Marhaba Royal Salem

Brilliant hotel, food was great and staff were very friendly, always on hand if you need anything from waiters to lifeguards always very helpful. Entertainment was great also, not to pushy to join in activities and made sure everyone was having fun except from one member of the entertainment team Rio. Constantly pestered me and my sister aged 18 and 17, asking for snapchat and constantly trying to speak to us and gain our social media after being told no, not just to us but to other young girls making us feel uncomfortable. However other than that there was nothing wrong with this hotel and everything was top notch and would definitely come back.

Marhaba Royal Salem The first thing I want to say is that the staff at this hotel could not have been more helpful or hardworking. Every member of staff we encountered did their best and were always polite and friendly. Unfortunately, that's where the positives largely end. We arrived at the hotel on 19th July at around 11:00am with my wife and son. Check-in was quick, but we were told we couldn't have our room until 2:00pm as that is the hotel's official check-in time. This meant waiting around for three hours, so if you're planning to stay here, I'd recommend booking a later flight if possible. We booked through EasyJet Holidays and don't remember seeing this mentioned. The reception area itself was lovely. It had comfortable seating, a nice bar and looked clean and well maintained. Sadly, this was by far the nicest part of the hotel. As you moved further into the resort, the overall standard noticeably declined. When we finally got to our room, it was tiny and nothing like the photographs used to advertise the hotel. There was barely enough room to walk around the beds, and the wardrobe was so small I couldn't even unpack one suitcase properly. After returning to reception, I managed to move to a larger room, which was appreciated. However, this room also looked nothing like the advertised photos. During our stay I also saw three other rooms, and they were exactly the same. I honestly don't know where the rooms shown in the promotional pictures are. The layout of the hotel is probably the most confusing I've ever experienced. It genuinely feels like two hotels have been joined together, with four or five different buildings and three reception areas. I booked the Marhaba Royal Salem, but there's also the Marhaba Salem, and it was never really clear which hotel we were actually staying in. The main pool is a good size, but unless you're prepared to get up at around 6:00am or reserve a sunbed overnight with towels, you'll struggle to find somewhere to sit. The surface around the pool is also extremely rough underfoot, so footwear is essential. There are several pools around the resort, although one of them took me a couple of days to find. The main pool was definitely the best. Only one member of staff served drinks around the main pool between approximately 10:00am and 5:00pm or 6:00pm. He worked incredibly hard all day, but one person simply isn't enough for a pool of that size. It was often quicker to fetch drinks yourself, which certainly wasn't his fault. If you want bottled water, stock up in the evening. Most mornings there was none available because they were waiting for deliveries. On some days I couldn't get bottled water until after 11:00am, which is ridiculous considering the bars don't open until 10:00am. Breakfast seemed to be the only place to get a drink early in the morning. Another frustration was the lack of self-service soft drink stations. At most all-inclusive resorts, children can simply help themselves to soft drinks throughout the day, but here every drink had to be ordered from the bar and was poured individually from bottles by a member of staff. This often meant queuing just to get a soft drink, putting even more pressure on the bar staff. The only self-service option available around the hotel was the coffee machines, which were located in several areas of the resort. The snack bars were another disappointment. I was told one opened at 10:00am, but when I visited the selection consisted of just a few different croissants and pastries. There were no burgers, chips, hot dogs, cakes, ice creams or ice lollies available throughout the day, unlike many other 4-star all-inclusive resorts I've visited. It also appeared to close around midday, as every time I walked past afterwards the food was covered up. The second snack bar didn't open until 3:00pm at the beach. There are two main restaurants, one for each hotel, plus another by the pool. Which restaurant you use depends on which part of the hotel you're staying in. You also have to choose one of two dining sittings and sit at the same table every evening. The restaurant we were allocated became extremely busy, with tables packed so closely together that it was difficult to move around comfortably. Unfortunately, the food was the biggest disappointment of the holiday. Myself, my wife and my son struggled to find anything we enjoyed at breakfast, lunch or dinner, and ended up eating mainly pancakes, pizza and chips. This surprised me because on my previous visits to Tunisia I found the food to be excellent. The beach bar also serves lunch, but it becomes very busy and quite messy. The burgers and sausages were honestly some of the worst I've tasted. I even saw them being cooked around 90 minutes before they were served, which probably explains why they were so dry and overcooked. Compared with other 4-star resorts I've stayed in across Europe, this was easily the poorest food. The hotel was cleaned to an acceptable standard, but it feels very tired and in need of refurbishment. Many of the glass doors and windows were filthy throughout our stay, and I never once saw them being cleaned. Every morning I would get up around 7:00am, grab a coffee and sit outside. One thing I noticed every single morning was that none of the outdoor tables had been properly cleaned from the previous evening, despite there being two or three male members of staff outside. Rather than using cleaning spray and cloths, they appeared to be wiping the crumbs off the tables with dry paper towels and brushing them onto the floor. The tables were often left looking sticky and dirty, and it was surprisingly difficult to find one that was actually clean. This was disappointing and gave the impression that the outdoor seating areas weren't being cleaned thoroughly. The public toilets, however, were well maintained, with staff constantly working hard to keep them clean. The beach itself is lovely, and the sea was warm and enjoyable. I've stayed in Tunisia several times before, although always in 5-star hotels, so perhaps my expectations were higher. However, I've also stayed in many 4-star hotels across Europe, and in my opinion this hotel would be closer to a 2 or 3-star standard elsewhere. We didn't stay for the evening entertainment, so I can't comment on the quality. I will say, though, that I never saw any signs or noticeboards showing what entertainment was on each night. Sleeping was difficult because maintenance work on the palm trees started from around 5:00am on two mornings. The constant sound of ladders being moved around woke us up. The beds were also extremely hard and uncomfortable. While talking to other guests, several people shared similar opinions to ours, although there were also plenty who seemed to love the hotel. Everyone's experience is different. We paid a lot of money for this holiday and expected much better than we received. We did book quite late and during the first week of the summer holidays, so perhaps that had some impact. The air conditioning in the second room we moved to worked well. However, if you wanted to escape the heat anywhere else in the hotel, the only reasonably cool place I found was one of the reception areas in the Marhaba Salem. Even there it wasn't particularly cool. Most indoor areas of the hotel were stiflingly hot and uncomfortable. We chose this hotel because of its excellent TripAdvisor reviews, which made it sound like a fantastic place to stay. Unfortunately, that simply wasn't our experience. We tried to make the best of it, but overall it was the most disappointing holiday we've had. Finally, I'd like to repeat that the staff were outstanding. They worked tirelessly every day and were without doubt the best thing about the hotel. I just felt they were constantly trying to firefight problems that were beyond their control.

We arrived to a lovely room, super clean with enough space. Cleaned everyday with fresh towels and bedding. We were greeted by some really hard working staff that took our cases up to our room when it was time to check in. Again the same was done when we left taking our cases to our transfer. Just so lovely! The Air con wasn’t great during our stay but we did go during a heatwave! This was experienced in our room & all around the hotel. It was difficult to sit outside in the evening or even inside due to heat so we did go up earlier than we would have liked most evenings. Most days we did hear other guests saying they were struggling with the air con not being very cool. A beach is my favourite part of my holiday and here the beach is beautiful. However more umbrellas are needed for shade. Tip! People do put their towels down early by sunbeds with umbrellas so have breakfast & go down as soon as you can for a spot. The waiters on the beach are so kind working so hard and they couldn’t do enough for you. Some would remember our favourite drinks throughout the week & would just turn up with them which is a lovely touch :) For shopping there are a couple of shops not far out of the hotel and a shop inside the hotel. You can get some great souvenirs for such a good price. Regarding the Animation team - as we were a mixed group of male & female it was noticed more focus would be on the females of the group. It made it look like they may have had certain intentions in how male members of our group were ignored. However this is just a few of them many were nice & were respectful if you didn’t want to take part in activities. I have to mention Ham because he was great fun to be around. Ham made effort with everyone in our group & you could see when he would walk around the hotel that he made the effort to know everyone. Ham made the effort too with members of our group that had felt ignored by others & they really appreciated it. Ham is an asset to the hotel & I hope he sees this feedback! If you like entertainment there is always a show or something going on in the evening. Plus loads of activities by the pool & beach. We didn’t use the pools overly much as we preferred to have a more relaxing time by the beach. With food and drink we always found something to eat. I found the authentic Tunisian food tasted better. Breakfast was my favourite for the pancakes, pastries & donuts! A lot of the alcoholic drinks were made very strong which made them not very enjoyable so I would ask for them to be made less strong. One evening we tried out the Shisha bar which was a lot of fun. This was an additional charge but for just 5 dinar each! The member of staff that worked there was friendly, super polite & would always say hello if we ever saw him. There are also people around the hotel selling excursions again for great prices. Some of our group went quad biking & on a boat trip - where dolphins made an appearance! Overall having visited at peak season the value is good for your money. Many of the staff make you feel so much welcome & looked after. There are just a few that can make female guests feel uncomfortable, I did change where I spent my evenings due to a couple of members of staff. However stunning beach, good choice of pools, really hard working staff you get what you pay for. Staff also really appreciate a tip when often would tip due to the great service.

We booked our all inclusive holiday through easyjet, getting to the hotel was simple through the coach transfer. Took just under an hour to reach. We arrived to around 40 degrees luckily coach was air conditioned. We arrived at 12pm, check in was 2pm, we went to have lunch at 12.30 before checking in at 2pm. We had booked 2 separate rooms for a family of 6- at check in we were kindly upgraded to a family apartment suite- which had a main bedroom and a second room with 3 single beds, we requested a 4th bed and it was bought to our room within 10mins. Every morning we would go for breakfast which finished at 10,and some days I took some croissants and cake to our room as the kids were still sleeping. Lunch and dinner for the kids was usually pasta pizza chips, some roast chicken or fried fish. I enjoyed the soups and some of the Tunisian cuisine too. My son has a nut allergy and on the first day we spoke to the head chef who helped us. Majority of the foods were nut free. Only thing was the desserts which did tend to have nuts and sesame which he avoided. Icecream also have to be careful as there is pistachio and hazelnut icecream. I was quite worried about his allergy but actually we had a really good experience with the food. At lunch we had an really lovely waiter called Adel, he was so attentive and always happy to see us at lunch. There was also a snack bar near the entertainment stage and pool, as well as a beach bar near the beach behind the slides which had burgers sausages pizza bread and drinks from 3pm-5p. There was aqua aerobics every day and other pool activities. The slides were open 10-12 and 3-5. There was a kids club during the same hours too which my daughter really enjoyed, they did set and crafts and games, face painting and a bit of outdoor play but it was very hot to stay out for too long. The kids club was air-conditioned aswell . Dalel Houda and the team were great at entertaining the kids and I was able to leave them there without any worries and go off to the pool. My boys enjoyed the teen club, Fedi was a really kind lovely young man, there was a PlayStation and some outdoor games aswell which my older boys really enjoyed. Every evening there was kids disco lead by Dalel which was throughly enjoyed by everyone. Overall a lovely all inclusive holiday good food, great entertainment and recommended for for families with young kids.

The hotel review is based on the amount we paid for the holiday the location and the star rating of the holiday that we booked. looking at this review please take into account cost you pay for the holiday and ensure your expectations are at this level. I find that lots people write really really poor reviews when the hotel they paid for quite literally can’t be a five star plus all inclusive and peope score much less than what the hotel actually deserves. 5* Mustafa - Mustafa was the chief entertainer and couldn’t have been more welcoming for my family. Nothing was too much. His hospitality and knowledge of the hotel was exceptional true gem for this hotel. Thankyou Mustafa 👏👏 5* Abdou and Jaguar- both of these guys helped and supported my family around the pool every single day with a smile on their face. No task was too great or too small and over the week we formed a really good relationship with these guys who work Tirelessly every single day! Amazing guys 👏 The hotel was a four star with a very good location on the beach. The beach activities were extremely competitive compared to other countries that I have been and was a clear highlight of our holiday. The area could do with some money generating however please ensure this is understood before you visit. Food was very generic over the week however please understand that lots of different nationalities are being catered for and the hotel. They’re very best to manage this for me personally it was a 3 1/2 star menu. The people of Tunisia definitely make this country worth visiting again. I will say again that before booking please ensure that you understand the price that you are paying for this holiday as it is not a five star hotel. We look forward to visit again in the future and cannot wait to see the Tunisian people, especially Mustafa, Abdou and Jaguar 💪🙏