Tui Magic Life Penelope Beach

“MyMo Swim Club Review Only”

I was looking for a resort that offered swim lessons for my daughter where we could both relax and have fun. I also wanted to visit somewhere new to both of us where we could experience a new culture and learn about a new place. The Penelope Beach resort in Djerba, Tunisia fit the bill. The swim… more

I was looking for a resort that offered swim lessons for my daughter where we could both relax and have fun. I also wanted to visit somewhere new to both of us where we could experience a new culture and learn about a new place. The Penelope Beach resort in Djerba, Tunisia fit the bill. The swim lessons are through the MyMo Swim Club and were €200 for ten 30 minute lessons. We were arriving late on a Monday so they rearranged the lessons so that we could get the full 5 hours of instruction while we were there. I really appreciated that as getting my daughter into an intensive swim program was a big goal for the summer. The instructor, Emi (Emilia), was fantastic! My daughter absolutely loved her and has continued to talk about her and ask after her weeks after we got back from our trip. My daughter is much more confident in the water and has been able to enjoy swim activities at home with her peers as a result. I will add that the staff in general at the MyMo club (Hannah, Mia, Emi, Mamidou) that my daughter engaged with were wonderful! The swim lessons, kids club, and mini disco were major highlights! I would do another TUI resort with swim lessons in the future but at a different location.

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“Lovely stay and a great team of people”

We've just returned from a 2 week holiday at Penelope Beach and we enjoyed our stay. The hotel itself is very nice, clean and the complex is fairly large; we stayed in 2000 block which was at one end of the complex and it was a 10 min walk to the beach at the other end to give an idea of scale. Thi… more

We've just returned from a 2 week holiday at Penelope Beach and we enjoyed our stay. The hotel itself is very nice, clean and the complex is fairly large; we stayed in 2000 block which was at one end of the complex and it was a 10 min walk to the beach at the other end to give an idea of scale. This also meant that nowhere around the resort feels busy or crowded as the pools and activities are very spaced out. The beach is private with very clear water. There are some hawkers allowed on the beach selling camel rides, gifts etc but they aren't overly pushy. Other than that the security staff are good at monitoring the beach. The pools are warm and very clean. There are lots of activities to take part in at the hotel throughout the day for both adults and kids but none of the staff are pushy about asking you to join which is very welcome; if you're reading a book they leave you alone! Pros: the food is lovely, fresh and very varied in the main restaurant. Lots of grilled meats and fish, salads as well as theme nights. There is always a small Tunisian section available and the food is beautiful. The snack bar food is also good. Pros: bottled water readily available, food is good and service generally good. Our room was very clean with great Aircon and a nice sized terrace. The staff were all friendly and it is also very easy to get a taxi if you want to explore; arrange with the reception staff. All the staff sp ak a range of languages. The spa is extra but I had a very nice treatment and would recommend. The entertainment staff were the highlight for us, especially the dancers - Bruno, Tiffany, Jose, Marcella, Luiz and Ziya, as well as the singer Zomonde. They are extremely talented and I was really surprised at the high quality of the shows which surpassed other TUI hotels. They are all also very friendly people who make time to stop and chat, especially to my little daughter who was absolutely in awe of them! Also a special mention to the MyMo club team Hannah, Mia, Emi and Johanna in particular who are lovely and enthusiastic. Cons: these are the reasons for 4 rather than 5 stars for me. Flies in the restaurant, especially outside really needs addressing. I understand they are inevitable in a hot climate but more measures need to be in place. We're not big drinkers but on the occasion we had a cocktail or beer the drinks are inconsistently made and quite poor quality (usual AI set up!). The gym is very basic and could do with an upgrade. Overall a lovely stay but just a few little things that could be improved.

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“Overall a very good holiday”

Overall a very good holiday. It was our first abroad since 2017 and I had done weeks of research about the hotel, the country and the area before booking. Let's start with the pros... The flight times and duration from Manchester are great and it's about 25-30mins from the airport via private trans… more

Overall a very good holiday. It was our first abroad since 2017 and I had done weeks of research about the hotel, the country and the area before booking. Let's start with the pros... The flight times and duration from Manchester are great and it's about 25-30mins from the airport via private transfer. The complex has a 24hr secure gate and the staff are friendly and efficient. First impressions when we arrived... The grounds throughout are beautiful and very well kept and maintained, there is always staff out pruning and trimming and tidying, from the front gates all the way down to the beach. Gold star ⭐ The reception and lobby are spacious, cool and clean with plenty of seating and staff floating about (as well as it's mascot, a gorgeous ginger cat). We were given room 2111 which was on the first floor and at one end of the complex with a garden view, the area was calm and relatively quiet. The room was adequate space wise for a couple plus our 11year old son with a small balcony. It was clean and tidy, Aircon worked a treat and there were plenty of towels and complimentary mini toiletries and a small under counter fridge (you can order drink top ups at an extra charge via the Magic Life app which we didn't use). Domestic staff were so friendly and always smiling, very efficient and loved the towel origami and flower petals. There was also an option to skip cleaning to help be more eco-friendly. There were plenty of bars dotted throughout the complex for drinks and snacks throughout the day as well as an ice-cream/crepe stand in the afternoon by the pool bar. The beach bar provides sandwiches and there is pizza/burgers,etc available at the aquapark from lunchtime onwards which is handy. The pools were great and there was something for everyone, my son especially loved the aquapark slides! Sun loungers are hard to come by after 9am at all pools but you can get lucky in the afternoon as not everyone stayed out all day as it was so warm. The beach was beautiful! Plenty of sun loungers and never had an issue getting one at any time of the day. Plenty of activities going on throughout the day from the hotel like beach volleyball, banana boats and there is a watersports centre to the left where for an extra charge you can do parasailing, kayaking,etc. There are also some vendors offering camel/horse rides for additional fees but prepared to haggle as they are expensive if you don't! Camel ride initially wanted 350TND (£88) for three of us to have a 5min ride up the beach. The food was good and plenty to choose from at the buffet with different themes through the week (loved the Tunisian egg brick!). Although it was strange there were no bananas or apples to choose from. We didn't try any of the restaurants as my picky eaters didn't like anything on the menus. We liked sitting outside to the right and our regular waiter Naceur was amazing, gold star service and sets a great example to the other staff⭐! He looked after us everyday, always had a smile of his face and never let our glasses get empty, and was like this with all the other guests he looked after. There is plenty of activities all day which you can sign up for via the app or on the day. The animation team by the pool/radio were fantastic!! There is evening entertainment most nights which are on from 8pm onwards including showing of the world cup games. Overall we had an amazing holiday with lots of great memories. Now for some cons... The reception staff... All but one encounter I had, the staff either looked absolutely miserable, spoke to us as little as possible and made us feel like we were an inconvenience and one woman was so condescending. Much work needs done to rectify this as these people are the "face" of the hotel and don't set a very good example. Didn't encounter this anywhere else in the hotel. Meet your rep... got a message via the TUI app shortly after we arrived with a date and time to meet our rep in the reception. Turned up 10mins before and waited... and waited... but no rep showed up. As we were thinking of leaving about 15mins after the meet time we saw a rep walk through reception from one door then through another but had their head down and didn't engage with anyone. Waste of time. Currency exchange... Tunisia has a closed currency so couldn't get TND before travelling, however, even though the hotel is happy to accept card payment for your tourist tax on arrival, upgrades/extras or excursions (for a small extra fee) they would NOT accept my card for currency exchange????? Even the souvenir shop would accept card for a small fee. I kept asking why but no explanation was given, they just didnt... Absolutely baffled! We had to leave the complex and walk about 5-10mins to the main road to use the ATM... The first of which either didn't have money or half the buttons were broken so we could only lift 100TND (£25) per transaction. The second across the road was better but charged extra to withdraw and on one occasion didn't have any cash. I had a few notes in my purse the first day which we exchanged no problem... However... Later that night our room keycards stopped working and I found out that reception blocked them as one of the bank notes was Scottish, which I didn't realise, but they were happy to accept it earlier that morning, then changed their minds and made me give them TND back. There was another 2 occasions where our keycards stopped working and again no reason why it happens and made to feel like we were a nuisance. The main issue we had during our stay was the language barrier. There were two other couples from Britain at this hotel during our stay that we encountered, the rest were French/German/Swiss, etc so my son struggled to make any friends. Also a lot of the staff struggled to engage with us as their English wasn't great. There were lots of staff that made a good effort but we very much felt like the forgotten family. Most staff would smile or say hello when passing then stop and have a lovely animated chat/encounter with another family. We also found a lot of the guests very rude and ignorant as we had daily encounters of guests literally walking into us and physically pushing past us, even my 11year old as he was walking through a doorway! Not the hotels fault but still extremely off putting with no apologies or attempts to say "Excuse me". The noise from the room above was very annoying. You could hear them walking across the floor, opening and closing the patio door, heard every movement of furniture and literally everything that was dropped on the floor! The rooms were sound proofed through the wall to the adjacent neighbour but not up or down. The last 2 nights of our stay there were multiple power cuts lasting from 1-2hrs. For context the temperature soared to 39° through the day and didn't dip below 30° through the night and the room heats up VERY quickly when the Aircon is off. It took TUI about 24hrs to update guests via the app and when they did it very much sounded like the government were doing planned outages due to the heat. Some forewarning to guests should have been made to prepare us. No power cuts through the day when most people were out and about, it was from 5pm on and off right through the night to the morning. Absolutely horrific last 2 nights sleep. Again, overall, we had a great holiday as we went on a couple of excursions and spent quality family time together with enough activities to fill our days. The hotel is lovely, good location and has almost everything you could want from an all inclusive but there are some areas that I feel need improvement and regardless of how much research I did before going there were still some hiccups which I wasn't prepared for.

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“Nice Family stay”

We have been in few TUI Magic Life resorts before and this one is quite good as we paid sensible price for our stays. The food was good, and we had access to all the themed restaurants. Entertainment was not always interesting but we really liked silent disco as it is something "specific" and we h… more

We have been in few TUI Magic Life resorts before and this one is quite good as we paid sensible price for our stays. The food was good, and we had access to all the themed restaurants. Entertainment was not always interesting but we really liked silent disco as it is something "specific" and we had good fun. There is a lots of sports activities and we enjoyed Archery very much (Many THANKS to Willi for teaching us !!!). Alcohol used in drinks was cheap and low quality but ... you can't get everything. Resort have nice beach but somethings there a lots of seaweeds on it which really should be clean daily. All in all, our stay was a success, and if we manage to go back at a reasonable price, we will visit the resort again.

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