Taj Sultan Reviews

My wife and I have just returned from 2 weeks holiday at this Hotel. We found just about everything was excellent.

However though the staff are very pleasant and cheerful they are also very slow. I don't know whether this is just the Tunisian character, as this was our first visit to their country, or just applies to this hotel. An example of this slowness was waking up one morning to find the electrical supply off to our room. After reporting this 3 times to Reception they eventually asked a porter to check. Being an Electrical Engineer myself I took him to what appeared to be the Electrical Distribution Cupboard for our floor and showed him which Miniature Circuit Breaker to reset. The Electricity had been off in our room for about 7 hours.

We also had a 4-wheel drive personally collect us from the airport which took us to the hotel. A very nice touch in the early hours of the morning

The Taj Sultan is in the brochure as being 5 star. Well the hotel may be, but the service received there was little over 2 star.

The hotel itself is clean, tidy and has an excellent location being right on the beach. The swimming pool is great and the accommodation is of a fair standard, although looking a bit shabby, a bit surprisin being the hotel only opened some 10 months ago.

The worst part is the restaurant, well its more like a cattle market. You have to push and shove your way round to get in the food queues. The resaurant opens at 7.00pm - get there then and you feel as though you are in the rush for the opening of the Harrods sale. Get there at 7.30pm as we did one night and get shut out as they can't cope with the number of people in the restaurant!. Don't get there any later than 8.00pm as there will be nothing left to eat and what is left is not very appetising. The food is certainly not up to 5 star standard - very bland and uninteresting.

The reception staff are not very helpful either. We reported seven times the fact that our mini bar fridge was not working. Each time they ssaid they would send someone out to look and nothing ever happened. On checking out they even had the cheek to say that we had taken something from the mini-bar and tried to charge us for it. We politely told them where to go!

The entertainment staff at the hotel were good and there was quite a bit to do, if you had the energy.

The area itself, Yasmine Hammett, will in about 2-3 years time be a very good area. At the moment it is still being developed and there is not much to do in the evenings away from the hotel.

The main town of Hammett (some 10-15 minutes taxi drive away - don't pay any more than 5 dinar) is interesting especially the medina (markets). You can feel pressured to look in all the shops but don't be, just politely ignore them and keep walking - but if you do go in be prepared to haggle and haggle hard!

All in all a good hotel, which is let down by the service of the reception staff and the restaurant. Could do better.

Yasmine is a very new pretty resort, as yet unfinished, the marine is worth a look. Tej Sultan hotel is excellent, although they had no booking for us on arrival and it took a day and a half to sort it out. The food is very good, very tunisian, we have been to many hotels in Tunisia and this was amongst the best. It has a beautiful pool area with plenty of sun beds, the beach is superb with the largest security man permanently in position! The cleanliness is excellent the service is excellent if somewhat slow.

The only drawback was the horrendous journey from Monastir to Hammamet in the oldest 4 x 4 vehicle which had done 420,000Km and an obvious lack of wheel bearings and suspension....... Excellent treatment facilities. Poor entertainment at night... BINGO........SNAKE CHARMER.....BELLY DANCER....SAME OLD SAME OLD