Traveling to Tunisia:

 May 3rd 2016: original post date.     

Our first holiday:

Last year June 24th myself and Zachary went on our first holiday, well our first holiday alone haha – anyway, our holiday was to a beautiful island were we stayed in a lovely hotel ‘Vincci Helios Beach, Djerba Tunisia’.

Its such a beautiful seaside island, I remember landing in the airport after our flight that honestly felt like it went on for days – personally I think this is probably because I’m petrified of flying haha, and in reality the flight only lasted around 4 hours…we arrived at the airport and our plane was the only one that had landed within that hour. The airport was empty due to this, other than the staff and the passengers from our flight – there was nobody, which is completely different from London Gatwick, which is where our flight departed.

We boarded a coach outside the airport to take all tourists to their chosen resorts. The drive to our hotel from the airport took roughly 1 hour we stopped at around 5 other hotels dropping of other holidaymakers before arriving at our hotel – getting of the coach felt amazing after being crammed on it in blazing heat for so long! 

A view from our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel and honestly it was gorgeous; nothing like what it looked in the pictures – in a good way! It was extremely welcoming, tidy and looked beautiful. As soon as we arrived through the doors of the hotel the staff were introducing themselves making everyone feel welcome and bringing us freshly squeezed lemonade – which may I add was delicious! They continued by helping each couple, person or family to their rooms, helping us to settle in and bringing our suitcases, ensuring that we were happy with where we were staying.

Everything about our hotel was lovely, our room was located in a tiny courtyard full of separate villas on the hotel premises, holding around 20 rooms spread across 2 floors with a lovely little garden in the centre. Our room was very tidy and modern, making myself and Zachary feel welcome and comfortable.

this is a picture of the inside of our hotel.

We booked our time in Tunisia for 7 days in hope for a relaxing, easygoing holiday enabling Zachary and I to spend all of our time lounging around the pool or on the beach, going on the odd excursion here and there.

The first few days of our holiday we spent settling in getting used to the routine of the hotel:

• Breakfast was between 7-9am
• Mid-morning snack was held at 10-11am
• Lunch 12-2pm
• Afternoon snack was 3-4pm
• And dinner was at 7-9pm

Ironically, you pick up and learn these times pretty quickly, even if you didn’t attend each meal, you’d still know what time they took place…although if you did feel peckish but didn’t have the time you’d always know when the clock had reached these set times, as there’d be a sudden disperse of people and then a sudden start of cutlery scraping and plates being moved – that was your que to head for food! Haha.

After 2 days of being in Tunisia we booked our first excursion – a pirate ship boat trip to a little island, on this trip you got to travel on a boat that was identical to a pirate ship.. So I guess technically you got to travel on a pirate ship, all the staff were dressed as pirates too; after boarding the boat they took you to the little island, putting on little shows on the way.

Our boat trip was lovely; we met some wonderful, friendly people. Zachary and myself spent our time on the island sunbathing and taking a dip in the water before they put on another show,  prepared and served a traditional Tunisian meal – let me tell you, it was marvellous.

Whilst on our boat trip I received a phone call from my family telling us about an awful event that had occurred, the Tunisian shootings. I honestly couldn’t believe it when my family informed Zachary and I – it was heartbreaking and extremely scary. Due to this our boat trip was cut short and all attendees were given a police escort back to their hotels.

My thoughts are with all the families and holidaymakers who happened to be unfortunately involved in the event.

(due to the horrific events that had taken place our beach/hotel had a police patrol throughout the next few days – this was to ensure that everyone in the hotel was kept safe.)

The next day we took a trip to a crocodile farm where the staff cared for over 1000 crocodiles all of different ages, they also helped to incubate the crocodiles eggs!

We were the only tourists there – probably because we were there before any shops or other attractions had opened. Due to this Zachary and I received a private tour from the staff that worked there, they explained and gave us information about each crocodile, enclosure and generally giving us great information and facts.

We also done paragliding – I believe that’s what its called…basically we were attached to a parachute that was pulled along by a speed boat which made the parachute lift high in the sky – giving you an amazing view of the whole island.

Another excursion we took part in was jet skiing, being honest I hated every second haha – I found it extremely scary!! However on the other hand Zachary loved every second, which made it worth it.

Our beach view

After our week in Tunisia it was time to leave and head back home. We spent another hour collecting the other holidaymakers whose holidays had also drawn to an end from there hotels, before driving to the airport. When we arrived to the airport it was completely different to when we arrived, it was extremely, extremely busy; we had to stand outside the front of the hotel for 30-40 minutes in a queue before entering! Checking in also felt like hours and hours; personally I think that’s partly because of the heat haha. But never the less we eventually boarded our flight, 4 hours passed and we arrived back to London, where we then travelled home.

Our time in Tunisia was amazing – not to mention how great our tans were! haha.