Just got back Thom Cook holiday was suppossed to be in RIU Imp Maharba palace (next door) but told 4 weeks before depart it was closed for refurb.
BVP was nice looking accom posh looking reception area palacial very nice staff very helpful but had to pay extra for AI £37 ea. The room was serious problem OMG cockroaches in loo and bathroom / bath and bedroom urg suffered this each night they just kept occurring got room change no problems thereafter, but spoilt holiday sleeping with one eye open if you know what I mean. The food varied from good to accepable little bland on flavour score sometimes, entertainment was mediocur, no outside facilities too speak of as season really finished, too cold to bathe in sea or pool in fact pool drained day after arrival.
Went to Sousse to shop, souk was a nightmare the shop owners just would not leave us alone.impossible to browse.
The overall holiday was a massive disapointment We would never go again to Tunisia
I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy your holiday - it clearly wasn't what you were hoping for. Cockroaches can be a problem the world over - I still have memories of the Welsh holiday cottage we visited when I was child where my Dad had to go on 'boodie' patrol every morning before my Mum would come down! I've found that hotels in Tunisia are usually more than willing to change your room and arrange for the old one to be fumigated which usually solves the problem.
But I think that your experience highlights that there are 3 key points that anybody thinking of going to Tunisia needs to bear in mind:
1) It's not a year round sunshine destination and between late October and April the weather can be a bit hit and miss and actually chilly on some days. Yes, it will generally be warmer than here in the UK but it's still too far north to have weather comparable to the Canaries or the Red Sea resorts in the winter.
2) The tourist facilities are very hotel-based and even in the height of the season there's not that much in the way of bars and clubs apart from the hotels unless you go to somewhere like PEK but even PEK and Yasmine Hammamet won't offer much over the winter months.
3) North Africans don't 'get' shopping as leisure activity - it's a cultural thing - strolling round the shops 'just looking' is something that most people in poor countries the world over either don't have the time to do or see no point in doing, that is, looking at stuff they can't afford to buy just for the sake of it. So they assume that if you are in a shop or showing interest at market stall by picking things up, then you are there to buy and the only thing to agree is the particular article you want and to reach a mutually agreeable price. So you need to either confine your 'shopping' to the government run fixed price shops - though you'll find that even there the assistants will be approaching you more frequently than you're probably used to at home - or perfect your haggling skills so that in the end they give you as a dead loss!
Tunisia is now much more touristy than when I first started going but I can't see it ever becoming the sort of home from home that the Spanish Costas are for so many UK holidaymakers. It is still North African in culture and temperament despite the superficial European gloss left over from French colonial days.
SM
But I think that your experience highlights that there are 3 key points that anybody thinking of going to Tunisia needs to bear in mind:
1) It's not a year round sunshine destination and between late October and April the weather can be a bit hit and miss and actually chilly on some days. Yes, it will generally be warmer than here in the UK but it's still too far north to have weather comparable to the Canaries or the Red Sea resorts in the winter.
2) The tourist facilities are very hotel-based and even in the height of the season there's not that much in the way of bars and clubs apart from the hotels unless you go to somewhere like PEK but even PEK and Yasmine Hammamet won't offer much over the winter months.
3) North Africans don't 'get' shopping as leisure activity - it's a cultural thing - strolling round the shops 'just looking' is something that most people in poor countries the world over either don't have the time to do or see no point in doing, that is, looking at stuff they can't afford to buy just for the sake of it. So they assume that if you are in a shop or showing interest at market stall by picking things up, then you are there to buy and the only thing to agree is the particular article you want and to reach a mutually agreeable price. So you need to either confine your 'shopping' to the government run fixed price shops - though you'll find that even there the assistants will be approaching you more frequently than you're probably used to at home - or perfect your haggling skills so that in the end they give you as a dead loss!
Tunisia is now much more touristy than when I first started going but I can't see it ever becoming the sort of home from home that the Spanish Costas are for so many UK holidaymakers. It is still North African in culture and temperament despite the superficial European gloss left over from French colonial days.
SM
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