We stayed here for 5 nights as part of our Tunisian DIY holiday.

Last year we stayed overnight at a 4 star hotel in Tozeur, as part of a desert tour. The budget wouldn't quite stretch to a 4 star this year, so we went 3 star, and I am very glad we chose Ksar El Jerid.

The hotel is typical of this area, in that many of the rooms are off outdoor courtyards, giving an open relaxed feel to the hotel.

When we arrived at our hotel at about half past midnight, we were delighted to find that they had plated up a salad meal and some cakes for us. We were most impressed with this kind gesture, and were glad we had phoned ahead to advise of our late arrival.

Our room was lovely, quite basic but very clean, we had one double (two twins next to each other) and two singles. The room had plenty of storage space, a lockable drawer in one wardrobe, and a TV - although no English Channels (You could watch Deal or No Deal from 3 different countries though!). The bathroom was spacious with overbath shower, plenty of hot water, and a couple of towel rails. We didn't have a balcony here, but didn't really need one - we preferred to sit in the courtyard round the pool.

As the hotel is an overnight stopover for Desert Tours, most guests are there a maximum of 2 nights, very often just one, so the pool area is very quiet during the day.

The food was buffet style, less choice than you get with the huge resort hotels, but then the Ksar Jerid has under 100 rooms, and proportionally less guests. The meals were of a good standard, with hot bread made by a chef stationed in the dining room.

The hotel was on the main road to Nefta, about 1km from the town centre. As the town was downhill, we walked in each day, and took a taxi back when we were finished shopping/exploring etc. This taxi ride was approx 60p.

There was no entertainment at the hotel, but we didn't really need it, we were tired each evening after spending the day exploring. There was internet access here, and a pool table so our 13 year old managed to survive!

The staff could speak english, but didn't get much chance to practise, this clearly was a hotel mainly frequented by french clientelle - in fact we booked this through a french website. We are delighted to say we didn't meet a single native english speaker in our 5 days in Tozeur!

We are going back here - probably April 2008!