I must admit, the Tunisair Espace Privilege lounge wasn’t bad at all for a business class lounge at a small airport.
Tunisair Espace Privilege Lounge (TUN) Review
After watching Josh Cahill’s video review, which sparked literal national outrage, my expectations were guarded. But the lounge was well-stocked with comfortable seating and food and drink to choose from, including alcoholic beverages. In short, it was perfectly fine. Let’s dive in.
Access + Location + Hours
This lounge serves not only Tunisair premium cabin or elite passengers, but all premium cabin passengers. However, outside of the Tunisair Esprit loyalty program, there is not access for status passengers on other airlines.
However, Tunisair does sell access to all passengers at a rate of 80TND (about 29USD) for three hours. I can see this being worthwhile during should you have a long layover, especially if you eat or drink.
After heading through passport control and security, bear right and you’ll find the lounge past duty free. It is open 24/7.
Seating
You’ll find a mix of couches and chairs of all shapes, materials, and sizes throughout the lounge. Somehow, though, the eclectic look works. There’s plenty of natural light and some greenery (fake palm trees) and paintings.
A “relaxing” room has six cot-like chairs that offer almost 180º lie flat seating.
The biggest drawback to this lounge was that the dearth of power ports. I found one – but there were very few. That’s just not practical in 2022.
Food + Drink
I’ll admit, I was disappointed that in a land of orange trees and cafés, the orange juice was not fresh and the coffee was dispensed from a Nespresso-style machine (though by the bartender, not self-serve). I wasn’t in the mood for anything, but had an espresso in case the coffee was not good onboard (that was a wise move, by the way).
There were stickers at each table with a QR code and I thought this was a way to order additional food, but just included buffet selections already out nearby.
A buffet included sliced cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, and olives, with dips, croissant, danish, cake, packaged crackers and cookies, sliced meat and cheese, and yogurt.
I’m not going to lie, I took one look at the wrapped cheese and mystery meat and knew I would never touch it – nothing looked fresh.
It also appears that the lounge offers crepes later in the day – I would have enjoyed one.
At the bar, coffee, juice, soft drinks, and alcohol were available, including Tunisian wines (drink up – no alcohol was available on Tunisair).
Restrooms + Showers
No showers are available and the restroom was grimy and smelled like a sewer.
CONCLUSION
While this lounge has a lot of room for improvement, it was not without some redeeming qualities, including comfortable seats and plenty to drink. I’ll give Tunisair credit for having a lounge, but would not show up early for it.
Comparing this to Lucky’s review from a few years ago, and it looks like the lounge has been given a nice facelift. The seating area being the most improved, naturally. It’s never going to be a top 10 lounge, but it is nicer than what it used to be. With a better buffet and nicer rest rooms, it could be a good lounge.
How difficult could it be for the lounge to serve AF leftover catering?
I am a regular at this lounge and I have access with my Air-France Platinum status, it’s not only for business class travelers, I don’t know what do you mean by Nespresso-style machine, but if you meant capsules I don’t think so, I have always had fresh espressos or Cappuccinos there.
It’s not the best lounge, nor the worst, I enjoy having a drink before my flight but the food is horrible I must say apart from the appetizers
It’s too bad that it reflects the carelessness of the people, I’ve been there once and never again, the food is certainly not fresh as it smelled bad, the area is big however again it’s not very clean, I would rather pay and eat at gourmandise cafe rather than going to the lounge, even if it’s free.
I find that sewer smells can be common, even in clean and well maintained restrooms, in developing countries. When I was in college, my then-girlfriend’s parents owned a vacation cabin in Mexico. Despite the place being spotlessly clean (thanks to a meticulous local cleaner), the bathrooms would often smell of sewer gas, especially when we’d arrive after the place had been empty for weeks. I asked her dad, a building contractor, why and he said there are two common causes. One is deficient sewer/septic systems, where sewer water is trying to backflow and although backflow preventers keep the sewer water from coming up the drain, gasses are able to get past. The other is more prevalent in arid areas (like Tunisia), where the p-trap dries out (especially floor drain traps, if there are any) due to evaporation loss and insufficient use).
TL;dr – Don’t assume restroom odors are due to restrooms being unclean.
I am a regular at this lounge . much better than others in Europe.Food and beverage are simple and very safe , everything wrapped toilets need to be more spacious.