A relaxing week in Tunisia

Last week was the first beach holiday The Beard and I have ever taken together. It was one of those all inclusive package deal things that I normally shun due to their holiday camp mentality, but for once, we just needed to chill and not have to do anything.

We booked with Neckermann, and flew with Tunisair from Vienna to Tunis. The flight itself was a chaotic experience, that is the only way I can describe it! I can't say that I'd choose Tunisair as an airline unless I had to, but it wasn't terrible.

After a 2 hour transfer in a minibus from Tunis to our hotel in Skanes, a resort primarily consisting of hotels near Monastir (again, interesting transfer, I can totally see why the British Foreign Office advise tourists not to try and drive!), we arrived at the Sentido Rosa Beach.

I was a little nervous as there are some quite negative reviews on TripAdvisor, but I don't know which hotel they stayed at! Certainly not the same one as we did, because I couldn't fault the place!

We had paid extra for a pool/sea view, which was totally worth it. We got a room on the first floor behind the reception, which meant not too far to go everytime we wanted to go in! It is a huge huge hotel though. Maybe a room at the top on the middle portion would have been better for the sun and sea view but it was nice to have a shady spot.

View from our hotel room

We were lucky with the weather - normally at this time of year in Tunisia it is around 26 degrees, but we had daily temperatures of around 30, and apart from a couple of slightly cloudy days we pretty much had wall to wall sunshine!

The food in the hotel was really good; I didn't know what to expect as I've not done this type of holiday for about 17 years, but I was pleasantly surprised to have a really good range of foods, and all of them very delicious. True, it wasn't haute cuisine, but it was a mass catered buffet and as well as the pre prepared stews and vegetables there was always a choice of at least 2 different freshly cooked dishes such as prawns and meat.

We were staying all inclusive so our drinks were included. The punch and cocktails were a little odd and very much not to our taste, but the Tunisian wines and beer were rather nice - so nice that we brought back a few bottles of wine with us.

The swimming pool at the hotel is salt water which was great for me, as chlorinated pools when mixed with sun screen can create a layer of oil with bacteria on the top that increases your chance of getting an ear infection, and if you are prone like me, well nightmare. I'd always swim in the sea over a chlorinated pool when I'm on holiday. Unfortunately the sea in front of our hotel was very very shallow, so not really good for swimming. I was a bit disappointed by this because I really really miss the sea and swimming in it. The salt water pool was a reasonable substitute though, so I didn't feel too bad. I could at least see the sea and smell it, and we took a couple of night time strolls along the beach. 

The 'Animation' Team were great, if you wanted to join in great, but if not, no problem. There were loads of activities on, so if sitting by the pool all day isn't really your thing (I'd say you were in the wrong hotel), there was stuff to do. We fully went with the intention of doing nothing, but we ended up getting involved in a few activities just for fun. The evening entertainment was fun, and worth watching.

My only regret about the holiday was forgetting to pack the mosquito spray. I was bitten quite a few times and despite my best efforts suffered allergic reactions. It was stupid as I'd looked at the bottle of spray and simply forgot to pack it.

We did a couple of trips out, but I'll do a separate post on them as I need to sort out the photos still!

We had a great week though, and I'm so glad we decided to do it, it was just what we really needed.