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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

Club Med Hammamet Any one been? :)

8 replies

hollyround · 26/02/2010 19:44

I have just booked our family holiday to club med in Hammamet, Tunisia, I hope I've done the right thing as I have no experience of club med holidays or Tunisia!? We are going with our sporty 6 year old son and our three year old daughter,both of whom i'm hoping will do a few hours of kids club but am a little worried about the language barrier? If anyone has been please could you write a few words of reasurrance, tips etc, we are going the first two weeks in June. Also,do we all need vaccinations? Thankyou.

OP posts:

Rebeccaj · 26/02/2010 21:23

We went to Hammamet for 9 days in late Sept 3 years ago. We had a lovely time - the resort is very family oriented (it's the only one in Tunisia that does the small baby childcare) and has 3 pools, play areas, sandy beach, kids meals in the evening (though they weren't very varied, but dinner usually started about 7pm so you could take them to that anyway). Food was good, and varied in the main restaurants, with a smaller one right on the beach that we used a lot as it was much quieter. There were lots of things to do - archery, football, volleyball, water aerobics, flying trapeze, skating, sailing etc - though we spent a lot of time around the pool!

The one thing is that the village language is French, so not speaking french does put you as a disadvantage, though you could muddle through. For example, SIL did an archery lesson and the teacher could barely speak English so largely ignored her. The baby child carers spoke little English, and most of the children in DD's group spoke only french, which wasn't great. She only did 3 short days in the nursery - she wouldn't sleep for them which meant she was dropping at 5pm! (she was 2 at the time)

I would recommend it though, with the caveat about the french speaking.

Rebeccaj · 26/02/2010 21:24

PS - no vaccinations!

Original poster

hollyround · 27/02/2010 08:15

Thankyou, thats really helpfull. I speak a bit of French, enough to get me by in most situations but the kids are only able to say hello, goodbye and thankyou really! Oh well maybe a crash course in French is needed!

OP posts:

EssenceOfJack · 27/02/2010 08:30

HIya, I went last May with my mum and DD's who were 20 months and 3ish and loved it. The staff do all speak french but some of the GO's spoke enough english for us to get by with school french. The main staff though (cleaners, waiters and cooks) were all french speaking.
TBH I didn't see the older children around the resort until after the kids club finished so no idea what they were up to but they did have circus training and archery that I saw. Gym was lovely, pools gorgeous and all the staff were so friendly.
There were excursions that were extra but as we were women on our own we were advised by other holiday makers to stay on resort. A mini market thing does come onto the resort one day a week thoughso you can haggle for tat.
We didn't put the girls in the clubs as DD1 is a bit clingy but used to go to the beacj after breakfast taking some snacks from the breakfast tables with us, brilliant building sand but take stuff with you if you can as it is really expensive to buy buckets and spades there on resort. The little pool was fab as it was only 40cm deep so meant DD's could splash around and run about without me being right next to them all the time.

The staff were all ridiculously friendly, the rooms immacualte, cleaned every day, and the food had sucha variety even picky DD1 and my 'intolerant to everything mother' had plenty to eat. We are definately going back!
The transfer from the airport was about an hourish which we weren't expecting, and there was no food until 7 when dinner was put out which was a pita.

Original poster

hollyround · 27/02/2010 11:07

Thankyou for the tip, we shall try to remember to take buckets and spades!

OP posts:

EssenceOfJack · 27/02/2010 12:05

I know it sounds silly but it was a tenner for buckets and spades. My poor mum nearly fainted

One thing I meant ot add, we arrived on our own, as in not with another tour group, and as such we missed the big talk about where everything was, so didn't realise there was a token run washing machine and tumble dryer near the kids playground, or where you get fresh poolside towels from every day. Or that they have a resort photographer who wanders around taking pictures of the kids in a veyr sly manner (to get natural poses out of them) that you then view and order from a stand thing.

Original poster

hollyround · 27/02/2010 15:57

Wow a tenner, thats outrageous! Good to know about the towels etc, not sure if we will be arriving as a group or on our own? I'm panicing a little about the french thing, should I go and buy a french dvd thing for me and the kids now? Aghh !

OP posts:

EssenceOfJack · 27/02/2010 17:49

Nah, don't worry about the french. I didn't even do french GCSE, I dropped it the year before, and my mum hadn't spoken it in years but we got by. Most of the waiters spoke some english and we were 'adopted' by the fluent ones so they coudl practise their english. PLus the other families were mostly french and german, with a few english, and they all spoke english as well.

It was good actually, by the end of the week DD1 could say basics in french to be polite which they all loved.

It might be different if you want them to go to the kids clubs though as rebecca said, the other children will be mostly french speaking so you might want to teach them some basics before you go, but I wouldn't worry too much, we got by! (even if I kept speaking spanish by accident)

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