This is a typical 'upmarket' Tunis hotel - with most of the quirks that you'd expect. The location is good - to the northwest of the central downtown area (Centre Ville) and just 15 minutes (colorful) walk to the Place de la Victoire at the entrance to the Medina. It was 10 mins walk to the shops on Ave de Paris and 20 mins to Ave Habib Bourguiba. A taxi from there back to the hotel cost less than 2 dinars. For orientation, it's just east of Parc Belvedere. The hotel opens onto the street (i.e. not inside any grounds or garden) but we found it very quiet - we had a second floor room at the front. The main road (Hedi Chaker) seems to be the "car repair center" for Tunis - but it had a nice, unthreatening feel and there are two superb patisseries about 50 metres from the front door (turn left on exiting).
Hotel lobby is bright and not too large - easy to navigate. Check-in staff helpful, quick and spoke much better English than my French. Room was plain but large enough for two twin beds. The icebox was large enough to keep bottles of water etc (and it's not a mini-bar some comes empty). Beds and bedding of very good quality (considering price). Aircon seemed a little underpowered, but did a perfectly good job of keeping the room cool (we had to switch it off as we became too cold) Bathroom was plenty big enough for the two of us - not palatial, but clean and efficient. There's a mini-safe in one of the wardrobes - it was locked 'open' but when I called reception they sent a man within 5 mins to fix it.
We only had breakfast at the hotel - it was FINE! OK - so there's not 27 different types of egg and 16 different cereals - but for the price, the pastries, cheeses, juices and bread were better than expected. And the coffee is good too.
I got myself a beer from the bar on the the mezzanine floor. It was like walking into a lung. Not the place to stay for a drink, but OK for a take-out. And the Wi-Fi was excellent.
One tip - the power goes off when you remove the keycard from the slot by the door, so use some card to keep perpetual power in the room (for the fridge and the aircon)
- Le Diplomat Hotel Tunis
