and some of the staff attitudes. We booked through First Choice and even had the local office clarify a few points before making the booking. They phoned, for instance, to confirm that there were two "A la carte" restaurants on site that we would have acces to under the AI scheme, so you can guess we were a little peeved to find that in fact there were none! We all had tummy upsets several times during the two weeks, with the last bout grounding me for a couple of days on the last weekend. The snacks weren't up to much and we abandoned breakfast after the first couple of days. I got the distinct impression that some of the people had been dragged off of the streets and told that now they were bar staff or waiters....without much in the way of training in customer service or even pouring a drink. We made the most of the facilities available to us and still managed to have a good holiday despite the problems, but although we would like to go back to Tunisia it will not be to this hotel and probably not via First Choice.

We have just returned from a week All Inclusive at the Iberostar Sahara Beach. Well for AI you think you would put on a few pounds, think again. The complex itself is fantastic, the pools are lovely and clean, the beaches are nice, the entertainment is good, however the friendliness of staff around the pool bars and the inside bars needs a lot to be desired, customer service is not on the agenda there!. The Food is poor, very limited in choice especially for kids, ok if they want plain pasta, chips or the same pizza all day every day. Adult food is not much better, we had been warned by other guests to avoid anything with sauces and after trying the Lasagne (which was actually quite nice at the time) i found out why. The hotel is nice and the reception and restaurant staff are very friendly and helpful, the hotel is let down by lack of equipment in the rooms and they are small, also if you want a sunbed you need to get your towel down on one by 8am as they do not have enough to go round. I would not rate this as a three star plus as First Choice do i would make it a 2 star.

Well - What can i say. I am gonna be completely honest and obvously this is only my opinion. There are some good things to say but there are some bad things to say. Firstly i wouldnt choose to go back to this hotel - You will understand why after reading this. I would however go back to this area as i did enjoy the holiday. We arrived after a 2 and a half hour flighht. Got driven in a bus to the terminal. It was 1am i might add so we were very tired. Got to the terminal filled out an imigration card in the queue for passport check and got thru customs to baggage in about 30minutes. Very quick i thought. baggage took about 30 minutes then we started walking to the coach. Beware of the little men who grab your bags to take them back to the coach as they EXPECT money. My boyfriend is american and we gave him a $1 bill. We had no Tunisian or english money on us. He complained and gave us a rude remark but we just let it go over our heads - ungratefuly little %&(^! Anyway, Rep wasnt very informative on the way but they never are so not really that bothered. Took 10 mins to get to sahara beach - first hotel the coach stops at! Got there and they took our bags off the coach - MAKE sure your get your bags off and taken by a hotel porter to the door! go into the hotel and they give you a form to fil out for the all incl cards. takes 5 minutes. Got allocated a room and the guy on reception said we couldnt get our cards til the morning. We said we'd prefer them now so he did it for us...everyone else waited til the morning as it was already 2.30am! Room quite small but perfect for sleeping in. Lovely little balcony big enough to sit out and have a few drinks in the evening. Which we did a couple of times. ?Sea view? If you stretched your neck around the trees and the other side of the hotel you could see the sea. The rest ... ALL INCLUSIVE CARDS Pointless - I think the only reason they use them is for stock control...cant really see why in a hotel with over 2000 guests! We took a Litre thermos flask each to keep our drinks cold and on the first day tipped they barman at the pool side bar 5 TND (£2.50) and he gave us 2 bottles of cold coke. We also brought our own whiskey as the alcohol there was DISGUSTING! I reccommend you bring your own if you dont drink wine - even that is very acidic! We made our drinks in the flasks and took em down the beach - had a cold drink all day then! RESTAURANT! Hated it - Sorry! Food was not nice. Catered for the germans when it should really have been tunisian food - to my opinion anyway! In tunisia and i think i saw couscous once! Lunch meals were better than evening meals but dont even bother with breakfast! Waste of time unless you like oily sausages mushy tomatoes and rock hard bread! At an all inclusive hotel this size i would have expected fruit for breakfast and maybe croissannts that werent stale! go before 9am if you want to get something edible as all the left overs are even worse! Waiters in the restauarnt are good. Fredji was lovely and efficient but this didnt make up for the disorganisation of the place. You get allocated a table and 3 times it was dirty when we got there or occupied by other guests - why bother allocating a table if its not going to be for you! I probably sound a little snobby, i just dont expect this kind of service when on holiday. Dress code in the restaurant really wasnt apparent. Shorts are fine in the evening. As long as your not wet during the day from teh pool or sea they dont really care. I went in in a bikini one lunch time and no-one batted an eyelid! If you miss breakfast you cant eat until 11ish uless you pay for it in the pizzeria or in the shop. The beach snack bars are ok but again they arent really anythingh special. We lived on Pizza most of the time and even that wasnt very nice. the pizzeria was better but you had to pay for it (IN AN ALL INCLUSIVE HOTEL) ANIMACION The team were friendly but after working in an animacion team in mexico myself i spotted a lot of huge differences between the standard of staff there. For a start none of them could really dance and this really affected the shows in the evening - the grease show reminded me of watching a 10 year old child in a school play - Poor and un rehearsed! The Celtic show was better but still not at the standard of other animation teams. One of the guys took a liking to me and was very unprofessional. I was on holiday with my boyfriend who got very irritated by the end of the holiday. So girls beware of Samir. Nice enough guy but obviously thinks he's gods gift to women (which he isnt - looks a bit like a weasel) Very sneaky and would try and sit with me everytime by BF went to get us a drink in the evenings or by the beach etc. Bingo was good, if you hook up one of the animacion guys with a strong drink he'll sort you out with more than one game card - nice one Gigi! ASFAR BAR - (24HOUR BAR) They dont mention in the holiday brochure that all inclusive stops at midnight and you have to pay for even water! Staff very rude except one guy who brought drinks up to out room coz i couldnt carry them all! NIGHT CLUB I really enjoyed the night club! It got fairly busy but if you go in at 11pm when it opens you get a nice table and sofa by the dance floor and its reallynice place to meet people and have a dance. We got a bit fed up of all the Techno music they played so took in our own CD most nights and they played it. They even played Salsa music so we could dance to that! It is for over 16's but i am sure we saw a little boy of about 13 in there one night! A lot of the locals go there as it is one of the only night clubs around that area. it attracts people from other hotels too which was good coz we met a lovely couple of girls from liverpool there too! Club closes at about 3am but will keep going til abou 3.15 if you request a "last song" !!!! POOL AREAS We didnt really sit by the pool much as i found i was allergic to the water - sounds silly but i think it must have been the type of chlorine used or something like that. The only observation we made was that it was very crowded and you were pretty much herded in to pack as many people in the space as possible. BEACH Lovely - Beautiful sandy beach clear blue and green water and plenty of sun beds. We came down from our room no earlier than 10am every morning and we managed to find a space every day. Didnt alwasy get a bed but alwasy had one of there plastic covered foam matresses which were fine to put your towel on and sunbathe. Also - a lot of people were talking about being topless on the beach and thong bikinis! Perfectly fine no one bats an eyelid! All the women are topless and we even saw a guys in thong (we called him thong man) - :( MATRESSES AND SUNBEDS My advice is if you can get up early do it but if not its really not a problem. You shouldnt have to tip the matress guys as they are paid a wage fromt he hotel but they do hang around and ask if you have anything for them. Just tell you dont have any money with you - It is an all inclusive hotel after all! WATERSPORTS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!! We went paragliding, jet skiing, Big Mable which is a huge sofa atached to the back of a boat that wisks you across the water! Very fun but if you sit on the outside right you rpobably will fall off - My boyfriend did and we had to go back and get him! All very good prices. 15 TND for paragliding per person, double it if you go together. Jet skiing was 15TND for 10 minutes which isnt too bad! and MABLE was 5 TND each! OUTSIDE THE HOTEL I would recommend a restaurant in Sousse to any one that loves Seafood. The lobster was fantastic! it was 1800 Kg but well worth the 180TND we paid for it! The meal was fairly pricey but lobster alwasy is. Probably wouldnt have been so much if you didnt have lobster. they bring you out complimentary starters as well as your oreded starters which are delicious. The Tuna doughnut things are to die for! As well a the mini Brik with potato. The service is out of this world and well worth a good tip! to finish off the meal they bring you a complimentary liqueor and a sweet tunisian tea! Very very good. We got the guy to flag down a horse and carriage for our return journey as it was a special occasion and that was wonderful. he took us all around sousse and back to a taxi that took us back to Skanes. ACQUA PALACE - Port El Kantaoui This water park was very nice for a morning we spent about 4 hours there. Wasnt really much for us to to do. the slides were good bu for a 19 and 24 year old couple not really that thirlling. More of a kids thing. the wave pool only worked every 3 hours and we missed it while we were eating in the restaurant! Very ncice little place tho and only 15TND to get in so well worth it. Taxis outside will take you back to skanes. Overall we had a fantastic holiday coz we made it special but i really wouldnt go back to the Sahara Beach. For a 3* all inclusive i would probably rate it 4/10! All inclusive clearly isnt understood at this hotel, the concept seems to phase them. I think the Half board option would maybe be more value for money as we took our own alcohol and ate out quite a lot anyway! For me the hotel catered for families more than couples and without sounding rude - i cant stand little kids screaming in the restaurant when your trying to have a nice quiet meal. Nor can i stand little brats throwing tantrums right in the way of where your walking! Too many kids im afraid! The area was very convenient and well located to the airport, shops and local sights . We would have liked to have found a place to go fishing on a boat but didnt seem to find anywhere that would allow just us to go out. The reps from thompson were very helpful and informative. The guy from first choice also very good. Mourhad on reception was very helpful when we waned to got to the leather store. 4 tailor made leather jackets for 1180 TND (about £500) was a really goood bargain and this guy organised a free bus ride over there (5 minute drive) The hotel proably got comission for it but we got 2 lovely jackets each so it was well worth it! All in all - Family resort that should not be advertised as an All inclusive. Had a great time everything was clean and there were no rats like some of the rviews a couple of kittens running around though, No mosquitos, didnt get bitten once!

Ok, where do i start. Well for many many years i have dreamed about going to Tunisia, but now that i have been i am very disappointed. I went with my husband and 3 children (age 12, 11, and 20 months) and my father. We went 12th June till 26th June (2005) I would never go back to this hotel or this 'so called' resort again. The resort Skanes is basically made of hotels only (take my word for this) there are no shops/bars/restaurants etc at all, if you like shopping then you have to take a taxi or 'noddy train' into Monastir which is the nearest resort to skanes, and even then you are hassled do death to buy something. I understand that all you have to do is say 'no' but it gets a bit daunting when you spend all day saying it, you are not left to shop alone in peace, and many times while i was pushing the babies buggy, men would block my pathway. A tip while shopping, make sure you haggle as you 'will' get what you are after for a quarter of the price. Going back to the taxis, you can call them from the reception, they wait outside the hotel gates and are very cheap. The drivers work very hard and they are most helpful. We stuck to the same two taxi drivers for the 2 weeks, we did tip them, but they looked after us very well, one even offered to take us back to his home to have dinner with his family. Do not go to Monastir market its unsafe, you get followed and its full of pickpockets (a german couple had their passports pinched and 500 dinar the same time we went), and if you have teenage girls, do not let them out of your sight, and they dont just go for blondes, i have one dark and two blonde girls and they couldnt keep their eyes off my dark haired daughter. Anyway, If you want to shop, then take a taxi to Monastir medina. I found that the people over there were either very nice or very arrogent (no middle line) The staff at the reception desk were extremely rude and arrogent, and are not prepared to do anything for you. At the beginning of the holiday i asked for a safety deposit box, but they said that they didnt have any left, even though they did. we paid to keep our room on at the end of the holiday, but then they made us change rooms, then, while i was in the shower the porter came to take our luggage, when i said 'no' i got a very abusive phone call from reception saying they needed the room and that we had half an hour to get out......new guests were waiting in the corridor to come in - even though we paid extra (this was at 3pm and our flight wasnt till midnight) so we had to sit in the reception whilst 800 new guests were coming in. By this point i had had enough, i decided to phone our taxi driver friend and asked him to take us to the airport instead of going on the coach. we left about an hour before the coach pick up, and we missed all the queues at the airport, that is something i will do all the time now. The hotel is nice and very clean mind, and the gardens are beautiful and well kept, and the hotel has its own private beach, also well looked after. The rooms are small and very basic, but very clean and has air conditioning. There is no shower (only a bath with shower head fixed to taps so you have to stand and shower yourself down). The zoo is a lot bigger than you realise. There are many sports/waterspotrs and activities for all ages, (except under 2's....nothing for them at all) There are 3 large pools and one indoor pool.....many bars/snack bars (but queue's are terrible, and you can only get the ice-cream from the beach bar). Evening entertainment could have been better, but was ok. It gets a little cold on a night time, so take a jacket and pyjamas. The food in the restaurant was repetative, but edible, and always something there for the kids. They did spend all fortnight eating chips, but at least they ate something. If there is anyone going to be celebrating a birthday, they will make a cake (for a little cost) and decorate the table with flowers. Not many people know this but there is a Go-Karting centre 2 mins walk along the road, it's great fun and well worth the money. The hotel has its own mini market on a friday, please beware of this. We bought a bed throw off a man for 80 dinars, we thought that was good at the time as we had haggled from 180 dinars...anyway, while i was in monastir medina we saw the same throw in a shop for 30 dinars, then two shops down from this was this man in his shop so we had a few words with him......anyway the following friday he was at the hotel market again, begging for our forgivness and he kept giving us free table cloths and blankets all day hahaha, but please do be aware. Tip:when they stop following you , you know you have your price. Oh, just remembered, on the flight going over, we had to fill in forms (make sure you keep hold of these as you need them for your return flight)then when you get to the hotel, you have to fill in more forms(basically the same form) then you have to get your photo taken for your all inclusive card (looks like a credit card) So, there have been some good points and some bad points, but to be honest just because we dont like something doesnt mean everyone else will feel the same way - each to their own. But we wont be going back.

It was truely awful. the chicken they served for dinner was seaping red.. when we complained the kitchen staff advised the reason was not it was bleeding but because they fed there chickens on radish... seriously.. We ended up eating chips every day and we both got very sick while there along with a lot of other people who ended up having injections from the doctors. The rooms were not pleasant, you couldnt swing a cat in ours, the carpet was not only on the floor but went half way up each wall, the carpet in the hall was ruffled and everyone tripped over it. I have to say the beach was lovely and the BBQ they did was very nice and the pool and events, the outdoors i cannot fault it was the indoors that was the problem. I complained when we returned to our tour operator who didnt bother replying, so we have never travelled with them again due to this. I could go on for hours honestly. I would seriously consider paying the extra for a nicer hotel with good reviews. Thank the lord for Trip advisor!!

I travelled here in a party of 6, of which there were two small children. We selected this hotel as we expected it to be quite decent, bearing in mind it had the IberoStar name. Whilst the facilities were good, e.g, swimming pools and access to beach, everything else was truly appalling. The food was greasy and not much selection. The hotel Staff were extremely inpolite and could not be bothered, I think most probably due to the fact of the sheer amount of guests. They obviously got paid a pittance. The Staff were inappropriately dressed, in particular, the porters, who looked more like car mechanics. The hotel balconies were not very safe for children and this is an accident waiting to happen, particularly if you are on a high floor. The all inclusive system was an absolute joke, we had to wait 30-40 minutes to get a drink around the pool, of which there was only one bar man serving a queue of 50 people. The bars inside were pretty much the same. You could only get one drink per card and so if you wanted more than one, you had to produce several cards. It is probably the worse organisation of all inclusive I have ever experienced and I have been to quite a few. The hotel entertainment was truly dire and I think overall some money needs to be invested into both Staff, food quality and entertainment. You had to pay to go in the nightclub if you didn't want to endure the tacky entertainment. In the end, we were so fed up, we asked to be moved to another hotel in Port El Kantoui, the Hotel Abou Sofiane, which I would highly recommend to anyone with children. The entertainment team are wonderful and the kids club staff are brilliant with the kids. The Staff and food were far superior to the Iberostar Sahara Beach.

First of all…read Karen’s report (from Litchfield), as I endorse everything she says there. A few thoughts of my own follow.. My wife and myself had never been to Tunisia before, but thanks to this website, and the weather reports on "Wunderground", it was possible to go with a fair idea of what to expect...However...one only has to read the many differing reports any one resort, or Hotel, to realise that they are very subjective, based on peoples own experiences and expectations, which are, of course, all different. Reports on the Sahara Beach range between "Terrible" and "Brilliant", so it was with mixed feelings that we booked. The Hotel has been well described in other reviews.. and basically consists of three large blocks, with a total of a little over a thousand rooms, but these large accommodation blocks are well complimented by very large grounds, with access to the beach that could not be improved upon. The general ambience of the resort is pleasing. The grounds, including flower beds, grassed areas pools, and paved areas, are well maintained. The beach and sea access are good, the beach providing ideal "sand castle" material for the kids. The standard rooms are small, but adequate just to sleep in. Family rooms are available, basically consisting of two adjoining standard rooms. The room was a little "Tired", but very clean...Note the total absence of any drawers in the rooms, which limits the amount of storage space!!...Room service was daily and thorough...the room staff being extremely helpful and friendly...and, I personally believe, not just to get a tip at the end of the Holiday. Towels were changed daily..no problems. The room staff are also extremely grateful for the occasional bottle of cold water (obtainable from the bar free of charge for all-inclusive guests) as they get quite hot working hard during the day, while the rest of us are on the beach. The pools, both outdoors and indoors, are superb, BUT...as many others have pointed out, the outdoor pools are COLD (Obviously very subjective..but cold to me!!) probably until late May, I was told...not that it stopped many, especially kids, from going in...but I preferred a leisurely swim in the fine, warm, indoor pool!! The food was well prepared, well presented, with a reasonable variety of western and local dishes available. The restaurant staff were excellent, efficient, courteous...you couldn't ask for better at this type of resort. The locally produced drink was disgusting..., so I personally wouldn’t go there for two weeks of boozing!!!. However, a lot of people seemed happy enough with it, so again..very subjective.. There is a small restaurant on site which provides fine meals at a good price, in quiet, tasteful surroundings. (We had two steak meals with a bottle of passable wine plus a desert, for around 10 GBP!.) Obtaining a sunbed was easy, as there are staff on hand to scurry off if required, and obtain a sunbed, or mattress, or both, for the price of a Dinar (Around 40p I think). Depending on the weather, or just your whim, there are sunbeds either in the sheltered grounds, or on the beach. There are a reassuring number of security staff on site and on the beach. Previous reports have mentioned the crowds of drinkers in the bar, near the reception area at night, with high levels of cigarette smoke, and I can confirm that this is the case, with the addition of lots of noisy children, most of whom, in my opinion, should have been in bed hours previously, running about all over the place, but this is confined mainly to one area of the Hotel, and it is possible, in such a large Hotel, to "co-exist" with them....I'm no snob, but sometimes, I do need somewhere in the evening to unwind quietly, and this was catered for with, for example, a "No Smoking" piano bar, with a pleasant outdoor area along side with tables, to sit and have a quiet drink. Also as others have mentioned, there is a language and attitude problem with some of the Barstaff, which meant that even if some of them could understand what you wanted, it seemed a real intrusion on their time, for them to have to go and get it. The entertainment...well..they tried..but again,it's subjective. Not my taste, but lots of confidence and enthusiasm. The weather was good, but a little cool in the evenings for me, but thanks to the aformentioned Wunderground Website's history tab, I knew exactly what to expect...almost! After a pleasant 80F on the Monday, the temperature suddenly shot up to 98F on the Tuesday!!! This was explained by one of the locals as a Scirocco which is a warm wind that blows in from the Sahara Desert for three days, every six weeks, in a cycle....and sure enough, two days later, the temperature dropped down again. …I am afraid that this is quite a long review, but there is a lot to this place to discuss. To summarise.. For.. Good place Good food Most staff good Clean rooms Good Beach Lots of sunbeds, (But it's not high season yet!) Close to Airport, so less than ten minutes transfer time, with very little aircraft noise. Against.. Nowhere to go locally(I personally didn't feel the need to..so no problem for me) Bar staff need another session at finishing school! I think crowding could be a problem in high season. (Starts May15) Loads of ciggy smoke and noise, but no real problem… can be avoided. The locals say its much too hot after July. Occasional noisy, intrusive music in the pool area. There was also further evidence with some of the guests, that there might be a problem with one of the bottled waters (Marwa I think, or a very similar name) Other makes are readily available though. We have already booked for this time next year, and this time we are taking my grand children. Need any more information?...Drop me an email. I’ll help if I can. John R. Bristol UK.

We were so looking forward to this holiday having been to Iberostar Hotels for the last three years, we did read reviews before we left and did have some reservations, first impressions on arrival was not too bad had our photo taken for identity card (what nonsence) why not a wrist band? had a drink 10 minute queue bearing in mind this was 1.00am, taken to our rooms 6th floor with two young children not the best idea, management did say they would move us in the morning. Went to restaurant for our first meal (breakfast) absolutely disgusting if you like food floating in grease "great" raw eggs and not a lot else, bread is very good though. The facilities at the hotel were good, we lasted the day out and then requested to be moved, "you have to pay for this" but this was well worth doing the hotel we moved to was excellent. This hotel obviously suits some people but in our opinion we would not recommend at all.