Villa Didon is truly a 5-star hotel. We spent part of our honeymoon there and could not have been more pleased.

We were greeted at check-in with a complimentary drink, and fresh rose petals strewn throughout our room. The rooms are enormous, done in cool marble, with the most modern fixtures and lights imaginable. The enclosed glass shower and jacuzzi tub are elevated on a marble slab, and the sinks and shower drains are reminiscent of Roman-style aqueducts. An enormous balcony presents breathtaking views of Carthage and the Gulf of Tunis.

Everything in the room, and the hotel, is ultra-modern; the hotel was completely remodeled and updated in 2004. Room doors automatically slide open when you insert your microchip-embedded plastic key. The sliding glass door and picture windows have -two- electric blinds - - one acts as a screen, the other a complete blackout curtain. Rooms have fancy electronic safes, flat-screen TVs (with at least one channel in English), and a small refrigerator stocked with a mini-bar (but you can use the refrigerator to store things purchased at the nearby grocery store).

The hotel lobby and lounge are super chic. The outside portion of the lounge is fabulous. The restaurant is large, quite good, and has wonderful views. There is a new, lovely hammam and relaxation center in the basement.

The service is impeccable. You will not open your own door as long as you stay. The entire staff speaks English and is helpful with directions, suggestions, and taxis. The hotel sits in a very well-to-do section of Carthage (next to the Carthage museum), and it's perfectly safe to walk. The Tunis TGV train runs right through Carthage, connecting Tunis and Carthage every few minutes (or you can take one of the many, many cheap taxis). Sidi Bou Said is a short, cheap taxi ride away.

Villa Didon is not inexpensive, and the food, in particular, certainly costs more than at other Tunis hotels. The bar, while very well stocked, is not cheap. Rooms are expensive by Tunisian standards, but for what you get, are a very good deal by Western standards.

Tunisia itself is a fascinating country with a well-developed tourist infrastructure. It is peaceful and perfectly safe and welcoming for westerners, including Americans. Villa Didon must be one of Tunisia's best hotels; it's certainly one of the nicest hotels I've visited anywhere in the world.

Armed with 2 emails from the hotel "confirming definitely" that my room was booked and having provided credit card details, you can imagine my surprise when I arrived with my partner after an international flight to be told there was no room as I had booked. Despite never mentioning this in prior communication by email, on the phone or on their website, the hotel's management said that I had failed to reply to an email sent just 2 days before my arrival so they were unable to honour my booking.

They 'kindly' offered me a room for one night but on the second I had to make alternative arrangements with no help offered. Incensed, I refused and only after 2 hours of arguments (they could see no problem with what they had done) did the management reveal they had had a block booking of 5 rooms when I was to stay.

Clearly they had decided to send out the last minute 'confirmatory' email in the hope I wouldn't reply freeing up the room. I find such a practice absolutely unacceptable in a hotel which purports to be amongst Tunisia's best and which charges such high prices for their rooms even by international standards. Only after threatening legal action and adverse publicity did the hotel back down.

The moral is be warned! - your room may not be available here even if the hotel confirms it to you in writing.

I just came back from 3 days at Villa Didon and this is the first time i write a review because this was too expensive for what it was ! Too upsetting as well ! So it has to come out !
Location is great, view is fantastic, these are the nice things. Now the rest : shower, choice between boiling water and cold one ! When you were done with trying to shower, you had the choice between white and grey towels, stick to the white ones as the grey are the kind of towels which give you the feeling they are already wet and will not dry your body much, same for the bathrobes. Breakfast, 20 eur per person, for coffee and 3 basic mini-croissant and 2 slices of toast bread, butter and jam of course where there, a glass of orange juice (the only tasty thing)!Below average and not worth 2 stars as breakfast, in such a hotel one expects min nice bread, we ended up going early for a Coffee down the street near the monoprix where a breakfast was at 3 eur in a very nice (bistro like) surrounding and had nice baguette, eggs, croissants and orange juice as well !
Friday night was party in the hotel, so if you do not like modern techno you better sleep somewhere elso as the music will follow you to your room and unless the party is over believe me there is no way to sleep.
We asked the hotel to organize a rental car and this one was 156000 km, so i let you imagine how it looked ! Dirty and dusty and costing 75 eur/day !
Taxi ordered by the hotel always charged the double, so just walk down to the monoprix and get yourself a cheaper one.
I spend half of my time in hotels, i am very picky and i choosed this one not to have any surprises in Tunisia ! I ended up paying a lot, being upset half of the time (towels, shower, breakfast)...
You can meet celebrities there for sure, and see the rich tunisians go by, the spa you can try as we did and this was very nice experience to try the hammam ! though i had some appointments for some treatments and this they cancelled at the last minute because i found out some regular guest was there and had priority obviously.
Conclusion : i would not go there again because to pay 220 eur per night and have no decent towels and shower, i say no never again !

I chose this hotel based on many extatic reviews of guidebooks.
Well, for sure the view from the mini-suites (as they call the rooms) is the most gorgeous I ever had in Tunisia. Is this really worth 350 dinars (about 220 Euros/USD260)? This is open to discussion.
The staff is not very impressive, to say the least. The room design, with the bathroom and bath in the middle, in an open space with the bedroom, is funny, at least for one night (don't worry, the toilets are still in a separate, closet room!). It is only 2 years old, but you can see it will age rapidly...

The restaurant, as of February 2006, is not Alain Ducasse' Spoon anymore, but called "Le RestO", and nothing astounding except the price. No mention of Ducasse anymore anywhere, I wonder if this may not be in his group anymore.

In short, if you are very rich and want to stay in Carthage with the greatest possible view, why not. It is definitely not a "bad" place. But in terms of price for value, I have seen much better in Tunisia, like the Tamerza Palace or even the Dar El Medina in Tunis center.