Went to Bel Air in June this year with friends. The hotel has since closed but Cheers Bar is still open and this is my review of how things were then.
Upon arrival, the last in a never ending stream of gorgeous hotels, we were a teeny bit disappointed with the appearance of if but then again it was gone Midnight and we were pretty tired.
The problem with Tunisia first of all is you can't get any money changed until the morning so tipping is difficult. Cheers Bar which is joined on to the hotel was in full swing and continued to be so until the early hours. At least we could get a drink and bottled water and they were happy to accept English money there for us too.
The hotel had seen better days but the pool was lovely and the staff seemed friendly. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about but certainly nothing to complain about either in my opinion. There was lots of it ranging from Soup to salads, to cous cous to pasta. All typically Tunisian food but most people didn't realised that. Briks and Tangine were made at times too.
As with all hotels in Tunisia you can change money at the hotel and the rate we are told, is the same where ever you change it and is set on a daily basis. It's best to change a little bit at a time rather than huge amounts. There were safety deposit boxes there but these were in a public area and there were rumours of money going missing from them.
The bowling alley, the gym and a cafe bar had all long since closed so apart from Cheers Bar, Shakespeare up the road and the British Bar across the road, there wasn't masses to do in the area.
Cheers Bar was friendly and they served food throughout the day. It was particularly busy given that it's a sports bar of sorts and the World Cup was shown on huge screens. I have to agree with a previous comment that there seemed to be an awful lot of local men after the affections of the western women regardless of age, shape or status. Ladies please beware in Tunisia. Enjoy your holiday but these men want you to fall in love with them and they are after your money and a visa to the UK where it is extremely hard for them to get to without help. Arm yourself with information before you travel by googling Tunisian Love Rats and you'll see what I mean. Cheers Bar is rife for this type of behaviour and they are extremely convincing so be warned. They have a different woman with every holiday coach.
Everywhere you went in the hotel you were asked about trips and about massages. I did go quad biking and on the camel trek. The quad biking was brilliant but I felt the camel trek was unsafe. We had two incidents which could have been quite major and were lucky that nothing more serious happened.
Overall I didn't expect too much and I enjoyed the holiday very much.

on our 4th night of our stay we had money taken from our deposit box and also several other people also. they tried to tell us it had never happened before and there were cameras which was a lie. i liked tunisa but the thieves in bel air not the maids or the waiters but the counter staff who stole our money for which we had worked and saved for will make us think again about going back.

booked with Thomas cook via Travel republic, read these reviews and was about to walk away from going on this holiday due to the reviews, had phone call the night before our flight informing us hotel was no longer on Thomas Cooks bookings due to the mentioned problems before in other reviews, we were rebooked and moved to Marina Palace at no charge and decided to give it a chance. Please see our review of Marina Palace and decide for your self, on talking to other guests at this hotel if you are a old chain smoking tattooed alcoholic gran that loves to have your breasts and face snogged off by local lads go to Bel Air or Shakespeares Bar for a good drag show and grope but if you can entertain yourself try any other hotel Tunisia is such a amazing location.

i was nervous after reading the holiday reviews, my friends told me to take no notice as some people are never happy!

i am so glad i read the reviews, having read the reviews made me aware of the problem with the safety depoist boxes, (we carried an over the shoulder bag with us everywhere containing money, phones, passports, camera's, ipod's etc...) lots of people who used these boxes got money stolen from them in smallish amounts, only for everyone getting talking with each other that they all realised that there was a problem. (people were thinking that maybe thay had over-spent or counted there money wrong) hotel staff acted stupid, were not helpful at all. take note that this hotel does have security cameras but in the place were you think they should be the most, overlooking the depoist boxes, there was none!!

rooms where a joke to say the least, we were a group of 4 so we had 2 rooms between us, we were moved rooms 4 times in total, problems with toilets not flushing, doors closing etc...don't think are sheets were changed once through out are 2 week stay, sheets didn't fit the beds, towels were grey, hard and ripped, had to always ask for toilet rolls.

food was very repetative, dinner (alot of beef dishes and pasta dishes) was more tolerable than breakfast which was awful and i am not a fussy eater, i like my food.
the young waiters were very in your face and had to be told a few times to leave us alone, they all come off with the same line - i just need someone to pratice my english speaking with!!

the pool area was nice enough and seemed to be looked after, you do get hassled to go on the trips when you are lying chilling at the pool.

the first trip we done was the half of a day camel trek followed by bbq, a complete nightmare. the poor camels and horses were all chained up, they all had lots of scars on them froming being badly treated, the young tunisians who were left to look after you were smelly perverts who would not take no for an answer. the bbq was warm bread with a bowl of oil for you to dip it in, a bottle of coke/water and some water melon, then you were expected to tip for this.

the next trip we done was amazing, it was the sahara dessert trip which u were on for 2 days, you stay over night in a lovely hotel, i would defo recommend this to anyone, but be prepared for alot of travelling on the coach but well worth it, bring a pillow with you to sleep on the coach. the tour guide was a young tunisian fella but very nice with alot of knowledge! (would go back to do this trip again)

the other trip we done was the half a day pirate ship, this trip was good craic, but tunisian fellas again can be very in your face so be prepared for this.

a few times we went into yasmine which was very nice and busy, good atmosphere!

the entertainment at the hotel was non existent, a couple of girls running around after the older men, near the end of the holiday this became entertaining to watch, there was a bar attached on to the hotel called cheers, it was nothing special but was the best out of a bad bunch!!
at the end of the street there is a bar called shakespeares were a couple of nights a week theres a drag act on, you will get a good laugh at this, they also have a buy one get one free offer!

i would travel to tunisia again but not this hotel, any groups of girls traveling together take care!!!!