Loved resort,fairly quiet just what we were looking for.

Beach was lovely linked to hotel. Port el Kantoui is a pleasant walk and a polite no stops you being bothered by traders.

We had heard so much about Tunisia both good and bad but were very suprised.

Hope to return.

Based on my experience of this resort in late November 2005, I would strongly recommend that any respectable woman should avoid the hell-hole of Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia. The guide books downplay the problems of male prostitution and harassment of unaccompanied women. They suggest that if you dress modestly, wear sunglasses to avoid unwanted eye contact and behave demurely, you will be fine. Believe me, you won’t be. I am a middle aged woman who has travelled to a number of places all around the world alone. Never in my life before, at any age, have I had such a vile experience.

Despite dressing modestly, wearing sunglasses to avoid accidental eye contact and learning the Arabic for Go away! And Shame on you!, etc, and being reasonably fluent in French (Tunisia’s second language) so I could make my lack of interest absolutely clear, I couldn’t walk about in the daytime for more than a few minutes without being pestered. By day four I had decided not to go into the resort and marina any more as I was sick of being abused and insulted by the male whores when I made it politely but firmly clear that I wasn’t interested in their services. Having aggressive prostitutes hustle me and then yell “*** you then!” at me is unsurprisingly not my idea of a relaxing time.

I did discuss it with the Mytravel Representative, a local male, who said that I should go to the police and complain (yeah, right, like they don’t know) but added that when Tunisian men see a European women without a man, they assume that she is looking for local man to sleep with. Which just about sums up their sad, unsophisticated approach. Another local tour guide said I should slap these boys as I would be quite safe in doing so. I wasn’t convinced by this and anyway, I don’t go on holiday to engage in fist fights with the local prostitutes. He also confirmed my view that complaining to the police would be pointless as he said that the police were taking bribes to allow the prostitutes to operate. When I asked why local businesses did not collectively intervene, he told me that many of the tourists based ones were themselves involved in this type of business.

There isn’t the problem of extremes of poverty in Tunisia that I’ve seen in Ghana, Egypt, Jamaica and India; also everyone gets free education up to the age of 18 and free medical care, so the industry is driven by idleness rather than desperation. All of the pests seemed to assume that one day some dozy European woman would take them back to her county and let them ponce off her.

In any event, although quite pretty, the resort and harbour at Port El Kantoui weren’t my idea of “sophisticated”; the shops were full of the usual tourist tat like stuffed camels, it was difficult to find a European newspaper on sale and usually they were several days old and clearly recycled; similarly the paperbacks on sale had obviously been left on the beach by previous readers. Needless to add, the “exchange” system that is very popular in India didn’t exist, and these battered grubby books were on sale at the Tunisian equivalent of the £sterling or euro price printed on them. The barkers outside all the restaurants were very rude if you weren’t interested in going in; . One of the “Noddy” tourist train drivers appeared to be high on crack cocaine and kept yelling “Stamford Bridge are sh*t, Liverpool are magic!” Yep, that’s my idea of “sophisticated”, all right.
So when venturing out (and obviously, never after dark, which fell at 5.30pm) I went into Sousse which was a short taxi ride away. I still had to tolerate loud “compliments” like “Nice ar*e!” “Great t*ts!” Even in the museums, I’d be looking at a mosaic and feel some movement at my elbow and some sleazy bloke would be standing next to me with a leer on his face, trying to pick me up. When I went to the local market, some sleaze tried to grope me and some old bat in a hijab and veil tried to pick my pockets – I’d been warned by the cab driver that this and bag theft were very prevalent so all she got for her troubles was an old tissue. Hope that she found it useful, ha-ha. (The guide book claimed that theft was unlikely as it would be considered shameful to steal – tsk. Must have seen that sucker who wrote it coming)

To say that this pestering really poked me off is the understatement of the year. Obviously it was impossible to relax. The only time that there was any respite from this harassment was on organised tours (which I had to undertake as clearly the possibility of travelling on public transport as I usually do at a destination was a non- starter) which meant going to things on the itinery which didn’t interest me and not having enough time at places that did, like the Bardo museum in Tunis. Some stops had the tedium of past school trips, with the guide going on endlessly about local industry and how many olive trees there were in Tunisia. A “tour” of an oasis consisted of some rude old bloke yelling things like “Look, an apricot!” and expecting a tip; I felt that he would have greatly benefited from going on one of the spice plantation tours in India, which I found very informative and interesting.

I’ve never been so glad to get back to London in my life.

I have stayed at various hotels in this resort eight times over the past ten years, each visit finds improvments made to the port,to traffic control,pathways,shops,bars,local transport,public seating, public lighting and of course the golf course.

This resort is obviously not typically Tunisian having been built for the tourist trade but it's pretty, clean and safe, has an excellent beach with good facilities, plenty of hotels with entertainment.

A very good base for a relaxing holiday.

The resort was good although the paths are not very good if you are in a wheelchair because they are made up of small paving slabs and are uneven and the kerb stones are very high. Some of the shop keepers we nice although others would not take no for an answer.

This was our first trip to Tunisia and we were a little aprehensive after reading a mixture of reviews on the resort. However, we were very pleasantly suprised. Port el Kantoui was very clean, offering a variety of shops, watersports (at very reasonable prices) and numerous restaurants. Entertainment wasn't huge but it was great for us, wanting a relaxing break.

There are plenty of excursions to enjoy if you want to go further afield - we particularly enjoyed the market, wine tasting and Sahara trips. However, from our brief visits to Sousse and Hammermet we definitely stayed at the right resort.

The weather was nice, always warm/hot but got quite cloudy with sunbathing best between about 10am-3pm. However, a tan is almost guaranteed.

We would visit Port el Kantoui again.

stayed in PEK. wonderful place. so peaceful and quiet. the harbour area is lovely, and is surrounded by lots of bars and restaurants. Very cheap food and drink. Walk further in and you get to the fountain area, where at night they play classical music and the fountains change colour in time to the music. Again lots of bars, restarants and shops. You do get hassled a bit, as all the restaurants and bars want your custom, and they will all try and get you to come in. But a firm/polite no does the trick. It is a bbit frustrating that you can't really go into the shops and 'browse' as you are immediately hassled by the staff - but there are one or two fixed priced shops you can look around. A short/cheap taxi ride takes you to Souse, which is a totally different environment. All in all a wonderful place.

We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday. The resort is very clean around the beautiful marina, and the beach is fantastic - lovely white sand, warm, clean water.

Our excursions into the surrounding countryside were highlights of the holiday, especially the camel ride. The weather was beautiful all week long. Shopkeepers do hassle, and you must keep your wits about you, but the people are very friendly, and love children.

It is a lovely place to go to, and we are definitely planning to return.

The Golden Soviva is about 5 minutes in a taxi away from Port el Kantaoui. The taxis cost 4 dinas (£2.00) each way. Port el Kantaoui is a lovely little resort, with white washed buildings and a cosmopolitan feel to it. There is an animal park which is worth a visit with the children, boat trips from the marina, lovely little restaurants and bars and a good selection of shops (some of which are fixed price).

We only visited the resort of El Kantaouis twice, being happy to stay in the hotel complex but it is a custom built resort for tourists. Even so the Marina is very pleasant.

The resort of Port Elkantoui is very clean in comparison to Sousse. The marina is only a short taxi ride away and at night this was only 4 dinars but cheaper during the day.

The cafe's in the evening were great for people watching, but if you wish to drink beer select your bar/restaurant carefully as not all sell alcholic beer and when you order they do not tell you.

This is our second time here, but we found that several of the shop keepers were more pushy when batering this time, however is there are a selction of fixed price shops for all who prefer not to bartar.