Skanes - great for airplane spotting (Skanes)

Member Name: Plymyphil

Product:	Skanes
Date:	22/11/05 (2168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Short transfer from the airport over the road

Disadvantages: Next to airport - nothing there at all

Skanes is the resort destination of Monastir in Tunisia. If you visit Monastir, chances are you will stay in Skanes. With a selection of hotels, the two most dominant are the triple blocks of the ‘Sahara Beach Hotel’ and the slightly more elegant sister hotel next door, the ‘Skanes El Hana’.
We chose a week of Saharan sun and wanted comfort so we visited the Skanes El Hana hotel. The hotel was elaborate, majestic and beautiful – a hotel experience described by most visitors to Tunisia. However, this report is not about the hotel – it is not even officially about Monastir. Instead it is a report on Skanes – and disappointingly there is almost nothing to say.

Monastir is on the southern edge of the Gulf of Hammamet. As a resort, Skanes is the only area serving Monastir. It is a collection of about half a dozen large hotels and a similar number of smaller hotels. They stand guard over a short stretch of pleasant beach. For those who enjoy the calm of the Mediterranean seas around Greece and Turkey, this is a slightly different experience. Around North Africa the water does move – it is in my experience not as clear as elsewhere in the Mediterranean and not nearly as inviting.

Anyway – back to Skanes. When you book your hotel to Monastir (or Skanes – as this is where you will be staying) you will no doubt be delighted at the relatively short transfer times. Indeed – some of these are listed as no more than 30 minutes. Please – allow the alarm bells to ring at this point. Bearing in mind this thirty minutes allows for the twenty minutes it will take the Tunisian baggage handlers to send your luggage around the carousel and also allows you time to stroll out to the airport car park and find your coach. Your coach will then pull out and literally – cross the road. Next to the Monastir airport (Skanes) there is a road parallel with the runway. About 300 yards from the road is the sea. Between the road and the sea are the hotels.

Skanes is a resort in nowhere. A selection of hotels, a busy road and an airport. Apart from that almost nothing at all. Behind the hotels there are a very small number of services. A taxi rank (essential for getting to Monastir) and one of the hotels even has a bowling alley – but that is it. If you want bistros, restaurants, even a drink in an evening bar, then not only are you in the wrong resort you may very well be in the wrong country.

If you take a taxi (for a couple of pounds) into Monastir you will find a charming Tunisian town. Monastir and its surroundings are the backdrop to many big movies. Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ was filmed in and around the town. ‘Star Wars’ was filmed just to the south of Monastir and indeed the impressive backdrop of the town and the nearby countryside will leave you slightly in awe. However – this will soon wear off when the town begins to close down at four or five in the afternoon and you realise that the rest of your evening involves sitting in the hotel bar watching the planes land about 300 yards away.

The planes in and out of the airport run from around 9AM until about 9PM. So, you will have a reasonable sleep but you will also find that any relaxing by the pool is disturbed every few minutes by the roar of a jet plane arriving or departing.

Whether or not you can enjoy Skanes as a destination depends entirely on what you wish to get from a holiday.
If you want sun, a sun bed, don't mind planes all day and have no desire to leave the hotel, then Skanes is a great place for a week. If you want to experience the country you visit, spend quiet evenings in the bars overlooking the sea and have peaceful days by the pool then Skanes could well be your Nemesis. Me - I guess I want a little of both and the fact that you couldn't ever get away from the noise of the planes and the fact that there was nothing in the resort except the dozen or so hotels really put a downer on the experience for me.

Monastir would be so much more pleasant as a holiday destination if the hotels were the other side if the town and involved a short transfer from the airport. Unfortunately, Arab wisdom built the hotels at the airport and left the town a taxi ride away – shame really.

Summary: If your tour operator charges for transfers, save your money and walk.