Отдых удался, всем рекомендую The holiday was a success, I recommend it to everyone

Review
Rested at the end of October 2010. Dad, mom, 1.5 year old child.
I'll start with the flight: we flew with the Kogalym-Avia / Koll-Avia (Surgut Airlines) Airbus A320. This carrier belongs to a charter flight, an economy option. Which means a flight delay or schedule changes (not always of course), check the departure time online before flying. It also means narrow rows of chairs, old chairs that recline one among three. And when you fly for 4.5 hours (from Moscow, and in our case 5 - we were not allowed to land in Hurghada, so we circled over the desert), this discomfort is a little annoying. I know there is a flight from Sheremetyevo not a charter, there are large planes with a spacious cabin, but it didn’t suit us, because. you waste a whole day. From Domodedovo Call-Avia, departure at 6, and from Sheremetyevo at 16-00, stay at the hotel at night, and paid as a whole day of accommodation. Although if you have a ticket for 10-14 days, you can lose one day for the sake of a comfortable flight. You take photo and video equipment in your hand luggage for many reasons, and at the same time take a picture of the view from the porthole: sand dunes, mountains, the Red Sea with a piece of the coast - beautiful. Now I regret that I didn’t buy a camera for underwater photography in advance, believe me, there is something to photograph. I recommend to buy alcohol in Duty Free: as the hotel drinker is a drinker. Without grimacing, you can only drink beer, and if you really want wine (but only from a bottle). If you have children with you - take juices, do not wake up your child Yupi diluted in raw water to drink. They feed on the plane 1 time, if you get for breakfast, do not take an omelette (it is made of synthetic protein), take pancakes. They also offer tea, coffee, juices, water, wine is not given.

Tour operator. We flew from Mostrevel. Not a single negative moment. Booking confirmation instantly. Meet, take away, guide every day at the hotel, Russian-speaking, answering all the questions of tourists. One caveat Mostrevel works with this hotel only on UAL (i. e. yellow bracelets) and the accommodation is from standards and better. That is, a terrible placement in the "Sport" and AL does not threaten you. So special thanks to them for that. I heard dissatisfied reviews of tourists in the hotel flying with other tour operators (Tez, Pegasus) were dissatisfied.
Airport. Upon arrival at the Airport, you will need to fill out the cards. Immediately, the Arabs will fly up with a proposal to fill for the money themselves. But believe me, rewrite your last name from your passport, d. b. and even a schoolboy will be able to name the hotel in Latin letters. A visa is paid for each passport, even if your baby is 9 months old but has a separate passport - pay, and if it is entered in the parent - for free. I don’t remember exactly how much, in my opinion, 20 bucks from the face.
Accommodation. It takes half an hour to get to the hotel (55 km). Whatever time you arrive, the key is given at 14-00, check-out at 12 (extension for money). But the bracelet will be put on right away, so you can eat, swim, do anything, just do not go into your room. There is a Russian girl at the reception who gave $20 for her passport. Settled somewhere in the center between the sea and the restaurant. All standards face the pool and only the suites face the sea. The money difference is small. So if the view from the window to the sea is important - pay.
The hotel has 2 main ways of accommodation: blue bracelets (these poor things live in the far “sport” building, to get to the dining room you need to go through landfills, the desert right along the road or go by hotel minibus, blue bracelets are AL), yellow bracelets (UAL) . If you wear a blue bracelet, deny it, it's better to pay extra and live in normal conditions.
You are entitled (if UAL) to one visit to the spa (20 minutes, usually a massage), 1 training session in a diving club (we went to look at us like we were fools) and 1 hookah.
The contingent of vacationers is 90% Russian, the rest are Germans and other Europeans.
I think the rest in this hotel is ideal for couples of any age, the hotel is not suitable for singles in order to get to know each other on vacation and have fun.

On the eve of departure, inform the reception about the time of departure, so that they prepare lunches with them, pick up the suitcase (which you put in the corridor) and wake you up (if it is night or early morning, they really forgot to wake us up).
Rooms. All standards are more expensive: large and spacious, a wide bed, a cot was brought to us for a child. It looks like a hospital bed, but the thick and soft mattress saved the unprepossessing look of the cot. Table, 2 armchairs, old-style TV, 2 Russian channels, ladies' table, cabinets, cabinets, shelves. Safe (class), large bathroom (shower cubicle). The room is cleaned every day, towels are changed only if they are thrown on the floor, bedding is only changed if it is dirty, wet cleaning (but the dust on the furniture is not removed), but you will not see swans, ducks, flower petals on your bed.
It is considered polite to give at least a buck to the bag porter and a buck every day to the housekeeper. They can break in with cleaning when you sleep during the day, but I once explained to a friend and he began to come either in the morning or after dinner. Upon arrival at the room, they are required to give out a bathrobe, slippers, a plate of fruit and cookies, once they fill the refrigerator with soft drinks. In part, we did not find something, but after a call to the reception, everything was brought. You have the right to give a bag of clothes to the laundry once free of charge. The room has a hairdryer, a refrigerator (which makes noise like a steam locomotive and does not produce cold), ventilation - works fine, a kettle (with tea, coffee, sugar). In general, if you have any problems or something is broken, call the reception. When the safe broke, they fixed it the same evening, and the refrigerator rang 3 times, so no one came. Electricity is turned on from your key card. But we got used to it, it can be easily disconnected from the key fob and the electricity was around the clock, the local also showed us that the hotel matchbox (available in the room) can also be inserted into the device and it works like a card (the name of the hotel is read) and let there be light. No need to say that they don’t drink tap water, and you don’t want to, because it smells like a Moscow pond at the time of flowering). So by the way, fruits and vegetables will smell.
The territory of the hotel: green, blooming, beautiful, bridges, waterfalls, streams, every blade of grass is watched. They cut, water, mow, sweep all day long. 2 saltwater swimming pools with toddler entry. The water does not warm up even by the end of the evening (this was the case in October). The pools themselves are terrible, the paint peeled off a hundred years ago, very nondescript. And one adult with bleach. He is more decent. But we didn’t swim there because, again, it doesn’t warm up, secondly, with such a sea, we don’t want any pools, and thirdly, there is CHLORINE.

There are no slides. There is a spa. Hairdresser, pharmacy, souvenir shops. Comrades, buy souvenirs at Hurghada Airport. The prices are cheap, the choice is huge, the hotel is expensive.
Communication: buy a Vod-fon SIM card at the hotel, the cheapest way to communicate with Russia, you can replenish your account, otherwise roaming is very expensive. Internet paid prehistoric speed.
Meals: 4 or 5 bars. The one opposite the main restaurant: there is a dress code (trousers and a shirt), but it seems that drinks are more decent, juices from a package or even freshly squeezed, alcohol is said to be normal. Each bar has its own schedule. 2 restaurants with a buffet (one by the sea: the view is beautiful, small, the range is smaller, no crowd, no dinner, the second in the main building: breakfast, lunch, dinner, late dinner, outdoors and indoors, at the end of October, traffic as in In Moscow at Rush Hour, there are not enough plates, so the waiters take a plate of food from under their noses, as soon as you daydream, in order to see what is in the saucepan, you need to stand in a traffic jam / queue for 10 minutes. ) From food: chicken, beef, fish, fried squid, pasta, rice, legumes, salads (we ate only from tomatoes and cucumbers, the rest were scary to try, just don’t take CRABS - they look beautiful and exotic, but it’s impossible to eat), bakery products and culinary all delicious and varied, be prepared to add in weight. Fruits: apples, grapes, passion fruit, melon, oranges, nectarines, (dates are not tasty). There are no soups (you can't call a diluted magi cube a soup). There is no children's table, or rather, HE has three saucepans: one with pasta in spices and tomato, the second with burnt French fries and the third with soy sausages). My little one ate from the common table, she never left hungry. In general, be prepared for a spicy table, they do not spare spices.
They also serve ice cream every day. I haven't seen him in 8 days. Probably give when everyone sleeps during the day. Fresh juices - $3.

YOU can at least every day go to an Italian restaurant for dinner, by appointment (pasta, lasagna and pizza or all together as you want and as much as you want). One time was enough for us, 1 time for oriental (spicy soup, and one dish of their choice), Chinese (choice of chicken or beef, salad of choice) rolls for money (but you don’t order, it’s impossible to eat, I’m sure in your city you ate a hundred times better). There is also a fish restaurant and a candlelit dinner overlooking the sea in the region of $ 20 - paid. All the listed restaurants serve wine from the bottle, but not so hot either.
We had no poisoning or other troubles with the stomach.
Entertainment: the animation is good, 99 percent of the animators are Russian young guys and girls, it is not clear why they conduct their programs in three languages, because the contingent of vacationers is 90% Russian. You will be offered dancing (latino, oriental), aerobics, aqua aerobics, water polo, boccia, football, volleyball, disco, live music, tennis (racquets and lights for a fee), if you sleep lightly until 12 you will not fall asleep until the singer turns off the microphone. Children's animation: they play, draw, dance, you can't leave small children only in the presence of their parents.
Foam disco 8 euros.

Staff: I only saw 2 women. The Russian at the reception and the woman who baked donuts on the street, only her eyes and hands are naked (about morals). Everything else is done by men. They are still scary little black ones, but they all speak and understand Russian, in any case they try very hard. The staff did not strain at all, they greet, smile, ask how you are doing, offer help. What can not be said about the guys from the spa. While you are not covered with a tan, be prepared for spa services to be imposed on you, then it will be easier, new pale-skinned victims will arrive. Moreover, one sells the services of the same spa salon for 70 euros, the second for 60 euros, and the third for 60 dollars (Cleopatra procedure). So if you want to go - bargain. In general, rest on the beach resembles the Black Sea. Only there they offer chips, water, shawarma and pies, but here photographers, Spa representatives, excursions, paid restaurants, diving and more constantly bother. If you liked the waiter, you can feed him with a tip, then he will run away for beer, and bring fruit and keep the table clean, and even tomorrow he will greet you and call you brother, fellow countryman. We liked the hookah. Every day we came to him and gave 2 dollars and he did not write a check for 3 dollars, but made an excellent hookah. In general, consider everything that you purchase for a fee (service or product) only by check, no cash in hand, otherwise they will accept it as a tip, payment is only on the day of departure at the reception.
Sea. Well, this is a separate chapter in my story. All of the above can be considered the little things of life, everything fades before the beauty of the Red Sea.
I'll start with the beach. Beach: rocky-sand-shelly. Beauty in shallow water for children. But it is better for all family members to purchase special shoes, if they have not purchased, then everything is in the hotel, including masks with flippers. A few steps from the shore, a rocky surface (dead corals) begins, so you can’t do without shoes. But on foot you can only walk in calm (which is rare for this place), on other days the entrance to the water is from the old pier. The pier opens at 10 and kicks out at 17-00. In order to avoid accidents on the water and a collision with sea urchins that come to the surface at sunset. A yellow flag on the pier means calm seas, a red one means a wave warning. Out of 8 days, the yellow flag hung once, on the rest of the days, the rescuer blew his whistle so that fellow swimmers did not swim far.
He also does not allow feeding the fish. But as soon as he turns away, many feed (bread). Beautiful pictures when one person is in the water, and the second from the pier feeds the fish and takes pictures. A man surrounded by clouds of colorful fish looks spectacular. The reef is considered the most beautiful here in the entire village of Makadi. The neighboring hotels have only sand, which means few fish, and here is a large reef with a variety of corals, maluski, starfish, sea urchins, and hundreds of varieties of fish. It is not necessary to take fins, because. the sea is so salty that it holds the weight of a person, but be sure to take a mask with a snorkel and shoes.

Sunbeds: old, rusty, that's about to fall apart, the umbrella is also old. It wouldn't be a problem if there were enough for everyone. In season they are not enough as well as plates. If you want to sunbathe on a sunbed, get up at 6-7 in the morning and run. When you leave for lunch and plan to return to the sea, put a towel and one personal item on the sunbed (for example, one fin or slippers). Believe me, tourists steal sunbeds without a towel, slippers on the sand, and the sunbed and the trace caught a cold.
Beach towels are issued only in one place, far from the sea (near the main restaurant).
Tours. Don't even think about the pyramids, it's too far away. But Luxor, quads on the sand dunes, a full day trip to an island with white sand, a trip on a submarine with a transparent bottom, diving, fishing is possible. (we were only on a submarine, because of a small child, a good excursion for children who cannot dive underwater with a mask, the whole underwater world is at a glance, entire reef cities, even saw a turtle)
Climate. Dry, easy to tolerate heat (neither the adults nor the baby had acclimatization), do not go in November - sand dune season. And another feature of this hotel is that it is located at the end of the bay and there is almost always wind here.
Tune in to a positive holiday and come home rested and happy.
Regards, Anastasia!