Your rating of this hotel:
8.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
9.0
Service:
8.0
Cleanliness:
9.0
Food:
8.0
Amenities:
10.0
We ended up in this hotel by surprise. We booked places in another, and there was a repair, there were no places and we were offered this option. We didn't refuse. At least in one we won for sure: this hotel is located on the first coastline. Unlike what we booked.
In addition to the fact that this is the first line by the sea, the hotel buildings are located in such a way that the wind was practically not felt on the beach in January. Of course, we were lucky with the weather: a fabulously comfortable 26-degree air temperature and 20 degrees - the sea. Dry, breathes easily, moves freely, swims with pleasure.
After reading the reviews, I took a sufficient amount of warm clothes with me, but of them only light sports windbreakers came in handy - for the evening. But if you are going to Egypt in winter, consider changing clothes on the plane. We flew away from Ukraine - a blizzard blew through the porthole window, and landed in Egypt - in the summer. Make sure you have a t-shirt underneath your long-sleeved pullover. If you travel far to the hotel by bus, do not hide a sweater with long sleeves: it can be cool from a working air conditioner. And think about shoes. We left the boots in Boryspil, in the car, changing into sneakers: in my opinion, it was quite convenient, because the boots take up a lot of space in the luggage, which must be foreseen in advance.
This winter (I mean the period when we were there! ) the weather in Egypt was perfect, a real comfortable summer. And experienced tourists told us that there were years when during trips they did not take off their sweaters even during the day! Rains there are rare in any case, but the winds are great to lower the air temperature. Fortunately, during our stay in Egypt, we practically did not feel the wind, the evening coolness was perceived as a breeze.
Morning in Egypt in winter begins earlier than in Ukraine. She opened her eyes at 7 o'clock - from the sun's rays sliding over the pillow. Our room was facing east, overlooking the sea and the central pool. In the morning it was all indescribably beautiful, deserted and inviting. You could just stand on the terrace and look at the sea, the sky, the glare of the sun in the water - this sight did not bother you.
We arrived at the hotel about an hour. The settlement, as elsewhere, is at 14.00. We had to wait a bit in the reception hall. The expectation was quite comfortable: comfortable leather sofas in the hall, cool, aesthetically pleasing. Maybe someone would be offended that the sofas are a little worn, the hotel is not the first freshness, but for me it was not a drawback, on the contrary: things have their own history and it awakens the imagination. The fact that the hotel is old also has its advantages: beautiful green area, developed infrastructure, many additional services. The hotel is huge: there are rooms in the main building, there is a three-story building, there are two-story bungalows in the green garden. We were 8 days, and every day we found something new to visit, where to go, what to see, what to do.
So, at 14.00 we were given the keys to the "sea view" room. The view of the sea was if you stretch your neck well and turn it to the right; if you look ahead - as far as your eyes could see - a desert: not a bush, not a blade of grass, not a structure of any kind. So keep in mind that "sea view" is a loose concept. The room is spacious, one of those called "3 + 1", but for the four of us, it turned out to be small. We are accustomed to living in a larger area, so we asked to be replaced with a "family room". Surcharge for the "upgrade" amounted to 20 USD. per day. The new room suited us all: two spacious rooms, large beds, a marvelous view from the window, clean, comfortable, in every room there is a TV. Everything worked in the room: the light, the hair dryer in the bathroom, the taps, and the TVs. There was a safe, although we did not use it - we managed without it. We were embarrassed that, in addition to the code, it was closed and opened with a regular key.
The rooms were cleaned every day, bed linen and towels changed daily. We left a dollar a day. Somehow there were no dollars, left 3 kopecks of Egyptian pounds - they removed it no worse. By the way, there is only liquid soap in the bathroom. They call it shampoo, and it seems that they had to wash everything: the face, the head, and the body. We only washed our hands, as we had a full set of bath and laundry accessories with us. As for the laundry - it is in the hotel, for a fee. I calculated the wardrobe in such a way that I didn’t bother with washing there (I didn’t know that there would be a laundry), so we had enough things. True, they came home with a full suitcase of laundry.
It is recommended not to drink tap water in Egypt, and even bottled teeth are better to brush. We did just that. But I became interested in the properties of water - why it can not be drunk. It turned out that water is supplied from the Nile, it is not processed, and at the same time it has pronounced alkaline properties. Our soap is washed off with great difficulty with this water, creating abundant foam along the way, since it is designed for our hard water. In general, advice: while you are in Egypt, wash your hair with this water every day - improve your hair. Well, or at least just rinse your hair after the sea - this is quite enough: alkaline water does a great job without soap. Hair loves alkaline water, from these procedures they recover.
For some reason this hotel is preferred by the Germans. Of the total number of visitors, they, in my opinion, were about 60%. 30% percent - Russians and 10% - French, British, Ukrainians, Kazakhs... all a little bit. I was surprised by the large number of aged people, especially foreigners. Lots of families with children.
The hotel has a good sports base: tennis courts, basketball, volleyball, mini-golf, two gyms, a spa center, Turkish baths... People constantly hung out there, mostly foreigners. Our preferred to spend time on the beach.
By the way, about the beach: you have to go to borrow sunbeds from 7 am, and then, it is unlikely that the first line will get. On the beach often - the first or second line - only Russians. It seems that the Germans did not think of taking their places at 7 am. The beach is large, fenced on both sides by a pontoon, so the waves are small, very comfortable. The sunbeds are serviceable, the mattresses on them are fresh, it was nice. I really liked that in addition to umbrellas and sunbeds there are wicker screens: they give extra comfort and a sense of relative privacy on the beach. Towels were given in the morning - on cards, in the evening before 17.00 they had to be handed over, but if you didn’t hand it in, it’s not scary, you can hand it over tomorrow. Towels are large, thick, however, there are both old and fairly new, almost white. I saw towels in other hotels - a third of ours had them, and others had only half. It feels like it just got cut.
On the beach, aerobics are held in the water and on land, some games. Animators are working, but we, frankly, did not use their services at all, we had no time for them. Often different guides came up (offered excursions), masseurs, surfers, etc. All these people are fickle, quick-witted. If you refuse, he won't come to you again. Somehow they remember from so many people. And no matter how you behave, your origin is unmistakably determined from afar: you are German, Russian or some other nationality. good psychologists. Often "attack" parents begin to lisp with children.
The entrance to the sea - opposite the main building - is the best. Smooth, but not overbearing. We were told that this is a rarity for the Red Sea. Well, we can say that we were unexpectedly lucky. Coarse sand, no corals, no hedgehogs, no special shoes required. But if you enter from the western side, you can already meet hedgehogs and coral fragments. We ourselves did not go to the western pontoon, but people said that there is a coral reef there, you can see the fish. My husband and son swam a little further - there was also something to see, but, of course, not like on an excursion to Paradise Island - they bring such a beautiful coral reef there! Multi-colored fish swim in schools - beauties! Unforgettable, as if in another world visited. And the excursion itself is not stressful, it is perceived as a vacation: a walk on a yacht, snorkeling near the reefs, lunch on a yacht. Swimming again and returning home. We liked. True, they laughed at the "paradise" island - a desert with a single palm tree - I am attaching a photo.
Pools. I won’t even say exactly how many pools there are in the hotel, because there are many and they are different. There are smoothly flowing into each other, separated by bridges, isthmuses, waterfalls. One, classic, is by the sea, the second is near the water slides on the other side of the hotel (beautifully stylized with stone). Near the second there is a bar with snacks and drinks.
There are several small pools, including children's. One pool - indoor, heated - there is such comfortable water (probably 34-35 degrees) that you sit as if in fresh milk. This was very helpful, because after lunch it was no longer so comfortable to leave the sea, a cool breeze blew, and we went to warm ourselves in the pool. One evening we came across another pool - as it turned out, also heated, but open. They approached, touched the water - pleasant, warm, but cooler than in the indoor pool; this is understandable: in the fresh air it cools faster. In the pool with water slides, the water is not heated, it was cold for us, we were spoiled, so we did not use the slides. Entertainment was enough. We loved to play minigolf in the evenings. All entertainment: courts, playgrounds, golf - until 17.00, after - for payment, because lighting must be turned on. As far as I understood, they had problems with electricity: the light in the room was rather dim, although there were enough light sources.
There are five restaurants in the hotel: two on the second floor, three on the first. By the way, not all tourists find restaurants on the second floor, those three are enough. I liked the German restaurant on the second, however, there were only lunches and dinners. In Mexican (also on the second floor), the food was spicy. The main restaurant on the ground floor works almost non-stop - they close twice for an hour to clean up and change dishes. The first breakfast in this restaurant starts at 4.00 in the morning, then breakfast - from 7.00, then a late breakfast - from 10.00, so even the "hardened" sleepyheads had time to have breakfast. And those who did not have time could have a bite to eat "pizza" on the beach: an ordinary tortilla with cheese, but freshly baked, you can eat without fear of problems with the toilet. Yes, and an hour after the end of the brunch, lunch began. An hour after the end of lunch, dinner began, then a late dinner, it seems, until 24.00 - at that time we were already asleep. Other restaurants are more limited in time. I am picky - I was always looking for suitable food for myself, so before we sat down somewhere, we carried out a raid on restaurants: we looked where they serve what today, after that we decided where we would stop. It was not a problem to bring your favorite dish from a nearby restaurant.
By the way, about the food. I liked the hotel breakfasts the most, because they are the most familiar to my taste. It seemed to me that you could choose for every taste: here you have scrambled eggs with various fillings, toasts and freshly baked pancakes with all kinds of jams, breakfast cereals with milk and additives in the form of jams, creams, sweet sauces; of course, fruits and vegetables, several types of yogurt, some snacks that I was not particularly interested in. I recommend this breakfast: a couple of toasts, an omelet with tomatoes and a spoonful of delicious salted cottage cheese, plus tea. I personally didn't need anything else. Sweets, cookies, cakes, mousses, jellies - it's always there. I almost didn't eat it. I was glad that you could always find warm milk and cookies for the child, because “we” don’t recognize any breakfast anymore - we’re so used to it. And there was a good selection of fruits: guava, apples, oranges, bananas, dates, strawberries. . .
For lunch in 5 restaurants, you could definitely find something to your liking. Mine liked spaghetti with toppings - they loved to indulge in it. I tried - not the way I like it, I will not specify the details - for an amateur. I liked baked or char-grilled meat, I was glad for potatoes baked in foil. We had a roasted turkey for Christmas - well done, well done - we ate with pleasure. The next day was the baked lamb. In one of the restaurants for dinner they bake delicious snack pies with different fillings, in the other - always fresh pizza (not a beach cake with cheese). The amount of food is huge, I don’t see the point in describing all the dishes, especially since I didn’t fundamentally set out to try everything - firstly, and secondly, I preferred to choose my usual food so as not to have indigestion. True, my husband and son ate almost everything they saw, and they did not have any problems with digestion, fortunately. The youngest only recently found out that ice cream is given to children in the lobby bar, and often went there. She, like me, ate only familiar foods and ate mostly chicken and potatoes. Once she agreed to eat pasta, but rejected them, like me. There is no children's menu in the restaurant, but there are three dietary dishes: chicken, rice and steamed vegetables. Not much, but in the absence of a better, why not eat?
There is no drinking water in the rooms, but there is enough in all refrigerators - we took as much as we wanted, we did not feel a shortage. We had a thermos with us, we also made hibiscus for ourselves, took it to our room. I like to drink a cup of tea before going to bed and early in the morning before breakfast, and on vacation I did not want to deviate from my favorite habits. By the way, food in the room could also be taken; we took the younger cookies and apples. I saw people carrying food to their rooms with dishes: I don’t know why, they didn’t eat enough, or what? Or maybe also a favorite habit - eat at night;
Tipping did not understand who to give (except for the dollar that was left every day on the bedside table in the room). I've read reviews that like the waiters should be given. But to whom? At what point? Something is not clear. After all, there are a lot of them - either one came up, removed an empty plate, then another... And what, for each removed plate, give or what? We didn’t drink alcohol, we didn’t have to carry drinks - we took everything we wanted for ourselves. There was no such thing as serving a table by one waiter. In short, we had a misunderstanding with the tip. And another young lady told us that the hotel employees are required to hand over all the tips and report to the management for every pound, and they supposedly only get some percentage from the tips. I saw jars of money in bars: probably, people who order drinks put tips there. Since we didn't order drinks, we didn't.
If you are interested in something - ask, I will be happy to answer. And I will be glad if someone advises something sensible.
In addition to the fact that this is the first line by the sea, the hotel buildings are located in such a way that the wind was practically not felt on the beach in January. Of course, we were lucky with the weather: a fabulously comfortable 26-degree air temperature and 20 degrees - the sea. Dry, breathes easily, moves freely, swims with pleasure.
After reading the reviews, I took a sufficient amount of warm clothes with me, but of them only light sports windbreakers came in handy - for the evening. But if you are going to Egypt in winter, consider changing clothes on the plane. We flew away from Ukraine - a blizzard blew through the porthole window, and landed in Egypt - in the summer. Make sure you have a t-shirt underneath your long-sleeved pullover. If you travel far to the hotel by bus, do not hide a sweater with long sleeves: it can be cool from a working air conditioner. And think about shoes. We left the boots in Boryspil, in the car, changing into sneakers: in my opinion, it was quite convenient, because the boots take up a lot of space in the luggage, which must be foreseen in advance.
This winter (I mean the period when we were there! ) the weather in Egypt was perfect, a real comfortable summer. And experienced tourists told us that there were years when during trips they did not take off their sweaters even during the day! Rains there are rare in any case, but the winds are great to lower the air temperature. Fortunately, during our stay in Egypt, we practically did not feel the wind, the evening coolness was perceived as a breeze.
Morning in Egypt in winter begins earlier than in Ukraine. She opened her eyes at 7 o'clock - from the sun's rays sliding over the pillow. Our room was facing east, overlooking the sea and the central pool. In the morning it was all indescribably beautiful, deserted and inviting. You could just stand on the terrace and look at the sea, the sky, the glare of the sun in the water - this sight did not bother you.
We arrived at the hotel about an hour. The settlement, as elsewhere, is at 14.00. We had to wait a bit in the reception hall. The expectation was quite comfortable: comfortable leather sofas in the hall, cool, aesthetically pleasing. Maybe someone would be offended that the sofas are a little worn, the hotel is not the first freshness, but for me it was not a drawback, on the contrary: things have their own history and it awakens the imagination. The fact that the hotel is old also has its advantages: beautiful green area, developed infrastructure, many additional services. The hotel is huge: there are rooms in the main building, there is a three-story building, there are two-story bungalows in the green garden. We were 8 days, and every day we found something new to visit, where to go, what to see, what to do.
So, at 14.00 we were given the keys to the "sea view" room. The view of the sea was if you stretch your neck well and turn it to the right; if you look ahead - as far as your eyes could see - a desert: not a bush, not a blade of grass, not a structure of any kind. So keep in mind that "sea view" is a loose concept. The room is spacious, one of those called "3 + 1", but for the four of us, it turned out to be small. We are accustomed to living in a larger area, so we asked to be replaced with a "family room". Surcharge for the "upgrade" amounted to 20 USD. per day. The new room suited us all: two spacious rooms, large beds, a marvelous view from the window, clean, comfortable, in every room there is a TV. Everything worked in the room: the light, the hair dryer in the bathroom, the taps, and the TVs. There was a safe, although we did not use it - we managed without it. We were embarrassed that, in addition to the code, it was closed and opened with a regular key.
The rooms were cleaned every day, bed linen and towels changed daily. We left a dollar a day. Somehow there were no dollars, left 3 kopecks of Egyptian pounds - they removed it no worse. By the way, there is only liquid soap in the bathroom. They call it shampoo, and it seems that they had to wash everything: the face, the head, and the body. We only washed our hands, as we had a full set of bath and laundry accessories with us. As for the laundry - it is in the hotel, for a fee. I calculated the wardrobe in such a way that I didn’t bother with washing there (I didn’t know that there would be a laundry), so we had enough things. True, they came home with a full suitcase of laundry.
It is recommended not to drink tap water in Egypt, and even bottled teeth are better to brush. We did just that. But I became interested in the properties of water - why it can not be drunk. It turned out that water is supplied from the Nile, it is not processed, and at the same time it has pronounced alkaline properties. Our soap is washed off with great difficulty with this water, creating abundant foam along the way, since it is designed for our hard water. In general, advice: while you are in Egypt, wash your hair with this water every day - improve your hair. Well, or at least just rinse your hair after the sea - this is quite enough: alkaline water does a great job without soap. Hair loves alkaline water, from these procedures they recover.
For some reason this hotel is preferred by the Germans. Of the total number of visitors, they, in my opinion, were about 60%. 30% percent - Russians and 10% - French, British, Ukrainians, Kazakhs... all a little bit. I was surprised by the large number of aged people, especially foreigners. Lots of families with children.
The hotel has a good sports base: tennis courts, basketball, volleyball, mini-golf, two gyms, a spa center, Turkish baths... People constantly hung out there, mostly foreigners. Our preferred to spend time on the beach.
By the way, about the beach: you have to go to borrow sunbeds from 7 am, and then, it is unlikely that the first line will get. On the beach often - the first or second line - only Russians. It seems that the Germans did not think of taking their places at 7 am. The beach is large, fenced on both sides by a pontoon, so the waves are small, very comfortable. The sunbeds are serviceable, the mattresses on them are fresh, it was nice. I really liked that in addition to umbrellas and sunbeds there are wicker screens: they give extra comfort and a sense of relative privacy on the beach. Towels were given in the morning - on cards, in the evening before 17.00 they had to be handed over, but if you didn’t hand it in, it’s not scary, you can hand it over tomorrow. Towels are large, thick, however, there are both old and fairly new, almost white. I saw towels in other hotels - a third of ours had them, and others had only half. It feels like it just got cut.
On the beach, aerobics are held in the water and on land, some games. Animators are working, but we, frankly, did not use their services at all, we had no time for them. Often different guides came up (offered excursions), masseurs, surfers, etc. All these people are fickle, quick-witted. If you refuse, he won't come to you again. Somehow they remember from so many people. And no matter how you behave, your origin is unmistakably determined from afar: you are German, Russian or some other nationality. good psychologists. Often "attack" parents begin to lisp with children.
The entrance to the sea - opposite the main building - is the best. Smooth, but not overbearing. We were told that this is a rarity for the Red Sea. Well, we can say that we were unexpectedly lucky. Coarse sand, no corals, no hedgehogs, no special shoes required. But if you enter from the western side, you can already meet hedgehogs and coral fragments. We ourselves did not go to the western pontoon, but people said that there is a coral reef there, you can see the fish. My husband and son swam a little further - there was also something to see, but, of course, not like on an excursion to Paradise Island - they bring such a beautiful coral reef there! Multi-colored fish swim in schools - beauties! Unforgettable, as if in another world visited. And the excursion itself is not stressful, it is perceived as a vacation: a walk on a yacht, snorkeling near the reefs, lunch on a yacht. Swimming again and returning home. We liked. True, they laughed at the "paradise" island - a desert with a single palm tree - I am attaching a photo.
Pools. I won’t even say exactly how many pools there are in the hotel, because there are many and they are different. There are smoothly flowing into each other, separated by bridges, isthmuses, waterfalls. One, classic, is by the sea, the second is near the water slides on the other side of the hotel (beautifully stylized with stone). Near the second there is a bar with snacks and drinks.
There are several small pools, including children's. One pool - indoor, heated - there is such comfortable water (probably 34-35 degrees) that you sit as if in fresh milk. This was very helpful, because after lunch it was no longer so comfortable to leave the sea, a cool breeze blew, and we went to warm ourselves in the pool. One evening we came across another pool - as it turned out, also heated, but open. They approached, touched the water - pleasant, warm, but cooler than in the indoor pool; this is understandable: in the fresh air it cools faster. In the pool with water slides, the water is not heated, it was cold for us, we were spoiled, so we did not use the slides. Entertainment was enough. We loved to play minigolf in the evenings. All entertainment: courts, playgrounds, golf - until 17.00, after - for payment, because lighting must be turned on. As far as I understood, they had problems with electricity: the light in the room was rather dim, although there were enough light sources.
There are five restaurants in the hotel: two on the second floor, three on the first. By the way, not all tourists find restaurants on the second floor, those three are enough. I liked the German restaurant on the second, however, there were only lunches and dinners. In Mexican (also on the second floor), the food was spicy. The main restaurant on the ground floor works almost non-stop - they close twice for an hour to clean up and change dishes. The first breakfast in this restaurant starts at 4.00 in the morning, then breakfast - from 7.00, then a late breakfast - from 10.00, so even the "hardened" sleepyheads had time to have breakfast. And those who did not have time could have a bite to eat "pizza" on the beach: an ordinary tortilla with cheese, but freshly baked, you can eat without fear of problems with the toilet. Yes, and an hour after the end of the brunch, lunch began. An hour after the end of lunch, dinner began, then a late dinner, it seems, until 24.00 - at that time we were already asleep. Other restaurants are more limited in time. I am picky - I was always looking for suitable food for myself, so before we sat down somewhere, we carried out a raid on restaurants: we looked where they serve what today, after that we decided where we would stop. It was not a problem to bring your favorite dish from a nearby restaurant.
By the way, about the food. I liked the hotel breakfasts the most, because they are the most familiar to my taste. It seemed to me that you could choose for every taste: here you have scrambled eggs with various fillings, toasts and freshly baked pancakes with all kinds of jams, breakfast cereals with milk and additives in the form of jams, creams, sweet sauces; of course, fruits and vegetables, several types of yogurt, some snacks that I was not particularly interested in. I recommend this breakfast: a couple of toasts, an omelet with tomatoes and a spoonful of delicious salted cottage cheese, plus tea. I personally didn't need anything else. Sweets, cookies, cakes, mousses, jellies - it's always there. I almost didn't eat it. I was glad that you could always find warm milk and cookies for the child, because “we” don’t recognize any breakfast anymore - we’re so used to it. And there was a good selection of fruits: guava, apples, oranges, bananas, dates, strawberries. . .
For lunch in 5 restaurants, you could definitely find something to your liking. Mine liked spaghetti with toppings - they loved to indulge in it. I tried - not the way I like it, I will not specify the details - for an amateur. I liked baked or char-grilled meat, I was glad for potatoes baked in foil. We had a roasted turkey for Christmas - well done, well done - we ate with pleasure. The next day was the baked lamb. In one of the restaurants for dinner they bake delicious snack pies with different fillings, in the other - always fresh pizza (not a beach cake with cheese). The amount of food is huge, I don’t see the point in describing all the dishes, especially since I didn’t fundamentally set out to try everything - firstly, and secondly, I preferred to choose my usual food so as not to have indigestion. True, my husband and son ate almost everything they saw, and they did not have any problems with digestion, fortunately. The youngest only recently found out that ice cream is given to children in the lobby bar, and often went there. She, like me, ate only familiar foods and ate mostly chicken and potatoes. Once she agreed to eat pasta, but rejected them, like me. There is no children's menu in the restaurant, but there are three dietary dishes: chicken, rice and steamed vegetables. Not much, but in the absence of a better, why not eat?
There is no drinking water in the rooms, but there is enough in all refrigerators - we took as much as we wanted, we did not feel a shortage. We had a thermos with us, we also made hibiscus for ourselves, took it to our room. I like to drink a cup of tea before going to bed and early in the morning before breakfast, and on vacation I did not want to deviate from my favorite habits. By the way, food in the room could also be taken; we took the younger cookies and apples. I saw people carrying food to their rooms with dishes: I don’t know why, they didn’t eat enough, or what? Or maybe also a favorite habit - eat at night;
Tipping did not understand who to give (except for the dollar that was left every day on the bedside table in the room). I've read reviews that like the waiters should be given. But to whom? At what point? Something is not clear. After all, there are a lot of them - either one came up, removed an empty plate, then another... And what, for each removed plate, give or what? We didn’t drink alcohol, we didn’t have to carry drinks - we took everything we wanted for ourselves. There was no such thing as serving a table by one waiter. In short, we had a misunderstanding with the tip. And another young lady told us that the hotel employees are required to hand over all the tips and report to the management for every pound, and they supposedly only get some percentage from the tips. I saw jars of money in bars: probably, people who order drinks put tips there. Since we didn't order drinks, we didn't.
If you are interested in something - ask, I will be happy to answer. And I will be glad if someone advises something sensible.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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