Surprised to see that the cleanliness of the whole Port has deteriorated in the last 10 months, more so in the last 6 weeks, the beach area is litter strewn and also the sea has a lot of rubbish floating in it., to be fair, there has been some VERY HEAVY RAIN storms and these wash rubbish from the inland ares into the sea, but no effort was made to clean it up. A new idea now is to overcharge tourists or simply make their own prices up for drinks and coffee, check the menu and query before paying, also do not use the yellow taxis unless the meter is on, if they refuse do not use them.
On the whole very dissapointed with this holiday
O

The Port is a really lovely place to visit and only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. There are numerous cafes and restaurants where the food and drink is always good and the prices cheap.

Our hotel was a few kms along the coast from the main Marina. The area surrounding the hotel was not inspiring, consisting of a couple of hotels and a few shops/cafe.

The Marina area itself is spectacular. Very clean, plenty of shops (although they mostly stock the same stuff), restaurants, a small zoo, and stunning fountains which are lit at night.

The resort of Port El Kantaoui,was a little tacky when we first went there,1999,now it is something between Blackpool and Brighton.

The cafe owneres will not let you pass their place,without a fight,they are cheeky with it now,and its not even funny. The beaches are good,and the entertainment level is not bad,but I still don,t know why people feel they should be entertained. Its there if you feel you need it,but surely most just want to unwind,have a few drinks and relax.

Port el kantoui is pretty boring, shops very repetitive and not very goodquality, lots to do at Marina in way of excursions the best part was the Scuba diving. They came to the hotel and we tried it out in the pool first. The boys were so helpful and patient. When they tookus out on the boat they were very safety conscious and we had a great time.

The resort in general was scruffy, marina had filthy brown murky water, and the sea when out in a boat was full of plastic bags and alsorts of rubbish, we had a girl on holiday with us for her first time in the Mediteranean, and I was embarassed on the boat trip we took with the ammount of debris she was commenting on.

Beach is small and can be busy. Probably worth a walk along but nothing more. Better alongside the pool. A horse and carriage takes you down and brings you back every hour, but it's only a 10-minute walk from the hotel.

THE RESORT
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There is a lovely Marina which is 10 minutes walk from the hotel. We got hassled more by traders at night and during the day, it's a really lovely place to be. Quite a few of the shops are fixed price, even though we didn't realise until we were in. Football shirts are available everywhere (Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juve, Real Madrid, etc, etc) and cost 20 dinar (about 8 quid). If they're not genuine, they are so good it doesn't make any difference! You can buy football shirts everywhere and this seems to be a staple part of the Tunisia economic machine.

Restaurants are nice: best one recommended was The Mediterranee (for meat) and Daurade (if you're a sea-food fan) though the tummy trouble kept us out of them unfortunately. The floating boat restaurant was unrecommended to us by the same couple who recommended the two above (service too slow, staff didn't care) and recommended by the rep Terri.

Went to Sousse for a day just to see the Medina and do a bit of touristy stuff but we weren't impressed. It seemed to be the same old tat for sale but just more of it, with lots of 'come into my shop' touting going on. Bought all our souvenirs whilst we were there though. Taxis cost about 4 dinars from Port El Kantaoui.

ENTERTAINMENT
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(Additional trips provided by travel company at extra cost)

REPS CABARET
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A very good, entertaining night out. The reps do very well in their shenanigans but the show is stolen by the International Dreamgirls -- a drag act; very funny and kept you amused.

AFRICAN DREAM
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Well worth doing this combined visit to a wildlife park and a dinner of traditional North/South African entertainment and food. The entertainment and food take place simultaneously and you are brought two starters/main courses/desserts (assuming one tradtional North and South of each). The wildlife park is an excellent visit as the animals seem to have lots and lots of room. Bear in mind that if you go when it's hot (49C for our visit) all the animals will be lying around asleep!

DESERT EXPLORER
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This is fantastic and made the holiday for us. Despite having the stomach cramps and diarrhoea whilst we were going (take your Imodium instants with you!) it still didn't hinder the time we had. Most annoying about it is the amount of time you spend on the coach, which can be a bit cramped but is fully air-conditioned so at least you're comfortable. There isn't any other way of visiting everything in such a short space of time though.

Our tour guide was Mohammed, who knew everything there was to know about Fig and Olive trees, was extremely forthcoming about all aspects of Tunisia and, though obviously very proud of his country, didn't hold back in telling us the bad as well as good things. He is very opinionated about the Tunisian education system for a start and his English is probably better than mine! Top guide and Mr Mario was a top driver.

First you visit El Djem, which is a Roman colosseum (the third biggest built, though the second doesn't exist any more). It is quite an awe-inspiring site and is a much better preserved example of such that the Coloseum in Rome. One warning though -- you will be more impressed if you HAVEN'T visited the one in Rome (the sheer size of the Italian one blows you away and this one is kind of disappointing as it's not nearly as vast). It's very windy on the top two tiers though so don't lose your hat as you will have to run down two flights of ancient stairs and pelt around half an oval to try and find it. When you enter it costs a dinar for 'the right to take photos'. Toilets very poor -- though a man unnecessarily directs you into the latest vacated one. Free.

After this you go Matmata, to visit the Troglodyte dwellings -- people who dug into the rock to create houses to live in. This is quite an amazing sight/site as the families who still live there will be around for you to see as they live-in. They are getting more modern though; TVs running off car batteries, satellite dishes -- probably not what it was like in the old days.
Around here is the actual setting used as Luke Skywalker conversed with his aunt and uncle in the original Star Wars movie but, to be honest, if it wasn't for the mass of 'Star Wars' posters marking the surrounding area you wouldn't know the difference. Probably fab if you're a really, really big fan but not much otherwise. You eat lunch at a nice restaurant and get to try Brik (an egg in batter -- very nice... if you like eggs!)

Next on to Douz, the "Gateway to the Sahara". You go to a hotel (in the middle of nowhere; why did someone build a hotel here!?!) and get dolled up like Lawrence of Arabia with a big sheet in the colours of Newcastle United and a headscarf and then shipped out and plonked onto a camel for an hour's ride into the Sahara desert. Bear in mind that you are so worried about the dromedary sitting down (front legs first, then back legs so you wobble forwards then backwards) that you don't notice the bloke opening Coke bottles for you and dumping them in the slot you're holding onto. Then he tries to charge you for them (3 dinar). Make sure you've still got enough wits about you to refuse: easier said than done on the back of an animal you're not used to! This ride was really good (we got away with the heat as it was 'only' about 35C on the day we went -- 49C the weeks earlier and later apparently) despite the fact that my decrepit, due-for-a-part-exchange camel complained about my weight (12 1/2 stone!!) and refused to put it's back legs down! His owner swapped me onto a GTi version for the return trip and replaced me with some boy racer type instead.

You stay in a hotel overnight and have to get up at 4am (woken by the cacophony of all your party's room phones going off in the vicinity) to see the sunrise coming over the mountains. Breakfast at 4am is just plain wrong in so many ways. In fact, 4am shouldn't exist unless it's from the other direction i.e. when you finally GOT to bed! This hotel is not bad -- probably 2-star but you're not there for long. Certainly good enough for a shower and a sleep. Pool is lovely; take your swimsuits as you might need to cool off if it's really hot.

Big 4x4s take you up the mountains at Chebika to see a mountain oasis (wild camels roam the landscapes like deer and you have to slow down as they cross or follow the road). You walk up the side of a mountain (trainers are best for this part of the trip) where the guide suddenly explains where everything is and runs off! Initially it's a bit worrying moving around on it but you soon realise that many a path has been worn away and you can walk your way down to a lovely pool and couple of waterfalls. If you're not good on the mountain, return to the little shop/tourist area and take the back way down using the steps and tiled path. Toilets not the best at this bit: number ones only here! But they are free.

The 4x4s then take you up another side of a nearby mountain where you can see some fantastic views. Also here we got to see a desert fox (tamed), scorpion (in a jar) and a couple of salamanders (which stick to things like those Garfields you can stick in your car windows).

From here you are taken to Tozeur, where you will see the desert oasis and meet up with your coach again. Taken by horse and carriage, it is lovely, as you see all manner of fruits and veg and quite a few exotic birds (if you're astute enough) but it dampens your view of an oasis as you thought it was. There is so much rubbish flapping around gathering it is unbelievable. A man who has learnt his English from 'Only Fools and Horses' DVDs explains the oasis to you and then tells you 'Cheerio', which is at least funny. Toilets here are okay but nothing special -- 0.25 dinar to get in. Ice creams at kiosk.

After this it was back onto the coach, and a three-hour trip back to Port El-Kantaoui with only one stop on the return journey (of twenty minutes -- toilets bearable and free). Ordinarily you stop in Kairaouan and visit a mosque and a carpet factory but no-one seemed to mention the mosque, which would have been interesting to see. We think this is due to our trip returning on Thursday/Friday and Friday being the Muslim holy day, so we weren't allowed in that day. Maybe it's worth going on the Monday/Tuesday trips instead where the mosque is available. No-one was keen to see the carpet factory so we didn't bother stopping and returned to our hotel at approximately 5pm-ish.

Excellent and thoroughly recommended.

After holidaying in Hammamet for the last 6 years we thought we'd try somewhere new.

We arrived late in the morning missing our breakfast, were told we would have to pay for any lunch in two hours, were shouted at by the restaurant manager, frog marched through reception, had to change rooms, rooms well below 4* standard, refused to keep our rooms on the last day even though we were not leaving until 8.30 pm and one of our party has fibromyalgia and regularly uses a stick.

Food was bland and repetitive, pizza's good though, no cushions for the sun beds on the beach which cost 2 dinar a day. never again back to Hammamet for me. My tunisian fiance was refused entry to the hotel and told to *** off, later that day my taxi was not allowed to take me to the door. Humiliating holiday.

Never saw anything dirty in the port ,the entertainment was good and the beach was wonderful.

It is quite a pleasant walk to Port El Kantaoui, although you should be advised to walk on the side of the road with traffic coming towards you or you will have taxis stopping every couple of seconds. On the way back we took either a horse drawn carriage (thank you cheeky man) or the wonderful tuk tuk. (both of these arrange a price before getting in). Tuk Tuk's are great fun and will get you back to the hotel in less than five minutes.
The beach is lovely and the most hotels have their own section of the beach. Sunloungers are charged for as they are at the hotel (2 dinar each).You can eat at any of the hotel cafe bars off the beach but it would be adviseable to walk into Kantaoui itself as it will cost you double on the beach front.
There are plenty of watersports available and are very reasonably priced. My daughter went on a banana boat ride which cost 6 Dinar which is roughly £3.You will also find jet ski's, paragliding, water skiing and many more.
You do get quite a few sellers walking on the beach selling everything from banana's to sleeves of cigarettes, but with a no thanks they move on.
In Kantaoui itself there is an aray of cafes and restaurants all quite cheap.There are lots of shops where you can try out your bartering skills and some fixed price shops too. There isn't too much hassle really, lots of people will ask you if you want a boat trip and they all try and talk like del boy trotter but once you say no thanks they leave well alone.
One trip you must take is the camel caravan, go seek Eddie Murphy (Kemel) out in the hotel, he will arrange it for you. A two hour trip around the tunisian village on camel, horse back, donkey or cart. You get chance to go on all the animals and taste the bread which is made in the traditional way.They also run horse riding in the evening, we went for two hours but if I was you I'd book for one. (I was struggling to walk the next day!)

My daughter was in tears when she left, we met a lovely family there and spent some good times with them. The Tunsians were very friendly and they make a fuss of the children. She can't understand why we can't just live there. We landed this morning and I have already been out to fetch some brochures for the next holiday. This was the best holiday we have ever had and I would recommend it to anybody.Can't believe I'm back home!!!!!!!