Overall, a very dissapointing stay. The excuses we got were "out of season".

The hotel is basic, with basic food, which is the same on all nights, no diversity. Very bland food, same flavour of food on all days of our all inclusive holiday.

The hotel is situated approximately 10 minutes from Monastir. Very easy to get to on the bus, and cheap too. Local taxis expensive.

Hotel rooms, very basic. For an all inclusive, no kettle, iroining facilities, hair dryers...need I say more. Bedding very stained and soiled. Dirty rooms and bathrooms with permenant stains.

No activities or events were organised by the hotel, at most 3 emtaintainers in the bar which did the same acts on the 2/7 nights of our stay.
Many locals turn up at the hotel during the night for the disco, which can be a bit off putting.

Travel rep excursions are very expensive. Organise your own trips safely where possible. 40TND for camel ride by the travel rep, local cost is 6 TND at the back of the hotel on the beach.


Overall, if you are after a weeks relaxing holiday, and nothing more, this is the place for you to be stranded with nothing to do, otherwise pay a bit extra and go somewhere else.

We stayed at the skanes el hana hotel between 13-20th october this year, we chose this one as it had the best reviews and was very close to the airport (infact about 1 1/2 miles, but dont let that put you off i hardly heard any planes from the hotel), after speaking to people in the local town we were right to pick this hotel, the hotel dates from 1985 and has hardly changed since being built, expect loose door handles etc in the rooms. The room was a fair size (we upgraded for £10 to a sea view family room), with view of the sea, we were abit disappointed to find the aircon was switched off, it gets switched off after 15th september, luckily it wasnt that hot of a night during october, i would like to stop there with no aircon during septemer though, the only other point to note is that if you have a room overlooking the outside bar/stage it can be abit noisey and it doesnt get turned off till midnight. There are lifts to the rooms (one of which was switched off half way through out stay and will get switched back on again next year, which meant abit of a wait at peak times). You are seated at the same table in the restaurant with teh same waiter, which we werent used to. The food was great, no two days were the same (except for chips and salads obviously) we were told not to eat the salads but we all did and we were fine, the food is a mixture of english, european and local dishes.
There are 5 bars, the two outside bars we closed half way through out stay for the winter, there is a fantastic retro 80s american bar which i loved. The beer is ok, abit like carling, the wine is ok too, id stay away from the spirits though, if you tip the waiters they tend to get the best stuff from under the bar. The entertainment is ok for kids, it was wound down half way through the week as it was getting cold outside of an evening, theres a nice pool area outside with 3 pools, though the main pool was 3m deep all way around which was abit deep for me. The entertainment around the pool again was stopped half way through the week but was turned on again after a guest complained. the beach is right outside the hotel which is semi private for the hotel.
there is a discoteque which opens every night (except sunday) from 12am til 2am though this isnt all inclusive, and mostly full of locals of a weekend, which can cause abit of tension.
The shop is abit of a joke really, tho the bus to the local town is only 20p! There is a medina (market) where you can get virtually anything (as long as its fake!)
The waiters said the temperature in summer is 40°c which is way too hot for me it was about 28°c when we were there which is about right, he also said the ques for the bars were huge in summer.
To sum up, we paid £300 each which was about right, i dont think i would pay more than about £400 even in summer, i would go again but maybe in late may or early september as things were closing up when we were there, the food is great, the hotel is nice but expect things to be falling off, location is great. The guests were from russia, uk, germany and france a good mix.

having read previous reviews we were surprised by how good a time we had , rooms were cleaned daily , fresh towels daily ,no power cuts as other people had experienced. Food was varied and catered for all tastes ,only thing lacking was entertainment .

Fawlty Towers meets Hi de Hi meets YMCA.

We read the reviews, the good the bad and the ugly, but decided we had to make our own minds up so we booked the the El Hana in Skanes with typical English resolve. It will be alright on the night.

We arrived very late as many of the flights in and out of Monastir arrive and leave around midnight.
We were met by the doorman and while we filled in yet another card we took in the ambiance of the lobby. The vinyl chairs, dusty light fittings and a photo of the President.
Shabby chic, another of the guests commented and they were right. Everything looks just a bit past its best and in need of the House Doctor or 60 minute make over.

We were then presented with luminous Pink wrist bands to identify us as All inclusive or when shopping, Tourists from the El Hana

We were taken to our room and chose to see it as quaint rather than dated and with 3 single beds awaiting us we went to bed happy to be on holiday.

The morning brought an interesting moment in the dining room where we had to be assigned a table for the entire stay. As we were all inclusive, (and i will come to that in a moment), we figured the waiters were territorial and the system ensured we were served by the same people daily and prevented possible tip squabbles breaking out.

All inclusive in Tunisia needs careful attention. What you get is really full board with local and soft drinks thrown in for good measure. It may be all hotels but the El Hana you could only get a drink (without paying) from 10am to midnight. The local beer around 3% was quite refreshing but if you wanted a spirit you had a choice of 3. Schnapps which tasted like paint stripper, a type of brandy and a fortified wine. If you found yourself at the bar at 9.57 am you had a 3 minute wait before service would begin and they stuck to this time limit like a limpet mine.

As we traveled during half term we had expected the hotel to be quite bust but only a 100 or so people were checked in and we saw less than half of these daily. This was great we thought as we had no fight for a sun bed or feeling of being over crowded but we then realized the negative to this was that all the outside facilities were closed. No poolside bar or restaurant and no atmosphere. If you wanted a beer it was a trek up 30 steps and back (hard with 6 drinks in hand) and quite a monotonous one at that. We made the mistake of asking a waiter that wandered around all day collecting glasses if he would bring us a drink. He willingly obliged and on his return asked us to pay for the beer. We were a little stunned as we were all inc but apparently this only counts if we go to the bar ourselves. Even though he had nothing to do and failed to tell us we would be charged.
I complained to the Desk Manager and suggested he refund half of the cost of the drinks and he flatly refused to do so. Suddenly all the quirks of the hotel that we just smiled about became more of an issue The management of this hotel changed how I felt about it and from this point all the staff changed toward us and began to make us feel uncomfortable.

I could now tell you how bad every thing was but i cannot allow my personal feeling to cloud your judgment. You have to go with an open mind and experience it for yourself

We decided that the hotel time warp to the 70s was quite fun and the staff did seem to get a rough deal.

Points to be wary of. The main pool is 3 m deep all round. (freezing in oct) and not good for kids that cannot swim well it has a 50 cm drop edge to the water and 3 sets of steps

On a positive note the oddities of the place brought out the blighty spirit and created a solidarity between the British contingent . We made some new friends and in particular we came home with plans to meet up again. Had the hotel been any different I doubt whether we would have had such a laugh.

The evening entertainment often seemed a little bland but we made our own fun and even had the waiters in stitches. Oh and if you like a game of bingo they have one at 9.30 pm ever evening. Oh and other than breakfast the food was generally very good if a little predictable.

Would I recommend you go there...... I cant say I would because i would not want you to blame me if you didnt like it.

Would I go back..... Absolutely