TUI MAGIC LIFE Skanes

We booked a week in Tunisia and swapped to this hotel from another (Marhaba Salem) due to the great reviews on here, and the reassurance of the TUI Magic Life brand. This hotel has the potential to be fantastic and to deliver memorable holidays - my experience was memorable - but for the wrong reasons this time. Let's start with the good things, and move towards the not so good: Pool / Beach / Outside areas: Excellent. There are two outdoor pools. First, a large family one with the waterslides, a smaller kids area with small slides and second on the other side of the hotel a square pool with a beach style sloping entry. These pools are great, clean and ph/chlorine etc checked twice daily. There are lots of well-spaced fixed straw roof parasol shades and lots of sunbeds with really thick sunbed pads as well as lots of chairs and tables. There is a good choice of areas with sunbeds all around the pools on the tiled areas as well as on the surrounding grass. The hotel was 100% full while we were there and there was never the faintest problem getting a sunbed. The hotel does not permit sunbed reservation before 8 am and this works well here. No getting up at 5-6 am to reserve beds. There are still plenty of unreserved beds around at 10-11am, and they even have a stack of spare sunloungers behind the waterslides. There are even more sunbeds in and around the swim-up rooms, so that aspect is great. The beach is quite small but with very slowly deepening clean white sand, and the seaweed blown in by the storms soon disappears (and the staff spent 2 days carting loads away) The sea is crystal clear once the weed disappears and again there are plenty of loungers and shade on the beach. I didn't do any of the watersports on offer but there appeared to be always something going on with windsurfing lessons etc. Public areas / Main Bar The reception and main bar areas are deceptive - its bigger than it looks at first sight and has way more seating than it initially appears. It also has the cleanest toilets on the complex - the loos by the main "wunderbar" are spotless. The bar looks small but manages to cope well and has a number of waiters circling to take orders. The drinks menu does not have many cocktails but is fine other than that, and the standard beer and wine were very drinkable. Arrival & Service The reception staff were very good on arrival and directed us to the restaurant as it was soon to close, and advised that we could check-in after eating. Most of the staff are very friendly, polite and work hard to make your stay pleasant. There is a huge animation team, and there are always things going on Second Pool Bar (stays open until 00:00) This was OK - again quite small but manages to cope with the demands, and the staff also wander around the pool and provide an occasional at-lounger drink service. The cocktail choice at this bar is very minimal - but the rest of the choice is reasonable. Downtown Speciality Restaurant Not so good. We booked our one free visit to this on the app before we arrived (The app is excellent). Things were very mixed on the night we were there - about 50% of the people there loved it - 50% were disappointed. We were quickly shown to a table, and given drinks, but then were ignored for more than 45minutes before our order was taken. Starters (salmon wrap and spring roll) were quickly delivered and very good. Main course (burger and fish & chips) took a very long time to arrive. My burger was OK, but my wife's fish and chips was burnt on the outside and near raw inside and the inside was brown and slimy in a large part. While we were there a number of guests departed happy, but an equal number were unhappy with the service and the food and walked out unhappy. We departed without waiting for dessert as things were just so chaotic and slow. Rooms Poor start but better after some action. We were assigned room 3002, and on arrival this was dirty - the floor had bits of bandaid from the previous guests, and the sheets had dirty marks. The curtain by the door to the balcony was very dirty and had very obvious food stains. The floor had two citronella tea-lights placed - I assume to deter insects. Reception staff were unable to move us, as the hotel was 100% full, but they did accompany us back to the room and arranged for the dirty curtain to be removed, and the bedding changed and the floor cleaned. Once the room was clean it was fine - and the dirty curtain was replaced with a clean one by the next day. The rooms are a little tired and shabby in places - but they are OK once they are cleaned properly. 3002 has a very small balcony (as do about 1/3 of the normal rooms) but it's big enough for two chairs and a small table. It is however perfectly placed - really close to the bars and pool areas. The best rooms in the hotel are the swim-up rooms in the central 3000 block - odd numbers face the quiet pool and get afternoon sun, even numbers look onto the family pool and get morning sun. This (3000) block has the nicest interior with a wide planted area in the center. A couple of good points about the room block design: the corridors are internal with glass walls to the planted courtyards and have carpeting to reduce noise. Main Restaurant Poor. The main problem here is the sheer number of flies, they are everywhere, frequently crawling all over the prepared food. On my first morning, I saw flies crawling over the cooked sausages in the breakfast area. On each subsequent visit, there was always a large number of flies in the restaurant some in the seating area but always lots around and on the food. They were everywhere in the food serving areas - on the hot food and also cold - on the salads and desserts. On one evening I moved a spoon in a mouse and two flies flew off - didn't do much for my appetite. I had to loop around the serving area and would only pick up food that had just been served, this drastically reduced what I could eat. My wife was very concerned and ate almost nothing in the restaurant and survived on crisps from the hotel shop. I could see hotel staff spraying insect spray around in the restaurant when it was shut, and could smell insecticide when the restaurant opened, but this was not at all effective - it needs something more - probably insect-killing zappers above the food serving areas would make a difference. This area needs urgent attention by TUI - a health inspection to UK standards would close this pace down until resolved. A number of people I spoke to had not noticed the flies - but once you see them you pay attention and see more and can't un-see them! Less important issues in the restaurant, are the lack of serving utensils - most serving areas did not have enough tongs - meaning cross-contamination of hot foods, and people using their fingers to pick up desserts. As there is only one main restaurant, with 2 small specialty ones, tables in the eating area are used multiple times in one session. These are not cleared or cleaned properly between diners, the waiters simply brush away crumbs and reset the table to replace used cutlery. Again, not the end of the world - but most hotels I have been at in the past either clear and fully reset or have 2 tablecloths and strip the top to leave a clean one each time. Nightly Entertainment I can't say much here as we only once tried to watch the evening entertainment. The main amphitheater and its bar are across the carpark from the reception which is a bit odd, and the sheer number of mosquitos out in the open put us off from using this area at night. (This might be bad luck as I know mosquitos breed like mad following a storm - and so we may have arrived at the worst possible time for these) Maintenance is a bit lacking in a few areas - the wooden step to the beach frequently detached leaving inch long protruding screws, and some of the planks in the wooden walkway from the beach to main pool were constantly loose - again leaving exposed nails ready to tread on by unsuspecting bare feet. Loos: The beach bar loos are pretty grim as are the pool loos by both pools - by the end of the day the smell is bad and the floors are often wet with urine. Now, this isn't entirely the hotel's fault - there are a number of guests who seem to view hygiene as an optional extra. The Reception / Restaurant loos are OK, and the ones by the wunderbar are pristine... Guest Mix: The biggest contingent here seems to be the Russians, perhaps due to the past issues here for Europeans, and with the adverse publicity in Russia about the Russian flight that was bombed from Egypt. Next up by numbers are a mix of Europeans, appearing to be mostly Germans and Dutch, with the British coming a distant third. Nothing unusual here, lots of hotels manage an interesting mix, but the Russians are very loud! Given the recent history in Tunisia I can forgive some of the issues, as it has been a hard time for them, but the fly problem urgently needs addressing. Having talked to people who have stayed at other TUI Magic Life hotels this one is very much the exception and hopefully can be improved as it has only recently changed over. I am very disappointed by the hotel as the previous reviews and the TUI Magic Life brand promised so much which it failed to deliver. I have stayed at very many TUI/First Choice hotels in the past (including in Tunisia) and this has to rate as the worst I have stayed at. The outside areas of this hotel are great, but not enough to balance the worries about food hygiene, and the other issues, and so I would not return or recommend this hotel at all until the fly issue is resolved. I am also amazed that this hotel has an average of 4.5 on TripAdvisor. That's the same or better as the two best holiday hotels I have stayed at - The RUI Touareg in Boa Vista, Cape Verde, and the Blue Lagoon in Kos. Both of those hotels are in a completely different league from this one and are vastly better in absolutely every single respect.

Staff: freindly, helpful Room: clean,tidy,with amazing view Food and restaurant: very good (quality and service) Pools: perfect: aqua park slides , indoor pool ,relaxpool Beach and garden:very clean Animation program: amazing for adults and children Spa center: hammam and massage service was perfect

Amazing hotel staff helpful & very polite and professional food lovely and beach is perfect, reasonably low prices in spa and excellent gym facilities. We will definitely return to this hotel, My daughter enjoyed the yoga The relax pool is lovely everywhere is nice and clean.