El Hana Palace Hotel Reviews

Just come back from tunisia well what can we say the hotel was lovely and the food was very good thank god!!!! We were there for 2wks which we found was too long there is nothing to do there no nightlife you can go to different hotels but found that u had to pay for some entertainment!which wasnt very good anyway.

we are not party animals but some kind of evening entertainment would of been nice.we ate out for the first week as we were on bb we ate at various places and found it very difficult to find anything that was cooked or indeed served hot.we ate the second week in the hotel which was a life saver the food was very good.there is alcohol in tunisia but if you want english it is very dear so be warned we took our own after reading holidays uncovered.tipping;we felt that everytime we ordered they would expect a tip or indeed not give you your change,i know that it is a poor country we did tip but found it tedius as they were always expecting you to tip them.we went on 1 excursion which was ok.we booked the camel ride of the beach as they were cheaper than the reps who charge double for the same thing.

all in all the hotel was great clean and friendly,food in hotel great. Outside food terrible as for the rest boring zzzz

would we go again no...

We had a great time here. The Reception staff are friendly, helpful and efficient.

As noted by a previous contributor, avoid the offer of a free shopping trip by either of the two guys hanging around in Reception, it really is a scam. It is much more enjoyable to find things out for yourself. It is a short walk to the harbour area to practise your haggling skills and a cheap taxi ride to Sousse for a wider variety of shops. Just remember it's your money they are after but in our experience, the shopkeepers were never aggressive, just keen to make a sale. If you say ";No, thanks"; and walk away, that's the end of it.

We had no experience of pickpockets or any other crime. Incidentally, if you don't like haggling, there are fixed price shops. We once haggled our socks off for an item and thought that we had done really well until we found the same item was actually cheaper at the fixed price shop we later went into!

The room we stayed in was comfortable and clean and the air conditioning worked even though we were not in the high season! Maid service was daily and very good.

We enjoyed the quality and the variety of the food available at breakfast and dinner and if it didn't all ";go"; together who cares? This is Tunisia and it's all part of the experience.

The pool area was excellent, towels and beds are free although it seems to be the custom to tip the pool man, if nothing else it ensures good service the next day.

The beach immediately adjoining the hotel is not good but step out of the hotel and walk 50 metres to the right and it's fine. The sea is very shallow and is only waist deep 30 metres out.

Overall, the hotel is great. It is set back from the road so you don't get traffic noise and it's just far enough from the harbour area so there is no noise problem from there either. And best of all, there are no noisy kids!

We liked it so much that we are going back again next year.

arrived in el hana palace and didn't like our room asked for a change, we were moved the next morning to a beautiful suite in the building at rear of hotel and in front of beach absolutly lovely marble room with bed inset into the wall and beautiful marble bathroom with jacuzzi bath and seperate walk in wardrobes.
staff were excellent and food was also excellent, a small tip goes a long way.

would definitly go back to this hotel. love Tunisia this was our third visit and first to port el kantoui we will definitly be going back

Nice hotel, attractive buildings, attractive outdoor pool area but no useable beach nearby. Beautiful indoor pool but unheated most of the time we were there, and the jacuzzi was none too clean - we looked, and thought better of it. Our room was nice - upmarket decoration, Colour TV with Satellite channels (unfortunately no proper english ones), his and hers sinks in the bathroom, separate WC, plenty of electrical sockets. Shower kept going VERY hot to VERY cold and back, which certainly added to the excitement of washing! Staff were friendly and helpful, Reception staff had good english.

Breakfast and evening meal were self service buffet - food ok, but very strange mixtures. Usually some kind of beef, veal, chicken, pork(or lamb) - often in sauce, assorted pasta, rice, potatoes and vegetables. Though the quality was ok, it was hard to find food that went together. e.g. there might be roast chicken, but not the right things to go with it. You ended up with very strange combinations, with unusual things like deep-fried battered cauliflower, pasta in white sauce and ratatouille. Breakfast was the same - full english not an option! We ended up taking a small portion of many dishes so that we could pick out what we liked and leave the rest. A shame to have to be so wasteful. Room service was very good, and towels were changed every day. The cleaners even laid out my dressing gown on the bed in beautiful artistic shapes - I took photos!

The hotel was the best bit of our holiday - we hated Tunisia. If you are seriously thinking of going there PLEASE read on! Everyone was out to get whatever they could from you - all very friendly but with an outstretched hand. You had to watch out for pickpockets and learnt very quickly to say NO to everything - NO to taxis which pulled in and hassled you as you walked down the street. NO to stallholders who would physically grab you on the way past. NO to anyone who offered you directions - it was all an attempt to get money from you. The market sellers are also LIARS - beware anyone saying they have 18ct gold. We browsed around the closeby upmarket marina, and were offered this by most shopkeepers. Fortunately in one of the shops a rare honest shopkeeper told us it was a lie - the 'Tunisian hallmark' the shopkeepers show you means nothing and there is NO real gold at the Marina, only gold plate. He said he was telling us this because 'people will go away and say the Tunisians are sh*t and Tunisia is sh*t' - well, he was right there!

The hotel offers a 'no-hassle, no rip-off' shopping trip organised by a local man, BUT IT WAS A CON - we were taken in a minibus with 2 local men to a very specific shop in the middle of nowhere and pressurised to buy goods which were THREE TIMES the starting price of the same goods at the Marina. Then taken to the market at Sousse where we were offered 'special' prices twice as high as Marina prices. The hotel's 'shopping helper' took us to specific stalls owned by his friends, we were discouraged from stopping and looking elsewhere, and instead of being 'on our side' and helping us get a good price, he was muttering with the stallholder in arabic and giving us dirty looks when we didn't bite at the inflated prices. Fortunately we'd browsed first and knew the going rates. When we made it clear we would not pay above that price, everything turned very sour, and we actually felt quite menaced. The trip was abandoned and the journey back was extremely uncomfortable.

Overall, it was the most unpleasant holiday experience we have had in a long time - we are widely travelled but have never spent such a stressful time anywhere else. You had to be on your guard every minute. Sorry to go on for so long but it was such a bad experience I feel people need to be warned. If you still want to go, the Tunisian house museum in Sousse Souk was a rare and beautiful treasure in the midst of a holiday we'd otherwise rather forget.

Just returned from el hana palace not 5 star but that didnt spoil the holiday staff on the whole excellent food very good didnt have any stomach upsets which is the norm for me. bedrooms large and dated but clean large bath may be a problem to disabled or less agile but plenty of hot water towels and sheets changed daily brochure pictures spot on gardens immaculate rose and crown in sousse not bad and has sky in for watching football roughly 5 dinars on the METER in taxi insist on the meter and dont let them tell you as it is night time it is more stick to what the meter says pay and get out.it is just a try on,which appears to be the norm in tunisia

irish bar not bad has music on organ or kareoke sky also but be careful as they put your drinks on a tab and sometimes it doesnt add up but challenge them and someone with authority will sort it out no british beer 5 dinars for a pint or 2.6 in the hotel for a bottle 2.3 dinars to the pound. spirits very expensive and are cheap makes. wine good about 4.5 for half a bottle white.Went as far as the opening to the medina in sousse but met someone off the plane who had been in and didnt think it was safe sop we didnt venture.

port al khantoui a lot more relaxed dont br frightened to barter wanted 125 dinars for a pair of shoes got them for 25 dinars listen to there patter and play them at there own game and dont be frightened to walk away as you can always go back another day.when they say its asda price tell them you want netto price that baffles them.Even without much entertainment on a nightime if the price was right i would go back for a week again. make sure you dont take many dinars to airport as you can not use them in duty free all prices in euros but they will except sterling