Как выжить в отеле El Mouradi Mahdia с годовалым ребенком How to Survive at El Mouradi Mahdia with a 1 Year Old

We were at the El Mouradi Mahdia hotel from August 12 to 26.2010. First I went there with my daughter, who was just one year old, and a week later my husband joined us for another 1 week.
The only plus of rest in this place, which I can say, is a clean, warm and shallow (good for a small child) sea, not counting the fact that the city authorities clean the beach and the sea about once a week, and the hotel staff before in general, it doesn’t matter (therefore, sometimes there are pieces of polyethylene, cigarette butts, used diapers, etc. in the sea). There are no jellyfish, the sea is very friendly. Sand (of course, not white or volcanic black, but also nothing). The heat, indeed, is not as hard to bear as, for example, in Moscow, but only if you do not go far from the sea.
Everything else is quiet horror.

In general, we went to Tunisia and to this hotel only because of the terrible environmental situation in Moscow (burnt from forest fires) - we had to leave somewhere very urgently, which means, it is advisable not to wait for a visa and fly the next free flight. And there was no time for reflection and independent search for options. Plus, because of a small child, so that there is a short flight and the same “all inclusive”, which I personally can’t stand in a different situation, and in general, “booty up” rest is not for me. Therefore, my opinion somewhere may not coincide with the opinion of fans thereof.
ABOUT THE FLIGHT. Contrary to the opinions that I saw on the Internet, the Transaero company, on whose Boeing we flew, made the most pleasant impression on me. Yes, grub is not a fountain, but I generally don’t eat it on planes, but I always take it with me. The usual set, with hot, and not without it, as they write about. Meat with rice or chicken with potatoes.
I was pleasantly surprised by the presence of baby food on board (jars of "Agusha" with vegetable and fruit puree and a 200 ml bag of milk), but this was only from Moscow, from Tunisia, of course, there was none. Very caring flight attendants on both flights. Helped me a lot with my baby. I still managed to leave my wallet with all the money and documents in the chair, so the stewardess caught up with me and gave it to me. When buying a tour, I asked the agency to book a cradle for the child on board (there are only two of them for the whole plane, in special places), but I was told that this is not necessary, everything is processed at check-in at the airport. This is not true! The representatives of Transaero themselves, during registration, both times confirmed to me that seats with cradles are ordered in advance and, if the agency is not able to do this, call them yourself and agree on everything. Moreover, people without children at all can be put in these places, and you will suffer.
Therefore, we suffered from Moscow, and on the way back I swore that by all means I would get such a place. Thanks to the dearest Anastasia Pankova, the representative of Transaero in Tunisia (or only in Monastir? ), who got us a seat with a cradle (this is really very convenient, especially if you fly at night, like us) and let us through to check-in without a queue (and our child was the smallest of all). By the way, I am amazed at the level of culture of our fellow citizens - not a single person helped me, a woman with a child who was not yet walking, a bag and a stroller in her hands while we made our way through the airport to the plane and from the plane to the airport, even to lift it all up the ladder to airplane. I'm not talking about the fact that on the way back at the airport cafe we ​ ​ had to change several times, because our compatriots who sat down after us at the tables next to us began to smoke, although there were plenty of empty seats.

Even in Moscow, I had no illusions about the level of the hotel, these "five stars". But from the agent who kept us with a small child at first for more than an hour, serving the only client, despite the fact that her colleague was free and ready to receive us, but, you see, we called HER, so we HER, and so, from her ( she also turned out to be the director) we could not get any advice or sane reviews. Then her colleague, who turned out to be much more competent, but had to be silent in a rag, after our requests, reaching a plea, gave us some advice, and we finally chose a tour (and offered us even more shnyaga for even more loot). The girl Irina (the director of this agency "Tourlight" in Kitai-Gorod) seems to have little idea at all about the hotels she works with and how to work with clients. I'm not talking about important details, for example, with the reservation of the cradle.
We bought this last-minute ticket for 2 weeks (my child and I for 2 weeks, my husband for one) for 100 thousand rubles. I believe that this rather big money, for which, with a competent approach, we could have had an order of magnitude better rest, we simply flushed it down the toilet. But on the day of buying a tour in Moscow, the concentration of all this burning and stink in the air reached its peak, and we no longer wanted any other trips to other agencies, just to leave this hell. The agency works through ICS and Biblio Travel. So my husband and I tried to calculate how much the agency earned for us, it turned out to be at least 700 US dollars.
I myself leave such a detailed review, because the reviews of others have helped me a lot. But we read them, unfortunately, after the urgent purchase of the tour and "anticipated".
ABOUT THE ROOM. I must say that the photos of the hotel (territory, rooms) on the Internet give a distorted picture.
In fact, it turned out that the rooms look much nicer, more modern and less collective farm, and the territory is not so "bald", but quite green - bushes, flowers. It is possible that some of the rooms had already been refurbished and updated by the time we arrived. Yes, the plumbing is really old, with rust, the sink was constantly clogged, although we handled it very carefully, the drains had to be cleaned. A separate toilet, that is, a toilet bowl not in the bathroom, is very inconvenient and it is literally impossible to turn around in it. But in the bathroom there is a bidet - it would be better if there was a toilet in its place. We stayed in room 284 (it has three beds) and I recommend it.

But I got this room after spending the night in a room on the lower -2nd floor (room 124, it seems), in which everything would be fine, but from 8 in the morning there was an insane stink of something like very concentrated glue - it turns out they have been in the morning we glued new tracks, since our rooms were in the old wing, and through the ventilation system all this stuff got to us. The smell was terrible. I was seriously worried and went to ask for another number. As I was advised by the agency and those who left reviews, I put $ 20 into the hand of the only manager at the Reception at that time and asked him to look for the best for me (what would be the smell, and the view, and less noise from the animation) , especially since I'm with a small child (children are really loved there, even too much - they squeeze, kiss, without even paying attention to their parents and without asking their permission).
But, apparently, either I gave money to the wrong person, or it was generally useless, but after that I was offered a room in the same old wing with the smell of glue - I didn’t even look at it. Then I had to see two more rooms with a stroller (one so-called "garden view" - overlooking a bunch of broken dead trees on the sand, the other - again to the pool or courtyard, where animation rumbles until 11 pm). By the way, that manager quickly closed his palm with 20 bucks and immediately disappeared, after which I had to wait for him for 15 minutes, and then his big colleague appeared, as it turned out, “the main one, ” and that small one hasn’t even looked in my direction since then. Moreover, I never try to speak Russian with the staff abroad, only in English, this immediately invigorates them and inspires respect for you.
The “leader” offered me a room with dried trees and an extra third (for some reason) bed, emphasizing that he was doing me a big favor, and only because of a small child he offered me a room that was 10 euros more expensive (I wonder what he was hinting at so that I now give it to him ? ! ). In general, I got to the General Manager (who, in my opinion, does not want to spoil relations with any of his subordinates), who did not tell me anything new, but was very kind and at least sanely explained that they could provide me with either a view , or without noise, but not all at once (although later, walking around the territory, I saw that there are rooms overlooking the path and the neighboring hotel, trees grow along the fence, and under the windows there is something like a garden, it is always quiet and a pleasant view ). He himself showed me two rooms with the same third bed (such rooms are just larger in size) to choose from.
I chose one overlooking the pool, where the animation works, but in the farthest corner of the pool, from where, if all windows and curtains are tightly closed, the sounds coming from it are very insignificant. A very nice girl cleaned our house, she tried very hard, but she needed to be prompted, for example, that pay attention to the fact that after fussing with a rag on the floor, there are clumps of hair and other dirt, and they can be vacuumed first, that on the balcony the floor can also clean up, because there is sand from beach accessories, etc. The doors were very dirty, there were dirty fingerprints all over the door, there were streaks on light-colored furniture - something was spilled, this is all the norm, no one scrubs. The edges of the bed linen are dirty, so when the linen is dried and the edges are dragged along the dirty floor. Beach towels (by the way, they must be taken no later than 8-9 in the morning, then they are simply taken apart) are tattered and often stained. Every day I left 1 dinar on the table for our cleaning lady.

And in parting - 10 dinars (just for the human attitude).
SEPARATELY ABOUT THE TECHNICAL CONDITION OF THE ROOM AND THE HOTEL IN GENERAL. The air conditioning is very, very weak, especially at night. At night, we just suffocated, although the air conditioner was on the maximum. Still nothing during the day. Refrigerator (it doesn't have a minibar, don't count), it's just one name, and in my first room, it's just a storage box. Two shelves and the visibility of a freezer, around which it is a little cool, but not towards the corners. Therefore, I put baby food directly under the freezer (freezer for a few ice cubes, no more). The TV was constantly buggy - either there is no image or sound. Several times they tried to fix it, then replaced it, but the other one continued to fail. By the way, there is not even a pen in the room (and I just managed to forget it). The pipe under the sink was cleaned several times for us, but it constantly clogged again.
Get ready for the fact that you will have to call the technician through the Reception several times. My record is 5 times! Moreover, then water from the pipe under the sink dripped onto the floor, and the equipment was sent about an hour and a half later. The safe is small but there. For some reason, the “Do Not Disturb! ”, which I hung outside ...Elevator. This is a separate song. The hotel is divided into two wings. To get into a room not on the ground floor, you need to use two elevators - in the central part and in your wing. And for me with a child in a stroller, an elevator was simply necessary. In two weeks, I lost count of how many times the elevator in our wing broke down, and it was far from being repaired right away. In the central part, the elevator often worked without light inside - intimacy! And its doors closed immediately after opening, regardless of whether you had already started to enter it or pressed the button to open the doors.
In the mornings and afternoons, the elevator in the wing is often occupied for a long time by maids with laundry carts. The paths in the elevators and in the corridors are in the sand and it seems that no one really cleans it.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER. This topic turned out to be the most important for us, more important than the sea, rooms and food. Not to mention the tap water, even the bottled water there is HORRIBLE! It must be boiled (take a boiler! do not trust boiling in the dining room and bar! ). We later learned that the only bottled local water that won't blow you away is Safia. Moreover, for children, be sure to boil it. After each boiling, even from this water, a noticeable plaque remains on the walls, and from other water it is much more, and the water is simply tasteless. Everyone complained about the water. And on the stomach, by the way, too. Everyone saw the cause of stomach problems especially in the water.
So be sure to take a kettle (there is no kettle in the room) and a bowl for boiling or a mini electric kettle and more tablets for diarrhea. Our child was saved by a family from Moscow with a 2-year-old girl - they gave us Linax, Smecta and activated charcoal, and I had a lot of cold medicine and Imodium, which should not be given to small children. It is useless to contact the Reception - in a 5-star hotel at the Reception there is no first-aid kit with free essential medicines. There is a certain doctor at the hotel, one visit to which costs 30-40 dinars, and this is without medication.
WHAT IS PROVIDED FOR A 1-YEAR-OLD CHILD. A baby cot with a mattress and a sheet is provided. In the dining room there are children's wooden, very primitive chairs, but they are without restrictive straps, so my girl quickly realized that you can get up on the chair, and then try to climb on the table, and persuasion to sit did not work on her.
In general, every evening the kids have the same program: songs in different languages, round dances, patties, etc. But after a few days, this program is developed in them to automatism, and they are glad that they are doing everything right. Even in the far corner of the hotel, I did not immediately notice a playground for the smallest, very little ones: swings, slides, houses.
GREAT. It is this word. Let's call a spade a spade. A restaurant is not a restaurant, it's a canteen. Such a goofy, smelly catering. In my opinion, only breakfast is edible, and even then it is very selective. Then I just began to drag pancakes, fruits and yogurts from the dining room so as not to go to lunch (this is the worst thing, worse than dinner). Yes, they bake their own bread, and as long as it's fresh, it's delicious. Pizza is sometimes done well, but it depends on the baker. Take water - be sure to add lime juice, squeeze more. Coffee - wash.

The poor Italians, who are in the majority there, had the worst time with coffee. And the pasta there is not at all similar to Italian. My family knows a lot about food, we all cook well, and not cutlets with fried potatoes, but competent and beautiful food. If you are a fan of fast food and all sorts of rubbish, trained on purchased dumplings, sausages and pizza from night shops, then you have every chance not only to survive in this hotel, but even enjoy this zhrachka. Even elementary scrambled eggs they manage to spoil. By the way, be careful with boiled eggs - they are somehow nasty and of poor quality. When my husband arrived, he simply cried: how many good products (especially fish, meat) they spoil mercilessly! And the preparation of pancakes ...The local wise guy smears the pancake dough with a ladle, it sticks to the ladle, he puts it back into the holes, then piles up lumps and pours the dough on top. Horror!
I won't even talk about food. If you value not even health, but life and your genetics, do not eat this rubbish. My child 3 days later was all in diarrhea. Thank God she didn't cry. But she didn't sleep well. As soon as you change the diaper, you need to change it again. By the way, you can buy diapers there, but it's either Pampers or the terrible Libero. Pampers (I don’t remember, either 10 or 20 pieces) about 9 dinars. Her diarrhea did not stop for a week (we did not immediately find out about normal water and began to boil it in the room). She ate almost nothing, only a mixture in the morning and at night and a little peck in the afternoon. But, oddly enough, she was cheerful and cheerful, there was no temperature. When my husband arrived, if you'll excuse the details, the second night he didn't sleep at all - diarrhea and vomiting all night. Moreover, my child has not had such diarrhea since birth. And the husband does not remember at all when this happened to him. We asked around the people - many had similar problems.
Once a week, on Wednesdays, the animators organize a romantic candlelight dinner on the seashore (on the beach), with sea lights and live music (both times there were Russian musicians, classical or jazz, very nice). This case costs 37 dinars per person, without alcohol. We didn’t go, we just looked, because we had already overeaten ourselves, and the same chefs cook food there. You also have the right to have dinner once a week instead of the canteen (from 19.30) in a restaurant next to the canteen. The same menu, but a la carte plus live music. We tried once, laughed and left without waiting for dessert. Desserts, by the way, are specific. Basically, on custard, not the best, cream. Tasteless and the same. Only twice was something between a casserole and a cheesecake to eat. Yes, yogurt, by the way, is local, natural, not from the package, it is quite edible and the cheese is curdled. Melon is not very, if not bad at all. Watermelons are unripe. Peaches are firm.
Keep in mind that the fruits are not washed - I have seen them put right out of the box. Shrimps are small, and even they cannot simply fry them with garlic. They just stew somehow with some kind of nasty garlic mixture in which the garlic is killed by something. Wine - sour, very mediocre table.

The only one I can remember with a kind word as a cook is the girl Azza, who stands on pancakes during the day (she more or less succeeds), and in the evening she cooks pasta for those who wish without a break. She does it best in this kitchen.
Yes, waiters, this is something! In the end, we no longer cried, but laughed, made fun. At first I couldn’t understand what it was, I give them tips, but no service, they lower their eyes and run past, and then you won’t wait for the ordered drink. But when a man appeared next to me (my husband arrived), I didn’t leave any tips, but immediately they began to treat me like a person, they themselves began to offer a table, drinks.
Only later did we figure out that this was automatic: they don’t consider women to be people, even with a small child. They know that the client, but the habit still works. He does not serve a woman, she serves him. So, waiters. For example, we are sitting at dinner, and he comes up to clean the dirty plates (this is an achievement, they didn’t remove them at all from me), and right in front of our noses he starts scraping and rattling from one plate to another, and next to it there is an empty table with dirty dishes, you can to do it there at least. Or at the next table ordered a drink. He mixed it up and puts it under my breath without a word. I didn't even get surprised. Then the neighbors call out to him, they say, where is our drink, he catches himself and without a word snatches this glass from under my nose and puts it on the table. And how they served us in the a la carte restaurant ...He pours red wine, he doesn’t know how to do it, and it flows from the glass and from the bottle, the tablecloth around the glass is covered in smudges.
Dishes are constantly confused - they are transferred from one table to another, from under people's noses. They are worried, but pretend that nothing has happened, because of this they behave even more casually and aggressively familiarly. It would be better to apologize, smile. At least it would be polite.

I liked the bartenders at the bar. I have seen how they work. One is just a champion - he did all sorts of tricks, he never blundered. At the same time, he always smiles and says: “I love my job! ". The other is a super organizer. Under him, work is arguing, and there are tons of orders. He memorizes a colossal amount of information, immediately distributes work among colleagues, and the work is in full swing.
Hookah. No hookah. It's free… It's complete bullshit. It's impossible to smoke. We found a tolerable hookah not far from the hotel, on the right at the exit, on the other side there is a cafe. 7 minutes to go to it. Tea with pine nuts was praised here. Well, after all this nightmare, I also liked this tea.
Although there is nothing outstanding in it at all. And the nuts themselves are really fun to eat from tea, they, steamed, become more fragrant.
Everything else (sunbeds, swimming pool, wellness center, trips, goods, etc. ) has already been said enough on the Internet.
There is absolutely nothing to do in this place for 2 weeks. And in general, if you have other options, you should not go there, especially with a child who has not yet switched to "adult" food. And if you go, take diarrhea pills, a boiler and immediately buy Safia water. And keep in mind that you are going to a Muslim Arab country - respect their traditions and views, dress decently. And, dear Russian girls, all Russian women are judged by us, create a worthy impression and make them respect you.