we have just returned from a very disappointing stay at Magic Life. We had read other reviews and also seen the hotel's website and thought we were going to stay at a 5* hotel. How wrong we were!!

We had trusted Thomson to use their years of experience and knowledge to give an accurate rating of this hotel. We very firmly believed that we had booked a luxury hotel - as stated on their website and in their brochures. The rep at the hotel admitted that it was not a 5* hotel. She clearly was out of her depth her amidst a barrage of complaints from the British. She was young and inexperienced and very offhand, especially to a particular family who arrived a couple of days before we left, and who were trying to get onto our flight to get home as they were so appalled by the hotel. She was unprepared and very unprofessional in her manner.

The reception and seating areas resemble a departure lounge at an airport - characterless and dirty. The bar service was often very slow, I think because the glasses were so small that we took to ordering two or three drinks each at a time.
The rooms themselves were small, not particularly clean. There were no handwashing facilities in the toilets so you had to go into the bathroom to wash your hands. The pillows were so awful I had a sore neck for a week as did many other guests. The towels were limp rags and tiny. The so called "fully stocked fridge" was actually a useless fridge with a bottle of lukewarm Coke and Fanta in it.

The weather was really disappointing, dull and cold. This meant that in all the ten long long days we were there, there were only water sports on one of the days. On our last day when the sea was calm there weren't enough staff to let anyone go out. We had paid for these sports as included in our holiday and it was so disappointing that our kids could not use them, although I appreciate that most of it was out of the hotel's control.

In general, the kids' clubs were also a problem in that they were German, although the one (and only one) person in charge of however many kids arrived that day in their age group would translate if they absolutely had to. My son is 12 and bravely tried to join in a game of volleyball with his club but as it was full of 15 year old male & female Germans with their minds firmly on their hormones, he retired gracefully and didn't go back. He did try to go to the Archery with his Dad and was told he could only do this with his kids club, similar with the tennis, although we did eventually do this as a family. My daughter entered a drawing competition with the 30 or so other kids in the group one day and loved that, so that was a positive. I certainly wouldn't have considered leaving a young child in their care as the staff to child ratio was ridiculous.

A laughable point in the holiday was when the General Manager came to wave us off with his hankie (we had not spoken to him before this). As my husband said at the time, his time would have been better spent sorting out all the problems with his dirty run down hotel. Thank goodness we met a handful of fun British families who had lovely children - hence the reason we made it home with our sanity intact.

The food on the whole was fine, although it did become a bit monotonous. The canteen, oops sorry, dining room, was huge, dirty and very busy. We were very disappointed that the supposed four different a la carte restaurants were actually all in the same room, just curtained off areas. We did enjoy the waiter service in here though - that is if you could beat the stampede 36 hours to book them in advance. The food was generally good in these restaurants but we had anticipated these restaurants to be located in different areas of the hotel, giving different outlooks and atmospheres.

My husband had a new bottle of aftershave and a pair of sunglasses taken from our room. We reported this to Reception and the rep, but neithe was interested and we didn't receive any action or apology on the matter.

Hammamet itself was pretty charmless, although we enjoyed having a look at the old medina. We didn't venture anywhere much though as it was so cold and we didn't have the right clothes, unlike the other nationalities in the hotel who were dressed in ski gear by the end - they have obviously been here before at this time of the year!!

Highlights - the deputy restaurant manager Guiseppe very kindly went to get me some gel from the pharmacy to help my sore shoulder.
My daughter had a manicure and pedicure in the spa (pretty run down, seedy place) which she loved and it was very cheap. They also offer free haircuts.
The maid and waiters were very friendly and courteous although kept taking our plates away before we were finished. The maid twice put beautiful floral arrangements on our beds which were lovely.
The flumes were great and saved the holiday for us, although I would love to know if they are properly maintained ....
The shows in the evenings were very entertaining, with contortionists and strong men. One evening there was a Fakar night with stunt men walking on glass etc. Very positive point.

I can't remember EVER feeling this way at the end of a holiday - frustrated, disappointed, cheated and very glad to be home to the comforts of my own house. We will be writing to complain to Thomson in due course.

Our stay was from 14th Oct - 21st Oct 2007.
2 adults and 13 year old
Weather not all that good.
Arrived at airport with approx 10 other flights at the same time which caused a huge amount of caos.
Wrongly signed for baggage on carousel which we had to sort ourselves - 1.5 hrs later we found them. - soaking!!! (Rain bouncing outside)
Hotel
Rooms were very small and quite basic. Needs renovated. - But very clean.
Resturants - Although it clearly states the different resturants in brochure they are all together but separated by dividers. Ok but you still feel that you are at the same area. (other hotels have had individual areas which made you feel you were in another complex)
Spice Market - Food good enough but clearly not spicy.
Brazilian - Chicken on a bone not breast - not my choice. Beef very tough - slice thinly.
Lamb is the best. You can be specific what you want.
Italian - Menu very basic at lunch time - different types of pasta with either spag bol or cheese sauce or tomato sauce. - No pizza.
DIFFERENT in evening. Food is the best here. Better choice.
Buffet - Every day, breakfast, lunch and evening mainly the same. No carvery with most meats in a sauce.
Shows - Very good but outside which at this time of year can get really cold for the children. No bar at this area.
Really only one main bar area for the evening. This can get a bit stale as its the same surroundings day in day out.
No waiter service. You have to queue at bar.
Drink brands are not international and to be honest very weak.
McMagico eating area around pools is surrounded by flies and not very appealing.
The animation team did not come round and encourage you to join in and for the kiddies and teens children club, the only down fault was that there were mainly Germans.
I could go on forever but as I have been to 5* hotels before this one clearly does not come up to scratch.
At airport on our return the queues were in every direction. We then had to queue to go into departures. Then through the scanner which kept going off and the attendant didn't not appear to know what to do. Then for the toilets. - Ahhh.
Not my most favourite destination.

Myself, husband and our 10 year old son chose to go to this hotel based on previous reviews. This is the worst hotel we have ever had the misfortune of staying at. The hotel was old and in serious need of refurbishment, possibly flattened and rebuilt! Our room was one of the better ones, however we still had to use towels as curtains by our son's bed as the rain got in and soaked it. The so called 'a la carte' restuarant was only seperated from the main buffet restuarant, basically a cafeteria, no fancy clothes required. One guest pointed out a dead fly in the buffet rice dish. Staff simply removed the fly from the rice and then stirred it, ready for further consumtion. Although the hotel was all-inclusive the alcohol was abysmal, with no opition of paying extra for decent drinks, the wine tasted like vinegar.

The smellof pollution was everywhere, especially on the beach (making football etc.... impossible). Most people arriving were similarly dissapointed and wanted to fly home immediately. Flies were everywhere, with jungle formula reppelent even failing to keep them at bay. We travel frequently and have never been as dissapointed. Please heed this advice and avoid wasting you time, money and holiday. I would struggle to class this supposedly 5-star hotel as even 3-star

Me and my girlfriend stayed here between the 12th and 19th of September 2007. We chose this hotel based on the excellent tripadvisor reviews. It is a 5 star hotel and needless to say, with the money we spent, we we're looking forward to it.

In summary, we were both very dissapointed and after expecting so much from the Magic Life Manar it failed to deliver in more ways that one.

Service:
I cannot fault the service we received from the staff, eventhough there was a tendancy to hover around you a bit too much, they were very pleasant and helpful.

Room:
We ended up on a shared balcony (with 5 other rooms) which while were there was quiet but the day we left a large family moved into the rooms either side of us. The thought of being there the following week in that position would have been a little offputting. The finishing in the rooms and the hotel was very basic and didnt even come close to resembling a 5 star. However, the maid was excellent and kept the room nice and tidy.

Food:
In a word: shocking. Im the type of person that will try anything at least once, especially when it comes to food. Sadly, i spent most of the week eating chips and grilled meat. Breakfast was awful, i didnt think there was a great selection and the food was always cold. The lunch buffet was also cold and i found the dishes they offered were a bit mishy mashy (what i mean is, they've tried to cater for different cultures resulting in it being extremely difficult to find dishes that go together). The evening buffet tended to follow the same suit. Over the week the choice varied very little. One slight redeeming factor were the a la carte restaurants. We ate in the Spice Market, Milanese (poor - the buffet was more italian) and la Careta (although i brought a stomach bug home and i think it came from here). The snack bars we're very nice either.

A quick note on drinks: while i understand why they give you small measures - in some cases i felt it was completely unjustified (lager). It was a bit of a chore to go back and forth the bar every 5 minutes (the glasses werent even half a pint!).

Pool and facilities:
Not much to say here really, the adult pool area was lovely (no kids!), and the free sports facilities are always welcomed! You do have to pay for the Spa though.

We had our camera stolen from the bar on our second day too. While it was my mistake leaving it on our table and was there for no more than 15 minutes, it wasnt handed in.

Also, the Thomson tours: dont bother. We went on the Legends of Tunisia tour. 10 hours out of the complex, at least 6 on the coach. The colleseum we visted was fantastic, but the rest was a big let-down. The food we had in Sousse was probably the nicest meal all week though!

So all in all, regardless of being in Africa, this hotel is not a 5 star - a 3 star at best. We went to Fuerteventura 2 months ago all inclusive in a 3 star for half the price and i honestly enjoyed everything more.