Steigenberger Marhaba Thalasso Hammamet

It was in no way a conventional 5* hotel, it's a "tunisian 5* hotel", the stuff are 50/50, communicating with you only if you're either tunisian or giving them money, the room is big and empty, usually badly maintained, beds are very rigid and only single without even the possibility of transforming into a twin bed, the food is very basic with a minimal choice and slow serving creating lines of waiting people, outside the dining hours there is basically nothing to eat, the pools're not heated, with sand (bad cleaning), working from 10 to 18 "officially", unsupervised children everywhere, the booz is either too diluted or too concentrated, depend on your luck with the bar, there is no fresh juices or a variety of non alcoholic drinks, tea and coffee are undrinkable. The is no medical help, and they dont even help you with organising it (thank god we had a good insurance). The hotel imposes on you a ton of rules upon arrival, but none of theme are respected later on buy anyone. If you have to travel to Tunisia and want to fell kinda 5*, then maybe it's your choice, otherwise i dont recommend neither the country nor this hotel.

Nourriture excellente

Overall we enjoyed our holiday there. Very friendly staff especially the restaurant waiters and barmen. The food was varied and generally very good, although sometimes could be hotter. Enjoyed freshly squeezed orange juice at breakfast and omelette made to order. The desserts were lovely. The waiters reserved a table for us each day and had wine and water ready for us. The pool area was very nice, lots of palm trees giving some shade if needed. One point to make regarding pool towels, you cannot pay deposit by card, has to be cash- 60 dinar each or £15, expensive. I would recommend taking enough £s , or you will end up with lots of Tunisian currency on the last day which you can't use. We had a bungalow near the sea, which was very nice. Lots of room and a big shower. Towels and bedding changed often. There was a fridge in room with water and soft drinks, this should have been replenished every day, but we had to ring reception a few times to get fresh water or also got some from the bar. We didn't use the beach as it was too windy, but did walk down. The beach looked ok but walking along it was awful, loads of rubbish and plastic bottles. We enjoy a walk along the beach normally, but we didn't walk far as it was horrible. The entertainment in the hotel was a bit hit and miss. Some outside entertainment which wasn't too bad, karaoke and "miss hotel" not to our taste. One night there was nothing as it was teams day off. There also needs to be some background music in the bar area when there is no other entertainment happening. Daytime entertainment seemed to be darts, aquafit, but there was no information about what times/days things were happening. It was definitely worth the money, but wouldn't go back in main season.