Melia Palm Azur

A clean fairly standard hotel in the zone touristique. The hotel is all inclusive, rooms are clean and the restaurants are pretty good. The staff are very helpful but their english isn't great so any french you have is very useful. The hotel is mainly a destination for families from continental europe, mostly french with a few germans, italians, swedes, dutch and austrians - british people are the minority. There is entertainment which is a little bit like Butlins circa 1985 or perhaps a bit like Club Med, it takes some getting used to and you don't have to join in. Examples of entertainment - water aerobics, arabic lessons, live music and cabaret, archery competitions, darts games, belly dancing lessons.

The hotel is really close to the beach and has a good sized pool (sun loungers are hard to bag though, a lot of people are up at 6-6.30 am to reserve them!) There are activities around the pool in the morning and the music can be fairly loud and obtrusive. The afternoon is more chilled though. There is also a smaller childrens pool with more shade. There are touts around the pool for things like camel rides, horse riding, scooters and buggies. They can be a bit annoying (but nothing like the hassle you'll get outside the hotel), just keep telling them no thanks. The tout that is worth talking to s the guy from the hotel spa and turkish bath, he wears a white pyjama type oufit with balneo vital written on the back. His french and german is better than his english but he is very helpful and friendly. The spa is excellent and the turkish bath is very popular, a manicure + 2 massages (side by side) cost £100 dinars (about £45, the price of one massage in the UK).

Overall it is a good hotel for a relaxing holiday, it is classed as 4* but is more of a 3+ in UK standards.

Unique Quality: Good sized pool suitable for children + childrens pool. Good sized rooms and really close to the beach.