Ideale x RELAX

Buona struttura, ottimo rapporto qualità/prezzo; splendido ristorante sulla spiaggia.

Calm and comfortable

I agree with one reviewer that this is not a 5 star in the European sense, but it is comfortable, clean and well run by any standard.

We were able to look at a number of standard rooms (like ours) and they were all bright, very large and simply but comforably furnished in tastefull wrought iron and cushion fashion. Floors were a heavy and attractive tile that would have been a bit cold in the mornings had we not been provided robes and house slippers. Each room boasts fairly private decks or balconies which are perfect for enjoying the grounds, birdsong and calls to prayer from a nearby mosque.

Baths were enormous (not exceptionally well equipped and showing some age - but clean and perfectly serviceable) with seperate water closets.

Our room and the others we saw all had plenty of storage space - 2 large hall closets with ample room to stash golf clubs, clothes and the knicknacks you're bound to pick up in the medina or souk.

The staff was efficient, and polite and helpfull without being overbearing. The housekeeping staff was extremely friendly and perfectly entertaining and delightfull - always checking with my wife to see that the room was cleaned and furnished to her satisfaction.

The grounds range from well manicured and 'parked out' to unkempt, but they are tropical and enjoyable at either end of the range. My wife still talks about the wonderfull gardens and jasmine scents throughout. The Sinbad portion of the beach is clean and well raked each morning but the adjacent properties are semi abandoned and the beaches not nearly so well maintained.

The food, available from the 3 restaraunts on site was good on whole. My wife did receive something in the main restaraunt (maybe a shrimp, maybe the water) that had her wretching through our first night but she recovered nicely and had no difficulty after that.

The main restaraunt serves breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is always buffet style with

a very large selection of cerials, fruits, yogurts, breakfeast meats and breads - there

is also always someone on hand to cook eggs to order (including decent omelets) if

you like.

Dinner in the main restaraunt is normaly (but not always) served buffet style and while

the food not gourmet caliber, it is good, plentifull and the selection is broad. Dinner for

2 and a bottle of the passable local red will run about 50 euros.

The beach grill serves lunch and early dinners. The food and service was quite good

and reasonably priced. This restaraunt sits immediately over the beach and offers

both indoor and outdoor dining. If you're from Spain or Portugal, stay away from the

calamari and octopuss, you'll be mortaly dissapointed - the fish and prawns however

were excellent.

The high end restaraunt (can't remember the name) was a bit on the expensive side but

the lived up to the price and the service was charming. The headwaiter has worked

there since 1967 and is thoroughly devoted to the hotel and it's customers. It was

very nice to see someone who took such obvious pride in his work.

The Sinbad has a relationship with the nicer of the two golf courses in Hammamet (The Citrus) and provides a convenient (if sometimes crowded) shuttle bus to the course. The

Citrus isn't a highly manicured course in the American sense and it isn't overly challenging but it is visually attractive and well maintained. Perfect for shaking off the wintertime rust on your first Spring outing. Make your reservations through the hotel desk and receive reduced greens fees (I think we paid 45 or 50 euro/18)- avoid the motorcarts if you can, they cost as much as the golf! Locker and changing rooms are downstairs in the clubhouse and are well equipped.

The Sinbad is a bit off the beaten path, which we like. The medina is a pleasant 20 minute walk from the hotel via the beach and you'll have some great photo op's strolling past the Hammamet 'drydock' - a vast collection of small and colorfull fishing boats dragged on shore for the night The medina and souk are beautifull and interesting to see from the outside and a complete pain to experience once inside. If you're a master in Tiajuana style dickering, you'll be put to the test in this full contact, tag team market hell. As for the 'tour' representatives that work the hotel beach and lobby, I'd recommend polite and firm refusal of their services - they do not work for the hotel and I've heard nothing good about the tours.

We live in Europe, but we're Americans and felt absolutely no safety concerns in this Arab country. Tunisia is interested in promoting it's tourism industry and appears quite tolerant and welcoming to Westerners. Incidently, most of the hotel staff speak English but outside the Medina it isn't common. If you can't handle Arabic, a few polite French phrases will go a long way as French is the second language.

Regarding currency restrictions - All cash transactions in Tunisa are supposed to be in Tunisian currency, but I golfed with some German fellows who settled their bill in euros without difficulty. We also left Tunisia with a few notes and coins that were seen by officials at the airport security gate and they made no mention.

Check in and check out was quick and efficient and the hotel/airport shuttle was free and convenient both ways. The drivers do appreciate a moderate tip as it's a healthy 40 minute drive to the airport in Tunis.

Tunisia is not the Riviera, it's rough around the edges but this doesn't detract from the overall experience and adds to the sense that you're in a delightfull and progressive North African land. All in all, we enjoyed our week at the Sinbad and wouldn't hesitate to return.

A very pleasant stay!

After spending the past ten vacations in Tunisia I was expecting the Sindbad to be more or less the same as other hotel in the country. Now I know different. Sindbad is a hotel with lovely food, good service and a rare exception for those of us who enjoy a vacation without loud music, animation teams and stress. For us who just want to relax and be pampered. The hotel is rather small and has a special bungalow style which adds to its feeling of intimacy. A special plus to the Chiraz restaurant. We spent many evenings eating excellent international and Tunisian on their swimming pool terrace overlooking the swimming pool. And also to the golf service. As a golf player myself, the Sindbad has an excellent advantage in shareholding the Citrus golf course and therefore lets guest like me benefit from free shuttle bus and reduced green fee prices.

It was great for our family

We spent one week at the Sinbad and had a fantastic vacation. Here are our findings on this hotel.

The staff could not be better! They are kind and fun and very eager to help. We loved this introduction to Arab culture-- it really could not have been better for us. From the managers to the housekeepers, they are all lovely.

The breakfast was delicious and very generous. From crepes to omelettes to fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal, it was all we and our 2 children (ages 7 and 10) could want.

The dinners were less great, but 2 times during our stay we had a buffet which was great. Lots of choices and much better quality than the nightly dishes. Don't really understand why and certainly didn't expect this since we are not keen on buffets. Nightly dinners were 3 courses (including dessert) which were fine for a week, and certainly fine for what we paid with half board. Don't forget- you must pay for wine and beer, and this is pricy (20/bottle of wine, 3-5 for a beer).

We loved the location as the Sinbad is set away from all the hotels in the area. It has its own little stretch of beach which was well maintained and pretty. We ate every lunch at the restaurant on the beach which was great.

We booked through Expedia because I had trouble finding the hotel's website. I booked 2 rooms, since that is what Expedia said was allowed with 4 people. When we arrived, we were given 2 huge adjoining rooms, but they were close to the street and I heard the noise at night. We moved the next morning (with no hassle at all) to an apartment closer to the beach. Totally quiet and much better for us, as it was 2 rooms connected by a bathroom. Much better set up with kids. Had I booked through the hotel, I would have requested this set up. I even liked the room better as the bedding was bright yellow and the light was better. Every day they put fresh flower petals on our bed--- nice touch.

Each day we played ping pong, tennis, and then hung on the beach. There are no children's clubs or anything like that, which is why we chose this hotel. We just relaxed. There were a few other children, but we did our own thing. The outside pool was nice but way too cold. The indoor pool is small but our kids liked it because it was heated. My husband and I had massages (30 minutes for 20 TND) while they swam. Not great massages, but who can beat the price.

Took a trip into Hammamet (walk 10 minutes on beach from hotel), but please believe everything you read about this medina. It was touristy and very obnoxious. Stressful for all of us. Don't bother. The medina is better in Naebul (20 minutes by taxi) and they aren't quite so aggressive, though it is still a cultural thing that is hard to take if you haven't experienced it before.

We took some mornings and walked from the hotel toward Hammamet, just to stop and have coffee or buy some fruit. It was a great experience culturally, and the people were absolutely beautiful to our family. We never felt strange there, even though we were obviously not Arab and the only Americans by far. But we all spoke French and a handful of Arabic greetings, which goes so far. It's the effort...

We found that many of the people who stayed here were golfers. Lots of shuttles to nearby courses.

We did take a camel ride with one of the excursion people, Akmed. He does not work for the hotel, but he is there every day trying to get you to look at rugs or take rides or whatever. He was the only negative aspect of our trip. The camels were horrible and mean, and our children were in tears. We were driven by an old sweet man in a rusted out car without door handles to a field near an apartment complex to ride 2 camels. We rode for 5 minutes and were so uncomfortable that we asked to be taken back.

We spoke to the manager and Akmed when we returned, and the manager handled it beautifully. He told Akmed to give us our money back (100TND =$75) and told him that the whole thing was unacceptable. We thought that was the end of it, but Akmed came up the next day and tried to get 50 of the dollars back, and when we refused, he treated us very badly but pouting and grunting. So, I would not suggest his excursions. Perhaps the hotel has different means of arranging things.

So this was our only real negative, and actually it wasn't even the hotel--

We would go back tomorrow if we could.

Just OK

I would rate this hotel 3.5 to 4 star. The most negative aspect of the hotel was the presence of reps selling excurssions just after checking in. Hotel charged extra for use of Jaccuzi and Sauna. Not really consistant with a five star hotel. Buffet dinners were good. I went at the end of Feb when the weather was variable. Not really beach weather. With virtually no entertainment and only BBC news on tele, found the trip quite boring. Most exciting thing was a trip to Tunis on train. Very cheap. I would only recommend this place during good weather and if you want a quite beach holiday.

Great beach, chilled hotel

Great hotel, well located with friendly decent staff.

Much better than I expected and is ideal if you just want to relax and enjoy 28C and sunshine in Oct/Nov! Not much by way of nightlife but you can safely walk into Hammamet (15-20mins) or a 3 min taxi ride for a little more life but it's definitely not for the young/teen market.

The hotel is about 3-4 stars on a standard scale but the staff are 5 star. Spotless rooms, good food and excellent facilities. Shame that the bar isn't busier though... and lookout for the very cute cats.

Would thoroughly recommend.

Not bad - but Not 5 star

My wife and I just returned from a long weekend at the Sindbad hotel. All in all, not a bad hotel although the 5 star rating seems a bit optimistic for the accommodation.

First the room. We had a reasonable size room, with a small entrance hall (with two cupboards), double bedroom, bathroom and a small outside terrace. The room wasn't bad although the bathroom is quite old and in need of refurbishment. My wife had seen a cockroach in the bar pool area on the first night (although to be fair, my wife can "sense" cockroaches so is a little more concerned about them than most people), so was nervous about visitors in the room itself. However, we never saw anything in our room and the room was cleaned to a good standard. The cleaners laid fresh flowers on our bed each day - which was a nice touch. I would also say the room was very quite, thanks to the design of the building. The bedroom and bathrooms are laid out so that our bedroom only adjoined the bathroom of the room next door. There was almost no noise therefore in the room itself - allowing for peace and quiet.

We had a bed and breakfast deal and the breakfast is quite good. The buffet has fruits, breads, cereals cheeses and meats as well as a couple of chefs to cook an omelette or crepe of your choice. You can sit inside or there is a nice outdoor terrace.

The beach. The hotel has a small private beach, which was a very short distance from our room. My wife and I were just looking for beachtime for the weekend, so we spent a lot of time there. The beach is kept well by the hotel staff, they put away the chairs and sunbeds each night and raked the sand making sure the area was clean and pleasant. The sand is about the softest sand we can remember being on - and we have been on may beaches around the world! The old guy setting up the beach chairs was cheerful and efficient, and there is no charge for the sunbeds, towels etc. You do get the occasional beach salesman selling camel tours and donuts etc, but that is not such a problem. Within a few steps of the beach there is a nice "barbeque" hotel restaurant. The food is excellent and very cheap. We ate there each lunchtime for around 15 to 20 pounds for a good meal for two with desert and drinks. The staff would serve meals and drinks on the beach also. Very nice! We walked along the beach past other hotels and some looked ok although the beach was poorly tended in some areas. It seemed to be up to the hotel to keep their area clean - some did and some didn't. A couple of hotels seemed closed down or empty, so that would explain their lack of pride in their beach.

The hotel also had a couple of other restaurants, the one by the pool being particularly good. A very nice three course meal there, with a bottle of wine cost us around 35 pounds for the two of us. The food was excellent and the service was wonderful and attentive without being a pain. The pace of the meal was slow, but by design, and anything you wanted immediately appeared. The headwaiter was very nice and did many small things to make us feel relaxed.

Hammamet itself is a quiet place (this being low season) although a trip to the Medina (market) is bound to liven things up. Be prepared to haggle hard. If you pay the first price for ANYTHING, you are paying too much and missing out on the fun. The young market traders all speak many languages and are great fun to be around. They can be a bit of a pain sometimes, but tell them you have no money and they lose interest. Incidentally, we found we typically paid around a third to half of the original quoted price for things. We kept hearing the word "sabotage", so perhaps we were too hard on them - but I think they'll survive! I was offered 60,000 camels for my wife, but turned that down....

We took a trip to Yasmine Hamamet which is a much more modern resort about 5/6 kilometres down the coast. Being low season the place was almost deserted and some hotels (huge modern hotels) were pretty much shut down. Carthage Land looks like a mini Tunisian Disneyland with 3 or 4 tourist rides. No thanks. We had planned to find somewhere to eat around there, but the restaurants in that area seem to only sell pizza of various kinds. Very "Tunisian Torremelinos" - again - no thanks. We headed back to the hotel for a good meal and nice bottle of wine. The head waiter led us to "our table" and we felt we had made a smart decision.

We used the Hotel Spa whilst we were there. They have a Decleor Spa on site with a traditional Hammam (Turkish bath - but a steamy room rather than the cabinet you may be thinking of). We had a package that was a the hammam, a seaweed treatment and a full massage. The whole thing cost 60 dinar (about 24 pounds) each so was good value, although it wasn't the calm, luxurious experience of a good quality Spa.

Would I go back to the Sindbad - yes I would, but I would not be thinking of it as a 5 star hotel. The hotel is quite old and has seen better days. Think of it as a good 3+ or 4 star hotel and that way, the hotel will exceed your expectations in every way.

Lovely hotel

i have just returned from 10 nights at the Sindbad. We stayed on a half board basis, and thought that the hotel was very nice. The beach is one of the high lights, nice golden sand and very calm sea. The hotel pool is average, there werent many loungers by the pool, everyone waas by the beach. beach towels are handed out and your loungers set up for you. beach towels are quite small so you might like to take one with you if you like to cover your whole lounger with a towel.

The room was nice and clean, we had a king size bed and a separate little living area with a nice, partially secluded garden terrace.

Breakfast is OK, a bit repetitive after 10 nights. croissants and ham/ cheese, cereals, freshly made omelletes and pancakes. Dinner is in the same restaurant, but they dress it up and it is silver service. The food at dinner is better than we expected, there is a choice of 3/4 starters/mains/deserts. There is a tunisian themed buffet one night a week, with a belly dancer - this was good fun and it was nice to be able to try lots of different buffet food. the food on the whole is very meat orientated so veggies might struggle. the hotel were happy to save wine left over one night for you to have the next night, which was a nice touch.

The medina is about a 15/20 min walk along the beach - a nice walk and worth doing. Be warned you will get massively hassled at the medina - i didnt like the constant haggling and bartering even when you are genuinley not interested in buying the product in question.

The hotel arranged transfers to and from the airport in a private taxi for us, this made it very easy for us, and cost 75 dinar each way. We did a day trip to tunis and sidi bou said (also with driver form the hotel) and it was a nice day out, sidi bou is very touristy and nothing compared to santorini!

There is also a spa in the hotel with an indoor pool and a hammam, which was nice and relaxing. all in all, we got a good pice for the holiday on expedia - and we were pleased with the hotel.

Nice,clean and quiet

I'm a portuguese travel agent and stayed at Hotel Sindbad for a week from 5-12 Sep. 05, due to overbooking on another 5 stars hotel at Yasmine Hammamet.

First I was disappointed because the operator gave me another hotel in another area,but in the end it was even better!

Sindbad as it's age as a Hotel,but it's very well locatted,near the old Hammamet,we reached the old medina by walking through the beaches.

the staff was very helpfull and nice to us, good food and a great variety every day, the rooms were clean every day and towels changed. it's a ver y quiet hotel, were you wake up with the sound of birds in the gardens. this hotel impressioned me by it's beautiful and enormous gardens.

The rooms are large. The pools aren't very big,but they're clean. Beach it's very nice,clean sand and water. The variety of night animations at the hotel isn't much. There is a musical show every night by the pool,but it seems the same thing every night. I think this was the weakest point of Sindbad: the lack of variety in the animation.

I recommend this hotel to those who like nature and to really relax on their holidays. This is a very good hotel for those who want to escape the massificate touristic area of Yasmine Hammamet and the fully beaches, and as an excellent location near de the old medina, compared with other hotels.

Clean, friendly hotel

I recently stayed in this hotel on half board basis.

First impressions were excellent as the reception staff where extremely helpful and while they checked us in, we were given a welcome drink. The bell boy then took us to our room.

We had booked a standard twin room and I was very impressed. There was a large wardrobe to one side when you entered the room and the bathroom was on the other side, with a seperate toilet. The beds were through an archway and were decorated with flowers (as they were every day). There are 2 bedside cabinets, dressing table and mirror, mini bar and TV. Through a further archway there were 2 sofas and a coffee table. Finally, double doors opened out onto a private patio, which would have been nice, except that we were facing a wall. The room also has air-conditioning. The rooms are dotted throughout the gardens and as a result some are incredibly peaceful. There are also suites, which have their own private patio and sunbathing area.

There is a beach restaurant, an a la carte by the pool and a main dining room where breakfast was served. There are 2 bars, a few shops (which aren't worth bothering with) and a spa with indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi.

If you are staying half board, the evening meal is served in the main restaurant and is waiter service, apart from one evening a week when they have a buffet. There are 5 choices to pick from for each course. There is always a traditional Tunisian dish if you are feeling adventurous. The food we had was generally very nice, although I would not recommend the hotel for vegetarians as the choice is very poor for non meat eaters.

There is plenty to chose from at breakfast time - fruit, crossants & pastries, various breads, cheese and cold meals, cereals, a few hot dishes that varied each day and a hot plate that alternates between crepes and omelettes.

The beach is private and there are guys who provide sunbeds, cushions, deckchaors and towels - all part of the service. The beach and water are very clean. You are not bothered by beach traders here.

I personally found that the staff in this hotel could not do enough for you. They were all extremely helpful and if you are prepared to speak a bit of French this will help you. Some did struggle with English but this is to be expected as French is their second language, followed by German. However with very limited French and no German I always managed.

The hotel boasts a 5 star rating but to be fair it isn't in comparison with a 5 star hotel in the West but it is very clean, has an excellent staff and sits right on the beach.