The history to the booking of this week in Tunisia is more complex than necessary. Next week I should be spending a couple of days at a work management event because those were the dates initially booked for it, except they changed a couple of months ago without explanation so my holiday stood and I missed out on the work thing. Irritating but at least I get the holiday.
Or rather, had the holiday as I’m writing this beside the pool…
… on our last morning here at the Les Orangers Beach Resort and Bungalows in Hammamet, Tunisia.
One thing we’d never actually anticipated in late summer (at least in the UK) was the weather. Yes, we could have checked but not long before the holiday we discovered not only that we were going in a little rainy spell statistically but actually the penultimate day of our holiday is statistically the rainiest day of the year in Tunisia. Lovely!
The trip over was easy enough – leaving Jersey last Tuesday morning, spending the evening in Gatwick then leaving for Tunisia early Wednesday afternoon, but not before a visit to the south terminal Wetherspoons which I hadn’t been in since early in post lockdown times.
The flight to Enfidha airport was made much easier by not having a third person in our row on our flight so lots of space to be enjoyed too. Service wasn’t particularly great but it didn’t spoil anything.
Relatively speaking we sailed through the airport and passport control, and arrived at the hotel in really good time. It was quite overcast leading to quite a humid evening but the weather was lovely.
On that first night we were “treated” to a show – well, more of a feature I suppose – “Mr Hotel” where half a dozen dubious male specimens got to show off or something. We didn’t stick around but sadly much of the hotel’s night time entertainment wasn’t much better. A “circus” night which was essentially just gymnastics. We didn’t dare try the comedy night, since we’d already found language something of an issue.
Virtually every announcement in the hotel was read out in three, sometimes four, languages, which made every simple message very slow and every introduction to every act really, really painful to wade through. So we’d figured comedy in 3 languages wasn’t going to be great.
They did have a live band night though which was most excellent with a live band, surprisingly, who seemed to fill the first half of their set with bluesy tunes with 2 minute guitar breaks, but the second half with absolute bangers.
Our room was really comfortable with a fridge and balcony facing the sea. We’d upgraded to get that and it was well worth it.
We only spent one day down at the beach in the end though but it was good fun. The waves there were surprisingly high for what looked like an otherwise calm day, but made for an excellent way to spend the day, but ultimately the nuisance of getting very sandy wasn’t really worth it.
The hotel featured a lovely group of cats who seemed to live primarily in a big grassy patch between buildings, and they were clearly very well looked after.
The food at the hotel was very hit and miss. Some of it was really excellent, particularly at lunch time, but some of it lacked variety badly and the meat used often wasn’t of great quality either.
Overall, we had a good holiday. We relaxed loads, the rain actually held off even if it was a bit cloudy some days, and had a really good break.
Couple of important take aways though in the form of anti-recommendations for anyone reading. We bought an Orange e-sim to get mobile data access in Tunisia but it didn’t work on arrival and a couple of messages to their help desk didn’t help. In sprang into life on day 6, about the time I’d asked for a refund on the cost paid. All very dubious if you ask me. I can’t recommend Orange e-sims at all.
The other thing I can’t recommend is Enfidha airport. We were being sent in opposite directions by staff when trying to find the bank to exchange cash, to the extent I think they were trying to make it hard. Then UK passengers were told to go through an “additional security” section following which there were no shops or services at all. Actually, most shops before security were closed too which was very different to the quite positive view you might get if you look at the airport’s website. I came away from the place feeling like we weren’t wanted at all and I’m happy to oblige by never returning to that airport in the future. One to avoid at all costs for me.
So I’m finishing this post lying in bed in London. After leaving the hell hole of the airport we had an ok flight with incredibly slow service again, with a slightly lumpy wobbly landing, and cleared passport control really quite quickly. One nice dinner and a bottle of wine later we’re in a good place.
On then, to the shows of the next few days. Looking forward to them very much!
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