Official Tunisia.com Blog

I have just got back to the office so frustrated.

It is not often I get miffed but then I am getting a reputation in Bizerte as the English moaner (even though by UK standards I am patient). Today I had a wonderful example of how Tunisia can improve as a business destination which I hope will happen soon.

I posted myself a box from the UK which had a push-chair, modem, storage and a lens for my camera.

I put from Kristen Heavens to Kristen Heavens and the address as my office address as sitting in queues means that I am in my office till late most days (moan moan).

Ok so happily I go to the post office to get my parcel (I have never had an international one come the office lol even though I pay fed-ex courier). The lady tells me that as its a company I have to go to customs head office I say no as it is personal things and if this was the case then why did you waste my time and send me a note telling me to come here an alien concept in Tunisia is the value of peoples time it seems. The lady in the office said that maybe the manager could help me so to come back in 30 minutes. I asked for a definite time she will be back "no" and could I book a time as I am a busy person "no" lol so I guess if i want my push-chair I better come back.

Ok so i came back to the office that thanks be to god is round the corner and then returned half an hour later to complain to the post office manager where i was told again that I would have to go to the douane office arrrg!

So I go with my assistant (essential) to the customs and I go from person to person and after seeing 7 people and spending 40 minutes I am told that I will need to write a letter and wait for the Director of Bizerte customs to come back and stamp it and guess what come back in two days which is really good as I get paid to sit in queues lol

Lesson learned

Do not commit the crime of having personal parcels delivered to you work address and god help you if you do not live near the customs office.

----end of moan---

Hi All,

We finally got there and got the new website design up no doubt we will have to carry on changing things for a while as you can test and test but there are always the odd thing that comes up when you launch a new design.

I hope that you like it which so far most people say they do especially the menu which is a lot easier to use than they old one and it stays in the section you are in also so no more having to go up and down to get the menu!

The serious business starts now of updating the information and we have created a new section called "things to do" which is where we place the directories of hotels etc which replaces the old hotels directory. I hope that the MIT show this week will give us a head start updating this information as many operators will be there.

Speaking of the show we have been running about trying to get the stand ready which has been hindered by me being sick for the latter part of last week which was a real pain :-( the good news is I was sorted out right away by the local pharmacist who expertly understood my hand gestures and hooked me up with the requisite remedy that had me out of the toilet and on the road to recovery.

Car:

As you may remember I brought a car with me when i came over 2 months ago and guess what it still is not on Tunisian number plates. I finally gave up in Bizerte and headed to Tunis to sort out this and other papers for the company and I found the answer to everything (why I did not do this in the beginning). It seems to me that as a foreign investor it pays not to be clever and try and sort everything out locally your are better to go to the API in Tunis as boy it makes a difference as they have seen it all and speak English making the whole process a lot more understandable. I now have to have a load of paperwork redone which is a pain but it looks like i will be able to get to the bottom of my paperwork nightmares as i am allergic to papers especially in french/arabic.

Once this is completed I will add a guide to the site to sorting out car in Tunisia!

Property:

I am still no nearer buying or renting a place since I got here maybe I am just lazy and my mother in law is looking after me too much but i also have to have a little bit of a moan about the Bizerte rental market which to me seems very expensive and not really the standard it should be. I have looked at a few houses now and the rents are as much as Tunis especially when I am there as my face increases the price lol I have now been consigned to the car until the price has been stated. Another factor which is fair enough is that rents to nuts during the summer period and a house that is 400 goes to 700 during the summer months which though good for bizerte is a pain for us international businessmen (funny saying that) looking for a good quality rental for a reasonable price. Another couple of bug bears I have with the Bizerte real estate market are that people think of nothing of fibbing about the location of a property and will do everything to avoid telling you to location so you can drive passed (as you can usually say yey or nay from a drive by) what is described as corniche can be miles away. My personal fave which makes me go arrg is when I go to see a house and it is not finished ie no paint etc and the price is still high (500 d/m +) I mean do you want me to finish your house for you lol!

As you may now (I bang on about it all the time) I am a bear on UK property and sold up on exiting the UK feeling that things have to come down though not gloating as yet it seems that I was right and property is on the way down. I am now annoying my wife (who wants to buy whatever the cost) here as i get the same feeling about prices in Bizerte Corniche as I cannot justify buying here either lol I mean even at a nutty 1500 (681 GBP) dinars a month the house would still cost you 400,000 (181,000 GBP) dinars to buy which is well under 5% return (not including taxes etc) which when your getting over 6% in a savings account makes you feel like just sitting pretty or investing in a business which is what I am doing. I am sure this annoying the wife as I promised her a house and she cannot understand having money but not diving in there as the Tunisian tradition seems to be get a house first and then worry about money later but in my family we are tight fisted and pride ourselves on always being pragmatic (or loosing as little as possible LOL).

I can even see our next argument as we reached a semi compromise we would by a plot of land suitable for a nice house 1000m2 or so possibly in La Grotte which is the cove next to the corniche which is beautiful but undeveloped not permission, no utilities etc real green field.

View Larger Map

The idea is to buy here and forget about it for a few years and then build when Bizerte expands out here but get this the price for this opportunity 250 dinars per m2 lol which means 250,000 (113,000 GBP) before you start your house LOL! At this rate I will have a UK house again sooner!

Hi All,

I am pleased to confirm that Tunisia.com has confirmed attendance at the 14th Edition of the MIT exhibition in Charguia in Tunis.

The exhibition is enjoying its 14th edition and is an excellent window to the Mediterranean tourism market featuring hundreds of exhibitors and features a wide spectrum of tourism businesses including Hotels, restaurants, car rental, tour operators and air sea and land transporters.

The exhibition itself has a history of being an excellent event with over 20,000 people coming to the last edition its growth has been on such a scale that it will be moving to the larger Kram exhibition centre next year for the 15th edition.

We are located at stand number 98 and we hope to see you there! the exhibition is open to the public and i am sure that you will have a great time seeing what the Tunisian and Med tourism has to offer!

http://www.mit-med.eu

12, rue Ibn Rachik- 1002 - Tunis

Tél. : + 216 71 893 215 - Fax : + 216 71 784 013

Email : tourisme.infomit @ gnet.tn

I hope you had a good week last week! My week was mostly taken up with the celebrations of my brother in law Mohammed's wedding.

The big man and his lovely wife Huda married and had their party in Ras Jebel which is a small town outside bizerte.

They are both in Hammamet on their honeymoon so if you see them say hello!

Today we booked Tunisia.com a booth at the important Meditour 2008 conference in Yasmine Hammamet.

This is thee place to be in the Tourism calendar and is where the movers and shakers of the Med Tourism Industry will be to discuss and to plan the future of the regions tourism.

This is not only an honor for Tunisia but shows that Tunisia is playing its part in regional affairs.

MEDITOUR 2008 will take place in Yasmine Hammamet (Tunisia) from 21st to 24 th May 2008. In the Medina Complex.

We should be in hall one and I will confirm our stand number so that if your attending the conference you can come and pay us a visit.

Naturally we will be showing the new design of the website and looking to meet and greet our visitors, sponsors and potential advertisers in the wonderful surroundings of the new medina complex see you there!

For those of you wanting further information please visit their website which is

http://www.meditour-2008.com/english

Day 2 the lizard train

We woke up early and quickly ate breakfast and headed off to Metloaui which took the best part of an hour. The station itself is very easy to find and on a busy day such as today you can simply follow the tour buses. The train leaves in the morning at 10:30 give or take 10 minutes as for prices it seems it is 20 dinars for tourists and 15 for Tunisians naturally ley tatakallem englise in such situations and the 15 dinar tickets were ours.

The train itself is a antiquated style train which i was told was a bey train and illogically was furnished with armchairs situated a meter of so apart so I recommend getting there early if you need a seat as they we where full when we got here but some good soul gave up their seat for Sara bless them.

It was a busy trip on the day we went with all of the train full but all seemed in good spirits and thankfully the train was not so full as to be uncomfortable.

The train itself is on a line to a phosphate mine and as such you can see around the station the hallmarks of heavy industry. As soon as all where on board the train horn sounded and we were off.

The train worked it's way through the town and into the hills giving us the chance to view some fantastic views on its way to the phosphate mine itself where it changed trucks and worked its way back. The train also took it's time and stopped so that everyone could take a photo though you had to be careful when jumping off and not to be left behind.

On a nice day like the day we had you had to be crazy not to enjoy the great views and the rid itself which was not too rickety my only complaint was the western music which I thought was tenuous as this was not the runaway mine train and i would much prefer Tunisian music as the vistas deserved a more authentic soundtrack.

I managed to get some half decent photos but with a zoom lens rather than the walk about one I have at the moment I would have managed to get some really good photos.

Once we finished on the train we got into the car and headed back on the long journey to Bizerte.

This was only a 3 day excursion and I will cover all locations in more detail in our travel guides section and also add further places soon starting with the north of Tunisia. I will be down south again for sure in december for the Sahara festival and god willing before.

Please hold in mind that if you intend to come down here to drink lots of water and plan ahead there is nothing you cannot do but make sure that you are ready for heat and if you have a hard time walking people to help you.

If you have any questions please either comment here or feel free to post in the forum.

Having worked on the new Tunisia.com design for a month or so we all thought we needed a break before the crunch next two weeks so we decided to nip down to Tozeur for a few days i say nip as Tozeur is a good 8-10 hours drive from Bizerte but we thought it would be worth it so that our friend Adam can see how Tunisia changes from the lush green to the Desert and so that he can get a snapshot of what the South of Tunisia has to offer.

We Started off at five in the morning and drove down firstly through Tunis and then down passed Hammamet/Nabeul and then on toward Kairouan (watch out for crazy drivers on the road there).

We stopped for a quick look at the large mosque but it was closed (opens around 8am) we then set off towards Gafsa. The road to Gafsa is lovely with trees lining the route and many small stands selling olives and olive oil (I will take more photos when I update the Gafsa travel guide later this year.

We pressed on through Gafsa and once the other side the landscape changed even more into desert and to Saras pleasure we saw our first group of camels by the road.

We arrived just after lunchtime in Tozeur (fast driving!) where we checked into the Dar Cherait Hotel which was lovely (I have posted a full review in the post before this one). This hotel was in the style of an old arabic house though to me it looked more Moroccan than Tunisian but that didn't matter as all agreed that the hotel looked great

The outside of the hotel

The main lobby of the hotel so large you need a wide angle lens!

We where all a bit knackered as you may expect so we headed out for a quick pizza outside the hotel which we found to be a bit expensive by Tunisian standards and not that nice however it was so hot and we where so past it by then we went back as soon as possible and hit the bed for some deserved rest.

After a nice evening meal which was a bit disturbed by Sara deciding she wanted to be the evenings entertainment we enjoyed the lovely gardens of the hotel. This hotel is apparently owned by a patron of the arts and you could tell as the hotel was like walking around a museum with a great selection of little cubby holes and lovely pieces of furniture which sara loved.

We decided to do the touristy thing and book a tour for the following day and we decided on the Termeraza, MIdes Chbika tour by Tozeur-Oasis-And-Sahara-Tours which cost 120 dinars for the one car which was for half a day. Excited about the tour we headed off to bed as we had a 8am kick off which as people married to Tunisians know means I was going to be raising the dead the following morning.

The next day

After a nice breakfast we managed an impressive 8:30 start (for us) and Amore the very nice guide from TOAST arrived in a new Land-cruser and we setoff to the first stop in our mini tour which was the famous mountain oasis of Tamerza.

Tamerza

We pressed on to the fantastic oasis of Tamerza which is supposedly the largest oasis of its type in Tunisia and on what was becoming an increasingly hot day a welcome stop.

We pulled into a stop where the abandoned village began (the locals lived in the new town at the bottom of the hill), and then walked passed the cafes and stalls onto the incline which lead to the top of the hill. The walk is like a circuit were thankfully everyone walks in the same direction as it is a pretty rough passage and I would ensure that if you have older people/disabled or small children with you that you have assistance so that you can enjoy the fantastic views.

Once you get to the top of the incline (marked by a strange stone goat) you have a small pass to walk through which reminded me how fat i have become and that I must warn those of you over 40" you will have a tight squeeze to get through this.

Once at the top I took a number of photos (in the slideshow) and then began the walk down into the oasis itself. This is a beautiful place and i loved the little channels cut so that the water was directed to the inhabitants showing that this was a lifeblood for the town when people lived here which considering the heat (mild apparently) would not be something that I would do. Amazingly there where a number of frogs living in the small pool in the oasis how did they get there?

After taking loads of photos which i will use for the more detailed travel guide section on the town we headed back for a drink in the stalls at the end of the walk 10 minutes of relaxation and then back into the cruiser for the next stop on the tour.



The Waterfall and the Old Town
After leaving the Oasis we drove to another oasis with a nice waterfall and wetland, one can only imagine the joy of finding one of these in the old days when traveling during a hot day. Again we found that their where little frogs (one pictured in the slideshow) which seemingly where a different sort than the ones in the other pool. My father in law decided to buy a baby palm tree for the garden in Bizerte and we took some photos and headed to our next stop.

On the road to Mides we passed the Tamerza palace hotel which had a fantastic view over the old town which was destroyed by flooding and then abandoned. The next time I come I will definitely take a walk down there as it looked very interesting, on this visit however I was on a timeframe and had to be content with a couple of photos and left wishing the canon EFS fairy would leave me a 200x lens under my pillow.







The Canyon of Mides

We pressed on and then came to the canyon which was impressive especially as folks seemed to live right on the edge of a certain death drop. The sides of the canyon where flanked by stalls selling textiles, stones and all manner of things I wanted to go into the town however again I was a little pressed for time and Sara vocally wanted to bring proceedings to a close again I was thinking I will return for more detailed photos and history when I come for the festival in Douz in December.







Having finished taking photos I joined the others who had got back into the car and we headed back to the hotel not enough time for me but then the half day tour crammed in a lot of sights in a short period of time and is something i would definitely recommend going on when in tozeur.

The afternoon


After the tour we headed into Tozeur for some lunch and then returned to the hotel for a swim and short kip. After this I decided to drive with Adam and my father in law for a quick visit to Nefta.





The drive to Nefta is an nice flat straight road that really gave a lovely relaxing feeling with little to distract on the side of the road aside from miles of desert. As the night drew in we pulled over and the silence is something that you just do not get when living in the city. As for Nefta itself you are struck immediately by the size of the forest of palms this indeed is a paradise in the desert. Even the town of Nefta itself is nice with wide streets and women and children walking about.





The town lies above the oasis on the other side of the road which leads to Algeria and as you pull over you feel compelled to go into oasis and explore.







As the night was drawing in we only paid a fleeting visit to the Oasis and steered clear of the tourist path fearing death by land-cruiser it was fascinating to see agriculture and small towns in the oasis you get the feeling that living here is nice especially for a date lover like my father in law who was contemplating sending my friend Adam to certain death up a 50 ft palm to get some for him.

With night drawing in and Hajer calling me to come back for dinner at the hotel we drove back via a lovely mosque where we stopped for Maghreb and then we headed back down the road windows down feeling the warm desert air we are definitely coming back even if it is for this feeling alone and next time I am staying in a tent as I love the ambiance.



We arrived back at the hotel for our evening meal and went to bed excited about the Lizard Train and the drive home.

I will post the details of day two in my next post :-)

Myself and Hajer with some guests stayed at the hotel Dar Cherait Tozeur for two nights so that my friends could experience the fantastic south of Tunisia.

Getting there

Finding the hotel is simplicity itself as it is located in the middle of the “zone touristique” on the main route. If you have a problem finding the hotel simply ask as it is one of the most famous hotels in Tozeur. Once you arrive you can usually park in the front of the hotel though space is limited which we found a couple of times when we returned to the hotel during the evening after nipping out.


View Larger Map

The Hotel

















When you arrive at the hotel is it feels like the name suggests that you have been invited to a large private house as the front is both elegant unassuming and welcoming. This extends to the entrance and the sumptuous lobby area you are immediately struck with the attention to detail and the craftsmanship of the hotel however be aware that this is not the typical Tunisian style and is more of a Arabic palace generically which I am sure experts would say was more Moroccan/Syrian given the opulence an dark woods used. This however is nit picking as my guests where well impressed and felt like they where staying with the Bay of Tunis.

Checking in

The reception is located to the right once inside the hotel and checking in was straightforward aside from the small fact that we thought the hotel was 78 euro per room per night for a four star (as on some websites) only to find that the hotel was 5 star and actually more like this per person ooof. Having driven from Bizerte I took the beating and paid out though please hold this in mind when you book.

Check in was smooth after this and and I departed now skint to the rooms.

The Rooms




You walk from reception though some lovely halls with art and little coves, which Sara loved and this opens up into lovely courtyards where coloured tiles reach up the three floors of rooms. This everyone agreed was lovely though we did note that disabled access to the lower floor was seemingly non existent (we had a pram) so please hold this in mind when booking this hotel.
Given the fantastic communal areas we felt a little underwhelmed when we reached the bedrooms themselves. We had a triple room for the boys and a double for me Hajer and Sara.
The Triple: Three queen size doubles in a large room with patio the beds looked a bit old as did the furniture inside the room along with the television. Given the hotels antiquated style it gets away with this if you where staying in a modern hotel you would not be satisfied with this at the cost we paid.

The toilets where in an old style with nice tiles which fitted in with the ethos of the hotel but did not offer anything opulent or unique for the price range.

The Double: This room featured a tile clad plinth on which the bed stood which was hard but comfortable this initially had a better impression than the free standing beads in the triple room a metal cot was provided however it was missing an end to it which made it to dangerous to use for our active baby*

The bathroom again featured nice tiles and was large with a powerful shower nice but not as spectacular as the hotel outside the room.

Both rooms featured air conditioning but not excellent units and I found it difficult to get the room really cold.

* An important thing we noticed about the rooms is that given the style there are a lot of hard edges to surfaces near the bed and in the bathrooms the double beds in particular featured a base which was tiled which a step that I slipped on and supped my toes at least 5 times during my stay this may be a concern to those with small children, elderly or clumsy like myself.

Outside

Outside the rooms you have a little covered patio which to be honest we didn’t use for anything rather than drying clothes as it doesn’t have a great view. However again once you walk around to the main hotel the gardens are lovely featuring bits of art and artisan items (albeit some Moroccan in style). This hotel is lovely to look at you forgive the long walk from the room to the pool as the bridge heading to the pool and the pool itself is so lovely. The pool is an elegant affair and when I am a billionaire I will have one just like it as the tiles are so lovely there are not kids pools or spas with the pool it is simple and has a building next to it which houses a café and sauna facility.

Service and Dining

The fantastic décor extends itself to the dining areas of the hotel, which carry on the theme the service was efficient rather than attentive but gave no reason for complaint and the food also was good rather than excellent with a nice selection of Tunisian dishes. I would rate this good as it was not wonderful given the 5 star rating of the hotel and the price having stayed in some fantastic hotels in the past.

Breakfast

Breakfast again was nice without being fantastic coffee was not good (becoming a theme for me in hotels) same as with evening meals nice without being opulent.

Animation

This hotel was lovely to walk around and admire he paintings and artefacts however aside from the pool and music during meals there was little to do so I would guess children would be bored as little entertainment was obviously available. There is a spa in the hotel but this was at extra cost which seemed reasonable given the prices at other 5 star hotels for similar services.

Indoor pool

No indoor pool was found at this hotel I guess it is never cold here ;-)

Summary

This is a beautiful hotel I was told that the owner of this hotel is the governor of Tozeur and that he is a man of artistic taste, from his hotel this is obvious. I left the hotel feeling that I wanted to build a little version of it for myself in a more Tunisian style. For those of you wanting to feel like your back a few hundred years and enjoy your coffee like the Bey this hotel is for you. I give the theme and hotel itself 5 out of 5.

However this hotel is not perfect and thus I cannot give it 5 stars as the rooms are not of the same standard as the public areas of the hotel and if a hotel wants to charge 5 star prices and be 5 stars it needs to be judged as such, also the service was nice and friendly but not attentive we found ourselves looking for someone to serve us a coffee a number of times. The rooms need an overhaul with safer fixtures and fittings better televisions and just the same amount of love as the entrance and halls then with a little better service this hotel would be fantastic.

Overall Rating 4 out of 5: Hotel 5 Rooms and Service 3.5 if you have the money I recommend this hotel you will forget the rooms but the building will stay in the memory and photos for a long time.

http://www.darcherait.com.tn

Please feel free to discuss this and other Hotels in our forum

If you feel this review is unfair or incorrect please either comment or email me at support@tunisia.com

Apologies for the lack of postings I have been without Internet for over 3 days now which has been really really annoying. We have managed to make progress on the new design but still arrrrgh! I cannot live without Internet anymore I am literally connected in all aspects of my life.
After some horrible weather things are looking brighter and I hope in the next week or so take my friend who is over from the UK to the south for a tour for a few days (if I have internet to finish the new design!).

This week Ramzi and myself are looking to confirm our attendance in the Mediator conference and possibly attending the MIT conference also. We need to raise our profile as Tunisians assume that we are based far away.

The MIT conference is running from the 8-10 May in Charguia and is one of the large conferences that take place for the tourism industry in Tunisia. I will confirm on the blog if we are exhibiting there so that if anyone is about they can come and say hello!

MIT Exhibition details: www.mit-med.com.tn Tel: 00 216 71 89 32 15

Ok Thats it for now I am now going home to get packed for the drive down south I will take some photos and video for you all.

I hope to take in the desert train this time and also get some new photos of El Jem if possible I will also be doing another hotel review which I will place on the blog once completed.

Keep safe and speak soon!

Kris

Now that I am in Tunisia full time I am going to review more hotels and also go more in depth than the usual review that is available in the hotel details in the hotels directory.

The Yasmine Marina Palace is situated in a secondary position behind the marina in the centre of Hammamet the hotel doesn’t have direct beach access however it is very centrally located and next to where the action is.






















This hotel is available through all of the major online travel agents in the UK and we paid 39 pounds per room per night for two rooms half board.


Agrandir le plan

If you are driving to the hotel it is simplicity itself to find as you head into Yasmine and then take the left before you get the marina and there you are.

Arrival


















The hotel itself is different from the monolithic hotels that are the norm in Yasmine and makes a nice change especially as I have a soft spot for small hotels. You enter the car park and you can park right outside the nice looking hotel building which is a nice pale terracotta colour and logically has a clean nice large entrance which welcomes you in.

As with most modern Tunisian hotels this hotel has a nice large airy lobby which along with the clean shiny finish gives the hotel a welcoming if not spectacular introduction this is not a large hotel but immediately you feel this is one where you are not going to get lost in either (or very tired walking around).

You turn to the right where you have the usual change and reception desks where the staff where informal but quick to assign us our keys and send us up to our rooms.
As we left the main entrance the hotel began to feel a little more dated than the main entry areas however nothing unclean most importantly. Again I liked the compact layout and ease of navigation within the hotel.

The Rooms

Our first stop was the outside facing room (sigh), which Hajer assigned to our guest, as she never takes the room without the view. The room was a good size with two queen size beds however the outside room was a little dark and the view was just of the side of the next hotel.

Feeling a little guilty myself and Hajer moved on fingers crossed our room would be the other side of the corridor and thankfully it was and enjoyed sun and pool views which instantly made it three times better than the other room. The room itself was a nice if not large size and had good storage and logical layout. The slightly dated feel extended to the furnishings of the room, which though clean looked a bit passed it along with the bathroom finish and broken shower.
The television had BBC world and one or two channels from Italy, Germany and France but not enough to make this a feature, reception was mixed on these channels. For those of you that need a mini-bar this was not present neither was tea/coffee facilities.

















The balcony was a good size for two people to sit and chat and enjoy the view which was quite nice as the gardens and the outside of the hotel are nice with a good size pool as I have stated before I like a nice well formed small hotel which can feel like home from home.

Outside

















Once moved in we went for an explore around the hotel, the pool areas looked well maintained aside from some build up of grass that could have been swept away but generally the pool was nice and we could not be too harsh as the weather was not so good before during or after our stay. The dining room of the hotel extends out of the back with the outside restaurant underneath however this was closed during out stay.

Service and Dining

Now as I mentioned before there is no way that anyone would prefer an outside room to a view room in this hotel so I was asked to call and try and change the room to one our side so that we both enjoyed the views/sun. I called reception and was told to call back in an hour as if I was lucky that maybe I might be able to change (thanks for doing me a favour!). Naturally I called back and this time the lady told me no immediately no sorry just no which I found strange as the hotel was as dead as a doornail save for a group of students. I was told that if I called back again that they would see what they could do again as if doing me a favour I replied that as this was a four star hotel I would leave the matter in their capable hands and enjoy my stay needless to say I heard nothing.

The staff in the hotel seemed to have a good command of English as well as Spanish and Italian and German, which was good as everyone in the hotel was from another country. We headed into the dining room a little early as we had driven from Bizerte, the room itself was clean and laid out in the usual hotel style and all of the food looked clean and well presented though not spectacularly so. We where seated where we liked which was nice and everyone made a fuss of Sara which was nice however this was slightly ruined by the fact that a couple of the waiters took great fun at us for the next hour or so which made for a unprofessional and uncomfortable experience which is a shame as the head waiter was a nice professional sort.

As for the food itself it was ok but standard rather than amazing and the selection really didn’t change for the two days we where there. Salads and bread where nice though so it wasn’t a total disaster. We had a couple of cokes, two bottles of water and one beer for our guest and this came to 10.800 which not cheap was not expensive.

Breakfast

For me the most important meal is breakfast and this was basic with nothing exceptional the usual fare with a crepe and omelette stand for those wanting something warm. I love savoury crepes so I asked for an egg and salami one thinking to myself that this would be easy, however the chef told me that only chocolate and jam was available. Shame as I was the only person there at the time and little things go a long way for me.

Bars and Disco

I am unable to review the disco as this was closed along with a number of the shops in the hotel. The bars of the hotel are standard clean and cosy however we did mistakenly think that we would be served sitting down which the two staff located at the bar disagreed with deciding to chat for 15 minutes rather than come serve/tell us we had to come to the bar which I think is wrong for the bar of a 4 star hotel with only us in the bar.

Indoor Pool

The indoor pool is adequate clean and used by the guests and is easy to get to from the rooms in the hotel.

Summary

I left this hotel feeling a little mixed as I liked the building, which felt compact with a nice pool and easy navigation to and from the different areas. Even the rooms though dated where a good size and comfortable if not wonderfully so. The location is also good as if you get bored you simply walk to another place and the beach is not far, some no doubt would prefer a place right on the beach itself.

What let the hotel down in my eyes was not the building or the décor but the service as for every member of staff who was nice (chambermaid, head waiter cocktail barman) there where ones who simply couldn’t be bothered. A one stage we sat in the bar and a senior manager/owner came into the hotel which at once got the staff moving and we joked to ourselves that we would love the same level of service.

At the price we paid this hotel is not competitive with others which offer more for the same if not a little more and others which are not 4 star but love their guests more so if you get a good price and nice weather you can really enjoy being at the Yasmine marina palace as the pool and location are good however do not pay over the odds or you may feel a little underwhelmed.

Hotel 2 out of 5: Nice building, tired rooms and halls and mixed service if the latter can be resolved then it would have been over 3

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