Tui Magic Life Africana in Hammamet

90% of the staff do go out of their way and are friendly, which is definitely a positive. But parts of the hotel feel quite outdated. The indoor pool in seriously needs attention and could really do with a full refurbishment as it doesn’t feel fit for purpose. The main restaurant was extremely busy, to the point we found it much easier to eat at the snack bar instead on a few occasions. It was also very difficult to book the themed restaurants we went out of season and still couldn’t get a booking, so I can only imagine how hard it would be during peak times, food was good though. I’ll admit I might be being slightly harsh because of a few negative experiences, but overall it wasn’t too bad. The rooms aren’t soundproof, so we could hear noise from next door (including snoring), which isn’t ideal. Evening entertainment wasn’t great, but as we travelled out of season, that’s somewhat expected so it’s hard to criticise too much. All things considered, would we return? Honestly, yes we probably would.

I want to start my review by saying this was a last minute holiday that we would not usually have. Also, we are used to going to the Caribbean, which appears to have a difference level of all inclusive. We travelled as a family of 3 (2 adults and a 6 year old boy) for 7 nights. The flight from the UK and transfer were fine. We arrived at the hotel after 9pm though, which meant the buffet was closing soon after. We had pre-booked out room, however when checking in it was clear we were not getting the room we had reserved. This was ok in the end as we were not meant to pay until arrival so were not out of pocket and the staff member assured us the room we were allocated was bigger and in a better location. The reason we could not get the room we selected was due to the hotel being only half open. The room we had been given was a good size so we were happy with this. We had also been given a small selection of sandwiches, sushi and salad due to the restaurant being closed. The following day it was evident the hotel was not fully open which was a bit of a disappointment at first. The first issue we had was that none of the outdoor pools were open. We were aware the slides and activity pool was going to be closed, but the others were not expected. We were not happy with TUI as this had not been made clear to us prior to booking or prior to arriving. There was an indoor pool in the spa area, however this was usually empty with no atmosphere and no bar option for drinks. The pool itself was not the cleanest with a green ring around the tiles. Additionally, none of the al a carte restaurants were open either which meant we would have to eat in the buffet every night. We are used to eating al a carte every night, and while we knew the al a carte options would be limited we thought there would be options. However, the buffet food was very nice of a decent quality, but lacking sometimes in options. The beach area was nice. I am not a beach person, but there was a nice little raised grassed area with beach beds so we could keep an eye on our son who was playing in the sea/sand. The beach was also open so we had drinks available. The downside however, was there was no snack bat which meant we had to get showered off, dried and dressed to attend the buffet for lunch instead of some beach side snacks which would have been preferred. As the hotel was less than half full there were some advantages. The staff were very attentive. We never had an empty glass. The bar staff also made a big fuss of our son who never went without a mocktail and continuous plates of biscuits, fruit and cakes. One member of the lobby/lounge bar was Esdeen, who was amazing. I was also able to watch the football in the coffee bar (Closed during the evenings) with the staff keeping my drinks topped up. The entertainment staff were great too. There was a show almost every night with either dancing, games and some nights a live piano player. Jay Jay was the entertainments manager who