Hotel El Ksar Reviews

The First Choice flight was excellent. Upon arrival at the airport in the resort we were greeted by the reps. Watch your bags as the airport staff take these quickly from you to take to the coach and expect a tip. however we had no probs with this.

(we had visited Tunisia the previous year and had seen this hotel when dropping holidaymakers off, it looked very grand - gates are opened and you travel down a long drive whereupon you will find the hotel with a large fire torch is lit at the entrance of the hotel).

We had travelled on the Sunday night and so it was very late when we arrived at the hotel. There was only us and another couple that got off at this hotel. when our baggage was taken off the coach we had to make our way to the reception. there was one man on reception. It was very strange. Us and the other couple waited at reception and the receptionist ignored us for about 5 minutes then we said can we please check in. He didnt seem to understand us. Then a man and a woman (i think they were German)barged past us and started talking loudly to the receptionist. This carried on for about 20 minutes if not longer. When he did decide to serve us he couldnt find our details on the computer. We gave him our booking confirmation and then he managed to find it. We were then finally given keys. A porter took our bags into the lift and showed us to the room. Upon getting to the room we were impressed with the cleanliness and space of the room and bathroom.

The next day we saw the other English couple.they said they got to their room about 15 minutes after us however when they got there they only had one bed (they were two adults and had a little girl). Even though they had booked an extra bed this hadnt happened. They spent the next day trying to sort it out apparently.

Throughout our visit we found the food to be luke warm and was very much catered for german/french taste. On one evening there was a special tunisian night where they served cous cous with some sort of meat in it. We decided to try this. In the middle of the night both myself and my partner woke up with stabbing pains and were sick and had diarohea and felt rotten. we went to speak to the receptionist about this but they didnt seem to understand this. We can honestly say this diarohea continued for a couple of days and we were totally put off food. We tried to get some fluid down us but the bottled water wasnt even kept in fridges. the only thing that was cold was the beer!

We did try to eat pasta some evenings. the waiter dedicated to our table was very nice - we managed to convince him to keep a few bottle of pop and water in the fridge ready for us, for a tip. If we left the meal they always questionned why - we tried to explain but they couldnt understand.

One BIG problem was the sunloungers. By 8 am each sunlounger was covered by a towel - nobody on them just towels!. However after travelling round to the other pool we managed to find what we thought an ";empty bed";. We started sunbathing and i could see this woman and her partner and child walking towards us! She started shouting in French and tugging at my towel. she managed to pull this off and threw it to the floor. I took this that the sunlounger was ";her"; bed. She was very abusive and so we left. from then on we decided to play them at their own game and had to get up each morning at about 7 am to put a towel on the bed. Even though there are signs saying you cant reserve loungers this clearly isnt adhered to!

We paid a lot of our hard earned money to stay at this hotel. However we were very disappointed. the only good thing in our opinions was the weather (very hot) and the lovely golden beach. The maids were very polite and always cleaned the room excellently. i have been told that First Choice are not dealing with this hotel anymore and i wonder why?!

The only good thing that came out of our holiday was that when we came back we had both lost about a stone each!!

The El Ksar hotel we found to be very clean with very pleasant staff.We went All Inclusive with a good variety of food to please most people.For 14 days we found that the food did not become monotenous at all and the drink was plentiful both with your meals and also during the rest of the day and evening.Entertainment was rather limited,the grounds and pool areas where spotless.The sandy beach was cleaned frequently with a safe beach.One usual drawback was obtaining sun loungers both around the pool and beach areas.

We both have said that we would like to return say in 5 years time but we would go approx 2 weeks earlier ie end of May as it was getting a bit hot (43) in our second week
One big moan was the crammed conditions on the First Choice aircraft,I found it just bearable on this 2hr 40min flight being 6ft tall

The Hotel was very average and not 4*. The staff could not speak very good English, which made it very hard to complain--which you will want to do! The food was never hot, and not catered for the UK taste. The hotel night life is really appaling-not in English-and a compete waste of time. Broken glass was all around the pool area as drinks are served in glass, as the Germans dont like drinking beer from plastic!!! Rooms are clean as is the pool itself. Beach is lovely and you dont get hassled.

Sun beds are reserved very early which is contary to the notices posted around the hotel. The wine with the meal is gross, and the queuing for the evening meal is dreadful, have lots of patience!! The Tv in the room is in every language apart from English.

This hotel does not cater for the British market so be warned.