A Taste of Tunisia (Hotel Iberostar Sahara Beach (Tunisia))

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	Hotel Iberostar Sahara Beach (Tunisia)
Date:	07/10/09 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gorgeous Beach, Lovely Pool Area & Spotless Hotel.

Disadvantages: Food Sometimes Cold, Smoking in the Hotel & Some Rude Staff.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to spend a week in the sunshine although since I've started University it feels more like a few months ago now! I had been eagerly awaiting this holiday, all the more so after the rather rubbish summer we've had in England this year. It certainly made a nice change not to have to wear jumpers and to actually be able to sit and relax in the sun. The hotel we'd booked was the Iberostar Sahara Beach which is a three star hotel belonging to the Iberostar chain. The Iberostar group operates in nineteen countries and currently has more than one hundred hotels. They also boast a 35% customer repeat rating suggesting that over a third of their customers return to them. Iberostar operates in countries including Cape Verde, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, North Africa, Spain and Turkey. It seemed to have a mixture of reviews but for our budget we couldn't find anything better so we decided to ignore the negative reviews and just pray that the positive reviews were accurate! We arrived in Tunisia on a very sunny and warm Sunday morning and eagerly boarded our coach which would take us to our hotel...

Location

The Iberostar Sahara Beach is located in the Skanes area of Tunisia which is a relatively newly developed area on the eastern coast of Tunisia. It's located just 8km from the main Monastir airport, 8m from the town of Monastir and 12km from Sousse. Both Monastir and Sousse are bustling towns which are just starting to take advantage of the massive increase in tourism that the country is now seeing. The hotel itself is located directly on the Skanes sandy beach and surrounded by 22 hectares of gardens. Now the area of Skanes is purely hotel based, there isn't a central area as such and there is very little in terms of entertainment outside the hotels. We did notice a couple of very small shopping centres as we passed through although the majority of these are more focused at the locals. The area of Skanes seemed quite basic; it was pretty rough and rural landscape for most of it except for the large hotels. It's purely a tourist built resort and one that hasn't fully developed yet, I wouldn't recommend walking out of your hotel around the area, not because of safety, but because there simply isn't much to do or see at all in Skanes.

The Hotel

The hotel is accessed by a driveway which has a gate controlled by security guards which did initially alarm me a little but it soon became clear they were just to keep all the taxis from queuing up right outside the hotel. The hotel grounds were very green and lush looking as we drove towards the hotel so we were quite impressed. The hotel is comprised of three large white towers which are all connected via the ground floor meaning you don't need to go outside to access the other towers. From the outside the hotel looks rather typical to be honest, the blocks are all high rise and painted white although they still retain a very concrete feel. The reception area is quite spacious with plenty of seating available although this is all rather dated. When we arrived we needed to fill in an ID card for the hotel to retain and after that check in was quite speedy, the reception staff informed us of our hotel room and we had a photo taken for our all inclusive card. We then attempted to get our luggage but one of the porters insisted they would carry it for us which we agreed to. The lifts were located in the central reception area and seemed quite speedy too.

The Rooms

The corridor leading to our room was very clean but again rather dated with a carpet runner going down the centre which had clearly seen must better days. Upon arriving at our room we found it to be of a fair size although I think if you were a family of three or four you would have struggled greatly for space. The room consisted of two single beds, two bed side tables, fitted wardrobes, dressing table and chair. The beds were surprisingly comfy with extra bedding being provided in the wardrobe. Everything about the room was spotless including the bathroom which was of a fair size, my only criticism would be that once again everything could have done with updating somewhat as some of the bathroom tiles were cracked, the floor tiles were cracked and the curtains looked rather faded. The only thing that put us off when we initially got to our room was the fact the porter just stood there watching us, when we turned to him it became evident he was awaiting a tip but as we hadn't changed any money over into the Tunisian currency yet we couldn't do anything about it so had to apologise. He left looking rather cross with us!

Each room has a balcony which comes complete with a white plastic table and chairs. We had a fantastic balcony that overlooked the pool and out towards the sea so it had a great view, again it was really clean and had obviously been thoroughly mopped before our arrival. Now the one downside about the room which we didn't realise until that evening was that it had no television, apparently that's standard with the hotel and only the executive rooms have televisions in. The other thing we were quite grateful for was the air conditioning, although at first it seemed to do relatively little and we could hardly hear it after coming in from the beach we could certainly feel the difference when we walked into our room. We rarely had it on at night as the temperatures seemed to drop a little at night which made it quite comfortable for sleeping with just a sheet over us. The rooms were cleaned everyday, to ensure it was cleaned we put a sign on our door and very often it would be cleaned straightaway. Our cleaner was really pleasant and often left us magazines or newspapers that guests had left in other rooms when they left.

The Bars & Restaurants

The Sahara Beach has thirteen bars and restaurants, the majority of which are included in the all inclusive package. The main restaurant was absolutely massive and had quite a Mediterranean feel to it, breakfast was served from 7am - 10am, lunch was served from 12.30pm - 2.30pm and dinner was served from 6.30pm - 9.30pm. You were given a table on your first day and expected to use that same table for the duration of your stay, you were given one according to your nationality as you often had to share a people so they wanted to ensure you could at least communicate. Now I'm not a fan of this but we luckily get seated with a couple from Leeds who were really nice. The restaurant was really clean and there was a huge choice of food which did get a bit repetitive by the end of our stay. Breakfast consisted of a very strange cooked breakfast option, freshly cooked omelettes, fresh fruit, cereal, croissants and toast. Lunch and dinner were very similar with their being freshly cooked pizzas, meats, fish, vegetables, salads, soups, omelettes and deserts too. The food was a bit hit and miss really plus it wasn't always hot!

The other restaurants were located around the complex with one being on the beach and two being at the pool, these offered a more snack type menu including pizzas, chips and hot dogs which again were a bit hit and miss on terms of freshness. The soft drinks on offer were great as they were all international brands including Coke and Fanta but the alcohol was a bit dodgy, the spirits were far too strong (a vodka and coke consisted of half vodka and half coke!) while the wine tasted worst than Lambrini. We found it was made more bearable by diluting it with lemonade and did actually start to enjoy it towards the end of the holiday. Drinks were available from 7am until 12pm and with there being a wide choice of bars you didn't have to queue for more than five minutes. The bar areas were all rather basic, hygiene didn't seem to be that much of a priority as the guy cooking at one of the snack bars looked filthy which did put us off a bit, and they were decorated quite poorly although it may have just been that they all needed updating. Plus in Tunisia people can still smoke wherever they want meaning the indoor bars were very smoky!

The Facilities

The pool area consisted of five separate pools which were extremely clean and quite warm throughout our stay as well. The pool area was really nice with one area being the entertainment area which played music and ran activities throughout the day and the other pool area was quieter and aimed more at relaxing. The only downside was that some people got up at about 5am to reserve sun beds meaning all the best ones had gone by about 8am, either that or they paid the pool man money to save their beds by putting their towels over them. We somehow always managed to fall lucky when we got there around 9am and managed to get beds right next to the pool but there did seem to be quite a few unhappy people. On the first day one of the pool men brought us mattresses to lie on and then stood there until we gave him a tip, after that we got our own mattresses out of the cupboard! We spent quite a few days relaxing around the pool, it was lovely to lie next to it or even lie in the shallow and gently sloping areas. Even though the hotel seemed quite busy with over one thousand rooms the pools never seemed too busy or full during our stay.

In addition to the pool areas we also spent a couple of days on the beach which was reserved just for the hotel guests at the Sahara Beach. There were more sun beds here and it was much easier to get a parasol, they were seriously lacking around the pool area. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, the sand was a pale golden and it was so clean. We didn't venture into the sea but that was a lovely blue colour with plenty of different water sports being on offer at an additional charge. Within the hotel grounds there were a few other facilities for the hotel guests including a small children's zoo which we didn't venture into, crazy golf, an indoor pool, a beauty area and tennis courts. The only thing we took advantage of was the beauty area where we both had a massage one morning during our stay, although the beauty area itself was incredibly tiny and we were almost squashed into the tiny cubicles the massage was fantastic and an absolute bargain at £7 for forty minutes! Overall the facilities were really good which did surprise me, the hotel was massive but nothing ever seemed to be busy - we always managed to get a sun bed easily!

The Staff

We had such a mixed opinion of the staff at the hotel, some of them were absolutely lovely and you really couldn't fault them including our waiter who we had every single day - he always had a smile or a joke for us and he kept asking us to teach him new English words while making his laugh with impressions of people's accents! The cleaner was also another little gem; he always folded any clothes we left on the floor as well as giving us mints on our pillows and newspapers from other people's rooms. However other members of staff we found to be quite rude including the pool men as after they realised we weren't going to tip them they soon started ignoring us! The bar staff were also a little rude, they used to simply ask what you wanted then scan your all inclusive card without a smile or anything! I always think good customer service can make even the worst hotel so much better but here we had half outstanding service and then half rather poor service really which was disappointing. We didn't tip at all during our stay but gave both our cleaner and waiter the equivalent of £10 on our last day.

My Opinion

I really enjoyed my stay here, as I knew it was three star and had read the reviews I wasn't expecting too much and I'd say I was pleasantly surprised. Although the hotel could have done with updating everything was in good working order and the most important thing for me was that everything was spotlessly clean which it was. The pool and beach areas were absolutely lovely, the restaurant was good but some of the food was a little bit dodgy and you never really had to queue for anything. I can't really comment on the evening entertainment as we never bothered to watch this but the hotel did have a large purpose built stage outside and a smaller one inside too. We paid £320 each for a week in this hotel including our flights and transfers and for that price I'd say we really did have a bit of a bargain. We met some people on the holiday who had paid £500 each and I really wouldn't say it was worth that at all! The weather while we were there was brilliant, hot and sunny all week long which certainly made our stay as there wasn't much to do in bad weather at all. I probably wouldn't go back though, once was enough for me!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A large hotel located in the tourist area of Skanes in Tunisia.