TUI BLUE Oceana Suites - Adults Only

“I would rate this holiday my most relaxing, it beat Mauritius hands down.”

First things first.. if you are flying in from Scotland be aware your morning flight will get you there around 10am and their check in time is not until 4pm. However this is not the disaster you might think as the staff are quick to offer solutions, one of which was a room to change in and that s... more

First things first.. if you are flying in from Scotland be aware your morning flight will get you there around 10am and their check in time is not until 4pm. However this is not the disaster you might think as the staff are quick to offer solutions, one of which was a room to change in and that suited us just fine. *The receptionist was quick to note my partner's grumpy face on arrival (it made me chuckle.) Although we had to leave home at 3am to drive to Glasgow airport, 2 sets of road diversions and then a warehouse fire at the car parking place delaying us to the point we feared we would miss check in, so he was allowed to be a bit grumpy.) :p We travelled without physical cash as Tunisia has controlled their access to currency. This was an issue for us as being Scottish we knew our bank notes are not always recognised, so we assumed that with currency converting services being listed at the hotel we would also be able to withdraw money there. Nope. After 24 hours to catch up, my partner headed off on foot along the beach to withdraw cash. This went a bit south as the cash machine swallowed his card, which he then promptly cancelled. Another 24 hours went by and he decided to try again with another card at an actual bank, success this time. Now to the actual hotel and facilities. We were perturbed by the hotel requiring male guests to wear long trousers, that would have been fine if TUI had put this on their website, they hadn't and the rep seemed exhausted by the sheer mention of it. *Come on TUI, it's not that hard to amend information, don't blame the hotel for trying to keep standards up.* It was unfortunate that the only long trousers my partner had with him were his travelling outfit, his jeans. Not very comfortable for him every evening, *especially as there were females walking around with little shorts on, same rules for everyone would be fairer hotel take note* Our room was massive, it didn't have a little swim up outside the patio area and so it did look rather barren out there, perhaps something could be done with the area? Our bathroom did have a couple of issues, toilet not flushing (fixed straight after reporting) Hose leaking (also fixed straight away.) The shower area did not have a door, while this was no issue for me my partner is somewhat larger and found he soaked the floor without the door, the chrome was also pitted and marked as you would expect with a few years of use, but the water pressure was excellent as was the temperature and the tiling was beautiful. The food was good, healthy, and abundant. I ate a lot and yet somehow lost weight on this holiday, most likely because of the things I was choosing (even with all the little cakes and the Tunisian doughnuts smothered in honey every day.) The staff are absolutely wonderful, humorous and keen to chat with you. Probably one of the things that made this stay so wonderful was that the hotel itself was not full and there were only a handful of well behaved children in the whole place (appreciated after a flight from h@ll that was even worse on the return journey. The facilities at the hotel were above and beyond several pools to choose from, though we chose the beach every day as it was right on the doorstep. Perhaps the beach bar staff should be aware that while they are putting on live music events at the pool restaurant /bar, it is so loud that the beach bar music should be turned down, just while the event is happening for the comfort of those on the beach. Please be aware of the sign telling you not to engage the camel touts, it was upsetting watching them marching them up and down, even the baby who was stumbling along. If tourists refuse to engage with them they will eventually stop this practice. All in all I absolutely loved this holiday and would go back to this hotel in a heartbeat. I was hugely grateful our flight-full of swearing and screaming people went to the other hotels, perhaps drawn by the water slides and so forth. It is good there is a more relaxed multicultural option. Having travelled to many places, some of which are considered to be luxury destinations, I would rate this holiday my most relaxing, it beat Mauritius hands down.

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