Marhaba Royal Salem

We had a lovely holiday! The weather was hot just how we like it. The staff are all amazing & funny. Too many names to mention, However, Moana in the reception where the bar is was lovely. Moana in the reception where the small buffet is was lovely. Mohammed who also worked at the reception where the small buffet was, was so funny & friendly. It’s Tunisia, so the rooms are outdated with things broken here & there. We were only in the room to get ready & sleep. We wanted to make the most of the hotel facilities outside our room. We originally stayed in a room with four beds, a bath shower & no balcony. The room was very big. It was weird not having a balcony. Also, put bath was blocked when we used the shower & the shower was in a funny position so I struggled to wash my hair. They fixed the blocked bath straight away. We then moved rooms to a room by the quiet pool where they have all of the evening entertainment. So it was quiet in the day but noisy at night time with the entertainment. We had a balcony & a shower bath which was great. If you’re a lady who will be washing her hair like me everyday then you need to request a shower bath. However, the shower bath was like a wet room. The water went all over the bathroom after using the shower everyday. At 8.30am everyday in the room by the quiet pool, the maid would knock the door to collect your dirty towels & then come back later to clean the room. Water sports are cheap. Depending on what you want to do, you can spend £50 for two people doing a water sport. Which includes the jet skis. They don’t explain about dinner to you. They just say that you can only go to one buffet at dinner & any restaurant for breakfast or lunch. We were only allowed to go to the small buffet. If you ask, they will give you a blue card & you will then be given the same table every night at the big buffet. Always ask for a spoon when you arrive at the buffet & the waiter comes over to ask what drinks you would like. There are no spoons on the table & you have to ask for it. So you will then be waiting a while for a spoon that you need for either your soup or dessert. The slides pool has sea water. The slides are great fun. However, the water really burns your eyes. The pools both inside & outside where the gym is located are both cold. So nice & refreshing when you’re feeling hot. The sea is also cold too. Sousse Mall is about twenty minutes away in a taxi. It’s very cheap in a taxi. It’s about 20-30 dinar. Which is £5-7. Ask the receptionist how much a taxi is before you get a taxi as the taxi driver will always charge you more. Change your currency at the hotel & change it before you leave. We went to Tunisia last year & they took our Tunisian currency off us & said that we can claim it back within two years. They gave us a receipt, We were told that there was a currency change place at the airport. There were no signs & we didn’t see it. It’s illegal to take Tunisian currency both in & out of Tunisia. This year, they tried taking our English cash off us. They asked us at the airport, how much English cash we had on us. We said £100 & they said that was ok.

Perfect holiday in every way for family with 15 year old twin girls we loved it Clean rooms Clean pool Great beach Great food Excellent prices Amazing staff Booked the next year same time whilst we were here 10/10

Good stay. Though those saying negatives can kind of see where they are coming from. REQUEST TO CHANGE ROOMS IF YOU ARE PUT IN BLOCK 2 OR 3 AND NOT THE MAIN BUILDING! We booked a double room with garden view (these are in the main building) when we arrived we were given a family room with a queen bed and two singles in so barely any space, which was very dated, and the air conditioning was average at best. This was not the room we booked for a couples holiday. Next morning we went to the hotel to complain about this and to their credit we were given a much nicer, more modern room, on the third floor of the main building where the bars and restaurant are very quickly. This room was great, bed much confirer and air conditioning worked fine. There was about 4 other people doing this when we were so those whinging about the rooms I think is fair as they were probably in those ones. The hotel is absolutely massive site shared with another. The main pool with slides is on the opposite side outside the sister hotel rooms so a bit of a walk, if you have mobility issues I would not stay here due to it's size. The hotels private beach, which is lovely and sandy is down the back of here so a little walk again from this hotel. The pools for this hotel are much smaller and quieter which we preferred and enjoyed. A small issue is that the grating around the pool is not safe- it is loose and one woman's foot went right through it and it looked like she broke her ankle. This needs to be fixed, but also, it isn't really sensible in general to walk on a grate when the slabs are next to it. Pool itself is a great temperature and the bar staff will bring drinks to your sunbed if you ask. The drinks are given in small, quite frankly rubbish plastic cups of a small serving. But if you have your own travel cup (Stanley, Yeti etc) which we bring in every trip they will fill these for you. Food and drink for a 4 star resort was great- always lots of choice and tasty. After a week it gets a little repetitive but so does all all inclusive. Drinks were good. The staff are all so friendly and helpful and will go out their way to help you. A little tip goes a long way every so often. If you give the lifeguard a couple of dinar each morning he will sort you a sunbed. We were well looked after. You reserve a table for dinner where you use the same one every week and there is two dinner services, so the restaurant is never absolutely heaving (apart from Breakfast). There is an entertainment program on every nigh, with the lobby bar also open if you don't fancy that. The TV in here has the Arab equivalent of Sky Sports therefore it was a good place for sports lovers to watch the games. There are pool tables and air hockey which are roughly 50p a go. Last point if improvement is the air conditioning in public areas needs to improve. It is nowhere near as good as the bedrooms and you can sit their sweating in the evenings and when you are waiting to depart All in all we really enjoyed our stay. The room (after it changed) was good, cleaned regularly to a good standard. The food and drinks were good. The staff were helpful and friendly. The facilities themselves could do with improving in some areas, especially the Air Conditioning in public areas and making the pool safer, but overall it was a good week and I would stay here again.

This is definitely not a 4 or even 3 star hotel. Right from checking in we found most of the holiday stressful. We were given no wristbanlds, the air conditioning in the room wasn’t working properly and the room was very dated. We didn’t know about hiring towels and told what restaurants you can you. We asked to move and got a room next to the pool advertised on the TUI app. The air conditioning was better and the room slightly more modern. The dire is split into two hotels so some can use different restaurants depending on the time- very confusing! The pool pictures for Merhsbs Royal Salem is not the pool near this hotel. There is an indoor pool and a very small outdoor pool. The bars don’t open until 10am-pool bar doesn’t do cocktails, neither does the beach bar. You’re constantly walking around trying to find somewhere for a drink. Coffee and water is in small paper cups. I found some of the male staff quite rude, however the female staff especially the receptionist in block c was so lovely and friendly. Everything is spaced out so lots of walking in 35c heat and your constantly having to dodge around people to get anywhere especially at meal times. The food was ok, but I’m quite picky. However most of the time the drinks were warm as the water and cola is from bottles which haven’t been refrigerated. I don’t think any of these issues are caused by the staff, the hotel just needs a massive upgrade and more organisation and information for guests.

I would like to start by saying how incredible most of the staff are at this hotel, they treat you like family and can’t do enough for you - especially the waiters, cleaners, gardeners, maintenance people, concierge to name a few. A special shout out to Hamza who is the most friendliest guy you could meet, a genuine kind heart. Unfortunately the good staff is let down by everything else. The rooms are below standard, the air con in most rooms is hit or miss and across site in restaurants I don’t think it exists, eating was a challenge in them temperatures without AC. Warm drinks as not always ice available. The pool areas are extremely dangerous and dirty, black mould around the edges of the pools, missing tiles in and around the pool. The salt pool is horrific, I had seen so many reviews but didn’t realise quite how bad it would be - my children hated it as it burnt their eyes so badly. The outdoor chlorine pools are small and get very busy because everybody hates the salt pool and by the end of the day there is no telling what is harbouring in that water! My son sadly picked up an ear infection and we had to take him to an emergency clinic.to he treated, the doctor said it was caused likely by bacteria from dirty pool water which didn’t surprise me with how dirty the pools are. That cut his holiday short by 5 days as he couldn’t go in the water again. My daughter also had a horrific D&V bug whilst there. The restaurant in the Royal is crawling with cockroaches, all over the walls, seats and seen in the plate areas under the counters. Can’t speak for the Salem restaurant as we didn’t eat there but assuming possibly the same. The sunbed situation is so corrupt and umbrellas are kept back by the lifeguards in exchange for money - people are paying good money to holiday here and should not have to pay money to keep their children shaded from the sun, terrible behaviour and the management are aware this goes on but still allow it. The lifeguards are sleezy and will try it on with whoever they can. Most reception staff are unhelpful, rude and not approachable. The easyJet rep is extremely helpful so any issues you can approach him for anything. Venturing outside of the hotel is certainly an experience, you risk your life in a taxi and I genuinely just did not feel safe in a taxi or on foot. I would like to say again how incredible most staff are here, considering how hard they work for the amount of money they work for they are some of the best I have encountered. Unfortunately due to the experience at this hotel Tunisia will be a one time visit for us as a family. Thank you to all the lovely people here, you’re amazing people and very deserving of the tips given so please do tip if you can (not for a parasol though 😡) they are so grateful for any amount you give ❤️