Marhaba Salem Tunisia

Firstly, I would just like to say that the first time we visited we went with Thomson. Our experiences with them were not great and I was unimpressed with the rep(s) and the airline staff too, so whenever we have travelled since to Tunisia and other places, we have not gone through Thomson, but rather done it ourselves.

On to the hotel and resort though! The first thing which strikes you is the friendliness of the staff, everyone was willing to help and while, yes, I do advise you tip, you do not need to tip large and it is still so appreciated and means so much - I even cried at one point because our waiter at the evening entertainment was so thrilled to receive a 2.5 dinar tip - £1 and was so grateful for it. We tipped: Restaurant, cleaning, bar, porters and pool staff. I would thoroughly recommend you chat to the lifeguards and if you tip them, they will keep hold of your towels and put them on the sunbeds for you first thing in a morning, always in the same spot. That's just an example of their hospitality. Tipping doesn't cost a lot at all and these people work for a pittance, it goes a long way in helping them and their families out and you will be treated like a king in exchange for that. Nothing goes unnoticed with the people in Tunisia and you will be welcomed by all. They are fantastic with children and will do anything to make your life easier with the kids.

On resort, their are plenty of activities to keep you going throughout your stay and pools are shared with the sister hotel which is on site. There is a huge pool with slide, a smaller pool with an extremely deep deep end, and another outdoor pool which was fairly shallow, but always busy. There is also an indoor pool and the beach is accessible through the hotel gardens. The beaches are monitored by "beach police" and so all these horror stories of being harassed continuously by people selling things are kept well at bay. There's water sports, a restaurant and bar, shade and sun loungers available. There's also a weekly beach party with entertainment, music, volleyball and camel riding.

The nightly entertainment is set out over a 7 day period so after 2 weeks it can seem a little bit dull, but if you go off resort and walk a short distance then there are bars, bowling, ice-cream parlours, Moorish cafes, music, shops all open - it's quite shocking to see this side of the country for the first time, the mix of cultures and the liveliness is astounding.

Anyway, I really could go on and on and on about it, it's so fantastic, and I would really recommend it.

PS. There are children's clubs and babysitting available, they do learn dances and songs and perform them at the mini-disco in an evening which is just cute, but I can't really rate it first hand as we've never used the facilities.