☼ ☼ A little piece of luxury winter sunshine ☼ ☼ (Hotel Riu Palace Oceana Hammamet (Tunisia))

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	Hotel Riu Palace Oceana Hammamet (Tunisia)
Date:	22/11/08 (335 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: beautifully kept hotel, amazing service, peaceful

Disadvantages: Bit too peaceful! Entertainment a bit poor, some facilities not working

My fireman and I had a bit of a tough time of this year, we saved for six months to pay for this amazing holiday in July in Sorrento, but a week before we were due to go, my boyfriends Auntie died, and consequently we had to cancel...we did not receive our money back so we lost a fair amount of money. Obviously we were both devastated but couldn't be helped at all, then I had the lovely news from my boyfriend that he was due a big tax rebate from his second job and would be paying for a new holiday for us in November, anywhere I wanted (but just for a week, so sadly we couldn't go far) and the nicest hotel we could find...result!

So, after searching the net, we had a small selection of places that would be hot enough for a week away in November, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. Egypt was ruled out as my best friend lives there and we are visiting her next year, and we decided to go for Tunisia over Morocco because we found the most GORGEOUS looking hotel ever in Tunisia! We immediately booked, and as some of you might know, we came back from said holiday last Wednesday!

About the Hotel & Location
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The Riu Palace Oceana in Hammamet, Tunisia is part of a chain of hotels and resorts. The Oceana is a 5 * resort (as is most of their hotels I believe) providing absoloute luxury. It is situated in Hammamet which is about 1 ½ hours from the nearest airport, Monastir.

Location wise - it is not in the centre of Hammamet, rather it is set within a cul de sac of other hotels set apart between the old Hammamet Town and Hammamet Yasmine (the newer part). Rather than being a hinderance, this for us was a bit of luck really, as once we visited Hammamet we realised that the Oceana gave us a bit of paradise away from the hustle and bustle. For our purposes the location was perfect, it has its own strip of beach right on the door step so we couldn't want for much more.

The reception desk are always happy to call taxis for you, and usually there is a bank of them sat just outside the gates of the hotel anyway. Taxis to Yasmine cost approx 3 Dinar (about £1.50) and the taxis to Hammamet are approx 5 Dinar, so its not an issue at all to get places.

Walking wise, this is a bit different. Unlike most places, it isn't easy to get to places by foot. The closest walk is a 25 minute one across the beach to the marina, but other than that, taxi is definitely the best option!

Rooms
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The hotel has 208 guest rooms across 3 floors (and a mezzanine level which was where our room was situated.) There are 4 types of rooms at the Oceana, all considered "Suites". There are the presidential, prestige and Royal suites that have two bedrooms and a separate living area, but also their more standard "Junior Suites" which is where my fireman and I stayed.

Junior Suites

I believe (as I peeked quickly when passing when the maids were cleaning!) the other junior suites were similar layout to ours and are fairly standard. On walking in to the room, on the right is a walk in dressing room/closet area which has plenty of room for clothes, you literally could fit anything in there! As well as a safe with a key code lock (3 Dinah 50 per day for this). There is a substantial bathroom, modernly fitted, stand alone and powerful shower, bath, toilet and sink. There is also a (really rubbish) hairdryer on the wall as well as shaver socket. All the usual toiletries are in this room as well as plenty of towels and two lovely soft white dressing gowns.
Through to the bedroom - lovely and big, a two seater chair and table with a basket of fruit wrapped up as well as a bottle of red wine and a bottle of water complimentary of the hotel. A desk which has a TV (with satellite, its mainly Germans and French that stay at the hotel, so the English channels are CNN, BBC News and DubaiOne which has lots of american shows) and a mini bar underneath which is replenished immediately when anything is taken out. The room also has a dressing table with a big mirror (there are several other long mirrors in the suite too) and two double beds. This room was fairly plain but tastefully decorated and I was pleased that there was plenty of room. Especially pleased that there was somewhere separate to put our cases and clothes for the week!

The balcony - possibly the nicest feature to our suite. The balcony is HUGE! Fairly basic but I have never seen such a big balcony on my hotel visits abroad. It just had a plain table and chairs out there, and our view was over the pretty greenery that surrounded the hotel. We also had a partial view to the sea which, if you have the sliding doors open to the balcony in the morning, you can hear which is just wonderful!

A final note on the room - the cleaners come in every morning and the rooms are tidied spotlessly! They also leave flowers in pretty patterns on the bed, blankets and towels on the bed in heart shapes and what-not which is a lovely little touch!

Facilities
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Because of the time of year, the main reason why we wanted a 5* hotel was because if it did rain, we wanted somewhere lovely to stay - imagine if you were staying in somewhere totally rubbish with no facilities to keep you entertained when you could do nothing else outdoors?!

We were tested on our second day, when Tunisia greeted us with thunder and lightening. The hotel does have excellent facilities, so were were kept entertained.

As well as a (quite stunning) outdoor pool and a kids pool which is surrounded by lots of sun loungers and brollies, the hotel has a lunch bar just off of the pool area, as well as a pool bar, an indoor swimming pool which has big windows that overlook the outside pool and is flanked with more sun chairs around the outside of it.

With regards to the outdoor pool, we ventured in to this a couple of times, but it was so cold we didn't stay in long! It was hardly ever used by the other guests but it was quite frankly bloody freezing and could do with a bit of heating up at that time of year! The pool area is surrounded by greenery and is impeccably maintained like the rest of the hotel. Pretty much as soon as you find a lounger, a member of staff is there to provide you with a soft mattress to put on the plastic bed as well as a towel. The staff are always friendly, and there is also another member of staff that comes around to the guests to see whether they would like any drinks from the pool bar.

Other complimentary facilities include Hammam and a gym on site which pleased my boyfriend, he used this a couple of times but said that some of the machines weren't working, and he was the only one in there!

There is also a solarium and a sauna, but disappointingly, the sauna was out of order every time we went to use it. There is also the sign for the Jacuzzi when entering the spa area, but we just couldn't locate it!

Other facilities in the hotel include spa treatmeants, although we checked the prices, and they were pretty expensive so we didn't go there!

There is also a hairdressers, jewellery shop and a small shop where you can buy postcards, toothpaste, newspapers etc. We were told by our rep not to buy anything from the jewellery shop because (as like most countries!) they aren't well governed and they will try and tell you its gold etc when its not.

Food and Drink & Service
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We went on a half board basis and breakfast was served 7-10 am. It is served buffet style and there was a big selection, something for everyone. Baskets for pastries, various cereals, fruit, bacon, toast, preserves, tea, coffee, several types of juice, eggs, beans.

As with breakfast, the evening meal is buffet. Some nights there was a theme, for instance a Tunisian theme, but even if this wasn't your thing, you could still get other things. Its hard to comment on the breakfasts, as I stuck with the croissants and jams (although these were excellent!) but the evening food was of a good standard - not excellent, but still tasty. We enjoyed our breakfasts out on the terrace overlooking the pool in the early morning sunshine which was just divine! We also had breakfast delivered to our room one morning, although they mucked it up and didn't deliver the first morning, but promised to do it the following day which they did, promptly at 8am and beautifully presented as well.

With our booking we were also entitled to an a la carte meal in the Tunisian themed restaurant. The food in here was just delicious ( muscles in garlic sauce, juicy king prawns, delicious chocolate and strawberry sauce was my choice) and the service attentive like the rest of the hotel. Although both my boyfriend and I were a bit daunted, we were one of only two couples in there so we felt like we needed to whisper!

As Ive mentioned, all the staff in the hotel cannot do enough to help you. Especially the waiters in the breakfast and dinner rooms they always greeted us warmly and got to know what drinks we would like to order! Really nice people, as with most of the Tunisians (bar the unrepentant sellers in the Medinas!).
My only disappointment with the food and drink side of things was the price. As we were half board we weren't too fussed on having to pay whatever it was for drinks, but when we went out of the hotel complex, we realised that we were paying a premium for the food and drink in the hotel compared to the various bars and restaurants we came across outside. To put it in to perspective, the drinks in the hotel were probably the standard of bar drinks over here which is fine. However, we often found that food and drink outside the complex was often HALF the cost we were paying! Once we had tasted the food outside the complex however, we were more than happy to pay the extra in the hotel - our experience of food outside the Oceana was quite appalling! The drinks prices could have been better though....vodka, beer and cocktails pretty much taste the same wherever you buy them! :D

Entertainment & Atmosphere
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Hmm where to start! It was quite clear from our first night that my man and I were the youngest people in the hotel by far. The majority of the guests were French and German, and the majority were over 50 years old. We found 4 sets of English couples, three sets in the late 50's and one lovely couple that we enjoyed a few drinks with in there early 70's! As a result, we were often asked if we were on our honeymoon, it seemed that simply not many younger people go to that hotel at all!
As well as this, the hotel was only a quarter full. As you can imagine, this is a huge hotel, the nightlife left a lot to be desired, we had a good laugh on our first night, when after dinner we went to sit at the bar, and looked across at all the many empty chairs, with just a silent moody looking German couple sat at the other end! The atmosphere for all the reasons listed above meant that it was quite a miserable place to be at night!

Entertainment wise, things didn't get much better! The entertainment was fairly light on the ground, an average saxophonist, a few dancers, a piano player and one night two gentleman singing and playing the keyboard. It was all pretty dire but made ten times worse by the fact that there was barely anyone sat in the huge room!

Conclusion
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A fairly long review, I apologise for that but cutting anything out would be an injustice! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, it provided everything we wanted in our week away - sunshine (thankfully after the first day we didn't get anymore rain!) peace, good food in a luxurious and relaxing atmosphere. The hotel was beautifully designed, the staff friendly and helpful.

I have mentioned the negatives but as we were going for a relaxing holiday, the lack of entertainment wasn't too much of an issue, and I wasn't disappointed with the facilities that were out of order. My only other issue was the lack of younger people and the lack of English people! As far as I'm aware, Thomson are the only travel agents that are booking a package holiday for this hotel, so I hope that this hotel becomes more known over here, it would have been nice to meet some more English guests!

If the same situation arose again and we had to go on holiday in November, I wouldn't hesitate to book this hotel again for the luxury it presents. In fact, we trust this chain of hotels so much, next year we will be looking to see if there is a Riu hotel in our next holiday destination!

End of July 2008 - We paid £1048 for two of us half board with flights through Thomson for this hotel, and I believe we also received a small discount as we booked through a friend who works for Thomson.

For more information on their facilities & pictures of this hotel visit :
http://www.thomson.co.uk/destinations/africa/tuni sia/tunisia/hammam et/hotels/riu-palace-oceana-hammamet.html

Riu Hotel Group:
http://www.riu.com/en/hotel-riu-palace-oceana-ham mamet-tunisia.h tml

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Or alternatively you can check my review on Ciao to see some pictures that I took myself if you are interested!:

http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Riu_Palace_Oceana_Hammam et__Review_5800434
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Summary: A great place for luxury, peace and quiet...!