we had a really good holiday here at the diar lemdina residence it was our 7th time in tunisia, 1st in this hotel family of all age groups everyone enjoyed the stay . the rooms were spotless and really roomy food was excellent couldnt say a bad word. the medina might be a shock to 1st time visitors to tunisia because of the hassle but you soon get used to it.

We spent a week by exchanging timeshare points through Interval. We had a one bedroom unit that was actually quite spacious, but as many reviewers have mentioned, closer to 3* standard. The unit was kept very clean with daily maid service (nice, since most timeshares are only thoroughly cleaned at midweek). My biggest complaint with the unit are the beds - they are the worst I have ever slept on. They were rock hard - I woke up in the middle of every night with pain in my hips because the beds were so hard. Eventually I gathered the loose pillows from the daybeds in the living area and arranged them so there was some layer of cushioning on the bed.

We've also never been to a resort where we felt like everyone - even resort staff - were trying to con you, whether it was transport or excursions, you never seemed to get an honest answer out of anyone. By the end of the week we walked all the way around the building to avoid having to go through the medina - only so much hassling one can take. In truth we were hassled less walking through the true medina in Tunis than we were in the fake medina at the resort!

Normally we enjoy having a kitchen and preparing food through the week, but here the food shopping choices were really limited. The restaurants in the medina were equally limited and I'm glad to be back home where I can finally get some fresh fruit and veg.

With it being the off season maybe we didn't see the area in its best light, but overall we weren't very impressed by the resort or the area and would likely not return to either.

The Hotel overall was nice, it was clean the room was well equipped. It is a 4* hotel not a 5*.

But, do NOT go here in winter (even tho it is often advertised as winter sun) we went self catering and found it very hard to buy any fresh food except coffee, eggs and bread. The restaurants near the hotel would shut at around 6pm making it hard to find somewhere to eat out.

Everybody knows that you will get people trying to barter with you wherever you go, but when you are told this, it's still impossible to avoid anyone. Even when you ignore them or say no they follow you down the street it can be very intimidating.
If you don't like being approached by sellers of fake nike trainers, cigarettes and cheap manufactured tack, then this holiday probably isnt for you.

The resort itself it very very quiet as we went pretty much out of season most places were closed.
The beach was shut and very dirty looking,
the "supermarket" sells less food than a small rural UK petrol station,
the restaurants are awful except the Viking one and Freestyle cafe around the outside of the medina.

That was the bad stuff,

However
If you are reading this and have already booked your holiday to this hotel, there are some things that we found pretty good.

On the good side, we had an excellent two days on an excursion (desert explorer - one night in a 4 star hotel) that we booked with the amazing tourist information guy, muhammed, it cost about £80 each, and you see the south of the country. it is a great trip and the food which is included, is traditional tunisian dishes - one lunch is in a 5* palace hotel.

Maybe it was the time of year, maybe it's just not for us. But do not believe everything the person selling you this holiday is saying, as we have found, they are very misleading.

As regular travellers to Tunisia we have now tried three different hotels. The Lalla Baya in Hammamet Yasmine many times but have now cast it aside because the whole set up went down hill over a period of 3 years when it changed hands. The Marharba Palace in Port El Kantaoui which was very, very nice but we could not get booked there for 2007 Xmas and New Year through our travel agents in Malta. However, we had always had a hankering to try the Diar Lemdina through Medhotels.com who we use regularly just to give it a try, so, we tried it out for one week at the end of Sept into Oct and it was very, very good. We were very taken with it. So......... Xmas and New Year 2007/2008 we went back.

We had a superb two storey apartment which was kept beautifully by our maid. We had kitchen facilities, downstairs loo with hand basin, and a lounge complete with two well cushioned day beds, three coffee tables, a standard lamp, table lamp and a television. Two film channels showing British and American films with Arabic subtitles and BBC World. We always take a portable DVD player with DVD'S and CD's as well as it does cover you for bad weather if you travel during the winter months as we do. The upstairs comprised of a landing with very large full length mirror, a huge bedroom overlooking the garden and pool (which is a very large inner courtyard) from three large shuttered windows and a nice bathroom which came complete with hoards of towels and bathrobes. The water temperature and power in the shower was excellent and the heating of the apartment the same.

The reception area and the bar are not large but they are comfortable, you have to remember that this hotel is part of a complete complex which takes in a large outside area complete with a medina, restaurants and during the warmer months outside entertainment. There are two swimming pools outdoors and an indoor swimming pool. We forgot our cossies so did not bother to go and look at it but we could see that it was well used by the amount of people returning to their accommodation with swimming gear.

We went half board and found the food very much to our taste and were more than satisfied every day of our 14 days. We attended a New Year celebration for 600 and had a great evening with 2 people from Milan and 4 from Lampedusa. Total language barrier but we still had a very good time and the food was excellent there too. How you serve a fillet steak to 600 people and get it right I just do not know!

The staff could not have been more helpful from maids through to management. We were definitely more than satisfied. We will definitely be returning. We like the area, we take lots of long walks and we use public transport to go to Hammamet, Nabeul and Tunis. Plenty enough to do for us.