El Mouradi Club Kantaoui

Honest Review: Please Be Cautious As a family, our main priority is safety. Sadly, we felt safer outside on the streets than inside this hotel. I want to especially warn families with teenage daughters — please stay away. Our 19-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted while walking to our hotel room with her younger sister. We immediately reported the incident to hotel management and security, but it felt like they didn’t take it seriously. Shockingly, we later learned that a similar incident happened to another family that same week. This raises serious questions — where is the security? Why aren’t they protecting guests or keeping these men away? The hotel seems to allow large groups of single men (mostly Algerian) who constantly harass female guests. While some may be harmless, it’s intimidating and uncomfortable to be followed to the pool or beach while hearing comments like “beautiful,” “cute,” or “sexy” whispered at you. On a more positive note: The beach is beautiful, with warm, clear water. Staff were generally friendly and our room was cleaned daily with fresh towels and linens (we tipped the cleaners each day). The location is great — close to nice restaurants and gift shops. We enjoyed lunch at the café by the pool, which offered a nice break from the chaos of the buffet. The food there was lovely, and I mostly stuck to Coca-Cola since the drink options were limited. We also booked a few excursions through the hotel. Although it seemed like they simply arranged a taxi for us, the trips themselves were enjoyable and gave us a chance to get away for a while.

Well, where to start? We arrived at the hotel after an early flight, so we were not surprised that we were unable to check in yet (it was around 11am). We were told that we could leave out luggage in the room by reception, and that we should come back after 2pm when we would be given a room. Meanwhile, we were given our wristbands and told we could get lunch once they started serving. So far so good. We grabbed a drink and parked ourselves in the reception area for a short while, the plan being to find our bearings and decide where to go first. Immediately we noticed that even within about 20 feet of the reception area, we were unable to connect to WiFi. I checked that there was no password required (there wasn't), and was told that "there is probably a problem with the WiFi", and that we might be better trying the "bazaar" downstairs. We relocated, and were interested to note that in the "non-smoking" area downstairs, we managed to connect (sporadically) to the Wifi, although the connection was pretty poor. EVERYBODY in the "bazaar" area was smoking, despite it being inside, and, according to the signs at least, non smoking. We returned to reception at 2pm, to discover that there must have literally been 100 people jostling for position, 90% of whom were young, male Algerians, none of whom seemed prepared to wait, making it a very uncomfortable situation. Fortunately for me, a lady in a different uniform (who I later discovered was the Guest Relations Manager), picked me out of the crowd and attended to me first, telling me that first I had to pay the tourist tax, get a receipt, then I would be able to collect my key. I "queued" up to pay (nobody else seemed to bother with a queue) and then got my key. We were then escorted to the bungalow by the porter, who was very nice and obviously happy to receive a tip for his trouble. The bungalow was a decent size, with a brilliantly efficient air conditioning unit, and was prefectly acceptable as a base for the week. We were also lucky that we were right down at the bottom of the complex, very close to the beach (of which, more later), which meant it was very quiet. Next - We found the "dining room" (canteen), and immediately realised we were going to struggle. Once again the groups of Algerian guests, who seemed to have little or no understanding of etiquette and manners, were pushing to the front to grab food whenever it was placed on the serving area. The simple fact was that there were too many people and not enough food available, leading to crowds waiting for the next food to be brought out, which was then unceremoniously grabbed by those nearest to be able to. This made the whole mealtime "vibe" quite stressful and not something to look forward to. Breakfasts were slightly better, but lunch and dinner were really not much fun. I spoke to the Guest Relations Manager (Rebeb?) later regarding this situation, and she was good enough to write us a slip that allowed us extra visits to the A La Carte restaurant. We visited this restaurant, but were disappointed to discover that there was only a fixed menu, with a single choice for each course. This is NOT "A La Carte", this is table d'hôte! Each course was OK, albeit not very warm, but when a meat-based main course came out, I attempted to explain (in French) to the waiter that I don't eat meat, they took the plate away and didn't offer a replacement, so I sat with nothing to eat for that course! Evening entertainment was OK, in fact better than OK, some of it was very good and well put together by the entertainment team. Again, we found it very busy, including the bar area, with some of the young men behaving in a very predatory way towards English (and Tunisan) women, who clearly did not want this kind of attention. This was something we saw repeatedly throughout the week, and it appeared to go unchallenged by the staff. The beach area was really nice. The sea was warm enough to swim in, and was shallow enough not to be concerned by currents. The weather, particularly the wind, changed through the week, so I was glad I grabbed a swim early in the week when the sea was much calmer! There were always plenty of (free) sunloungers and sunshades, and there was an option to pay for a matress for a nominal fee (can't remember how much, but it certainly wasn't much). We walked down the beach to the port itself one afternoon, and had a couple of drinks at one of the restaurants there, which was very pleasant!). I would guess it was a little over a mile, and at a leisurely pace it probably took around 30 minutes or so. So, to summarise; The hotel grounds are really nice, espcially all the flowers. There are some bits that need some attention, but generally it's OK. Rubbish was an issue in the public areas, but that's as much down to those who caused it as anything. The Wifi is effectively non-existent. If you're reliant on Wifi day to day, forget it! The staff are really good, and I think they are also frustrated by the behaviour of some of their guests. The hotel is TOO busy - One of the reception staff told me as I got my key that there were "about 2000 guests" expected that day. To have around 4 or 5 staff dealing with this behind reception is always going to fail. Food - The "restaurant" feels more like a works canteen, and whilst any food you do manage to grab is pretty good, albeit not warm enough, it's the whole process, and the excess of people, that are the problem, making it something you HAVE to do, but really don't want to. (There a restaurant, I think unconnected to the hotel, on the beach called Coconut Island. We ate there twice at night and 1 lunchtime, and every time the food was absolutely superb. Not expensive either, costing around £60 for a 3-course meal for 2, with a bottle of wine Beach - Excellent. Very clean, loads of loungers, very nice place to spend a few hours. Local traders will try to sell you stuff, but they are not pushy and security always have an eye on them. Would I recommend the hotel? No. The taxi driver that took us back to the airport was a local tour guide, and said "why have you come to an Algerian party hotel?" - I answered honestly, and told him that obviously Love Holidays don't mention this when you book your holiday with them! I complained to Love Holidays, and gave them the option to repsond before I posted this review, but both messages I sent them were just closed without any reposnse, so here's the review!

Maddy animation team was amazing to all our family same as the lady in the restaurant dressed in a black suit unfortunately this hotel needs alot of improvement in all areas the food is hit and miss and some staff need to learn our to treat people with respect and treat everyone fair and we struggled to get clean towels in our bungalow some days we was left none at all the beach was beautiful and the grounds are nice