Hotel Iberostar Averroes Reviews

This Hotel was so good we were going to keep it secret, but the best secrets are sometimes shared!
We were unsure if Tunisia was the kind of destination for us, but nothing about the whole holiday was a disappointment.
The weather in the middle of May was just right (between 28-32)with a nice sea breeze.

The location of yasmine Hammamet was perfect....perhaps a little quiet on first view,but you only have to visit some other resorts in Tunisia to appreciate that you made the right decision.
The locals were very friendly but enter the Medinas with just a little caution...do not go in unless you can say ";no"; and mean it, if you dont want to buy !

As to our hotel in the brochure it looks good and is rated four star....this is one of the very few times we have been somewhere and would have issued the hotel a higher rating.Its even better than the description, we could not see what else it would have needed there to get the other star.
We did not book a sea view room, with first choice as £60 seemed a lot extra to pay,but once we arrived our room view was not the best,so having paid just an extra £20 at reception we were given just about the best room in the hotel with views to die for !

We could not fault the service at the hotel or the accomodation and the entertainments at the hotel were top notch.
Many other nationals at this hotel,only about 5% guests are British but this was to our advantage as food was of a much higher standard than if it was just for Brits

All in all this was somewhere special.

Have just spent a great week here. Hotel was everything we expected and more. Excellent kids club ( Fatima was fantastic with the kids) Hotel entertainment was good too courtesy of Mano, Mehdi and Momo. All staff very friendly and the place was spotless at all times. Had room with sea view and it's well worth it, nice to hear the waves from ur balcony. Food was good and there was always lots of choices, no specific kids menus tho so if ur looking for fish fingers or chicken nuggets you wont find them here. transfer from airport is just over an hour.

Only down side was immigration!! Took 2 hours to get thru passport control on the way in. Only 2 men working and they stamped each passport individually( 4 flights came in at the same time!) Was slightly better on the way out, only 1 hour! Tunisian dinars cant be taken out of the country as its a dead currency, so u have to spend what u have before u leave. Once thru passport control on the way home, u can use sterling . Couple of places to grab a snack and a duty free shop before u get on the plane.

The hotel is typically 4 star ie all marble everywhere, large chandeliers,big reception, nice linen and attentive waiter service at all meals etc etc.

The staff are very good indeed - a Celtia beer is £1 served at your table and a litre of mineral water in the hotel is 75pence also served. If you want you can buy water at the shops opposite for 25p- but it hardly seems worth it......

Our room was about 500sg foot for myself, wife and two kids. they fitted a cot and another single bed in, but my inlaws had the same size room for just the two of them and its very generous for two- i've had lots smaller so for 4 it was good. the rooms have interconnecting doors btw if you like that sort of touch.

Maid service is excellent. Small touches like jim jams nicely folded and kids toys put away nicely much appreciated. Seperate toilet with bidet to the large bathroom was also a helpful touch.

basically a three storey hotel with lifts close to all rooms, quiet though and clean as a whistle.
the indoor pool is lovely and warm but the outdoor pool was too cold in winter- its amazing though and a really excellent design- i've seen a few and this is top quality.

The Kids play area was a let down and needs a sort out but to compensate fatima the kids camp lady was superb- she'd track you down wherever you were and start playing with the kids or asking if she could take them off your hands for a few hours and bring them back to wherever you might be....yes please!!!!!! In the summer with the pool available this offsets the poor playground.

evening entertainment was generally a mini disco for kids at about 8pm /8.30pm (which was a bit late for ours) and then some acoustic stuff- a guy with a sax or a guitar etc, quite classy and not those embaressing animacion revue type rubbish you sometimes see.

The guests are predominately french or algerian or italian- very few english, which suited us down to the ground, and i think the food menus were better for it.

All the evening meals we had were of good quality, varied and plentiful, for example during our 2 weeks stay on HB we had choice of unlimited roast duck, steaks, grilled fish, stir fried squid, moules mariniere, roast turkey, roast pork, roast beef, cheeses,hams (though being a muslim country they are not great at ham/pork generally- not that i mind that anyhow) salads a plenty, pasta made to your own request in front of your eyes every night, a selection of three soups and always three or four tunisian specialities plus excellent chips and other vegs we liked like fennel as well as standard stuff like carrots, jackets, etc etc.

Tjhe desserts patisseries were brilliant quality- very french influenced and there was always loads of fresh fruit and ice cream available, usually apples, oranges (excellent btw) pears, dates, bananas etc . A good selection of fresh breads as well.
Breakfast was also good with pancakes or omelettes or doughnuts or fried eggs made to order in front of your eyes on request. The Coffee was ok (then again i like proper italian style) but the tunisian tea is very good for when you typically overeat!

If you have kids go to carthage land- its like a tunisian version of disneyworld greatly scaled down but its only about £4 for a child and £6 for and adult- the same kind of stuff in the uk is triple that!You can walk it in 8 mins from the hotel.

the local medina is ok- but the shopping here and in hammamet was not as good as sousse imo- been to tunisia 4 times and thought selection and range much less than previous resorts though the seasom would explain a lot i guess. Did not rate hammamet as a town at all really tbh so stayed around the marina and hotel environs mainly.

Older mother in law and fil were happy to go walks along lovely boulvard parallel to the sea and visit the other hotels. they generally eat plainer food but were very impressed with the meals.

xmas eve gala nice effort by the hotel.

overall very impressed with the hotel, and great vfm - the equivalent in spain or italy would have cost double or more......the temperature was sunbathing weather at times and we were on the beach xmas eve!.......we were worried it would still be too cold but it was pleasant enough. bring a shawl for evenings out though.

Do not eat at le romain restaurant in carthage land- complete rubbish pizza and pasta- ytou could not make it that bad if you tried- but they did, we ordered moules thjey brought clams, we ordered seafood spahetti we got white spaghetti a smear of red and three squid legs....rubbish definately not recommended.

What to eat out of the hotel? Watch what the locals are ordering and eating and you will not go wrong.

A taxi to the marina is about 2 dinars (£1) hammamet is about 8 dinars but always ask howm much inadvance BEFORE you get in.

Tips: leave a tip for the service you get , the weekly wage is about £10 so leaving 25p with your beer or 50 at dinner makes a difference .....we left about £5 for the maids,bellboys £1 any services and must have tipped about £10-£15 over 2 weeks elswhere....not a lot but it makes a difference i think we'd have been looked after whatever but i like to say thank you and help financially.
Last advice here- get a seaview room- it really is special and worth it,my inlaws upgraded from garden to sea view for £60 whilst i did the same thing 3 days into the holiday explaining i wanted sun on the balcony and the manbagement did it for free.......just ask nicely and be polite.

Drinks are cheap here as i said but imported spirits are not. i drank bottles of celtia and lowenbrau and never paid more than £1.25 for them in whatever standard of bar i was at. So its cheap!

Hope this helps!