Отель El Kantaoui Center El Kantaoui Center Hotel

El Kantaoui Center Hotel
The hotel is a large stone bag, located in the resort suburb of Sousse. At the reception, not everyone speaks Russian, there are a couple of girls and a guy who are more or less. The country is bilingual, at school they study in Arabic in elementary grades, and in French from high school. You don't often meet English speakers. They are very amused by former Soviet citizens who do not speak languages. We arrived at 11 am, at 12-00 we were settled on the 4th floor, overlooking a side street leading to the sea. Opposite after 500-700 meters there was an amusement park, which worked until 4 in the morning. On the ground floor there is a cafe, and diagonally across the road is an entertainment complex. Very noisy. People were looking for a quiet room, changed rooms 3-4 times. We also got to celebrate the end of Ramadan, for 3 days the local people from Sousse went to the amusement park and had fun there until the morning. From the corridor, the audibility is also excellent, you just lie down during the day, they shuffle with a mop, roll carts. We only dreamed of peace. The room is standard with a balcony, the hair dryer was broken, after 2 requests they fixed it. The bed is normal, small pillows, the furniture is tired. The air conditioning system is central, through which cigarette smoke enters the room. Clean rooms normally, towels and sheets every day. Give out gel, shampoo, soap. They brought an electric kettle with them, because they took only breakfast and dinner. The remote control from the TV is given on bail (deposit) - 20 dinars, a safe on bail and every day some kind of payment, we did not use it. Nothing was stolen. The maid once left a couple of dinars, cleaned with great diligence.
The territory of the hotel is missing. Inside the building there are small gardens with plants, indoor and outdoor pools, they are located one above the other. In the indoor there is no shower, only a toilet, near the open there is a shower and a toilet. Near the bar open until 4 am. There are discos for Russian speakers, but since the season was just beginning, 5-10 people gathered, listened to music and dispersed. On the ground floor there is a separate disco for Arabs with hookahs, they enter there according to prearranged signals. In the morning we went to breakfast at 7 am, the entire first floor was covered with ashes and cigarette butts, and paper was torn off in the toilet and stuffed into the washbasins! In women's and! Maybe such a reaction from a hookah? In the evenings, everyone goes for a walk to the port, where the main movement is, shops, cafes, an amusement park. The attractions are extreme, we rode on one, just an observation deck, rises to a height and rotates around its axis - 7 dinars, an astronaut is drawn at the entrance. Obliquely from the lunopark, diagonally across the road there is a water park. There is a small zoo on the way to the port: birds, plants, a camel, goats, rabbits. Entrance - 5 dinars. Opposite the port, across the road, a musical fountain plays in the evenings, at 20-30.

Beach. In a 5-minute walk, exit the hotel, turn right, walk along the street to the sea and it is on the far left. Tiny. It was not the peak season, so by 9 in the morning it was possible to find a place. On the beach, someone's private dacha is located, a shadow falls from it, and by 5 pm the beach is completely immersed in the shade. After 5 pm we moved to the pier, where the sun is until 18-30. There are no changing rooms and no showers. Umbrellas and sun loungers with mattresses are free of charge, at 16-30 sun loungers begin to be cleaned. Beach towels are provided with a deposit, but we took our own. At 10 am on the beach, exercises, at 11-30 aqua aerobics, music (French, Arabic and Russian pop). In the morning, the beach is combed with a rake, and cigarette butts are removed. Smoking everywhere! In the lobby of the hotel, where there is a Wi-Fi zone, even hang an ax, on the sea... It's sad. Mostly Russian-speaking people go to the sea, Arabs prefer pools. If you go further along the beach there will be water activities: bananas, pills, a parachute. Photo prices. My husband flew on a parachute, they land on the sand, and not on the water, as in our resorts. Further along the beach for parachutes, you can go to the port. The sea is clean, the water is clear, there were no jellyfish. Immediately there is sand, and further down, in the depths, algae gently tickle your feet. The water in the middle of June was a comfortable 25-26 degrees according to the sensations. The sand on the beach is white and very fine. But cigarette butts… Fruit sellers walk along the beach at crazy prices, they immediately peel figs and shoves them into your mouth… I tried a cactus fruit, small, lilac, sweet and sour, burgundy inside and a lot of seeds. The police patrol the beaches on a quad bike. Opposite the hotel is a police station. Police cars are barred from the outside.
Nutrition. Similar to Turkish, Egyptian. Breakfast was fried scrambled eggs and pancakes, donuts. You could take cereal with milk, rice, cheese, sausage, butter, muffins, buns. Machine with coffee, tea, cappuccino. They gave natural yogurt, similar in taste to our kefir, only thick. We put quince jam there and it was delicious. For dinner, there is more variety: pastries, puff pastry cakes with fruits, watermelon, melon, peaches, plums. Some of the dishes were unexpectedly very spicy: for example, blue caviar, ratatouille, pasta in red sauce (think tomato, but no, with their spicy harris seasoning). The lamb was harsh, and the fried fish was not very good. Meat: veal, chicken, liver, turkey. In the evening you need to buy drinks, 2 dinars any, your choice of water, cola, sprite. We ate watermelon instead of drinks. Good, sweet. You can’t take food out of the restaurant, but there’s no fasting for breakfast there, we took muffins, butter, cheese for lunch with us. We also went to the outdoor pool for lunch, took a sandwich with an escalope. This is a full meal: they give a bun with meat, french fries, and 2 slices of cucumber-tomato. Satisfying. A portion costs 4.5 dinars.
Supermarkets. Pharmacy. If you stand facing the port, then on the right is a state department store, such an inconspicuous red sign with the letters MG, open until 9 pm, the alcohol department until 6, it seems, except for Friday. When we arrived, the market was closed for 3 days due to their holidays. It's cheaper than private stores. They took dates there - a box of 1 kg - 10 dinars. Dairy products are very good, 1 liter of sterilized milk is 1.4 dinars. Good, tasty yoghurts, the prices are on the pictures. They took sausage, called salami, like our boiled meat. Their fashionable liqueur Tiborin costs the same everywhere, you can buy it in duty free, in a gift box - 45 dinars (15 euros). If you enter the port gate, then on the right is a pharmacy (pharmacy). I had to buy medicines, some 3 times cheaper than at home. Most are made in France. If you stand with your back to the port, then across the road on the right is a private big market, there is a lot of everything except alcohol. If you leave the hotel, cross the road and go left, you will be in 400-500 meters Fresh Market. They took water, dairy products, a baguette there. They have 2 liters of water in bottles maximum. Large flasks were not met. Non-carbonated. The price is 600-800 millimeters. The tap water is desalinated, not recommended for drinking. But we drank tea from it, remained alive.
Transport. There are no traffic rules. You can stand at the crossing for 10 minutes, and the cars have zero attention. More often women driving pass pedestrians. Everyone uses a taxi and there are minibuses. Taxi drivers are crooks. Although they have counters installed, but with a slight movement of the hand, the amount sharply doubles, or he simply turns it off and demands twice. Therefore, the price must be negotiated on the shore. We went ourselves to Sousse, to the center of the medina, to the market, in the morning, they agreed there for 6, back for 7 dinars. In the evening, after 9 - double tariff. There are a lot of taxis near the port in the evening, taxi drivers do not allow passage: “Madame! Taxi! ". I said in response: “Promenade! ” and they fell behind.

Excursions. Ukrainians and Russians are transported separately, which pleases.
The most useless of this hotel is in Sousse. First, they brought us to the port, where we walked every evening anyway. Then there was the Aphrodite perfumery store, which turned out to be closed, then the Turkish leather goods store, and then Sousse, we ourselves went there later. There is an observation deck on the roof of the shopping center, they let you in for free, from there there is a beautiful view of the city, the port, and the fortress walls of the medina.
The second excursion was made in Carthage - Sidi bou Said - Tunisia. Carthage - picturesque ruins, all at a gallop. The white-blue town is beautiful, the views are beautiful, but for all 45 minutes. They drank tea with pine nuts there. The capital of Tunisia is Tunis. Dusty, a lot of garbage, clocks from sights, such as Big Ben, a monument with a leader on a horse - their Danilo Galitsky-Khabib Bourguiba, the building of a musical theater, the gates of a medieval medina... In short, tourists from Lviv were at a loss, and advised the guide Zidane to visit Lviv, to see a normal tourist city. The food was lousy on excursions, in some kind of eatery, horror. For dessert, they gave a tablespoon of ice cream from a doll dish. The French embassy is all in barbed wire, with armored personnel carriers around the perimeter. You can not take pictures of the police, the military, the presidential palace. Tunisia is a rich African country. Fully self-sufficient in products. Many Algerians and Libyans come to rest to them.
Hospital. Upon arrival, the eye began to hurt. After 3 days I called from the reception to the hotline (for which the administrator tore off 7 dinars, although other administrators did not take money for the next 2 calls). After 2 hours, a family-type doctor came to the room, with a suitcase. It was a resurrection. The doctor studied in Minsk, so at the very least we had an explanation. He shone a flashlight from the mobile into the eye and said that kerato-conjunctivitis, left antibacterial eye drops and paracetamol. He said that if in two days it does not get better, call. It didn't get any better. I called the insurance company on Tuesday, they said they would call back, I waited a day, I was already howling in pain. On Wednesday I call again, they tell me that they could not contact me, they sent me an SMS with the address of the Clinique Les Oliviers hospital and I went by taxi to Sousse. Found without problems, 5 minutes to go. We went inside, everyone clattered in Arabic and French and were surprised at us, such tongueless savages. They took us there on all floors until they took us to the main reception, where they realized that we needed an ophthalmologist. We wrote two doctors on a piece of paper, to choose from in blocks E and C. In block E we had already visited under the office of an ophthalmologist, there was a queue of 10 people and no one was eager to see us. We went to block C. Air-conditioned reception area with 3 local visitors and a nurse. We paid her 20 euros for the visit (60 dinars), she issued a receipt. We waited 20-25 minutes, the doctor looked, my whole history was on the computer, he called the Minsk doctor, talked to him and gave me the phone so that he would tell me that I had an acute attack of glaucoma, I needed to be treated urgently, but my insurance was treating me will not pay. They gave me a prescription for 2 types of drops and tablets. And the direction to the dropper with a diagram on the back of how to get there, in Arabic. I did not go on a dropper, because. I didn't know what the amount would be. Pharmacy was across the street. I bought a treatment - 35 dinars, a day later I felt better. I mailed the check for the doctor's visit to the insurance company, no response yet.

Tour operator. Just ass@. Oasis. The one that turned out to be a scammer and judging by the media, we still got off lightly. We were promised a flight from Krivoy Rog on 12.06, but we flew from Kyiv on 14.06. Back - on June 24, we checked out of the hotel at 12-00, no information appeared on the information board a day before departure. It’s good that they contacted the tourists with whom they went to Kyiv via viber. They said the flight had been rescheduled from 9pm to 6am. At 15-00 the guide came, we were put on a bus and taken to Sousse, the Soviva hotel, where we were put in a room, we had dinner and stayed there until 2 am. This hotel seemed to us much more comfortable than ours, there was a territory, a large pool with slides and a small pool and not so noisy, the animation ended at 12-00 and you could fall asleep. But the city of Sousse is dirtier, there are many homeless cats and dogs, many minibuses, fewer taxis. In the port, only stray cats walked along the beach. Then we were put on buses and taken to the Carthage airport, although we flew to the Monastery. In short, we flew out at 7-30 in the morning. We sat on the plane for 40 minutes, the stewardess opened the back doors 2 times so that we could breathe some air while we were waiting on the departure lane. The most painful moment came in Kyiv, when we were taken to Krivoy Rog by bus across the Dnieper, and the journey took 11 hours!! ! Along our roads. There is a desire to return to Tunisia, but to a different hotel and with a different tour operator. Cheap fish, filthy yushka. With young children and elderly people, this hotel is not worth going to.