Hotel Iberostar Averroes Reviews

Stayed here in June for 2 weeks. I booked flights via Expedia from Heathrow to Tunis. The transfer is around 40 mins from Tunis Airport. I think Monistar airport is further away. The cost of the transfer/taxi was £40 and the hotel arranged this for me. I booked the hotel direct on the iberostar website and asked for 2 interconnecting rooms on the ground floor and that is exactly what I got. The rooms are very spacious and there is plenty of wardrobe space etc.

The staff at this hotel are excellent right down from the cleaners to the waiters- they can't do enough for you and they are very good with children. You are allocated a table in the dining room on arrival and that is your table for the rest of your stay. The all inclusive food selection is OK but not the best I've ever had. The cooked breakfast was a bit strange, very rarely had bacon and the sausages were like hot dog sausages. There was a chef cooking fried eggs/omelettes etc and baking fresh pastries/croissants every day. They do have around 5 different cereals on offer and yoghurts/cold meats etc. Lunch and dinner was slightly better-always a chef cooking fresh pasta/pizza, chef carving meat along with veg/meat and fish dishes. The puddings were very very nice!!! The restaurant also has a microwave in case you need to warm food/milk for babies.

Entertainment was a bit limited. Having a small child with us we never stayed past the mini disco so I couldn't really comment on what the entertainment was like. One bad thing about the entertainment was that it was away from the main bar in a separate room so if you were at the mini disco or wanted to stay and watch the show you have to keep leaving the children or show if you wanted to go and get a drink. The entertainment would have been better suited in the main bar area.

There were plenty of sunbeds around the pool and we never had a problem finding 4 no matter what time we went to the pool although if you wanted a sunbed with an umbrella you did need to get up early.

Location wise the hotel is well suited as it is directly on the beach. There are shops directly across the road and a late night pharmacy or a 15 minute stroll up to the medina there are more shops, a theme park and there is a big supermarket selling nappies etc next to the ice rink. There are mini trains which run around the town regularly along with horse and carts if you don't fancy the walk.

p.s make sure you take mosquito protection!!

This was our 1st trip to Tunisia and our 1st trip abroad without the children. Usually we stay all inclusive but on this occasion we decided half board and get out and about a little more than usual. The flight was ok and we had no problems getting through customs, even though 2 flights had arrived at the same time. The transfer only took about 1 1/2 hours so that wasn't too bad. On pulling up at the hotel, we were very impressed. We were quickly checked in and although it was after 22:00 we could still have a meal in the dining room which was kindly kept open for the 6 new arrivals.

The rooms were the most spacious we have ever stayed in and although we were at the back of the hotel, I very quickly worked out that we would get the evening sun and there were nice views of the gardens so we were happy to stick with what we had. We did see in one of the sea view rooms though and I have to admit the views were stunning.

The next evening we went for our meal we hadn't realised you were allocated a table for your evening meal and that's where you dine for the rest of your stay. We inadvertently sat in someone's place and the waiter, without explanation, picked up our plates and put them on another table, with us following, knives and forks in hand! You've been warned! You can sit at any table at other meal times though. The waiters mate kindly explained that to us. This particular waiter was beligerent for the rest of our stay. Needless to say, at the end of the holiday, our waiter didn't get any tip but his mate got 10 dinar. He nearly fainted!! It's only £4 to us but it's 2 days wages to him! On our final breakfast before we left, the waiter wouldn't clear our table!! Brilliant! The food was very good, with plenty of choice and definitely a 'foreign' flavour! No eggs, bacon, sausage and mushrooms for breakfast I'm afraid! Well, they tried anyway! It'll do you good to have a break from all that fatty food anyway!

The pool is very nice and there were plenty of sunbeds and shades. There is a water dispensing machine near the pool and unbeknown to me this is for the use of the All inclusive people. I got another telling off I'm afraid when I had a drink! You've been warned again!

The beach is lovely with many beachside bars and watersports activities, if you are into that.
There is literature in the hotel warning people to be careful of these beachside bars ripping people off. We were ripped off by having a vodka and coke. in the menu it was 14 dinars for 2 (and I saw him pour the cheap stuff) but when we paid, it cost a total of 27 dinars. You guessed it - we'd been served the imported vodka. Not! £6 rip off to us but a lot of money in their back pocket. You've been warned yet again! We noticed the police were at that bar on the afternoon they pulled that trick and I was wondering if they'd done it to other people and someone reported them. I'll never know!
There's loads of shops around selling touristy things but they really do hassle you to go into their shop. It's really annoying and off putting.

We noticed, on the way to the medina, there were a lot of young 20 something males standing around on street corners. It was a little intimidating on an evening and I still don't know what all that was about. Be careful of people persuading you to go into the carpet shop in the medina. It's like one of those window salesman that goes on for hours. We only wanted to see how they made the carpets. In the end, you really have to be rude and say enough's enough. They try to make you feel guilty but don't forget you are on holiday to enjoy yourself, not to put up with that kind of thing. Be firm and take no prisoners! There's loads of little kids shoving these little home made flower things in your hair/hand and asking for a dinar. You give them a dinar and other kids follow you up the street wanting 'their' dinar. I didn't like that one bit. People on here say just say no but that sometimes doesn't work. It's difficult being rude to little children. I found that if they put one of these things in your hair, just walk on without acknowledging them. They soon get the message, take it back and walk off!

As for trips, I really would recommend the pirate ship. It was a brilliant 4 hours and if you have kids, then they wil definitely enjoy it. If eating out, I would recommend somewhere down by the marina. Many, many eating places and good food but check the prices you are going to pay before you order. Again, you'll be charged a far higher price at the end of the meal than you thought. Confirm with the waiter when ordering and then he 'can't get it wrong'.
One last thing. When changing your money into dinar, be very careful at the hotel. They'll give you what they think they can get away with. I changed £100 on my first evening and got 235 dinar. Should have been 253. A couple of days later, my partner changed £50 and got 95 dinar!!! Always get a receipt! Even better, there's a bank across the road. You can't go wrong there. Also when you checkout and have to pay for the hire of the safe key. We stayed 7 nights (ok, we'll say 8 days). The charge is 2 dinar per day (tells you in the hotel room and at reception desk) - let's say 8x2= 16. Nope, 20 dinars please!!! We just gave up and paid!!

Sounds like we had a few problems, but they were just little niggles really. I can't fault the hotel, food, weather or area but just be aware of the above and I'm sure you'll have a really great time.

Hotel - the hotel was excellent and the staff well where do we start they couldn't help you enough at all times. they were very good with the young children and kept them entertained at all times. The hotel is very spacious and there was ample room in the rooms for more than three people at a time.
The maid service was excellent always tidied up even if it wasnt necessary.

Food - the food was excellent, there was always something there to eat especially for the children. the dining room was always kept clean and the tables were cleared at all times and the waiters were always tidying and cleaning which is a good sign of cleanliness.
the only complaint was that there was no coffee served with your evening meal you had to go into the bar area to get a coffee.

the rep was excellent, friendly and informative at all times especially as we didnt know what to do while we were in tunisia as none of us had never been before.

the beach was Very clean with plenty of amenienties such as kayaking, pedalos, surfing and for a very modest price £10 - paragliding which was the most expensive activity. the banana boat was £4 and water skiing was £6.so plenty to do on the beach and a lot cheaper than what you usually would pay anywhere else in Europe.

we decided to go to Carthage Land and with a 4 year old in tow there was only two rides which were suitable for her. this was due to height restrictions and age (must be 10 years old) as there had been a serious accident that had apparently happened the year before.
we also went to the zoo inside Carthage Land was also good - the animals were in small cages which can be a bit upsetting if you are an animal lover.


Yasmine Hammemat was a nice place very clean and didnt see one stray dog anywhere and there was no rubbish on the pavements or roads at all.
the weather was HOT HOT HOT and there was plenty of deckchairs available around the pool and beach.

it is a multinational hotel with germans, dutch, french, italians, spanish, portuguese, russians and many local tunisians which shows it is a good hotel.

Would definatly go back there again

1. 1 hour 10 minutes from Airport in a taxi that does not stick to the speed limit!

2. Hotel lovely and clean. Staff cannot do enough for you, especially if you slip them 10 dinars - you will never have an empty glass! Every one really friendly.

3. Weather could have been better.

4. Not enough to do around the resort. Evening entertainment dire! Is this as alot of hotels AI and not worth any one outside doing anything?

5. Reccommend hire a taxi from reception to take tou out for the day (costs about £60) Tell them where you want to go and leave it to them. Need to be firm though, they would rather have you sat in a restaurant (with his cousin?) than charging arounfd the roman ruins at Carthage.

6. DO Carthage - look it up, it is fantastic.

7. Then do El-Jem. Why are they hiding this wonderful Amphiteatre. Amazing.

8. Biggest problem - mosquitoes! Take something good. I stopped counting at 70! Yes seventy.

9. WOuld I go back? Maybe a different resort, different time of year. Much nore research.

10. Hotel was fantastic.

The hotel was excellent the staff were very helpful and polite, the rooms were spacious and kept very clean by the maid. we were all inclusive so didnt have to pay for the meals and drinks including bottled water, the food was very nice there was always something for every one although no kids menu. the pool area is excellent but a bit slippery around the sides, the hotel is on the beach so there is no trek to find the sea, the beach has umbrellas and sun beds all free if you are AI. there were very few people selling stuff on the beach so you are not constantly harrassed as in some other countries, there is a Medina and theme park within easy walking distance of the hotel, well worth a visit.

the only down side for us was the Thomson service. we were unceremoniously dumped at the hotel entrance and left to get on with it, we got settled in and then had to go and find out all the relevant information that you would expect from the tour operator for ourselves. day one and the rep turned up for the welcome meeting to inform us it would be held at another hotel and would only take an hour, it turned out to be more like four hours thirty minutes of which was related to the welcome and three and a half hours selling trips to unsuspecting guests. my advice would be give this a miss and if you want to go on trips do it through the hotel as the trips are the same but cheaper. apart from that there was no contact with Thomson for the whole two weeks. on the last day I checked our flight times through the phone number given and found they had no idea what flight we were supposed to be on, and was advised to ring back in an hour to allow them to sort it out which they eventually did. the flights were short and comfortable but the transfer to and from the airport were two hours each way.