All inclusive was good but because they use the card-swipe system it takes one person to pour and one to swipe. When they know what your total bill was what do they do with it? It's all been paid for anyway - Bring back the wrist bands!

Food was very good with a good opportunity to try local specialities. All the staff were happy and helpful except the bar staff, why did they have to be so miserable? I would rather work in a bar than clean the toilets.

Daytime activities and swimming pools were great but the evening entertainment wasn't much for a couple who off-loaded their children years ago. There were plenty of bars were they could have had adult cabaret and/or proper dancing.

We enjoyed it though, the good things far outweighed the not so good.

Cleanliness - The hotel was kept extremely clean, public areas were immaculate and the rooms were kept spotless by the Housekeeping staff.

Food - The choice of food was really good, and there was more the enough for everyone. Vegetarians were catered for however the veggie choices were pretty much the same all the time.

Location - The hotel is in a good location for Monastir, Sousse and the airport. There is a little noise from the airport however within I day I didn't notice it that much.

Staff - The reception staff are excellent check in was very quick even with a 3am arrival. The waiters in the restaurant are excellent and extremely helpful, our waiter Mohammed looked after us very well. My only slight negative point would be the bar staff, they were perhaps not quite as nice however the may be due to them being fairly busy all the time.

Entertainment - The hotel has a lovely outdoor stage with plenty of seats and 3 bars in the area. The Star Friends do an excellent job during the day by the pool and beach arranging activities like darts/water polo/ beach volleyball etc, then they do a performance most evenings. There are other shows with local entertainers also.

The hotel also has other bars, which have music some nights or show films.

In our 2nd week we noticed the hotel was getting quite busy, and getting a sun lounger became a challenge however we always managed to get a bed down by the beach.

The hotel could be quite smokey at times and the non-smoking bar closed at midnight. When the bars closed you were not given time to finish your drink and were harassed to drink up and leave, as a non-smoker it meant having to go to the 24hour bar. The Asfar Bar (24hr) bar is unbelievably smokey not a pleasant way to finish you evening!

Overall this was an excellent holiday, and very good value for money, we would come back to this hotel albeit slightly out of season.

What can I say about Sahara Beach.....Brilliant!!

My partner and I were looking for a great holiday for our first holiday together and thats exactly what we got. I have read and re-read reviews and cannot see how the bad reviews have come about.

Although some of the staff were edgy, and who can blame them in that heat with that many people, most of the staff were excellent and we even made friends with most of them, Ali, Raffy, Bobo and Rio are just a few to name! We will be keeping in touch with our porter who was more then happy to help us any time he saw us. And no he didnt want a tip every time.

In this hotel as with any place with staff you expect to be treated the way you treat others and the staff think like this also.

Being so close to the airport was a godsend for us as we didnt want a long journey after sitting on the plane! You hear the planes to begin with but then to be honest you dont think about it.

I have no complaints whatsoever on the food. I got to try new things daily and if I wanted to I could try it again the next time it came round! Our waiter Garred was amazing. Never let us down with anything! Would have done anything for us even if we didnt give him a tip on a couple of nights!

For its size i think the hotel was amazingly clean. The maids were always cleaning from early morning to late night! And they were as friendly as ever!

My partner and I are going back to Sahara Beach in 2007 at the request of all our new friends at Sahara and because we loved it so much!!

Anyone with an open mind,a great attitude and sense of humour will get along great with the staff and love this hotel!!

We have visited the Saraha Beach Hotel three times and each time has been fantastic. The rooms while small and basic are very well cleaned and you are provided with fresh towels daily and sheet regularly.

The food is good, wholesome, fresh and varied. We requested and were allocated our same waiter, Mohamed and got great service.

We liked the walk through the market on the way to dine. The same people are there year after year, they are so friendly if you are. They have amazing memories and give you a great welcome back.

The photographer is fantastic & great value, we have fabulous sunset photos of the family.
The location is brilliant, on the beach, near the airport and you can cheaply and easily taxi to the towns of Monastir or Sousse.

Most of the hotel staff are extremely friendly and helpful, the odd one is a bit dour.
The entertainment staff (animation) are amazing; Gi Gi Rio, Wafa, Chico, Kais, Nino, Bo Bo, Samir, Kinder club girls and Waleed- They made our holiday.

They work so hard, are always in good humour, brilliant and so patient with children, speak 5,6 languages, organise so many different activities, aerobic etc and put on terrific shows. Rio was brilliant at keeping our teenager busy and happy.
We will be back!

I(Gavin) had read all the reviews on this hotel after booking our holiday, so with the mixed reviews I was a bit aprehensive about going.

On arrival we were delayed by an hour or so but all it took to get our All Inclusive cards was a couple of minutes which was filling out a form. A porter took our cases to our room (which helped us as we were in block 3 and would have got lost), he did expect a tip mind you, so we gave him it in english as we hadn`t any dinar.

GOOD POINTS:
The hotel is very large in the number of guests and size of the complex, but everywhere you went you always saw someone cleaning, wether it be your room, around the pool, toilets or walkways, this is one of the cleanest hotels I have been to.

The hotel staff are mixed, reception staff exellent whatever we asked for we got almost immediately like extra pillows and blankets (as air conditioning worked to well for some).

The waiters we had were very good we asked not to share a table with another couple as we didn`t want to be squashed while eating and they obliged no problems (the waiters did tend to look after the ones who tipped the most though).

The Entertainment team were brilliant, we took part in arobics, water arobics, water basketball, funny games(which changed daily)eg. long jump into the pool & swimming races, waterpolo, water volleyball, darts and table tennis.

There was also tennis, beach volleyball and football. The evening entertainment was a bit mixed the evenings involving audience paticipation and entertainment team shows were good but outside entertainers weren`t so good.

All the entertainment team worked hard all the way through, BOBO, WAFA, NINO, KIAS, GIGI, SAMIR and all the rest.

BAD POINTS:
The food was ok some days you had very good coices like braised beef and lasagne, other days I had to eat from the childrens cart as nothing looked edable let alone nice. Our breakfast consisted if eggs and toast every day as not alot else, you can get cereal, but I didn`t like the milk. We varied our lunches between outside snackbars eating pizzas, hotdogs, burgers,rolls and chips and going to the resturant.

The location, there was nothing close to the hotel apart from the go karts which was about a 10 min walk away everywhere else you wanted to go was by taxi.

ALL INCLUSIVE
As All Inclusive you get all meals, drinks,etc.
the drink choices you have are, draught or bottle larger called celtia which is very nice, vodka, bacardi, gin, whisky, rum, wine and a few cocktails all local brands. You can only get 1 drink per card which is annoying cosidering you can queue for 15 mins at a time when they are busy.

The bar staff do like to take their time as you have already paid for your drinks. We did tip on occasions but other than the porters no one realy expected it but a few dinar did help you get more drinks per card.


Whilst on holiday I was ill for a week and a bit with a bad belly and ear infection. The bad belly I put down to: the food, the fact that they use their own water for cleaning the glasses and using their water in the powdered fruit juices.

Most people I spoke to had had a bad belly during their holiday. The ear infection was from the pool, I believe, as lots of people where getting them. To see the doctor was expensive,

We stayed at the sahara beach from the 19th june for a week, it was our second visit to the hotel (we were there last october)And again we loved it.

The hotel is kept spotlessly clean, and so are the grounds.
We found the food to be very good with plenty of variety, our waiter who we also had last year knew I loved boiled eggs for breakfast cut my bread into soldiers for me!! haha.

Mongi our waiter is top class, he gave us his address last year and I wrote to him to let him know we were returning and he reserved our table for us! He also took us to visit his family in the bedouin one afternoon, he has worked at the hotel for 35 years, and from the sort of person he is I am sure he has had a smile on his face everyday!

The hotel is situated on a beautiful clean sandy beach, we walked for a couple of miles along there after each meal,

The entertainment was good, all the entertainment team worked very hard from morning until night.

We normally go on 3-4 all inc holidays a year, and have said that 1 of our holidays each year will be back there.

Thank You Sahara Beach for making our stay very welcome again.

See you next year!

Well,I have to say, after reading the reviews I was very worried about what we was letting ourselves in for! Only I had no need to worry at all.

When we got to the hotel it was very late, gone midnight, we got off the coach and our luggage was piled up against the doors and we were taken to a bar area given a lemon drink and asked to fill in a few forms, (no problem) we then joined a small queue to check in and were given a temporary all inclusive pass until the morning.

We then went to our room ( which is not a small as I imagined, but I'll come to that) and within mins there was a knock at the door and our luggage was brought in, we did give him 2 dinar (

Just after we booked this hotel, I checked this website and was, to say the least a little apprehensive about going to this hotel. All I can say is GO!!

It is the most amazing experience! We arrived at the hotel at approximately 11.30pm on Sunday the 19th of June, now, after reading that it can take ages to get your cards for the all inclusive benefits, we were a little worried, after a long day of travelling, all we wanted to do was chill out in the bar with a couple of drinks, this it turned out, was no problem at all.

Our cards were ready within 2 minutes, the cases taken upatairs and we were sitting in the bar with a well deserved beer, now that is what i call efficient!

The next morning we came down for breakfast and it was ok, nothing like a good old Full English fry up, but then we weren't in England were we?

Overall, the food was exceptional, there were a different variety of dishes every day, and for the less adventurous, there was pizza and chips. Our waiter Garredh was absloutely outstanding, we tipped him a dinar on most days, (some we did not as we had no change) whether we left a tip or not did not seem to bother Gary (as we nicknamed him) he was always ready at our table with a smile and a handshake, Gary was yet another reason for us to go to lunch and dinner.

In the mornings, you don't have to get up rediculously early, we got up at about 8am most days, and we had the pick of the sun loungers at the pool or on the beach, and for a Dinar, the attendants will actually run around to find you some.

We met 2 great couples on this holiday, and after talking to them back in Blighty, we all agreed we would return to this wonderful hotel in a heartbeat.

If you want lots to do, you can, if you want to relax, you can. The hotel is huge, so nothing is ever intrusive.
The drinks are what you would expect from a 4 star all inclusive, not a 3 star, nothing is international, but the local drinks are better than most of the hotels local brews I have tried.

Some of the staff are a little abrupt, but then again they work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week and get paid next to nothing.

To sum this holiday up, I can say that My Partner and myself and also one of the couples we met at the Sahara Beach are returning in the summer of 2007 to relive this wonderful holiday!

If you go with an open mind, be prepared to leave with it opened further for you.... It is unforgettable.

The hotel was clean enough, our room was cleaned propperly every day and the maid was lovely. Though at one point the public toilets flooded and on a couple of occasions were blocked.

This took away from the cleanliness I think.
The food was ok, you do not expect fabulous food on an all inc but there was enough choice for most people.

As veggies however, we lived on odd chips, pasta and a tomato soup type sauce as well as the salads.

I have to say though, we have had the same problem a lot of places and I believe it is down to the country we were staying in rather than the individual hotel.

The cold drinks and ice cream were brilliant, but no matter how much of the vodka I had, nothing happened so I strongly suspect that this was watered down.

You can not fault the staff in this hotel, there were wonderful and never stop. We did not realy rate the entertainment as it seemed mainly geared towards children and our child is older, but had we a smaller child, it would have been brilliant.

The hotel has some really good facilities, and there is always something to do.

The negative for us was the zoo. It is brilliant in the way that there are ostriches etc wondering round it wild and they let my daughter hold the brand new baby tortoises - which made her whole holiday. However some of the monkeys looked very disturbed and the standards of care would not have been allowed in a British zoo.

There are other things like horse riding, mopeds etc that you can hire from the actual hotel, they are VERY cheap and brilliant fun.

The beach is just at the edge of the grounds and is lovely, perfect sand and cleaned regularly.

There are water sports run on the beach that are unbelieveably cheap to do, and they are so helpful and nice. My daughter wanted to go on one of the speed boat rides but was a bit scared the man did a slow motion version for her!

You will get hassled a little bit by sellers on the beach, especially the man selling head covers, he tells children they are a gift, but then comes asking the parents for the money once the children have taken them. They also come round with ciggarettes, I do not smoke, but my partner bought one SINGLE to smoke there and then to see what they were like, before buying a whole carton.

We personally would not go back to this hotel, not because there was a problem with it, mainly due to the fact that we felt we had done everything there was to do by the end of our holidays.

I read many comments from this web site before we went but we were assured by the travel agent that we would have a great time.

When we booked we had a midday flight which was changed a few weeks before we left to a late afternoon flight. We arrived at approx 2.30am at the airport our bags were kidnapped by porters who kept asking for English pound. Once we got to our hotel we had to fill in forms exactly the same as we had already completed on the aircraft. 1 of our bags had been mislaid we were told it would be sorted the next day but it was not. We went to the rep who was unhelpful and just advised us to go to the airport, we did after 3 hours we found our bag.

When we arrived the rooms were not ready. There was 1 room for 17 people in our party and no cots.

The bar staff were rude and when you handed them your all inclusive card after scanning it they threw it on to the counter.

You could not get anything to eat after the restaurant closed at 9pm unless you pay. Ice creams round the pool had to be paid for unless you wanted to walk down to the beach to a snack bar were you got 1 scoop of ice-cream in a very small tub.

The entertainment in the day was quite good but in the evening it was dismal.

We were supposed to leave the hotel at 2.20pm but were told after we had lugged all our luggage outside that we were delayed for 6 hours. We were ushered into the Skanes bar along with guest from other hotels that had been delayed on the same flight. At 3.00pm our all inclusive cards were cancelled although we hadn't left the hotel. When we questioned this we were told that our holiday had ended at 2.20. We had a 7 month baby a 10 month baby and a 4 year old with us and we had nowhere to plug in the sterilizer or make fresh bottles despite being promised a room.

At 2.30 eventually after heated words with an unhelpful rep her Tunisian collegue told my husband to f--- off although we had not used any foul language as we had our children and grandchildren with us.

Throughout the holiday forget about getting much sleep the cleaners wake you in the morning banging around to get you up so they can clean the room.

There are unruly kids running up and down the hallway day and night.

When the beds had been striped it revealed a dirty mattress protector which looked like it had been on for about 6 months if not more.

The rooms were pleasant enough and we had a fantastic view of the pools from our room but I think the hotel needs a complete refurbishment.

If you get a room by the lift as 1 of our party did you are disturbed day and night with the lift bell ringing when it reaches the floor.

The food was very repetitive.

The cots had bars missing.

This hotels facilities are not big enough to accommodate the amount of people I would have hated it more in high season.

If you have booked to go to this hotel please reconsider I will never go back. We have been to may places abroad on holiday as a large family group and I must say it has put us all off travelling abroad again