Hammamet Le Saphir / Hammamet Village

We loved it! Truly! We booked another hotel a year later, as it is all there was, and we truly regretted it. The entertainment team kept us busy all the time. We went to the Hammamet Village at Christmas, and to see the children's faces light up when a full dressed Santa rode in on a camel was lovely. They may be Muslim, but they joined in and gave us all a Christmas to remember. We had a 7 course Christmas dinner, and the last course was baked Alaska set alight on trays, which in dim light was an amazing sight. They play a crazy bingo game which is so much fun, and there is also donkey racing. It's mad, but you go home tired laughing. I partied and danced in the club. My family just loved it. Talking about it I just want to go again, and I am in no doubt that I will go again.

Tunisia takes a while to get used to, but the heat was fantastic. The views are great, and the beaches were superb. I do not advise full day trips in the summer months though. In relation to this hotel however, the food was tepid at best, and it was the same menu day in day out, which caused us to be ill. We could not exchange money for 24 hours due to shortages, and we discovered a complete inability to organise anything re: reception. Flights home were massively delayed with little feedback, and a year on we are still awaiting an apology or explanation from Direct Holidays. Never again!!! We are the type of people who can put up with basics and only require sun, beach and good food. We adapt to other cultures, but this was beyond the call of duty.

I think Hammamet Village should be knocked down and build something which people might half like as this place is a hole. A word of advice if you go do not give the porters any money and get up early to just get a sun lounger.

Intro:

I stayed at the Hammamet Village last September for 2 weeks. I was there with 5 friends of mine. What a nice vacation it was.

Hotel:

It's a 3-star hotel, but it's days are way gone. so now I think it could be classified as a 2-star but who cares. As long as I have a place to crash and a place to wash - I'm all set. Bungalows are great, we were getting drunk and playing crazy games, scaring the girls in the other room and all that stuff.

Entertainment:

There are 3 bars serving alcohol, beer is diluted with water, after couple of days of drinking that I got ill and I had to eat some carbo pills to stop it (but it's normal in Tunisia). Stronger alcohols are thinned as well, but guys got the thinking: gin is diluted with tonic, rum with Coke, and vodka with Sprite. They won't give you more than one drink per visit so it kinda sucks.

We were starting at the closest bar, taking drink walking up to another for a beer, and going to the furthest one for another drink, and so on, and so on. It worked, but still we couldn't get drunk with this.

I would recommend ordering MUSCAT, the local 17% sweet wine, whenever possible. It's not diluted because the crew didn't invent with what they can dilute it. The shots are small so the approach is: walk up to an empty bar, order muscat shots, drink immediately, and then order vodka-with-Sprite with Coke for example.

Sometimes the barmen were in a good mood so they were nice to people and served fancy stuff - they were adding this disgusting green mint liquor to colorize the drink, or some fruit liquor, or coconut. whatever it was added to, it tasted awful, don't drink it.

If you give the barman a tip, you may expect some generosity, like he would open a "fresh one bottle of BOUKHA" (boukha is their local vodka). the "fresh one" meant that it was an empty bottle filled with the dilute. Barmen have to improve their skills when putting the bottle caps - the "fresh" Boukhas had red caps while the original is white... funny stuff.

So all you need is strategy there, but it makes your vacation kinda like James Bond or something.

Pools:

One huge pool, very nice, 3,5 meters deep. and another small one, very nice too. There was even a small pool for kids, but it was out of order for the rest of our vacation. Hopefully we didn't bring any kids with us.

Every morning there was this "aperitif" game by the huge pool. Kinda noisy because one of the guys was screaming something from his booth, so you couldn't really take a nap, but vacation is not about taking a nap, is it. He knew many languages, and his name was SIG BOU, I'll remember that name forever.

The guys were not allowed to drink at work so they gladly accepted any free drink from us, so that they could get at least tipsy for a while. I even shared a plate of fries with one of the guys - what an exceptional moment.

The best thing is the ping-pong table. we basically spent the whole time there. Ping pong ping pong, that's the way she goes.

Food:

A nice scrambled egg every morning is what you need to start a good day in Tunisia and you have that guaranteed in Hammamet Village. The scrambled egg was sometimes too raw, but the cook didn't understand English, so it's literally impossible to explain him anything. He just does his job.

Lunchtime was always crowded with greedy ones standing in the line ready with their plates. We were always late for the lunch, so we never get the tasty looking chicken wings, but I got one once, and I think KFC does better job at chicken wings. The food is alright, I was happy with my daily intake of fatty fries, burned potatoes, and some meat scraps. I was eating until I was full, and when the food was gone I was packing myself with terrible cakes. I don't recommend eating watermelons or other raw fruits, unless you wash them properly.

The dinner time was kinda romantic, candles on the tables. Thanks to Hammamet Crew I now know Sade's "Smooth Operator" by heart and I can sing it at anytime. It's a valuable quality to know that song - think a bit and you'll know what I mean - girls love that song.

Between lunch and dinner you can get free pizza and fries from the pool bar, don't eat pizza. I need not to say more.

Beach:

A bit far from the hotel, but a bit of walking can do you good. The beach is very nice, there are loungers but the Crew wants money for using that, so it's up to you.

Outro:

Bring your booze. you have to drink a lot of REAL alcohol every evening to kill the germs from the Tunisian food.

The Hammamet Village hotel was clean, and the amenities were good. Gorgeous setting. A truly wonderful place.

If you are planning on spending everyday sunbathing by the pool, you will enjoy Hammamet Village hotel as long as you take ear plugs to avoid listening to the constant screeching from the 'entertainment' staff. Night life is really good in near hotels and bars, do not stay in the Saphir in the evenings, the entertainment is shocking, you will be disappointed.

I found the Hammamet Village staff to be very friendly and helpful, especially Mohamed, a waiter in the restaurant, and also the bar and reception staff who made me feel very welcome. The maids cleaned our room every morning and placed out new bed linen and towels with a lovely fresh flower placed on the bed each day which was very nice.

The pool was great with all types of music for everyone played throughout the day.

Overall the hotel had a great atmosphere and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Please keep away from Le Saphir hotel. Day one 2 greedy porters grabbing bags and demanding money, no dinars so they want English money. Same on the way home money for bags from room to reception and then again from reception to bus and their eyes let you know this.The food was disgusting don't expect fried egg or bacon you don't get any, breakfast was a waste of time. Evening meal was murder, we queued for ever behind greedy and rude Polish people.

We had no idea what the food was the cooks just plonked it on trays so it was trial and error.We finally just settled for chips Then we had to go outside and queue up again for the meat, so by this time your meal was cold.Then find a table which was always dirty because when people had finished their meal and left, the waiter just took the top cloth shook the crumbs off and turned it over god knows how many times.You then have to find your own knifes and forks etc.

You pay for beds around the pool. The attendant puts his towels on some of the beds which means you have to tip him for a bed and then pay again when the guy comes round with the tickets.If you are half board as we were you are only allowed in one bar with a small fridge in which they keep bottles of beer, hence the beer is always warm. To get a cold beer, again you have to bribe a waiter to go into the all inclusive bars where they have a draught beer and at 3 dinars (£1.30p) for a small glass it takes about 3 to fill a pint so it becomes expensive with tip

The Theatre, They do their best to entertain the kids but as with most things they do not have the facilities. The stage is in the open air with no guards on either sides and a sheer drop of about 10 ft. Nice beach, poor cafe with disgusting toilets.

Where do i start with Hammamet Village?

Entertainment was rubbish, Food was disgusting, Nothing for the kids, Disco empty.

I went on my own with 2 kids. They wanted to come home the 1st week that's how bad it was, I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. If you were half board you had to pay for the sunbeds. You were made to feel inferior if you were not all inclusive. Apparently a new manager took over 2 months ago and its just gone downhill from there. Used to be mostly English but not anymore, all Polish!!!!

What more can i say, Don't go there, seriously you will be very disappointed.

Where do I start? The food was filling and hit the spot. Good quality, so I can't complain. Even had some tunisian traditional food. It isn't England, so don't expect a proper full english breakfast in the morning! Rooms were very clean, and the maids did a fab job with the sheets and flowers. Lovely views. Take advantage of the days out provided by the hotel. Pools are clean and the grouds are nice. However, the bar staff are very rude, and begrudge you anything if you ask. They don't seem to know how to speak nicely. The entertainment was non-existent, altough the man there, did try his best for the kids. Watch Reception like a Hawk! They will try to rip you off, and the rep is too busy to be be able to take a stand for you! Drinks are limited! From awful wine to 1 or 2 spirits. What ever you do, don't get any photo's from the photographer, he is dreadful!! Do your own sunset shots. To get to the beach, you have to walk down an alleyway which was terrible! There were Dead rats, underwear, camel poo, and builders shout at you from the complex on the beach front, which is being renovated. The beach was a mess. Broken glass and cans everywhere. A real let down for the children. It's a shame that you get hassled to death at the medinas. Whilst out shopping, you feel too intimdated to look, especially if your a woman. I ended up getting all my gifts at the airport!