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Hotel Dar Khayam (Tunisia)
by L5taylor I would guess that since you are reading this review, you may be planning on a visit to Tunisia. Hotel Dar Khayam is a Three Star hotel located in Hammamet, Tunisia. It is actually one of two that are situated on the same grounds, Dar Omar and Dar Khayham, both with access to a private beach. I am basing this review ... on my recent holiday where we stayed at this hotel. For those who might want to check, we stayed the the Dar Khayham 1st September-7th September 2010 in Rooms 1013 and 1007. We travelled with Thomas Cook and went all inclusive at £420 each. Was it worth it? Would we go again? One word, yes! Okay, it wasn't all perfect and you do get what you pay for but I can say that there were more positives than negatives, though I will detail them a bit better in the review. Transfer and Check In When visiting Tunisia, likelihood is that you will fly into Monastir Aeroport. From there, you are herded into the passport control area. The problem here was that there was so many people trying to get into the same place, it can get confusing. You will usually then be put into groups of three and go up to the passport desk together. This was actually a quick procedure and were were through to security within minutes. Security was just as quick so after the long wait in the queue, it's soon all over. On reaching the other side of the airport, we were met by the Thomas Cook rep, Mikey who showed us which coach we were on. Dar Khayam is the last stop, so it took almost two and a half hours to get there after each hotel stop. On arriving at the hotel itself, we were shown into the rather spacious lobby reception area where the desk managers were handing out check in cards for everyone to fill in. Not too much bother there either and we were soon issued with our keys. As stated before, we stayed in sets of two, thus two rooms. Also, on checking in, you will be given a wrist band to wear during your holiday. This is simply to identify you as a guest of the hotel, though it also identifies you as a tourist to the sellers outside. I will detail this further later. The Rooms I and a gal pal stayed in Room 1013 and the others in Room 1007. Our room was suprisingly spacey. It was a large room with two single beds, a good sized bathroom and a balcony which faced towards the main road outside the gates, with a view of the mountains in the distance. Generally cleanliness of the room was good, so no problems there as such. Each day, fresh towels are brought in providing you have put the used towels in the bath so they know to replace them. We had the bonus that the balcony, although small, led to a large part of the roof, with no other hotel windows coming onto it, so we simply took our balcony chairs over and sat on that instead. Wardrober space is good as well, though the absence of a safe was noticeable. However, this is not a problem since the hotel does provide safety deposit boxes which are located next to the main desk. My friends room, 1013, was smaller than ours, though seemed to be for a family. In this room are two single beds and a bunk bed. Again, there is a bathroom, not as big but perfectly fine, and also a balcony, which overlooks the pool area. Overall, I thought the rooms were good and there was no problem in that respect. The keys are attached to heavy gold number plates. We found the best thing to do with these was to hand them in at the desk each time we left the room to do something. The desk is manned 24/7 so you will always be able to access your key(s). The Hotel Considering that this is a 3 star hotel, it is suprisingly good value for money. Why do I say considering? Well, towards the end of the week, we went on a two day Sahara Explorer trip and stayed in a 4 star hotel for the night, and found we prefered our own hotel. The lobby area, as before, is a rather spacious place, with a bar to the right hand side which is open in the evenings. There is a large amount of seating to be found here as well so have no worries about finding somewhere to sit and chat if that's what you want to to. One notable character here is a chap who sits and draws pictures. He will take a photo of you and then draw it. We posed as a group of 4 and he spent two days doing our picture. I have it here and happy to put on profile for people to see if wanted. The cost was £50 English money. Well worth the £12.50 each. Others areas of the hotel include a massage parlour called Five Senses. I paid 45 Dinar for a full body massage and my friends paid 15 Dinar for a Turkish bash ( steam room and scrubs) Good news was my back ache was gone afterwards and I tipped the lady afterwards. I highly reccommend you visit this place at least once during your visit. There is also a games room for the kids which has a few pool tables, air hockey tables, pinball machines and arcade games. A few of these were broken and I can't say we found these very interesting so we only went in there once. Excursions Since we went with Thomas Cook, there would obviously be excursions available. We found that the hotel also did its own trips, thus why I meantion it here. One excursion is the Pirate Galleon. You pay at the hotel and on the day head to Yasmine Harbour. This is a simply taxi ride away, usually about 10 dinars between you all. We got met by a guy dressed up as a pirate and shown aboard the ship. There was four of these ships in total. Very entertaining morning this was. The ships crew all dance for you, play a few games and do daring stunts on the ships masts while the galleon itself takes you out to sea and up the coastline. Dolphins are pointed out if spotted and food is served halfway during the voyage. Lots of photo opportunies can be had as well, though expect a proper photographer to take pics of you too though no pressure to buy... we did. Well come on, it's not eveyday you have a falcon on your shoulder (think it was anyway!) So do that trip! It made our week to be fair! The other thing we did via our hotel rep was a Two Day trip out into the Saraha. I won't go into too much detail here, but expect to ride camels, take horse and cart trips through oasis's, journey through mountains to view higher oases, visit the Berber people in their own homes, visit Star Wars sets and so much more! The Pools We all like a decent swimming pool, even those of us who can't swim. Sunbeds can be found around the pool areas. It tends to get busy during the height of the morning, so make sure to get down there at a sensible time. I must say that we never had a problem getting a sunbed so don't panic. The hotels have two pool areas. The one I am now describing is directly off the reception area. There are two pools here, one shallow kiddie's pool and the other, a standard pool with a deep end. A good point to note about this pool is that it never felt too overcrowded. There is also a lifeguard on duty during the day, though not at night, since it is forbidden to use the pools then. Next to the pool is a drinks bar and a snack bar area. I will discuss these in the food section. The other pool area is located next to Omar Khayam, this is the more fun pool area. Again, there are two pool areas here, one, a standard type of pool, shallow/deep end, and then, the other, which has water slides. That's right! Get excited now, there are four different types of slide here. What makes this fun is watching people using mats/rings to go down them. The lifeguards can also be fun, encouraging people to use the slides and race each other while they act as judges and using their whistles to start the race. Again, this pool has a drinks bar and a snack bar. Entertainment The hotel does employ an entertainment team, called the Animation team. They work hard to set daily activites for people and there is always a huge selection to do. I must admit, we didn't participate in these as we were doing other things but we could see the effort being made.Next to the Restaurant is a large board with all the times of the actvities and where it is happening. Night times, they also entertain by putting on shows. Even our Thomas Cook Reps put on a cabaret show. There was many activities for kids as well. We noticed a childrens club met up each day to play games, being led by one of the cheerful animation crew. The Food What you need to remember here is the fact you are not at home. You are in North Africa. There are no Macdonalds in sight here so forget it. It's all too easy to judge the food on first appearences so try not to when first arriving for a meal. When you eat in there for the first time, you will be assigned a table. This is where you will eat for every meal during your stay, unless of course, you eat out. Remember as well that you are most likely all inclusive so you can each as much as you like. Meals are served three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Usually, you are given a guide as to what time you can go into the restuarant. We generally ignored that rule while we were there and went in when we felt like it. Just try not to go in toward the end of the service, otherwise you'll get leftovers. So what food is on offer? Well, there is a good choice of healthy vegs. Main dishes can include rice, stews, fish (heads included), chicken ( in various forms all week) pancakes, naan bread, all freshly made, and some in front of you. The main row of cookers hold the main dishes, repeated from left to right to avaoid huge queues. The chefs can be really friendly and one was even singing to us while he cooked pancakes for us while we stood there. Freshly cooked bagettes are also on offer and you can slice as much as you want. Butter is located next to the salad areas. A good selection of deserts and fruits are available too. Sponge cream cake is something you will see everyday. There is also an ice cream stand where you can get little tubs of ice cream. The Green is supposed to be mint but tasted more of pistaccio nuts than anything else. The Lemon sorbet is refreshing and the strawberry is suprisingly good. When you go all inclusive, you will of course be told you can drink anything you want for free. This is true. Don't expect glasses as they don't use them here other than for wine which you can get for free at your table on request. Many a bottle of Rose we drank that week. They only serve one kind of beer but it is good enough for you to go back. The wine is simply white, red or rose and the same brand all over the complex. Soft drinks available are coke/coke light (diet) fanta ( a darker orange than you'll be used to) and their own brand of juice fizzy drinks. These include cola, strawberry, lemon though they are a little overpowering at times. Taste a little of a serbet drink. These you usually get for yourself unless you are at a bar, where you simply ask for them. Don't expect large glasses either, they tend to be quite slim, probably to stop drinks getting wasted. Other alcoholic drinks include Vodka/Whiskey ect, though we wondered whether these might have been watered down at times to make them last longer. Overall, you'll like some of the food, and some you won't. I was not happy for the first day but they change the selection each day so was happier the next day. Breakfast is also mixture, lots of croissants, butter or chocolate ones are available, pancakes, omelettes, fried eggs are there too usually, if you want toast, you have to do that yourself but that's a simple task too. Four all inclusive, you can't really complain and if you really don't want to eat there, there are a few restaurants out on the main street, though expect to pay anything as much as 20 dinar for a meal. The pool areas both have snack bars. The main pool next to the lobby does feature a good selection and are available during meal times. The drinks bar is always available so have no worries there. The Slide pool area also has a bar and a snack bar, though this was only really cooking pizza during our week. These are cooked fresh and to order but don't expect toppings other than cheese and tomato. Money Tunisia is one of the few places in the world where the currency is restricted. This means that because it is only used in Tunisia, it is worthless outside the country. The exchange rate is mantained by the government itself and therefore should be constant anywhere you go. During our week, it was 2.26 Dinar to 1GBP. So each time we exchanged £100, we got 226 Dinars. Their money can get a little complicated and take a few days to get used to. Notes come in denominations of 5DR 10DR 30DR 50DR 100DR (easy) the coins came in 0.5DR, 1DR, 5DN and then the more complicated coins, the millmes. There are 1000 millmes in 1 Dinar. These coins are as low as 1 millmes so imagine trying to save for 1 Dinar! 100 millmes seems to be the common coin to be handed out less than a dinar. The hotel has a bank on site next to the general store. There are opening times so take note of these. The thing we found odd here was lack of security for the guy changing the money. He sits behind a simple desk, no bars, no guard, nothing, just changing money. It's a wonder he hasn't be robbed to be honest. If, in the event you find him closed, there is another bank located on the street outside the gates. Be very wary of this place. The lady here seemed to either not understand the exchange rate or was trying to be crafty. She underchanged a friend of mine 30 dinars which she gave, without question the moment we complained. With me, it was different, she knew I was being eagle eyed and was checking the rates so don't get cuaght out. They also don't give reciepts for the exchange, though the hotel does. Thus, try and use the hotel bank, not the street one. The Beach This will be an important factor in your holiday I have no doubt at all. Everyone loves a sandy beach with wonderful blue seas. You won't be disappointed here. The Beach has a few stone patches right into the wet part of the sand, otherwise the rest is beautiful smooth sand. Sunbeds are readily available, either already on the beach or stacked up near the little drinks bar. You can rent out sunbed mats for 2 Dinar for the day so well worth the money. It can get pretty hot here so make sure you have your sun cream. Yes, you want a tan but you can overkill here. I used factor 15 cream and I went red. The sun went straight through, not helped by the sea, even though my cream was supposed to be water proof. My red has now gone brown but put me in enough agony for a few days. So be careful! And don't fall alsleep like I did and forget to turn over! Ow! There are two things I didn't like about the beach. Firstly, cigarette butts. There are plenty of bins around. People should learn to use them. Not too much of a problem admittedly but still not pleasant. The other, is the sellers which I will discuss next. As for the beach, there are various activites available, some free, some independent with a cost. Kayaks are availble free charge. Chargable activites included powergliding, mattress riding, banana boats, water skiing. You will need to neogiate with the vendors on the price of the activities. Two of my friends did the gliding for 20 dinars each which lasted about 15 minutes from ground to air to ground. We did the mattress surfing as a foursome. Cost 10 dinars each. This is simply a large airbed and headrest you sit on, two straps each to hold onto and a speedboat drags you behind at high speed. Since I, and the two girls couldn't swim, it was kinda scary, for me anyway. Don't worry, its mandatory to wear a life jacket though that strap you hold onto is the only thing between you and Neptune's home. So there is plenty to do on the beach too. Football posts, volleyball net, the lot. Sellers This was the thing I hated most about Tunisia. Everyone is entitled to try and make money, without it, we can't live. One of our travel guides told us that up to 80% of the working population is involved in Tourism. The average wage is 260 Dinars (about £140). Ouch. You couldn't even rent anywhere in the Uk for that money. The problem here, everyone is out to sell you something, everywhere! Even walking down a street becomes a task with the shopkeepers trying to pull you in. And they like to hunt on the beaches too. Cigarettes, cuddly camel toys, baby tortoises (live ones) donuts (strange but tasty) bracelots, fruit and nuts are all for sale. I wouldn't like to count how many times on the beach we were asked to buy something. It gets annoying but we found a simple Firm but Friendly No thank you did the trick... or pretend to be asleep. It was nothing personal against the sellers but we didn like our own space. Don't let this put you off, some learn not to bother you after a while and you get left alone. Conclusion So now, would I visit this hotel again? Yes. Perhaps not on my next visit to Tunisia as I like to try new places but if I went back to this area again, I would have to problem with staying at this hotel again. Look at the main fact again; you get what you pay for. I think the week was value for money. Don't forget that the £420 we spent each included the flight returns as well. So cheap is the word. Value= 8/10 Quality 8/10 Staff Friendliness 9/10 So 9/10 for the trip I have to say that we did so much more than described here. If you choose to visit Tunisia, start here. It's up to you if you want to take my word for it. I've read bad and good reviews about this place, even before I went but I'm making this review based on my own opinions after the trip. If you want more info, feel free to email me Read the complete review |
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Hotel Riu Marco Polo (Tunisia)
by 29laura29 My family and I visited this hotel in June 2010, it was a very good hotel and we were impressed from arrival right up untill our departure 10days later. As soon as we arrived the hotel staff could not have been more kind and helpful particularly the hotel manager as he sat us all down to talked about the hotel. When we were allowed ... to go to our rooms we found them very clean with clean fresh bedding and towels. The only slight issue may have been that our rooms where not situated directly next to each other, however they were only a couple of rooms down the corridor. Our room looked very new and fresh with a large balcony, comfy beds, an electronic safe and a very large tv which has the news and a few English music channels. It also had lots of cupboard space. The pool area was constantly clean as there stafff spent many hours at night cleaning it. The pool staff were also very helpful and very busy!! They were always willing to help move sunbeds and shades. At the free towel place there was always fresh clean towels to trade in. The pool was very large despite this it always felt very clean expect for one day out of the whole holiday. Around the pool and in other areas there was things happening nearly all day, lead bby the very friendly entertainment staff. This included pool games, water polo, beach volleyball ( the sand was slightly to hot for this), archery, boules, aerobics, step aerobics and lots of activities for the children. The evening entertainment wasn't alwasy as good but around every other night there was a reasonably good dance based show on. The other nights were things like kareoke and Miss riu, which wasn't as great due to there need to translate to cater for the diverse natioalities in the hotel. The restarunts were great and served a range of food, however in the main restaurant there was sometimes a que for a few of the meat dishes. The speciallity restaurants made a change and were very nice particularly the italian but they do need to be booked about 24 hours in advanced, yet it wasn't to hard to gain a place and we visited them on a couple of occassions and were impressed every time. Everyone could speak at least a small amount of English and all of them could speak French. Its a great location if you want to walk into the local town which has a large range of tourist aimed shops and cafes if you fancy a change of scenary. The harbour is nice to walk around especially at night. It is also not that far from the new hammamet, which is apparently alot safer than the old one, and feels pretty safe, yet you do get hasseled a little bit about buying there products which we expected. It was a great holiday were everyone in the hotel was friendly from the bar staff to the catering and restaurant staff who always said hello during breakfast lunch and dinner. the only thing to beaware of is the heat, during the day and lunch time it was extremely hot, however there is an inside pool which was quite cold and an inside gym. there was also pool tables which were in the shade and a few of the bars were also. Read the complete review |
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Hotels in Marrakesh (Morocco)
by Philanthropist Your hotel will normally set the tone for your holiday. It's a shame I stayed at the (not so) Royal Mirage Marrakech because it was definitely one of the reasons why I didn't enjoy my time in Marrakech. A £350 package inclusive of flights and a four night stay at this 5-star hotel seemed like a great deal at the time but I was sadly ... mistaken. Where to begin... The first thing that annoyed me about this place was how I was asked to give in my passport as some kind of a deposit. Giving away probably the most valuable thing on me at the time was something I was rather sceptical about. The group of six I was in were required to hand in 3 passports between us. It bugged me how even after paying for the accommodation they still wanted something from us. Still, a 5-star hotel I thought - perhaps they had a lot of luxury to protect. The lavish lobby area decorated with shiny marble and the large pool area full of visitors splashing around or sunbathing actually suggested so. That theory was quickly shot down. The bedrooms were quite frankly dire. Other than the slight plus of being provided with a double bed each in our 2-person bedrooms, we were faced with a plethora of negative issues starting with crumbling dusty dingy furniture from centuries ago. The chairs we were given seemed to have been painted over with the initial designs showing through the cracks. And those were the chairs inside the room - the ones on the balcony area were just unusable. The TV was possibly older than myself (without revealing too much, that's old enough) and there were nasty green stains on the lamp lights above our beds - I tried to keep my imagination at bay looking at them but just couldn't help wondering. The bathroom contained no towels but that was almost acceptable when I looked at the state of the bathtub and sink. They were clearly dirty with specs of black scattered over them. Both seemed to overflow very easily too. The air conditioning was loud but to be fair it was effective. The maid who tended to our rooms once a day did an ok job and even left us with towels on our last day (took them long enough!). I didn't call upon room service at all during my stay but for various reasons had to speak to a receptionist at the hotel lobby. At times I had to wait up to half an hour for an English speaking one. When I got to speak to someone they weren't even always helpful. One of my friends wanted the number of a minicab driver the hotel booked earlier that day believing he left his wallet in his car. The receptionist had no idea explaining that the reason for this was that the girl who called him earlier had finished her shift. Why they had no records of the call or why they couldn't contact the receptionist herself beats me. Another worthy mention would be the receptionist who introduced herself when we first arrived and proclaimed she would be our "tour guide" for the vacation but disappeared till it was time we checked out. Several areas within the hotel looked in need of a good clean but none more so than the stairwells. Clumps of dust were abundant on the ripped carpet and on one floor I discovered the figure of what was unmistakeably a dead mouse. The gym/fitness centre was typically (for this hotel) dingy with old dusty equipment. Some of it was primitive to say the least with some dumbbells made of a plastic outer-coating filled with stones visible through the cracks in the plastic. All of the equipment looked very old and in need of an update. My brief visit to the gym concluded when I spotted an upturned dead cockroach near a pile of mats. In summary... The Royal Mirage Marrakech was a royal fraud of a 5-star hotel. Any hotel should be clean, well maintained and should serve edible food. At times the Mirage offered none of these. The only positive I can point out is the pool area which was the hotel's main feature - this was where it earned the one star I gave it. However, this makes me wonder why they chose to invest in a luxury swimming pool when there were clearly more important matters the money could have been spent on such as basic hygiene and maintenance. A little like buying a Ferrari when you have a mortgage to pay off. I was sure I hit a bargain when I booked this hotel - I didn't get what I paid for...I got far less than what I paid for. Do not be fooled by its 5-star rating - this hotel could do with a major overhaul and until it goes through one, I would stay well away. Read the complete review |
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