A couple of weeks ago we went to Tunisia on holidays. It was the first time we’d been and I’d go again in a flash.

It was a kind of spontaneous booking in that I had an email from Secret Escapes at around 3 in the afternoon and after a brief look at Trip Advisor and all the usual reviews, we went ahead and booked the holiday within a matter of hours. Now that’s pretty fast going for me as I tend to deliberate, overthink and stress terribly about making the right decision so I really was crossing my fingers that we’d ‘done the right thing’!

Well ….. turns out, we did! The El Mouradi Palm Marina Port El Kantaoui was a lovely hotel, the food was good and our room was spot-on. Our room had a kind of lobby area with wardrobes, a loo and a separate bathroom. Then our bedroom had all the usual plus a sofa and chair and more importantly a balcony overlooking the sea, beach and pool. There was also a fridge in the room which was handily topped-up with a complimentary bottle of water ever day.

There were loads of sunbeds with parasols around the pools so getting two good sunbeds together was never an issue. However ‘Sunbed Wars’ were rampant down on the beach where it turned out that the beach security staff and lifeguards were taking backhanders to secure the best sunbeds at the water’s edge. We went down to the beach early a few mornings and simply removed towels that had been strategically placed and on one occasion, a Swiss family had the audacity to ask us why we’d ‘taken their beds’. We were lying on the beds reading from around 8.15 and they mozied on down to the beach at 11! Cheeky sods!

Anyway these amusng interludes didn’t detract from the fact that we had a cracking holiday in a gorgeous location. The hotel was just the right distance from the airport so there were no long and tortuous journeys to and fro. It was also close to Port El Kantaoui, a beautiful harbourside with lots of cafes, restaurants and a zillion little shops selling everything from ‘Converse Trainers’ and tagines to ‘Prada Handbags’ and pocket-money trinkets. It was only a 5 Dinar taxi ride from the hotel – peanuts really and well worth the journey if you fancy a change of scenery.

Our holidays tend to be about lounging around under parasols reading,  drinking cocktails and really switching off. We did go on one trip to Monastir and the spectaular Roman Amphitheatre in El Djem – a real ‘Wow!’ place! Apparently part of Gladiator was filmed in El Djem and the amphitheatre there is better preserved than The Colosseum in Rome. Having now been to both, I can say that that is true!

A brilliant holiday – under £500 each for flights, transfers, All-Inclusive meals and all drinks – and Sunshine.co.uk, our tour operator, were exemplary! Would I go again? Of course!

(We flew from Gatwick and  booked Maple Manor Meet & Greet parking through Holiday Extras . We stayed at the lovely & perfectly located Gatwick Sofitel the night before our flight and having our car brought to the terminal when we landed was brilliant and well worth the small additional charge!)