General description:
Djerba Palace is one of the Miramar chain twin hotels. It declares itself as a 4 star hotel. Now, that is overrated. The other hotel is Cesar Palace. The lobby with the reception of Djerba Palace and main area are very nice but the room is a different story. In the reception area, there is always something going on. One night there was a local painter selling his paintings (not that they were great or anything), on other nights ceramics, etc. An exchange clerk has his desk there with access to the safes, a shisha bar and a jewelry shop and a general gift shop are in the area as well. The hotel has one large restaurant, two bars, three pool bars and one beach bar. Three pools which are very nice. One of them is a sort of a chill out pool. You are to respect the quiet vibe. There is a gym with a whirlpool, practice ground for bow and arrow shooting, petang playground, disco, beach volleyball, tennis courts and football field (a strip of sand with the woodwork). The hotel is located on a strip connected with other hotels by a promenade. It is very short and frequented by the tourists from all the hotels (since there is not much else to do after dinner). The hotel is spread out on a large area interconnected with paths and gardens.
Room:
Since we were not located in the main building overlooking the main pool I can´t judge on the standard of rooms there. We were housed in a double bedroom within the gardens. The room was basic and made up in some sort of oriental style with wooden carvings and artificial pillars. Available on no extra fee was a TV with about 8 channels: BBC World, Rai Uno, Vox, ZDF and some French channels. Also there is a fridge, though quite old, it still gets the job done. The rest is standard. The downside of the room was that is was close to the neighboring hotel and the loud retarded music kept us from enjoying the fresh evening breeze (see What to do after dinner),also we encountered cockroaches during our stay. Another problem with the room was that there was no access to cold water. The water was least lukewarm. There just was no cold water. Room service was ok but you have to ask to have your sheets changed, the towels just need to be left on the flow and they are changed.
Food and the restaurant:
The restaurant was not air conditioned during our entire stay, you can sit outside comfortably. Breakfast is served from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. Dinner is served from 7 p.m. through 9:30 p.m.
The food, there can be dispute over the quality so I will say only that I had no exceptional digestive problems and the variety is ok. Only the food was dull and tasteless. The service is okay. The days of the week are divided thematically. One night they are dressed in the traditional Tunisian outfits with red hats serving more traditional dishes. On other nights they are dressed in seaman costumes and the menu is full of different type of fish and seafood. The restaurant is self service and quite large so the queues get stretched a bit, but nothing tragic. My observation is that if you plan to dine peacefully, avoid the rush hour between 8:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. The French are profound in throwing the place in chaos with their kids shrieking over each, running around and such. All in all, we were disappointed with the food. The staff speaks little or no English.
Beach:
Now, one aspect worth of staying in Djerba Palace Hotel is the beach, nevertheless it proved to be tricky too. The water view is marvelous. We loved it. The color is eye pleasing. That is on a good day with little or no waves. If the sea gets rocky, the waves start bringing on the see weed which spoil the beach experience profoundly. We had a spell of fine weather the first days. The last days were not so good. Plenty of see weed on the bank, discouraging you from dipping in. When I asked the beach bar staff I there is anything being done when the see weed mess up the beach, the guy gave a puzzled look saying “wy? its gud fo d fish, d fish eat it”. Since we were taking everything lightly, we just cracked up over it laughing over it. Sure it might be good for the fish but the fish ain´t paing you 6 dinars for a beer, are they? Eventually after three days a guy with a tractor came and started to comb up all the dried up weeds on a big pile located on the right side of the beach.
Snorkeling can be fun, even though not all that much since it lets you see all the unwanted accessories that found their way onto the seabed, like a broken flower pot, some machine belt etc. The seabed is tricky for the swimmers since it features different clusters of stones with the potential to injure your foot if you do not tread carefully. Other that that, if you enjoy sea shell picking, be careful, glass from broken bottles can be found. In general the beach is okay, but as far as the tidiness is concerned it could be better. As far as the eye can see, empty bottles, bags and other rubbish is kicked around instead of being cleaned up by the two beach maintenance guys flunking around all day.
The beach bar is way too expensive and the service and food quality is so poor, it competes in the same league with Zimbabwe´s economic growth. Avoid it. Also if you choose an umbrella close to the bar be aware of the fact that they have about 3 cds available put on constant replay which gets old very quickly.
What to do after dinner:
Nothing. The place is entertainment free. That is, if you do not consider entertainment in the form of French animator staff forcing you to dance and sing along to the most retarded of all French songs available evening after evening in sequences that repeat itself as if they were burned on a cd and played over and over. It was a nightmare. We even learned the sequences just by sitting on our balcony. On the 5th day, we just had to leave fearing brain damage inflicted upon us by this procedure. Like I said a NIGHTMARE! It usually lasted 2 and ½ hour until 11:30 p.m. You can save yourself by taking a walk at the promenade or take a walk to the nerby mini market store or one of the three restaurants down the hotel strip within about 10 min. walking distance. You can also take a taxi, they are stationed at the hotel entrance and are cheap. A trip to the capital will cost you about 6-7 dinars.
Money matters:
The currency is the dinar. For 1 € you get 1,7 dinars, 1 $ equals 1,2 dinars and 1 £ equals 2,5 dinars (at least they did in the summer of 2007). You can get the money at the hotel exchange desk. It is closed during the afternoon and opens at five, I think until 9 p.m. A bottle of Stella at the bar costs 6 dinars, botle of coke 2,2 dinars, pizza at the beach bar 11 dinars (worst pizza ever). Tips are expected from the room service and the luggage carriers.
NOTE:
Two different guys offered to sell me drugs on two different occasions. Once outside the hotel compound on our way from a restaurant after dinner, the other time right at the beach during the day…judge for yourself but I would not refer to Djerba as the safest place to take your close ones.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
