Rather yes than no...

Written: 5 august 2013
Travel time: 15 — 29 april 2013
Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 7.0
Service: 7.0
Cleanliness: 9.0
Food: 5.0
Amenities: 8.0
Fees.

Choosing a hotel in the UAE was not an easy task. Beach hotels were discarded immediately, due to their high cost. Dubai hotels did not suit either the location or the price, the infrastructure of some also inspired doubts. Prices for hotels in Sharjah (the city next to Dubai) looked quite attractive. Therefore, they began to look for a hotel there.
We had the following requirements for the hotel: having our own kitchen, convenient location near shopping centers and supermarkets, proximity to Dubai and good reviews, and a high rating on the Turpravda website. After a short sorting, two hotels remained: "Golden Tulip Sharjah 4 *" and "Ramada Sharjah 4 *".
A couple more days of thinking, and "Ramada Sharjah 4 *" confidently won for a clear advantage (more reviews from tourists, and all positive, high rating, almost perfect location (as for a city hotel) and a cheaper price).
Everything was simple with the room: the hotel has "small" rooms (75 sq. m.

and one bathroom) and "large" (100 sq. m. and two bathrooms). The “large” room was about 25% more expensive than the first one, so we reasonably decide not to overpay and huddle in the “small” room. Closely, of course, but, as they say, “in cramped quarters, but not offended”; -)))). The meal option was also clear: breakfast alone (in our version) cost $700 less than the breakfast/dinner system. A great convenience in the “Bad & Brekfast” option was complete freedom in eating for the rest of the day, without being tied to the hotel (the subsequent rest confirmed the correctness of choosing this type of food). By the way, in this hotel the cost of meals for a child is divided into several age groups (up to 2 years old, 2-6.6-14). For the sake of interest, I looked at the difference, the food of a five-year-old child (in our case) for two weeks costs $ 110 cheaper than a six-year-old. Well, like, saved; -)))
I looked at the prices for this hotel on the website of the tour operator http://samo. joinup. ua/search_tour?
STATEINC=6 We considered the following tour option: 14 nights, accommodation 2 + 1, "small" room, BB meals. Tours with a departure in two or three days were noticeably cheaper ($1.700) than a tour with a departure in a week (2.000). The problem was in the visa - on the Join Up website, it was written in black and white that it takes at least six days to get a visa guaranteed. It was possible to take a chance and try to have time to get a visa on a “burning” tour, but it was not a very fun option not to have time to get a visa and wait for it already at the UAE airport, not to mention the option with a refusal in the visa department. In theory, a family of three, with the same last name, who did not have "sins" during previous visits to this country and did not have an Israeli visa in their passport, was guaranteed permission to visit the Emirates. But, having estimated all the pros and cons, we choose a more expensive, but calm option for obtaining a visa.

Number.

Finally, we get to our hotel.
Ramada Sharjah greets us with a friendly porter who politely takes our suitcases from us and escorts us to a deserted lobby. At the reception they give us an envelope with an information sheet and cards, the receptionist assures us that he has prepared the best room for us and points to the elevator. We have number 2102, the first two digits indicate the floor, so we rush up to the given floor.

Incredible fatigue, we go into the room with a desire to fall, but curiosity overpowers - we go to look at the apartment. I immediately draw your attention to the fact that the room has two bathrooms, although we paid for a "single-toilet" room. Not bad, we look further: a large corridor, a mini dining room, a seating area with a low table and a TV, a large equipped kitchen, and a bedroom. Another door was locked, it was never opened to us. After a short time, it dawned on me that we were allocated a "large" room, but access to one bedroom was closed.
In general, I really liked the room, both in terms of layout and “filling”.
Overall impressions of the room are not bad, but a couple of nuances did not like very much:
1. The water in the cold water tap was hot (55-60 degrees). Such water is unpleasant to wash and use in general. Repeated complaints to the reception had no effect - with a charming smile, I was constantly informed that this problem could not be fixed, and such water is everywhere in the hotel. I would gladly believe this, but our friends in room 1506 (our 2102) had absolutely normal water! Laziness, and unwillingness to fix anything is obvious.
2. The handle (for support) in the bathroom flew off on the second day. Just especially smart Arabs put her on six-centimeter dowels, which fell out safely at the first load.
I was almost crippled when I decided to take up this handle, in the future none of the service personnel could do anything with it - apparently, too complicated actions had to be taken to repair it!

Restaurant Zaafaran.

The restaurant is located to the left of the hotel entrance. It is decorated in a pleasant European style, the furniture is new, huge panoramic windows overlook the street, for the convenience of those who dine, they are closed with blinds, it is needless to say that the air conditioner is working in the room. Entering the restaurant, you call the number of your apartment to the man at the counter on the left, after which he forwards you to a free table served.
That day the breakfast was very tasty, there was my favorite fried bacon, fresh fruit and scrambled eggs. To order an omelette, you need to go to the window leading to the kitchen and tell the desired number of servings and filling.

As further practice showed, quite often the ordered omelettes were simply put out of the window, and if you did not guard them, then other hungry guests immediately “took them away”. This problem was solved with a couple of dirhams for one of the food vendors, after which he brought the order to your table.
From drinks, you can take a juice drink from the machine (orange, pineapple or apple, the juice content in a glass is about five percent). Unfortunately, the drinks were often confused in places in the machine, so that when pressing the button with the inscription “Apple”, it was not at all necessary that apple juice flowed; -)))) Sometimes the machine just poured unpainted water, so the fun was still the same! During breakfast, coffee and tea were offered, and if there was still more or less tea, then the coffee was the most ordinary instant Nescafe, so there was nothing special to luxury.
An important nuance: in the last few days of our holiday, a lot of tourists came, which immediately affected the service - queues appeared at the entrance to the restaurant, food deteriorated sharply (sour fruits, lack of meat, lack of waiters, appliances and tables).

Bus and beach.

After breakfast, we usually went to the beach - we took towels (the counter is to the left of the reception, around the corner) and waited for the bus. Most people waited for the bus not in the cool lobby of the hotel, but on the street, at a temperature of about 35 degrees. Vague suspicions that this is all for a reason were confirmed by the comments of vacationers who were talking to each other about their chances to get on the bus. The mood drops a little, I don’t really want to storm the bus with a five-year-old child in my arms, the prospect of waiting for the next bus is also not very encouraging, but there is nothing to do - we stand, look out.

Twenty minutes of waiting only increased the number of people wishing to go to the beach, finally, the bus pulls up. Subsequently, it turned out that there were three buses in total, but basically two were taken to the beach - a fifteen-seater (small) and a forty-seater (large). This time a big one arrived, and we were among the passengers who managed to take seats in the cabin. Another ten people looked sadly at the filled bus, and went into the hall. I sympathize…
We reached the beach in an average of fifteen minutes. The bus takes you to the hotel from one to two, picks you up from the same place where you drop off, although options are possible, it all depends on the fullness of the parking lot.
Bottom line: buses run irregularly, there are long delays, often a small bus is served, which physically cannot accommodate everyone. When the hotel is almost full, it is extremely difficult / almost impossible to leave by bus.
Some sites cannot be viewed because access to them has been closed by admins. I still understand why sites with erotic content were not opened, but why two Ukrainian FOOTBALL sites and one news site were blocked, this remained a mystery to me.
4. The speed is quite decent and stable, video communication works fine. Especially if you sit under the front door; -))).

Swimming pool.

We decided to swim in the pool, the porter instructed us in advance that the pool is on the fifth floor, we go down the elevator to the fifth floor - no sign of the pool. We go back to the reception, where they kindly explain to us that there is a separate elevator to the pool and fitness room, which is impossible to find without prompts.
There are only two buttons in this deeply conspiratorial elevator, we go up, we go out, to the right is a fitness room, to the left is a pool.
I sign for visiting the pool, we study - there are only two pools, for children (80 cm deep, round, about three meters in diameter) and an adult (160 cm deep, size 10x5 meters). The water in the pools is very warm, about 30 degrees, noticeably reeks of bleach. When we plunged, another important nuance surfaced - a powerful air conditioner blows right on the adult pool, which, according to a cute Arab habit, is set to the minimum wage. The contrast turned out to be the same - you emerge from the warm water and immediately the icy air blows on your head, it got to the point that I periodically dipped my head into the pool for warming; -))).

Anything different.


Towels for the beach come in two types - large and small. When receiving a towel, you must specify which one you want.
The breakfast box is not bad (apples, juices, bread, jam), everything is fresh and edible.
Noise isolation in the rooms is good, during our stay extraneous sounds did not bother us.
The kitchen is well equipped, everything you need for cooking was available. You can wash the dishes, or you can leave a dollar or 5 dirhams, and the dishes will magically wash themselves; -))). During the settlement in the room, everything was neatly cleaned except ...the topmost shelves in the kitchen and the room, obviously the cleaner is short and simply cannot see the garbage.
The windows open only for ventilation, not a single window can be fully opened, either for security reasons, or it was done that way initially.
They clean it neatly and quickly, for fun I threw five dirhams under a chair, upon returning from the beach I found them neatly lying on a table. We left tips on the bed, they were always taken away.

Summary.

We liked the hotel, although the last couple of days have noticeably spoiled the overall impression.
You can travel to this hotel with confidence if:

one.
You plan to get to the beach by taxi (12-15 dirhams) or a rented car, and not use the hotel bus.
2. Not too picky about food, and consider breakfast at the hotel as a light snack. In addition, you should not be afraid of a ten-minute wait in line at the entrance to the restaurant.
3. You are mentally prepared for the fact that cold water in the room will be 55-60 degrees, and hot - under 80.

Have a good trip and pleasant impressions, I hope that my information will be useful when choosing a hotel! ! !
Translated automatically from Russian. View original