Хороший для семейного отдыха Good for family vacation

My husband and I were at the hotel from May 13 to May 27.2007. I must say right away that there is no heat that our friends scared us so much. Yes, the temperature was +35C (sometimes even 40C), but all this was easily tolerated due to the low humidity. By the way, there are still winds there in May (this is for those who hope that they are not in May, because before the trip to Egypt, friends assured us that the winds in Hurghada are only in winter), sometimes even strong.
Now as for the hotel. The hotel is great! And I can say this for a reason. My husband and I have already been abroad, so there is something to compare. The service is good, the room is simply licked (of course, if you leave a tip! ). We lived in building 30, so I will say that those who say that building 10 is bad are wrong (it is already in the middle of the territory). Building 30 is located on the very outskirts of the hotel, farther from the rest of the buildings from the beach, pools and restaurants - and not only Russian tourists are accommodated in this building (so as not to say that the Russians get all the worst), the British and Germans lived there, and Czechs. It's just that each tour operator buys certain rooms for himself (the cost of the tour also depends on this). In general, the more you paid for the ticket, the better the room (well, with a sea view, for example) and the building to be closer to the pool or the beach. In general, all rooms in all buildings are exactly the same (of course, except for the suites) - good. Therefore, my advice, when buying a ticket, check immediately with your tour operator in which particular building you will be settled in order to avoid scandals with the administration (like we want a room right on the beach). I repeat once again: whoever paid how much - he lives there. Since my husband and I usually only spend the night in the room, it made absolutely no difference to us which building we lived in and where our windows looked out, so we didn’t see the point in paying extra to change the room.
The territory of the hotel is huge. Greenery is not enough, but the staff is trying with might and main. Therefore, in 5-8 years there will be just an awesome garden.

The food in the restaurant (normal) is good. True, I’ll make a reservation: if someone likes to eat immediately fried, boiled, smoked chicken, and fried, boiled, smoked pork, and beef... etc. - I'll upset him. There are usually about 2-3 types of meat dishes (some were very indignant about this). But in the end, at home, you also do not eat 10 types of meat at a time. The rest of the selection is huge. They cook something different every time, arrange themed evenings (Asian cuisine, Mexican, sea, etc. ). Of the other restaurants, I really liked the Asian restaurant. Unfortunately, we did not get to the sea restaurant, which is so praised. Therefore, advice - sign up for a restaurant as soon as possible, do not leave it for the last day. There are many people who want to visit restaurants, so you could stand in line and find out that there are no more places in the restaurant you wanted to visit (there is only one, sometimes 2 days in advance).
The pools are beautiful and large, although for some reason the water in all was cool (+ 22C-23C), after the sea it seemed even cold. And the ad for the hotel said it had a heated pool…
Animation in the evenings is wonderful. Mandarinochka, Maxim and Yana are just Super!!! ! (Russian animators) They try their best. During the day there are always some games (beach volleyball, water polo, dancing, water aerobics, etc. ). In general, you will not be bored. There would be a desire, but there will always be an occupation.
Shops at the hotel are expensive. Therefore, go shopping for souvenirs in Makadi, or even better, go to Hurghada (it's even cheaper there).

The hotel still has one big minus. The beach is not small, but for such a huge hotel it is really small. Not enough sun umbrellas. Lounges are in bulk, only those who want to lie under the scorching sun are somehow very few. Therefore, we had to get up early to take the sunbeds under the umbrella. We usually got up at 9 am, at half past ten we were already on the beach - there were still free sunbeds, but very few. If one of the “newcomers” came to the beach at 10 o'clock, then with surprise and annoyance they found that there was nowhere to lie except under the sun. Once we witnessed a very ugly incident. The Russian couple moved away from their sunbeds - the girl went for a swim, and the young man went to the bar. The Germans passing by (looking for sunbeds) just brazenly threw off all their things and occupied their sunbeds!!! ! I was shocked by this. Well, the young man turned out to be not a miss, all the same, he defended his right "to a place in the shade. " I must say that there is a special attitude towards the Germans - they are really ready to carry them in their arms, that is, “the German is right everywhere”, which, of course, offended and resented us very much (and not only us). And all this is easy to explain - the Germans love to scandal over every little thing, and they reach the very administration because of nonsense, and the Egyptians really dislike this and are terribly afraid. And in which case, the Germans have a good cover in the form of a tour operator (such an advertisement will be created that no one else will come to the hotel, otherwise the hotel will get money, such as for moral damage). And as you know, no one will stand up for the Russians, and therefore the attitude towards us is the same. And if you also remember that Russians really don’t like to leave tips…. In general, do not be stingy and everything will be OK with you.
Let's go back to the beach. In one of the reviews I read that the beach is not cleaned. Not true!!! ! The beach is clean, there is no garbage. It is not true that the entire beach is black from fuel oil. What you mistook for fuel oil is ordinary black sand (exists in nature). Not far from Makadi, there is even a resort (I don’t remember the name, unfortunately), which they specially go to to be treated with black sand (there are black beaches). Don't worry about corals either. Near the neighboring hotels, the corals are simply awesome. We advise you to go for Arabesques (10-15 minutes), it is much more beautiful there than at Meridian, just don’t forget to buy slippers, otherwise you will break all your legs.
Of the excursions, my husband and I went to Cairo and Alexandria for 2 days and Luxor. For 2 days in Cairo-Alexandria, friends advised us, and they turned out to be right. If you go for a day, you will get tired just terribly. It’s very far to go to Cairo (we left the hotel at one in the morning and arrived in Cairo at 8 in the morning), so I don’t recommend going on an excursion with small children - it’s hard for adults.
Cairo was not impressed - the dump is terrible. And frankly, it is very outrageous that the whole tour is a big shopping tour (roughly speaking, you pay $ 120 to go shopping in Cairo), so prepare more money, they will breed badly. In general, my husband and I came to the conclusion that if an Egyptian does not inflate a dozen tourists in a day, then the day was not a success for him. Therefore, be very careful. It's a shame: the country is so interesting with such a history, there is something to show besides the Cairo museum and the pyramids, and you see nothing but shops. By the way, we spent only a couple of hours on the museum and the pyramids, and we spent the rest in shops with local souvenirs (oils, papyri, etc. ). I liked Alexandria more, but the scenario is still the same: sightseeing, and, as it were, by the way, they try to sell you all sorts of garbage as an exclusive.

In general, as a result: do not listen to anyone. You can form your impression of the hotel (and of the country) only by visiting it yourself. Drop all the negativity, less "show-offs". Remember the saying - become simpler and people will be drawn to you. You are still going on vacation! And if you are in a great mood, then you will spend your time to the fullest! At least my husband and I will return to this hotel again, and more than once!