Occidental Marhaba

I spent good time here I love all the people the staff the food, and animation Team are funny and friendly especially Madi and Adam he always come talk to us and made our holiday.

A truly lovely hotel in a great location. The hotel itself is nice looking - a good mixture of modern, simple design with some nice Arabic style twists. The lobby is particularly nice looking. The size of the general resort is good as it is big enough to host everything but not too big as to make walk g around long. The staff were all great - literally without exception. Always friendly, helpful and had a smile on their face. The animation team work very hard at getting everyone to have fun - not always my cup of tea but the options of things to do were plentiful and fun. They were particularly good with the smaller children who consistently looked like they were having a brilliant time. The food was great - I felt always a great mixture of a few local options, European fare and also some standard ‘plain’ food if that floats your boat. Most of it cooked fresh in front of you (pasta, pizza, omelette, pancakes, meat & fishes) - however I never had to wait / queue more than a few minutes during the whole stay. The bar staff were nice and again I didn’t have too long to wait for a drink during my stay. The beach is lovely - a strip of light, powder sand (some of the best I’ve see ) with plentiful sun beds (no fee). I felt my possessions were safe when I was swimming. The sea is shallow and usually calm and crystal clear. We did however come during a period of jellyfish spawning in the sea (which is obviously not the hotels fault). This meant we spent less time in the sea than we would have liked but the pool more than made up for this. The pool area is great! A really nice, clean, large interesting shaped pool. We were always able to find somewhere to sit (but I imagine in peak season it might get busy but what can you expect). The rooms are very nice - everything you would expect. The beds are large and comfortable with nice soft duvets, sheets & pillows. Our room was ground floor, interconnected & we found it perfect for our requirements (2 adults & 2 teenage sons). The area outside the hotel is lively but not threatening. Lots of nice dessert places and restaurants (should you wish to leave the AI here). We found several nice gift shops & safe ATMs. The gardens / grounds are particularly lovely and well done to the gardening team who keep them immaculate. Overall I would highly recommended this hotel!

Just got back from 10 nights at this hotel & wanted to leave a review. Overall, we enjoyed the holiday, however I wanted to let other holidaymakers know what to expect. We travelled with adults, teen kids & someone over 70. First impressions: checkin was quick and easy, towel cards can be bought for 50 dinar per person so you can use the beach towels at the hotel, you get this amount refunded to you on departure provided you hand the cards back. Tourist tax payable per person is £12 per person per night for people over 12. Approx £156 for 6 of us. Upon checkin, we were given rooms 6 and 7. (six, seven haha) and we found these rooms unacceptable. They felt dirty, the light was hanging off the wall, there was no third bed in either room (we had 3 people sharing two rooms) and the view was of the restaurant roof. The a/c didn't work properly and neither did the fridge. After complaining about this, we were moved to rooms in the 140's which were much better, overlooking the pool, they did seem cleaner, however in every room we found the same, the bath had quite a lot of mould around the bath, and the shower head had green mould on it. The room whilst had been cleaned, didn't feel very clean. Our patio door didn't lock which we had to get fixed on the first day. Rooms: The room was clean overall, but the surfaces felt sticky/grubby, they were quite shabby, definitely not enough drawer/clothes space for 3 people for 10 nights. The fridge didn't work, there were no batteries in the TV remote so we didn't use this the whole stay. The A/C worked in one room and not the other which did get fixed. The bathrooms had mould but was clean overall. The showers were powerful and water always hot, the beds were very comfy, sheets clean etc. The rooms were cleaned daily for the first few days, then it was hit and miss. The towels were taken in the morning and not returned, so quite a few days we had to ask for towels, and a few times didn't get them so was using beach towels to dry after a shower. There are phones in the room but they don't work so you have to download an app to ask for anything from reception. We had to repeatedly ask for clean towels, the fridge to be fixed, (ours was eventually replaced) and sometimes it was a quick turnaround and sometimes not. There was only two plug sockets in the room (one next to the bed), which did make getting ready awkward as there was no mirror by the other socket. Id recommend take an extension lead. Food: the staff work very hard and the food is varied, we did find that everyone in our party had a dodgy belly for a while though, possibly just due to it being rich. We had an amazing waiter who always looked after us. Pool: the pool was always clean & tidy and always game going on (water polo, darts, aqua aerobics etc) however in the afternoon it seemed like they turned the music up to max volume to the point you couldn't even hear the person next to you talking which did get annoying after a while. The animation team are great, full of energy and always engaging with you however it did get a bit tiresome being told 'don't be lazy' when you didn't want to join in with games, when you've paid to go on holiday to relax and have a break from work, it felt like you were always judged for saying no and told you were lazy and things like 'this is not a hospital'. The pool bar was always busy but waiters would come round and take your drinks orders and bring them to you - tipping here is helpful otherwise you can get forgotten about. I'd take a stanley type cup for pool drinks as they will fill them and the lids deter wasps as we found on the first few days you attract so many wasps with the normal open cups. If you didn't reserve a pool sunbed early, you wouldn't be able to get one until late in the day. Beach: stunning sandy beach, lots of sunbeds, and beach bar for drinks. Only a short walk from the pool. Lots of jellyfish, water sports available on the beach. For older people/less mobile: My mum struggled a bit with the lack of lifts in the hotel, although there is one in reception, to get up and down to the rooms etc was a bit of a struggle, and I'm not sure it would be suitable here for people with limited mobility. Evening entertainment: We thought this was good - kids disco first then the main show from 9/9.30pm and it was always fun and entertaining. You could hear the entertainment in the rooms quite loud til midnight ish so be prepared, this didn't bother us but might bother people with smaller kids. Summary - the staff work super hard. This hotel seemed more like a 3 star, be prepared for some of the things above. Overall a good time was had.

It was a well located hotel that had plenty of fun activities to keep you busy in the day such as: waterpolo, darts, archery with a creative evening show for both children and adults. Would definitely come back here 😊

The entertaiment team is out of this world. Especially Rico, really funny and makes good music. Very clean and look after hotel. Located in tourist area, close to shops and some take-aways. The entertainment was different every night - loved the pool party.