Vincci Taj Sultan

Well here is my honest review about the Vincci Taj Sultan hotel in Hammamet.

We have just got back from Tunisia. When we first arrived it looked like a very pleasant hotel. We got a sea view room which overlooked the pool and the sea. A very nice room which started off as a plus. Sadly, after going down to the beach it quickly changed. The beaches were of a very poor standard, and not what I expected. There was a lot of seaweed littered on the beaches, and it was not cleaned up. This was the case for our entire stay. The beaches in Yasmine are terrible. The water is dirty, and the evening walks along the beach are not enjoyable, sinking your feet into seaweed and seaweed balls.

During our stay, breakfast and dinner was of a very poor quality. I have had better quality of food at a 2 star hotel than I did at Vincci Taj Sultan, which was such a let down and made staying there a very disappointing one.

I would also recommend booking any rental cars through Avis, not the guy at the hotel. Avis gave us better rates, including full collision protection waiver, which they fail to mention at the hotel, side stepping it by telling you all is fine and there won't be problems, but the long and short of it is, windscreen, wing mirrors and lights are not covered, which could add up to a lot if damaged.

I hope this is some help, and you end up enjoying your holiday at a better hotel.

Beautiful view of beach from room - get a room with a beach view. Bar has brilliant view over beach. Entertainment good but not overbearing so you can ignore it if you want. Tunisians generally give the impression of being friendly. They are generally helpful in most hotels if they get to know you and you tip.

The rooms at Vincci Taj Sultan are clean, spacious and bright, airy and comfortable. Ours had a beautiful sea view and balcony. The rooms are serviced every day and the staff do an excellent job of cleaning and tidying up - there are fresh towels and the beds are made, bins emptied etc. There is a mini bar in the room with beers, bottled water etc which is useful and reasonably priced, restocked daily. You can buy bottled water in the hotel and via the mini bar, there is no need to take it with you. There was a safe in our room, and we had a bathroom with bath/shower - again clean and well presented.

There is daily entertainment for children; activities all day and then discos in the evening. The 'animation' (entertainment) team are very friendly and absolutely super with the kids of all ages (and adults!). There are also shows and discos every day in the evening - dancing/comedy/karaoke etc. The children loved the mini discos where they get on stage and do all the actions to songs with the help of the team. We stayed over Christmas and New Year; the Christmas show included many other dancing/music acts. The team also assembled a small stable outside with animals for the children to play with which they enjoyed very much. For the New Year's party the whole restaurant moved into the foyer and both the animation team and, again, many other acts provided a colourful evening of entertainment of a very high standard. The party was still going strong when we left for bed at 3.30...!!

The food is of a very high standard & there is always something different on offer - we stayed half board & ate extremely well. It is served buffet style with a starter/main course/desert carousel, and a chef cooking different speciality dishes every day. It's a good idea to get to the restaurant fairly early after opening as the desserts seem to disappear fast! They open for breakfast as early as 5am so if you're going on a tour you are catered for. There is other restaurants - one for special events (the 'oriental evening' event we attended and paid for served food which was not much different to that found in the buffet restaurant - but we did get entertainment that evening which was different and enjoyable). There's also an al la carte restaurant which we didn't eat in but had drinks in as there was a lovely pianist playing (who incidentally managed to pull off a jazz duet with my 6 year old daughter who has never touched a piano in her life!).

The hotel staff - waiters, reception, room cleaning, animation/entertainment etc go out of their way to be helpful & friendly and to provide information. They all work extremely hard and you could be forgiven for thinking they never sleep or take the day off..!

Re: the facilities - my children/father used the heated indoor swimming pool quite often and were very happy with it - there is towel hire available as you can't use the room towels, for a refundable deposit (about 35 dinas). There is an outdoor pool but we did not venture in as it isn't heated and it was a little cold at this time of year! The sun loungers round the pool were used a lot while we were there. The grounds are well tended and very well maintained - setting is attractive. The adjoining beach is absolutely beautiful - miles of clean white sand and various hire facilities available (volleyball/pentaque pitches next to the beach too).

I'd also add that the 2 day tour to the Sahara desert which can be booked via your travel representative (although the hotel staff will help find you another agency if, like ours, your representative doesn't bother showing up!) is absolutely worth every penny. There's a lot of travel so maybe not for very young children (my 11 and 6 year old girls were no problem) but you see two thirds of Tunisia including riding on camels as the sun sets in the Sahara and seeing the mountains/waterfalls where many films were made. I understand this is only available in the colder months as during mid summer it's too hot in the Sahara.

The hotel is ideally situated - of course next to the beach but also close to Jasmine Hammamet where there is Cathiagieland - a really good fun park for the kids (entrance was 15 dinas a head - about £7.00 - for all day) and hundreds of little gift shops and small restaurants and bars. There's a chemist just outside of Jasmine on the main road - a short walk or a taxi for about 3 dinas/£1.50 from the hotel. There are also various other towns nearby - we didn't like Hammermet but were told Nabul was worthy of a visit although didn't have time. There's a tour from the hotel to Tunis available - again we had no time but many people staying there gave it a good review.

I would thoroughly recommend this hotel to anyone and in particular to anyone with children. We stayed in the bars pretty late most nights and felt quite comfortable letting the kids go off with the other children - besides the entertainment, there is pool/air hockey for them in the bar and they are very well looked after.