Умеренно-позитивный отдых. Moderately positive rest.

At first, I wanted to go to Merlin Inn, because I had vacationed there before, but I decided to go through a Tez-tour, and the hotel renegotiated the contract with Pegasus - I had to look for other options. The main search criteria were: a sandy beach, not too shallow sea, the opportunity to sleep off (without noisy discos), lack of living creatures in the rooms, high-quality cuisine.
After reading the sea of ​ ​ ​ ​ reviews and consulting with the tour operator, I settled on the Grande (Segal was said to be too noisy). Flying i-fly. The road passed without excesses - met, brought. It was funny at the Egyptian airport, where the husband asked if it was possible to smoke, and the employee told him that it was possible in the toilet for 100 Russian rubles - and showed this bill : ) Compared to 6 years earlier, the airport was ennobled, and registration no longer takes 3 hours as before - somewhere in an hour they managed.
To shop in Duty Free, you need to know well where and how much. Baileys in Egyptian is one and a half times more expensive than in Vnukovo, and vodka is one and a half times cheaper. The husband said that next time we will pack alcohol in a suitcase - 375g of the standard for 10 euros - well, they are in a stump. We bought beer with a degree in Hurghada in duty - not according to a passport and an Arab spill, or in a hotel restaurant.

Upon arrival, we were given the key to the room in the 2nd building on the 3rd floor - the wish for a double bed was taken into account. The room itself is decent, but it is clear that it is not of the first youth - loose drawers of the table, a cracked sink, a dangling plank of the mirror door in the closet. The safe in the room is good, the TV shows normally, the view from the balcony is beautiful. So I decided that if without insects, then we will not change. The territory of the hotel is very well-groomed - there is no sand or fallen leaves anywhere. In the evening, all the palm trees are illuminated by lanterns - it is a pleasure to walk along the paths.
The guide from the Tez-tour at the hotel was good - he spoke excellent Russian, always helped to resolve any issue.
The first trouble was the disco. In past reviews, I read that it was near the 7th building, and we had it near the exit from the administrative building. So the dream of falling asleep at 8 pm was partially fulfilled - if you were very tired or under a closet, then no booms interfered, and so you just read until 11 - fortunately, books were taken electronic and on audio. Well, plus it was unusual that at dawn they woke up from a drawn-out cry AAAAAALLAAAAAAH AAAKBAAAAAAR. On my last visit, I do not remember such entertainment.
They cleaned our place well - they put baksheesh for a dollar or 5 pounds for a minibar. Towels were changed every day, bedding - when thrown on the floor. For a chocolate bar, they also exchanged dishes for soldered towels. True, the table on the balcony and the lamp at the entrance were never subdued, although our guide spoke about this twice at the reception desk (in a foreign language they only understand German and a little English), they nodded, wrote down, but did nothing.
On the 2nd floor of the same building, the tourists cursed and spat - either they didn’t change the towels or didn’t have any at all - regardless of the baksheesh left.
The song itself was when the water disappeared for a day - it's good that I boiled a couple of liters of tap water in order to brush my teeth and wash fruits - after the sea they somehow rinsed. All questions were answered - van minits or five minits. When we went on an excursion, it turned out that in other hotels at the same time everything was in order.

Meals that are included in the ticket take place in 3 restaurants - you can go wherever you like every time. The first day was delighted with the variety of dishes and the quality of desserts. The food is delicious, although for people who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract or are prone to allergies, it is problematic to choose something without a bunch of spices (I remember there were steamed and battered dishes at Merlin Inn). True, once in a salad I found a bitten circle of cucumber - which leads to very unpleasant thoughts.
I bought fruits and berries in a state store that is between the Merlin Inn hotel and the Ramstore shopping center - it is very problematic to find anything vegetable and fresh in all other outlets. There, the rest of the products are sold at very pleasant fixed prices, but then you need to get to the hotel by taxi - it’s far to drag the bag.
In paid bars and restaurants, the service is terrible. 2-3 times you need to explain what you want (moreover, they carefully rewrite what you show from the menu), wait an hour for when they bring it - although 2-3 visitors sit in the whole restaurant, they bring not that or not everything that they ordered. The last time we ordered bottled beer to the room, they brought it to us open and sooooo very diluted, and not the brand that we wanted (see, they didn’t find the right container to pour the burda there).
I saw a cockroach in the room 1 time, but after I hid all the products in the minibar, there were no more relapses. Mosquito darkness - without a fumigator in any way.
Summary: the advantage of the hotel over others is its large beautiful territory and a good beach. There are few yachts nearby, they rarely sail, the space for swimming is fenced off by two rows of buoys (I was horrified when I saw near Sinbad that sightseeing boats mooring, sail past people who swim - it’s too crowded to be able to fence off a piece of the sea). If I’m still in Hurghada, I’ll still return to the Merlin Inn (unless, of course, it spoils during this time - so far the reviews about it are good).