Tia Heights Makadi Bay Tia Heights Makadi Bay

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

As always, after a vacation, I hasten to share my impressions of the Tia Heights Makadi Bay hotel, where I arrived from November 17 to 23.2008.

The hotel used to be called "Le Meridien Makadi Bay", but since October 1.2008, it has been renamed "Tia Heights Makadi Bay" due to a change in ownership. At the same time, one of its parts farthest from the sea was separated into a separate hotel “Tia Coral Holidays Club”, which Coral began to manage.

Hotel "Tia Heights Makadi Bay" consists of three complexes: the central building, the lagoon and the dune.
The dune is the farthest from the sea and restaurants and is built on a hill. Of all this, it is better to take the central building if you do not want to wander in the twilight along the paths between the room and the central building, where the entire infrastructure of the hotel is located.

I bought a ticket in Moscow through the Znak Ognya company, an intermediary of the Coral company.

Departure was scheduled for November 16 at 14:20 from Domodedovo Airport on an S7 aircraft (Siberian Airlines).
Arriving at the airport for three hours, I was taken aback by the news that my flight was delayed for SEVEN hours!
Since there is practically no bad weather in Hurghada, I presume that all the blame for the flight delay lies entirely with the negligence of Siberian Airlines.

At the same time, CORAL did not notify me about the flight delay, but look at the Domodedovo website. ru I did not guess, for which I paid. In general, I did not panic, but went through the check-in and checked in my suitcase, after which I turned around and drove back home.

In the evening I returned to the airport, calmly went through passport control and flew on IL-76 to Hurghada.

Upon arrival, a large Coral/Adeon bus was waiting for us. We checked in with the guide, received an envelope with a welcome letter and a 50-sheet brochure about Egypt. After the prompt loading of the suitcases, we were seated on the bus and in about an hour we were already at the hotel.
At the reception at four o'clock in the morning we were all promptly settled into rooms. I gave $30 and asked for a superior room with a view of the pools, which I received in the expected amount. Some people told me that it was too much money – like, I could get away with $10. Maybe, but what's done is done.

In the morning I examined the room and found it quite spacious, with a 2x2 meter bed and access to a balcony with a descent to the pools. The room also had a separate ceiling air conditioner (which worked quite noisily, but effectively), a telephone, a TV with a bunch of programs (including two or three Russian channels), a mini fridge (which I immediately filled with canned beer bought at Duty Free : ) ), soft cloth a sofa for two persons, two bedside tables with lamps, a coffee table with a stone top, a chair, a table, a wardrobe and a safe.

There are safes in the rooms only in the central building.

The use of the safe is free, but the bad thing is that it is not a code, but a key one. For the loss of the key, a fine of $ 220 is due, as they say that no one has a second key and it will have to be broken to open it. And imagine where to put it when you go swimming in the sea. In general, they are not very convenient with safes.

The area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the pools in the hotel is really impressive, but a quarter of them are not intended for swimming at all - they are fenced with concrete pebbles from penetration. In particular, I am talking about the pool under the outdoor restaurant veranda. Two-thirds of the pools are waist-deep, which will be very pleasant for mothers with small children, but not for adult swimmers. And the last quarter of the area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the pools has a normal depth, located near a paid fish restaurant.
And if you swim up to this restaurant from the side of the pool and sit on an underwater concrete chair in front of the bar, you can order any drink for free.

The water in the pools is so cold that its temperature can be compared with cold tap water in Moscow in winter.
I assume that their water comes from an underground well, which affects its temperature. Swimming in the pools is very cold, even in a "warm" state.

I swam with a brought mask and snorkel in the sea. The water is warm - like fresh milk. The beach and the entrance to the sea are sandy. The entrance is gentle - you can walk a hundred meters into the sea and stand waist-deep in water. Close to the shore, small coral deposits begin, where shoals of colorful fish of various shapes and sizes are circling.
You swim right above the school of fish and look at them through the mask, but they are not afraid of you at all and allow you to swim right up close, but they don’t come into your hands (nimble ones hurt: ).

In the sea, there is a danger of stepping on a sea urchin if you do not look under your feet. This does not mean that there are a lot of them, but sometimes one can sneak up without you noticing. Their hedgehogs are not poisonous, the maximum is a hole in the skin with a needle broken off under the base. So look under your feet, especially since the water in the sea is very clear, although quite salty.

The food at the hotel is quite tolerable, but the restaurant (as well as the entire hotel) clearly does not reach the level of five stars by at least one star. For breakfast, an omelet is prepared right in front of you, there are muesli, various fruits and vegetables. Meat and simple side dishes appear for lunch. There is a place where vegetables with chopped liver are fried in a pan right in front of you.
The cook is not far away and cuts vegetable salads to order from tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, onions and lettuce. Constantly there are changing mashed soups. Occasionally, when the meat is very actively dismantled, a person appears, distributing the ending meat in portions. The restaurant has a children's corner. From drinks there is wine (did not try it), beer reminiscent of Klinskoe, three types of juices - a la Yupi, and a spill of chilled cola, sprite and fanta. Tomato juice is literally poured from under the counter, opening cans and pouring tomato juice with an unpleasant aftertaste. I also didn’t like strong drinks there, it’s too painful for them to specifically give incomprehensible tastes and smells.
Occasionally, for dinner, lulakebab and chicken are fried on skewers on an open terrace across the bridge from the main restaurant. There is also a hand-baked fresh flatbread in a small gas-fired stone oven.
In general, you will not stay hungry, but there is no strong desire to impose more because of the taste.

An American billiards table was found in the hotel with about six tables for $ 8 per token, as well as four tennis tables, where people play for free mainly with their brought rackets. I did not find a rental, although it may exist.

There is a large animation hall with a paid bar, where children are entertained on the stage during the day, and in the evening and at night they amuse with music and light installations drunk adult vacationers.
Adjacent to this hall is an open street hookah bar, where football is broadcast on a plasma TV. Hookah can also be ordered at a table next to the swimming pool. Price: $3 - apple, cherry, peach; $2 - regular tobacco.

There is a gym in the building and something else, but I did not have time to go there.

Went on a bus tour to the feasts in Cairo. The price of pleasure is $85.

At 00:30 at night, they give you a bag of dry rations and put you on a big bus. After that, the bus calls in a few more hotels for other tourists and goes to a conditional place where a caravan of 20-30 buses gathers. Travel time to the pyramids is six hours. It’s hard to ride - there’s nowhere to stretch your legs. Those who prudently took pillows from the rooms have a chance to fall asleep by relaxing the neck of the head with the help of a pillow. The rest are constantly changing various positions in search of a comfortable position. Water on the bus is free, although it is better to take a few more bottles from the hotel.

Having approached the pyramids after a hard night, my enthusiasm decreased significantly. Well, there are a couple of mountains of the correct form. I took a few pictures purely for show that I was here.
Before exiting the bus from the bus to the pyramids, our guide read to everyone an educational program on the dangers lurking here: do not sit on a camel because they will ask $ 100 for landing a camel to climb; do not take gifts because they will still demand money for them; do not give a camera to strangers because theft is widespread; do not throw away the entrance ticket because at the exit they may be required to present it or pay again!

I decided there for $ 6 to climb into the pyramid. Only a few people from the whole group agreed to this. Apparently they knew something that we did not know. Now I know this too: the entrance to the pyramid is about a meter wide and about twenty meters high. Immediately after the entrance, the tunnel descends at a decent angle of ten to fifteen meters underground. I had to walk in single file. There was almost no oxygen in the air. The impression that you breathe in a bag and with each breath you are more and more afraid for your health.
In addition to all this, you constantly meet with tourists hurrying in the opposite direction, with whom it is quite difficult to disperse in a narrow passage. Halfway through, I realized that further with oxygen is generally a scribe and I can just lose consciousness. I immediately made my way up to the exit. When I ran out from under the pyramid, I felt like a breathless marathon runner at the finish line.
I would not advise anyone to climb there, it can be troublesome!


After the pyramids, we were taken to the “spirit museum” (a local point for steaming perfumes), where the whole group was shown the smell of perfume under the rapped sweet speeches of a Russian-speaking female consultant, and then they were packaged for tourists. Next was a buffet in a frankly dirty restaurant with paid water and drinks. After we were taken to an expensive papyrus shop. Then we took the bus back and were at the hotel for dinner.
My second excursion was more successful - a five-hour quad bike ride into the desert to a Bedouin village to watch the sunset from the mountain. There were a lot of impressions against the backdrop of a minimum of negativity. I recommend it to everyone who is not afraid of shaking and fast speed.

Finally, I want to tell you about a very dumb "CHINESE" restaurant, located on the territory of the hotel near the beach line.
I’ll start with a preface: The fact is that on the day of check-out, everyone’s bracelets are cut off at 12:00 and evicted from the rooms, and if you extend the room for 40 euros, then you are given the right to stay in the room until check-out and go to lunch for free in the main restaurant.
My departure to the airport was scheduled at 18:15 and by 17:00 I was already hungry again, and I didn’t have time before dinner. And I decided to try paid restaurants on site.

At first I went to the "FISH" restaurant, but it opened only from 19:00 and then I went to the "CHINESE" restaurant.
It looks like an open type outdoor gazebo with tables on the outside. In general - I ordered French fries there with a big Mac and a milkshake for the amount of $ 21
How did I start to sausage an hour later already on the bus after their meal ...cold sweat broke out, my stomach ached and I was constantly nauseous. I was seriously afraid of spilling the state of my stomach right on the bus. Fortunately, after an hour, my tinned stomach still coped and calmed down. I think that a more tender and / or young nature would be poisoned much more, which would raise the question of the possibility of departure in principle!

Apparently due to the close proximity of this paid "CHINESE" restaurant to the free "ALL INCLUSIVE" restaurant - almost no one buys anything from the first one and in order to save money they greatly overexpose the shelf life of semi-finished products and finished products.

So do not take risks like me in this restaurant, especially before departure, otherwise you may not fly at all!