May is not yet the season in Tunisia. The weather was sunny. During the day 26-28 degrees. But the water in the sea is not more than 18. But the "Russians" swim anyway. After 12 noon, a strong wind blew almost every day, so the beach was no longer comfortable.
The hotel was about a third full. Accordingly, no problems with sunbeds, tables, dishes. No queues. And a lot of attention from the staff.
ROOM. Clean. The furniture is a little tired. The room has a TV (10 Arabic programs), telephone and air conditioning. Fan - no! In the bathroom on the first day found a piece of soap and shampoo. Soap was replenished, shampoo was not. So take your shampoo/shower gels with you.
There was always hot water and very good pressure. Cleaned up every day. Linen and towels were changed regularly. But I won’t say the frequency, since they changed faster than we dirty))) The maids were left 1 dinar every other day.
NUTRITION. As for 3-ki very good. Breakfast is continental. Always the same. Sausage (inedible), cheese / cottage cheese, muesli, boiled eggs and 2-3 types of buns. But we were warned about this. But dinners are plentiful and varied! For 11 days, dinner has never been repeated. That is, every evening we found some new, not yet tried dishes. There were always 2-3 meat dishes (beef, lamb, chicken, turkey), fish - less often, potatoes, pasta and several vegetable side dishes. At least 10 snacks. 3 types of cakes. A day later - watermelon. The main thing is that everything was not just edible, but very tasty.
BEACH. Walk for about 7 minutes. First, along the alley lined with palm trees. Then 100 meters across the wasteland. Sunbeds, mattresses - free of charge.
There are no beach towels in the hotel, but people take large towels from the room. Nobody interfered. Cleaned up on the beach. There is a cafe where locals come after 15.00.
LIMITATIONS. There is no walking area near the hotel. Nowhere to walk after dinner. Few shops. Only small shops - you can buy fruits, water, some little things.
We spent a very eventful 11 days in Tunisia.
1 day. We looked around. We went to the sea in the morning. And after dinner we went on foot to Sebastian's villa. From the hotel to the left, then to the right for about an hour, without turning anywhere. Entrance 5 dinars.
2 - 3 day. Excursion to the Sahara. Bought for 140 dollars. There were no more fees. I liked it very much! But because of the cloudiness, unfortunately, we did not see either sunset or dawn.
Day 4 Beach in the morning. And after lunch we went to the new area of Yasmine along the seashore on foot. Walk about 40 minutes. Back by taxi - 5 dirhams.
Day 5 In the morning the sea, and in the afternoon we went to the old part of the city. By taxi 5 dirhams.
We loved the Old Medina! Colorful and not too many people (comparing with the capital)! Check your change carefully if you shop at the General store right across from the Medina. They give the wrong change! Foreigners are given a bunch of small coins that are worthless, and they "forget" to give dinars. It was not very pleasant. In small shops, change was always given correctly.
Day 6 We decided to go to the capital to inspect Carthage on our own. The guide at the hotel rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, you will get lost! " But everything turned out to be quite simple (and not expensive! ). By taxi to the luage station (this is a type of intercity minibus) - 2.5 dirhams. On the luage to Tunisia - 4 dirhams. By metro to Carthage 0.6 dirhams. And a lot, a lot of walking. The ruins of Carthage are scattered over a large area. Therefore, wherever you start the tour, buy a single ticket for 10 dirhams.
At the bottom of it is a list of all the points: the Amphitheater, the Roman villas, the Museum of Carthage, the Cemetery of Tofi, Thermae, the Magon Quarter. Save the ticket until the end and present it at each point. We got through all this! And there is still time to go to Sidi Bou Said. From the Museum of Carthage to Sidi Bou Said by taxi 5 minutes and 3 dinars. Mixed impressions from the blue and white city. Seems like a tourist attraction. Like the Potemkin village. But there are SUCH BEAUTIFUL photos! It's worth going just for that.
Interestingly we returned back. The cashier sold us a ticket for the metro, but showed us with signs that we should not go to the platform. There's a bus pulling up. People are starting to get into it. But we have a train ticket! We stand. The cashier ran out and began to show us to get on the bus. People from the bus are also waving their hands. In general, they pushed us there. The bus passed 3 stations, and then stopped, and it was already necessary to transfer to the car.
It can be seen that they had repairs on the tracks that day.
Day 7 In the morning - the sea. And after lunch we decided to go to the capital again. Only this time we went shopping on the central avenue and visited the Medina. We did not like the Tunisian Medina. A lot of people! A lot of shops. It looks like the Odessa market "7th km")))
Day 8 Let's go to Phrygia Zoo. The four of us were in a taxi. It turned out there and back, plus he waited for us for 2.5 hours - 75 dinars. It's a lot. (should have been around 60). Because he did not turn off the meter while standing. He explained something like - there are four of you, for you this is not much. They did not argue, so as not to spoil their mood. Entrance to the zoo - 10 dinars. I can’t say that this is something amazing, but after 2 days of walking around the capital, we wanted to switch to something else. Get away from the shops. The area is very well maintained. The animals are in good conditions. Plus, we watched the Show with a fur seal and listened to the songs of the Zulu ensemble)))
Day 9
In the morning, as always - the beach. And then we went to the neighboring town of Nabeul. By taxi - 13 dinars. (Although the locals said that it should be 10))) In general, it was possible not to go! We didn't find anything special there. The same shops, only more ceramics.
Day 10 We went on an excursion to Dugga! This tour is somehow not very advertised compared to the Sahara. But I liked it. First visit the Temple of Water. The oldest aqueduct has been preserved here, through which water from the mountains was supplied to Carthage. Then we went to Dugga itself - an ancient Roman city at an altitude of 600 meters above sea level. Interestingly, these are not just separate ruins of some temple or theater, but a whole city with streets, squares, a school, temples, baths ...Plus, the views from the hill are very beautiful.
Day 11 Again in the morning - the sea. And ...home!
There is something to compare with (Tai-3ka, Turkey-4-ka, GOA-4-ka) - the hotel is quite pulling, in my opinion, even for the four:
Upon checking in, there was a feeling that we had arrived at a children's camp - there were insanely many children (Russians), respectively, around the noise, bustle, screams, etc. It turned out that there was a dance festival.
Rooms at the hotel: the first night we spent the night in a room that we did not like, because it was located above the kitchen and there was a smell. We turned to the manager the next day, they exchanged it without problems and surcharges (they chose from several proposed rooms). All our comments on the condition of the room were immediately corrected (hot water was not turned on, the lamp in the lamp was not on) the air conditioner worked properly, without problems Upon request, they provided a hair dryer at the reception. The rooms were cleaned every day.
Nutrition:
We had half board (breakfast and dinner): in general, we were satisfied, at dinner there was a variety of delicious food (always meat, fish, vegetables, pasta, confectionery, it’s a pity drinks were not included), but the breakfast was monotonous, but hearty and healthy (very tasty croissants). They did not suffer from gastrointestinal disorders. But forget about black bread, mayonnaise, ketchup, delicious sausage, cheese, good tea - they simply aren’t there. For lunch we went to a wonderful roadside cafe "Three Olives", not far from the hotel (all the staff from nearby hotels went there). Very tasty freshly squeezed juices, milk mixes, all dishes - delicious freshly prepared, helpful and polite staff.
Staff:
Friendly, responsive managers and their assistants. They were always present at the reception and were ready to help (I would even say - to please). The attitude of all the staff is positive, cleaners, restaurant staff, animators, security. No one really speaks Russian, managers at the reception speak English well, all staff - in French.
Territory and entertainment:
A snow-white three-story hotel located in the "club" area of Hammamet, a well-groomed large territory, a large rectangular pool, a large hall and a lobby bar, many entertainment games: billiards, air hockey, slot machines, in the same building a bowling club. Guys-animators ( Arabs) from morning to evening are busy dancing, playing, socializing. Music is also from morning to evening (sometimes until 11.30), at night the music from nearby clubs does not allow you to fall asleep for a long time. But all the clubs and discos are nearby, you don't need to go anywhere by taxi: Calypso, Latina, Oasis are the "coolest" local disco clubs. It's not expensive to get to the old or new part of the city.
Beach:
At 10 min. walk from the hotel. There are few sun loungers, mostly tables and chairs, the sand is yellow-white, there is garbage and poop (in small quantities =). In comparison: in the new part of the city, the beaches are better and cleaner. There are many locals on the beach (especially from the capital city of Tunisia) Nearby all beach activities - riding motorcycles, banana boats, parasailing - everything is relatively inexpensive.
In general, because we came to lie down with seals - the rest was a success with a bang!! ! This hotel is just perfect. It became especially comfortable when the kids fell down - silence and tranquility reigned. The pool was ours!
The food is simple, but quite tasty, close to the European version, for dinner there were always fish and chicken and meat. If you like coffee, take a jar of instant coffee with you or buy it in the city.
Service at the hotel - every day they change and make the bed, remove the garbage, in general, everything is OK. The staff almost does not understand Russian at all, without knowledge of English / French it will not be very good.
Sea-walk to the beach for about 10 minutes, on the beach the sunbeds and mattresses are quite old, but if you have a normal large towel, it's not a problem. The sea itself and the beach in this area are very good - white sand, when there are no waves, the water is very clean.
Entertainment - there are many clubs nearby, there is an English Shakespeare restaurant with a good hostess and good cheeseburgers, a cafe on the beach from the African Queen hotel with excellent SpagettiSeafood and Cielta beer. We took a two-day excursion to the Sahara for $ 150 with accommodation and meals from our tour operator Elite Travel, we liked it, but it’s better not to go with children, it’s tiring to drive 650 km a day. I also recommend visiting the old town in Hammamet and wandering through its streets. In Yasmin, which is the other way from the hotel, you can go, but they didn’t find anything special there, it’s quite a standard modern beach town.