Шикарное лето в Тунисе. Gorgeous summer in Tunisia.

Rested from 15 to 28 July 2018. We chose a hotel for a long time, where to go to Sousse, Djerba or Mahdia, after reading a lot of reviews, we decided to stay at the Mahdia Palace Thalasso 5 hotel. We decided to fly with Tunisian Airlines, which we regretted. Planes take off with a delay of at least 1-3 hours. The reason is not clear, the Boeings are old, there is no comfort. We arrived at 5 am local time, it took a long time to go through customs, because there are a lot of people, and there are only two customs officers, and they reluctantly look through documents and stamp passports. The road to the hotel took 1 hour 20 minutes, there was no guide from the Express tour, when you first visited Tunisia, there was a complete lack of information about the country. They brought me to the hotel at 0630 in the morning, the rooms were occupied, the hotel was full, they promised to check in at 1600, but they were lucky, they settled in at 1430, apparently, the presents with the symbols of the 2018 World Cup, which I took prudently from St. Petersburg, influenced. The room is spacious with a view of the sea and the pool, close enough to the reception, the beach, restaurants and the SPA center. Floor -1, which corresponds to the second floor, respectively -2 is the first floor. The hotel itself is quite large, the rooms are located around the perimeter, you can get a room in one of the wings of the building, from where it is not very convenient to get to frequently visited places. According to the all-inclusive system, it is possible to visit the lobby bar - open from 1000 to 0000, the American bar from 1700 to 0000, the beach bar from 1000 to 1700, there is also a pool bar, but it is paid and a fish restaurant - by the beach itself, also paid. Animation is mediocre, every day the same thing. Two Russian channels on TV. The territory is well-groomed and large enough, everything is clean. The entrance to the beach is closed from 1800 to 0530 in the morning. If you book sunbeds, then you need to get up at least at 0630 and immediately book places on the beach, by 0900 there are practically no places. The beach boys fill up some of the sun loungers and then sell them to the afflicted for a modest fee. In fact, natives are very fond of tips, and who doesn’t love them? If you give small amounts (2-5 dinars), then the attitude will be completely different. The contingent of vacationers is 50% foreigners (Slovaks, French, Germans, Poles, Italians, there are Balts and Arabs), the rest are Russian-speaking. Slovaks are like brothers in general! The next day after arrival, we met with the main guide Irina, who quite clearly explained everything about excursions, departure, local customs, the shops closest to the hotel and the SPA center, without straining anyone, if you want to go - if you don’t want to relax at the hotel. Friends took an excursion to the zoo, then spat there for a long time - 4 hours on the road and 2 hours on the zoo itself. Meals in the restaurant take place in two shifts, it is better to come first, in line for dishes, and this is understandable, with a full capacity of 1200-1300 people. A lot of different dishes, but everything is for an amateur, very tasty desserts: cakes and cakes. For breakfast, freshly squeezed vegetable juice, alternating every other day with tomatoes and cucumbers. For lunch and dinner, dry wine: white, rose and red. From fruits: pineapples, watermelons, apples, plums, nectarines, grapes, peaches. Ice cream 4 types - every day, very tasty. If we compare the climate, then Tunisia is an average between Turkey and Egypt, everything is very comfortable, white sand and clear sea. The service is certainly not so hot, but it just corresponds to the pricing policy. Room cleaning daily. The hotel has a shop where prices are 1.5-2.5 times higher than outside the hotel. It's better to go outside, right in front of the exit, across the road, there are three shops where you can find the same thing, but at a lower price. In general, there is nothing to bring from Tunisia, there is argan oil and creams, soap, dates, spices, olive oil, cheese. We did not go to the city and the market, because we had seen enough of the slums when moving from the airport to the hotel. On the beach there are jet skis, a parachute, a banana, a sofa, etc. , the prices are reasonable, lower than in Turkey. They pay everywhere in dinars, the exchange rate is the same in the country, the exchanger at the reception, you need to take a certificate otherwise you won’t exchange dinars for dollars or euros at the airport. Now a little about SPA procedures: there is a SPA center at the hotel, the chief doctor studied in Russia, therefore he knows Russian quite well. There is an imposition of a set of procedures, it is possible to bargain on prices, payment both in dinars and in dollars. In general, the procedures are not bad, but there are certain problems, somehow - masseurs are not in a hurry to fulfill their direct duties, and in order to spur them on, they have to be scared by communicating with the head doctor, if the session time is prescribed from 0900, you can easily sit until 0930-0945, it’s better , probably, to take separate procedures, but not a complex. In general, I liked the rest despite some negative problems that I indicated above. Very good reviews from tourists, and from friends about the island of Tunisia (Djerba Island), but this is not for everyone, the island is an island, there is nowhere to go. The hotel is suitable for a relaxing, relaxed holiday.