My wife and I stayed a week at the Vincci Helios Beach Hotel in October 2011 on a Thomas Cook package from Gatwick. We had never been to Tunisia before and we were invited to join a French couple who know Tunisia well from having once worked in the country. They had been recommended this hotel as being very good and they advised us that it was the best hotel overall that they had experienced in Tunisia. I can say it is certainly very good, with really friendly staff who give of their best and good quality local food from which you can choose. The facilities are good and the hotel is located directly on a pleasant sandy beach - it's ideal for young children and for anyone of any age. The staff speak enough English too for there to be no problem. Highly recommended.

The Thomas Cook package is good too - the new airport at Djerba is only 30 minutes away and everything went very smoothly.

We first visited Helios in June this year, and I was very impressed, have just returned from second excursion and I am still very impressed.
As "TezEssex" says it was a bad experience travelling out, I was on that flight and apart from the storms, there was a technical delay at Gatwick. I did hear some person moaning about this, one would assume they would rather have ditched in the channel than had it fixed. As for thunder storms there is nothing that can be done about these but wait, so we waited. What however made all this worse was the surly, rude, could not care less attitude of the Thomas Cook cabin crew, I did single these out in last review and nothing has changed, their whole attitude is get them on and get them off, no courtesy, no politeness, not even a please or thank you when purchasing an overpriced coffee.
All this of course meant we were very late in reaching Djerba, and I had learnt from last trip that Thos Cook coach's are not the quickest form of transport, as by the time everyone has boarded, up to 45 minutes, and the coach has then dropped everyone else off (Helios is last drop) it can be 90 minutes to hotel, I had booked a taxi, saved a small fortune, and had reached hotel, checked in, been to room, had meal, and was relaxing in the bar before coach turned up. Same going back as one can be queuing out into airport carpark waiting to check in.

I see again some negative comments regarding it being too French, please remeber that Tunisia is an ex French colony and therefore French is the second language of the country, and as France is my favourite country I am happy (I do not travel to mix with English people, if this is what I wanted I would go to Blackpool, Brighton, or maybe Benidorm) I speak what can be described as survival French, I get by very slowly, and can not have a conversation in the normal sense, but it takes little time or effort to get the basics. Although I must admit that Olpha of the animation team delivers her announcements with the velocity of a sub machine gun, so may not even be understood even by a fluent speaker.

On to the animation team, these are what ice the cake here, all the staff from front desck, through catering to cleaning are exceptional, but these go a step beyond, non stop all day, and treat all guests as long lost friends, superlative. I learn that Wodja has signed up for another year, another darn good reason to go back, this man has talent in spades.

Quick moan, again regarding T. Cook their brochure says hotel has a sauna, it does not, it has a steam room at €9.00 a session, no way!

I spent more time in Midoun than previously and learnt that it is easier and less stressful to buy in the "Fixed Price" outlets than lose ones rag arguing over pennies in the market type shops, one usually ends up paying the same price without the hassle.

So again, excellent and back next Spring, unless anyone can tell where there is a hotel/resort of this standard in such a location, at this price, and only 3 hours flight from the UK?

We went in October half term- weather was good everyday except for one day.
Ask to be moved to a 'Houche' by the main pool if they allocate you a room in the main hotel. Just a modern up to date version. The bungalows are for bigger family's and surround the 'quiet' pool. You will be charged if you want one of these. 
The eating area by the pool was closed however there are toilets there to use (someone mentioned there wasn't any outside) and also some by the beach.

Beach was metres away, hotel has loungers there and you can pay to ride the camels or horses or hire boat equipment. There are excursions you can do with Thomas cook however we opted out of these.

Hotel staff on reception and in the restaurant were nice and their English was good- better than our Arabic!
The bar was a switch lights out by midnight style but the option to go down to the club was open every night. although most people didn't.

Food was ok- sitting indoors avoids the flys! Food was a variety but best to try everything. Book in early at the al a carte restaurant - you get one reservation included in your all incl and it made a nice change to the main restaurant.

Entertainment staff were brilliant especially for the kids, I don't know how they do it everyday.
We used the spa on our rainy day plus there is an indoor pool to keep you occupied or taxi to the nearest town but you can be hassled and may be better going to the 'fixed price' shops.

On the whole we enjoyed our stay there- don't think we would go with Thomas Cook again though, the flight and staff on board were awful- the other budget airlines are first class compared to them!

We were apprehensive at first as there were quite a few negative reviews however you get what you pay for and it's not as bad as what some people make out. Plus it's how you make your holiday at the end of the day.

Ps if you like your tea- take your own tea bags with you!

Returned from this hotel a couple of days ago and have never written a review before but we now feel impelled to do so. We have been to Djerba before, approx 10 years ago and stayed at a different hotel and had an absolute wonderful time, so we were really excited about returning. To start, our flight with Thomas Cook could not land in Djerba due to a storm over the island. We had to land at a mainland airport wait for the weather to clear and two hours later we were on our way again and landed at Djerba. Not moaning at Thomas Cook as weather is weather but If your thinking of going to Djerba in October then note the rainfull as it is far greater in October. We arrived at the hotel and due to our delayed arrival the reception staff gave us checking in forms to complete and suggested we go through to the restuarant and eat as they had kept the restuarant open later for us...Nice thougt! Before we set off we requested a bungalow due to some of the comments we had read on Tripadvisor regarding the hotel rooms being not up to scratch. When we checked in at reception we were happy to hear we were allocated a bungalow. Room 120..we didn't have much of a view...overlooking the tennis courts but hey the room was very clean, modern and was quite reasonable in size. All appeared to be going okay...We decided to drop our bags in our room and venture to the bar..Your lucky to speak with any bar staff in english as they only seem to know "how are you" If your fluent in french your be fine! We soon learnt how to ask for our drinks in arabic rather than french as they say when in rome! The bar closes dead on midnight. Okay you might say the bar opens at 10.00 a.m. what's the problem with it closing at midnight!..well it's not just the bar that closes...they turn all the lights out around the bar seating area so your sitting in the dark with your drinks! your made to feel uncomfortable as if you shouldn't be there. This happend most evenings and must be the hotel policy as one evening we sat on the terrace seating outside the restuarant and the same thing happend..the lights were switched off on us!. The bar area really didn't have alot of atmosphere in the evenings..apart from early entertainment geared up for the kiddies, there's no music or entertainment for the adults. Okay there's "Showtime" at 9.30 inside the hotel in a room with a stage, with conference room type chairs arranged. We went once to this but it got far too hot in the closed room, and the show was in french with little bit's in english so we kind of lost track of what was going on and left. There is a Disco but was closed most evenings as I don't think there was many takers. If you do go to the Disco take note the bar is not part of the All Inclusive package and you have to pay for your drinks..Tip.. if it's before midnight walk to the main bar and get your dinks there! Not all of the facillities were open for example there is an outside eating area to the right of the main pool, this was closed for the duration of our stay. Looked as though it has been closed for the winter months which was such a shame as it got really repetative going to the same restuarant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was a bar area on the beach which was also closed. The food was plentiful with an array of different dishes. we're not fussy eaters but careful people and believe in trying all kinds of food but was really put off by the poor hygiene (caught the chef with his fingers in a bowel of croutons and then eating them by the soup station two evenings) and the amount of flies on the food not just the odd one...talking of flies don't eat outside on the terrace as your have to eat so quickly to avoid the flies landing on your food your end up with indigestion! also if you do have small children requiring high chairs take note, the hotel cats for which there are many, sleep on the high chair seats as the high chairs are left outside over night and I'm pretty sure the hotel doesn't bother to de-flea or worm the cats so take some hygiene wipes with you and save your kiddies scratching! Whilst I'm on a role with regards to hygiene, beware...there are not many public toilets in the hotel, we found two inside the hotel, one by the restuarant, one by the Spa and only one block by the pool. Now there's 354 rooms in this place with 3 plus beds in each room...that's alot of people for just 3 public toilet areas (9 toilets in total) so dare I say there not very clean and your lucky to find loo role and a hand dryer that works so take your hand sanitiser with you! The hotel is also in the middle of nowhere so you don't have any bars to walk to if you wanted to go out. The yellow taxi's are very cheap to travel around in, cost us just two dinar's to go up to the crocodiles not far from the lighthouse but be warned the drivers do not speak english. I'll end this review by saying this hotel really wasn't for us, we don't go away to expect people to all speak english but if this hotel is now being promoted by Thomas Cook in the UK, the hotel really needs to be more geared up for the english guests equally with the french guests rather than second class. The hotel also needs to invest in a few tins of paint as it's looking tired along with some new seating in the bar area as this is also looking tired and quite dated.
Currency..as the TTD's are a forbidden currency you can't get your currency before you leave the UK. There is a bank in the airport and a Bureau de Change in the hotel where you can change up you GBP's to TTD's. Be warned if you do have any Dinars left at the end of your hols, you can't bring it home and chnage it back to GBP's or change it back in the hotel. However you can change it back to GBP's in the airport but you MUST have a receipt from when you originally changed your currency to TTD's..Final tip..the drinks are served in smaller than small glasses! so if you do like a beer or soft drinks invest in a "bubba" drink carrier before you go. They are a drink container with a lid on them and have a handle. you can get them in ASDA £4 each! Spirits are local brands but would say when they were bottled the alcohol dissapeared! so perhaps if you like your spirits invest in a bottle before you go. We did try they paying bar for branded spirits and the Gordon's Gin I had tasted of Gordon and no Gin! and the Bacardi and coke my Husband had...guess what..tasted of coke! Happy holidays! or rather "Bonnes Vacanes"