Hotel Lafayette in Tunis

A good clean place. Comfortable beds and hot showers. There's even a heater available for colder nights, and a bar fridge to keep cool your goodies.
A bit more on the expensive side though, I feel they could be cheaper.

I enjoyed staying at Hotel Lafayette for my last night in Tunisia. I actually booked another hotel just up the road for the previous night, but it was a bit rough so changed for my last night. Everything was good for me. The room and bed were comfortable, good location - though the state of the streets aren’t great, the staff seemed friendly enough. Oh and there was a large selection of things for breakfast - lots of things I’m not quite sure what they were, but good. Good proximity to the airport. I used the inDrive app to get a driver in the morning to get there and it cost me around 8 dinars.
The only thing I wasn’t happy with was the shower head holder was loose so it wouldn’t stay in a good position ( but that has been the same in every place I have stayed in Tunisia )…if I lived there I would start a business repairing them for hotels! Anyway I digress…it’s a 👍🏼 from me.

Great central location, but the rooms need renovation.

We are a group of 3 friends trying to explore Tunisia in holy month of Ramadan.

Area : For us the area is a bit shady as surrounding area has shops that are run down or closed. At night, there will be teenagers loitering in front of hotel entrance which I do not know what they are doing late at night even midnight.

Room : Room was however very clean. The cleaners clean our room every morning so we are very happy for it. The only thing we do not like is our mini fridge is broken so we cannot get our beverages put inside the fridge. Few blankets are inside the big cupboard in the room so we can use it if we are cold. There is no AC but only central heating aircond which we end up do not use as we open windows at night for ventilation otherwise it will be super hot and stuffy inside.

I usually jog when I travel but here I did not since I cannot speak Arabic/French so I do not want to have any trouble and I feel a little bit not safe considering the street conditions outside.

Receptionist was very friendly and tried hard to help you even sometimes communication breaks down due to language barrier. Tunisian in general are really friendly, but street vendors selling souvenirs may force you as I read they are really struggling hence why the behaviour is normal.

From airport to hotel would cost around 20DT with midnight surcharge and baggage surcharge 2DT/bag. But in daytime just cost us 10DT with 2 baggage on normal metered taxi.

Taxi is far cheaper than Bolt so use metered taxi just hail them at the roadside.

Shops around the area mostly are closed maybe not surviving but you have Monoprix and Carrefour to buy foods 5 minutes walk from hotel.

We are Muslim so hotel prepared our suhoor everyday in this holy month. When we ask them to get us eggs and bread for suhoor, they did prepare it for us during our stay.

Tunisia do practice capital control so you cannot exchange the TND in your home country. So what I did is supermarkets do accept cards so for small purchase I use cards to not deal with coins.

But to use taxi you need coins so I would just round it up as taxi are cheap, to get around from 1 place to another just cost around 20DT at most. Even to Sidi Bou Said from Hotel only cost 12DT.

To improve : I hope hotel takes care of the fridge in the room as it is a very essential amenities especially if we stay long. There is no cups in the room. If there is kettle also would be good or have the water dispenser at the lobby to work again.

I read on Reddit Tunisian are really struggling so I hope the conditions improve in future. Their French influence are so strong and people are very nice. I believe they have a lot of potential especially in Tourism sector. Just need a little of fine tuning. It is also said it is normal to see garbage bag flying on street in Tunisia. I don’t know why.

During our stay there we somehow lost and ended up in a weekend morning market. From there we gauge the prices that the locals pay, it is super cheap like 7DT for 1kg of strawberries.

Near the hotel there is Turkish restaurant named Saray in Google Map. We break our fast there.

Nothing opens at night in the area except for small pizza joint 2 streets away. So if you want nightlife better be at La Marsa or maybe can try the Medina area if you are Muslim since it is in Zitouna mosque compound so lots of Halal eateries there.

Overall we love Tunisia and the people, and the cost there is cheap. Metered taxi made us very easy to get around but I know people there are struggling so I do not mind giving taxi drivers a little tip like sometimes I feel it is too cheap like cost us 3DT after a ride so I just gave them 5DT instead for the effort through the busy streets.

Thanks very much for taking care of us during our stay especially preparing our suhoor every morning and making sure we are in good care. The cleaner also very friendly as she use Google translate to talk to us. We felt very happy and at home 😊😊

Trés bien pour le pris
My French is not good. I like this hotel very much. The staff have been very friendly and kind. The breakfast buffet is great.
For the price, the hotel is excellent.
Negative: The street outside is not good. This part of Tunis is rough.
My shower was difficult. It was cramped and would change suddenly from very hot to very cold.
Part of the building, the Bistro has music every night until midnight. The bass come up through the building. I am a heavy sleeper anyway and the Berber style drumming on one evening was very good.

A tour guide who picked me up from here said this was one of the oldest hotels in the city. It's a cool art deco building and the lobby is a great place to sit and talk to other travelers. The staff were all also very wonderful. The rooms themselves seem are fine for the rate but not great. This place is perfect if you want to be in the heart of Tunis and have a sense of adventure. If you're looking for luxury rooms try one of the resorts.