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I rested in this hotel for more than 2 weeks (in March-February 2008, during the winter of 2007/2008 I was in Sharm el-Sheikh for the third time), so I can tell you in detail about it. The hotel has 4 stars (not 5 * - only due to the small territory and the "second" line).
The area where it is located: in Sharm, this area is called "Montaza" (Montazah). On the map, the area near the airport, but the planes are not heard at all - they take off to the side. The bay where the hotel's beach is called Nasrani Bay. opened Sol Cyrene around August 2007.
The novelty of the hotel: everything is new. The hotel belongs to a group of owners who own more than 350 hotels in the world with the brands Melia Hotels, Tryp Hotels, Sol Hotels, Paradisus. In general, all Sharm hotels that begin in the name with Sol (“Sol Y Mar”, “Sol Virginia”, “Sol Sharm”, etc. ) are their hotels. The rooms are really new, neat and spacious. The hotel is Italian, no one knows Russian at all, but English is quite suitable for communicating with the staff.
The sign of the hotel and the appearance of the entrance do not make a special impression, but this is only at first glance.
Taxis, minibuses: I took a $5 taxi to the Old Market. To Naama Bay - the same price (although it is closer). In local pounds, I paid somehow 30 (that's $ 6). You can ride for $8. You can also for $ 10 (even more - it's just not worth it anymore). You can pay more, but overpaying local taxi drivers is like pouring water into the sea (no matter how much you pay, the driver will still tell something and ask all the way “where are you from” and / or beg for more money).
What is very bad is that the hotel is located so far from the main road along the coast that it is almost impossible to calculate / catch a minibus at all (only in the morning or in the morning, minibuses sometimes call in this area, and then on the road, which way to the beach - in photo 3 you can see that from the main road - it passes OVER the airport in the photo - this hotel is very far away, there are only "local" blind paths nearby).
Do not try to walk to the main road and don’t try - I went: 40 minutes of fast walking - and only reached the airport (the green line in the photo is the 3rd place where I walked) - and from there to the main road still go and go.
Although lovers of night views should go to the airport in the evening: every 5 minutes a huge plane takes off at night, the whole airport is in flashing lights, the view is amazing, you won’t see this from inside the airport - go to the airport to the right along the road, which is on the way to the beach, to the side "Baron", past the construction of "Melia Sharm".
Taxi near the hotel is really not enough there, a couple of times for about 15 minutes I stood by the road and waited for at least one to appear. Near the exit from the hotel there are 2 taxis on duty, but they “beat” the prices, it is better to wait for the passing one. There are two roads that pass near the hotel (one - which you cross on the way to the beach, the second - to which the central entrance of the hotel goes). So it is better to catch a taxi (more often it is there) on the road, which you cross on the way to the beach. A minibus - of course, for 1 dollar (5 pounds) it will take you anywhere.
In general, the prices in Sharm for a taxi are the most “ceiling” - it is $ 15 (from one end of the city to the other), on a minibus - $ 1 (also from one end to the other). It is better to have money for a taxi without change, in a separate pocket (to answer extortions that there is no more money, except for the agreed amount - then they calm down). Every second taxi driver does not know exactly where Sol Siren is located (the hotel is new and small in general). Tip: when you say “This hotel in Montaza, near “Baron Hotel”, near ‘Concord hotel’”, then taxi drivers immediately orient themselves (then bargaining begins).
Nearby Hotels: Sol Cyrene shares grounds with another hotel of the same owner: Sol Sharm. You can walk freely from one hotel to another. The beach is also one for two "Sol Sharm" + "Sol Cyrene", animation teams are also common (Sol Cyrene has an animation team in white and blue T-shirts with the inscription "Alba Tours" and speaks ONLY Italian, "Sol Sharm" has an animation team team in red T-shirt shorts and speaks sloppy Russian).
Yes, immediately to the left on the beach there are also such blue sunbeds through the fence - this is the beach "Sol Y Mar Belvedere" (you will hear the animator yelling at the whole bay in Italian from anywhere in any of the listed hotels - in the reviews of the Konrad hotel, which is 2 km to the left - it is written about the cries of this animator heard even in "Konrad" throughout the bay).
Tip: if you sneak into “Sol Y Mar Belvedere” - there is a cool warm pool right next to the sea - you can swim (but the guards are vigilant there, it’s better to sneak out of the sea, and not go directly from beach to beach - the guards of “Sol Y Mar Belvedere” sit just at the end of the path that connects these two beaches).
For those who like to “get excited”: the whole center of dating and “romances” among the Russian-speaking “Sol Cyrene” is a local disco in the neighboring hotel “Sol Sharm”, it starts immediately after the animation show (show from - 22.00, disco - from 22.45-23.00) For vacationers in "Sol Cyrene" admission is free there.
A lot of holiday romances take place there, our lads drag roses from Naama to girls (it’s a feat to go by taxi to Naama to get roses, but then this girl with the one who gave flowers was the whole vacation), vulgar competitions for the size of a bra among visitors (and what do you think - no one plays - HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS - more than 12 bras were handed over by girls, a girl from Russia with size 4 won - so when returning each bra, the Arab animator tried on each, whether it was her size).
In general, if you are in the movement to "walk" - then you are at the disco at Sol Sharm (in winter / spring it is on the second floor of the Sol Sharm reception, in summer, they say, in the Sol Sharm theater on the street).
A little vulgar and plebeian there, but the fun there is incredible. While ours at the disco in "Sol Sharm" are lit - at the same time, the Italians in "Sol Cyrene" until late at night guess the songs of the whole audience (I sometimes went from one hotel to another for animation, going back and forth several times a night - t . to.
for the second week, I knew all the animation everywhere by heart). While ours in "Sol Sharm" indulge in unbridled fun, the Italians sit on chairs in a row and guess the songs (very, very DIFFERENTLY, ours and Italians still have a rest). )))
"Sol Sharm", of course, is a worse hotel (the food is worse and the rooms are shabby) - but the fun is still there, the hotel is cheap and the Russian-speaking people gather there "that one else. " And the movement there is “concrete”. Especially the Russian girls “give heat”, I went in the evening just to look at the performance, local girls from “Sol Sharm” (holidays from Belarus) with the phrase “oh, you just arrived, haven’t you seen you before? Go sit with Lena. Lena - this is for you")))
Beach:
The beach is close, 3-5 minutes leisurely walk, an open bus runs every 5 minutes. Music plays almost all the time on the beach (this motive of the Italian song “un Cairo . . rum und coaino” is already specifically tired in the end - well, there’s nowhere to escape from the music - it’s loud, they turn it off only from 13.00 to 15.00).
There are cool toilets on the beach: marble, mirrors, cabins (you can change clothes).
There are wooden and plastic sunbeds on the beach, plastic ones are definitely better. At 17.00 everyone is driven off the beach (mattresses are taken away - you can stay on the sunbed or bench itself), although it gets dark only at 17.40. From the wind, the beach is not closed in any way, as soon as the wind - immediately discomfort. At many hotels, the beach is somehow in the bay, the wind is not felt that way (there is a plain here).
By sea:
1) there are no corals + fish on the beach. Absolutely not. The water is muddy. I swam in fins-mask all the water near the beach - well, there are no corals or fish there. About 500 meters from the beach I swam towards Tirana - there are no corals, no matter how much you swim towards the depth. Maybe 5-6 unfortunate lost fish can be found, well, that's just ridiculous. But sea urchins are already 3 and huge, they live 150 meters to the right of the pontoon ...((((The sea in the bay is subject to ebb / flow, at low tide it is generally a disgusting sight.
2) the water is colder than anywhere else in Sharm.
This is due to the fact that, in general, warm water in Sharm is largely due to the flow of warm water (not due to heating by the sun). The current just doesn’t get into this bay almost - therefore it doesn’t give water - because the water is cold + as for Egypt, it’s rather muddy (there is no running water - therefore muddy). Given that the Sol Cyrene pool is not heated, Italians hardly swim at all. Ours are bathing, shouting "In Odessa, they swam in colder water. "
3) swim to watch corals and fish vacationers from "Sol Cyrene" go to the neighboring beaches of the hotels "Konrad", "Baron". Although they are often not allowed there at all, they just drive them away (the beach is of other hotels, much more expensive). I don’t know if it’s worth going there ...Making your way there, begging the guards of other hotels (“let me in, please”), being in the state of a person who can be kicked out at any moment is somehow stressful.
Ours from Sol Siren went there (to neighboring hotels) - a group of 4 people was not allowed, then 2 girls went - they were allowed.
4) on the left, after 800 meters of walking along the sea there is a spit (cape). "Wild", in the sense of empty, primordial. There, the water is pure. Sandy beach (wild, just sand-stones). Corals and marvelous stones that the sea carried out - just kilograms lie there on the spit. If you go into the water right in front of the sunken ship, then there is such an underwater ravine of corals, about 500 meters long - it stretches under water. Beautiful, very beautiful, such as a wall of corals goes, this ravine goes at an angle of 45 degrees from the coast (that is, they are not parallel to the coast, as is usual in Egypt - but, as it were, go into the sea in a line).
The strip of corals in the ravine itself is of this shape ^^^^^^^ (that is, there are, as it were, bays in this ravine of corals). There are a lot of fish on the spit in this ravine-wall, they are beautiful, there are shoals of fish 200-500 each, these shoals seem to hang.
Immediately when swimming into this ravine, there is a strong current, but you work with fins of 20-30 meters - and then you calmly swim in the coral ravine itself.
BUT, this is a WILD beach, there is not a single guard / lifeguard, there is no one at all (except sometimes the wind carries garbage). It’s a little scary to swim on this wild spit: after about 300 meters from the coast in this underwater ravine, after one of the turns in the coral ravine, I met a stingray, quite large (you know, such a gray flat oval animal with a tail behind).
This stingray allowed me to swim away calmly, although in theory it is possible that you can die from a stingray's tail (it attacks like this in nature). Except for me (I spent two days on this spit), NOT A ONE PERSON MORE THERE WAS SWIMMING AT ALL on the spit (once a group of Arabs plunged literally for a minute and ran out of the water).
Well, I swam there 15 times in the distance, looked at the underwater world - everything seems to be in order (although I personally grew up on the sea and swam with a mask from childhood - that's why I feel confident in the water).
And the structure of the bottom there on the spit is not easy: you need to enter exactly opposite the old sunken ship, swim along this ravine of corals to the left at 45 degrees (as if in the direction of a small sunken boat). It's better to swim there. In any other place, corals grow in a continuous carpet, all the time there is a risk that you will find yourself in such shallowness that you will run into corals with your stomach / legs. So far I have found this ravine - I swam on this “carpet” of corals a couple of times, until I got out - a couple of times I had to literally lean / push off from the corals with flippers (the cuts-scratches from corals on the flippers were SUCH, who better not to think what would happen with legs/belly).
The contingent of tourists: Italians. Italians. Italians.
Almost the entire "Sol Cyrene" consists of vacationing Italians.
Even the chefs and beach attendants are often Italian (you tell the kid in the Recriation T-shirt in Arabic - he replies that "I'm Italian, not an Arab"). Such a funny people, very funny, by the end of the rest I could pronounce “Skuzi, rogazzi” (Russian - “sorry, dear”) without any problems and a bunch of other Italian words “driven into my head”. You sleep on the beach, and then an Italian does gymnastics for girls, repeats “uno, duo, . . quanttro” 200 times, etc. - by the end of the rest, I just memorized all their numerals in Italian like a parrot (having heard 200 times - not cannot be remembered).
Once, having heard on the animation in "Sol Siren" (the whole audience guessed the melodies there), a familiar motive and the words "Losha te mi cantare", I began to broadcast that this was Celentano (but I was mistaken - it was Cutugno, as it turned out). Well, the Italians can take and sing this same “Losha te mi kantare” with the whole audience. Moreover, they made me sing (how I knew the words - I don’t understand myself).
The feeling all the time is THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ON SOMEONE'S BIRTHDAY - THE ITALIANS ARE CONTINUOUSLY SCREAMING, GESTERING, RUNING. Even their grandmothers, who are 80 years old, are “more alive” than any of our citizens.
To say it openly, you often feel at ease somehow - the animators don’t talk to you, the waiters don’t understand you (they don’t know English, but I don’t know Italian and Arabic), you don’t understand a word on animation. The main deficiency in the hotel (beach, restaurant, reception) is the lack of silence. I did not go to the beach and read books near the pool precisely because I did not have the strength to listen to this music on the beach (+ the pool has no wind due to its enclosure with the buildings of the "Sol Sirena").
Yes, to the girls who go to rest themselves: do not tell (do not show) your room number to anyone - in the evenings, Italians scratch at the door and try in every possible way to get into the room. The Italians are still those womanizers, they are somewhat similar to the Georgians, they are active.
))) All more or less Russian-speaking pretty girls had such problems, all of them.
"Our" in the hotel:
Well, in the last days of my vacation, OURS arrived. Moreover, comrades from Ukraine arrived (so that no one doubted, they put on their first “embroidered shirts” for dinner, such Ukrainian ones - white shirts with a stripe of ornament from the throat). Yes-ah-ah-ah-ah. Drunk, yelled at the whole beach. This "ours" fell under the tables, lay on the floor of the bar on the beach. The Italians raised him, he fell again, shouting for some reason "Ol Wright". ))) Then he fell on the path, lying there as a corpse (from the beach to the hotel).
Italians in everyday communication are generally very correct, they have continuous “Grace”, “Skuzi, Signora”. And here the corpse of a drunken "ours" is lying around and yelling at times - they somehow already became sad all the Italians. As many as 6 Sol Cyrene guards gathered, our “n…” sends them. They say something on the radio, well, they walked around him for about 20 minutes.
Then this comrade of ours threw up the path near his building, so the cleaners did not specifically wash this path (in general, all the territory is cleaned thoroughly). A cool type, in general, immediately reminded somehow of the Motherland. )))
And how these OURS yelled at the waiters “Where the hell are you going, give me water, epta” (the waiter doesn’t understand Russian, but they all shouted anyway). In fact, all the Italians were in shock - when these OUR people were yelling, people just left the beach, they even turned off the music. How Russian speakers are treated after that - guess (yesterday I saw on the TezTour website that this hotel "Sol Cyrene" set STOP for all sales to Ukraine for a month in advance).
By the way, many here write that the residents of the CIS are sold cheaper vouchers to hotels in Egypt than residents of the EU countries: this is not the full truth, for example, the very cool Albatros Hotel (in Sharm, in the Nabq Bay area, this is near the mangrove) sets prices for "Russians" much higher than for Germans (i. e.
a German citizen buys a ticket there cheaper than a resident of Ukraine).
And the same “Sol Cyrene” simply put a STOP for Ukrainians at some point (I would simply raise prices for the CIS countries if I were them - because those two comrades from Ukraine spoiled the rest of the Italians SO much that about 200 people vacationing in the hotel really experienced serious discomfort due to the drunken debauchery of 2 Ukrainians - either on the beach or in a restaurant).
Most of the time you spend in the nearby "Sol Sharm"
And you go to the territory of "Sol Sharm" (they have a common territory with "Sol Cyrene") - so there is "our" hotel: more than half are Russian speakers. In the evenings, animators don’t even let Russian-speakers onto the stage in the evenings, because Russian-speakers are already overactive (well, in this case, I always chose some kind of more kindred country - Holland, for example, and was sick - applauded / supported the citizens of the Netherlands).
Animation in the evening in Russian / English / German / Arabic (all phrases are spoken 4 times in 4 languages), Russian girls - a lot. Hotel "Sol Sharm" is cheap, it seems that they gathered "brothers" and their "panicle girls" from all cities of the former USSR. Well, there is security in “Sol Sharm” as in the “zone”)) They somehow mistook me out of fright for just walking in through the entrance of “Sol Sharm” (they don’t give a strap when feeding NV), so I almost gave birth when I was suddenly caught up and grabbed by the shoulder on the territory of Sol Sharm by an Arab (black) in a paramilitary uniform and with a walkie-talkie, he asked me to leave the hotel (showed him the key - I say, I live here, in a nearby hotel).
Imagine, you are walking “relaxedly” through the hotel territory, then a black Arab in a spotted uniform catches up with you from behind from the darkness and grabs your shoulder from behind ...Brad, it’s clear that the guards there (in “Sol Sharm”) are trained to communicate with ours " brothers. "
In general, the security in Sol Sharm is inadequate (with me, an elderly Dutchman poured beer on a girl in the Sol Sharm bar - there was only one crazy Dutchman there - so the guards did not return this Dutchman to normal behavior even after calling the tourist police - because that is a citizen of an EU country).
Restaurant (breakfast, lunch, dinner) at Sol Cyrene
Very, very, very worthy. I somehow mistakenly went to the restaurant of the neighboring Sol Sharm on the first day and had breakfast there, so I had the opportunity to compare (it’s easy to confuse: there is only one territory - and for the first time I didn’t go to my restaurant - they even tried to make me pay for not having eaten in “my own” restaurant – but I expertly put them in their place).
So, if in “Sol Cyrene” there is a restaurant with classical music, educated Italians, a high ceiling, then in the neighboring “Sol Sharm” there is a canteen, with half-naked “our” squealing women in flip flops / swimsuits and a poor assortment of dishes.
By the way: entrance to the restaurant in Sol Cyrene is prohibited in swimsuits, in beachwear (this is written in the memo, which is handed over upon arrival). I personally liked it: everyone in decent clothes, no half-dressed fat aunts from Ivanovo and “boys in sweatpants” from Rostov. ))) Stylish jeans and sneakers are the usual clothes of Italians in a restaurant, although there were elderly Italians in such evening dresses ...These elderly Italians are a bit funny))) In general, Italians dress differently (with more taste than ours, more stylishly), on the eye immediately notices the difference between ours and Italians.
The waiters try to seat all Russian-speaking people at the table together (although there are a lot of free tables), or at least at tables nearby (to make it easier to clean, they group everyone in one place, as it were). Cutlery (forks, glasses, napkins) is simply removed from all other tables.
Do not pay attention to the waiters - take the device you need (fork + knife) and go to the table you like. I did that all the time. ))) And many Italians did this.
Otherwise, you will have to sit next to actively talking Italians - and so you took forks and knives and went to a cozy table in the corner - you eat calmly. ))) Sitting down in a restaurant next to Italian children is a MISTAKE of mistakes. ))) They seat all children at 1 table - in the right hall (if you enter the restaurant from the side of the pool). Italian children yell SO much that words can not describe. From the sound of their ora, the fork falls out of the hands. Well, adults are also active with them, but children are generally like in films with Andriano Celentano (when he tried to teach a lesson there at an Italian school, and children shot at him with slingshots, etc. ).
Which food to choose (HB or AI):
When selling tours, tour operators say that with HB in Sol Cyrene, water is free in the morning, and in the evening - for money.
Not true: with HB in the morning, only the analogue of "Jupi" (and only ice, from the machine) can be obtained for free. Water both in the morning and in the evening with HB for money (7 pounds - the price of the smallest bottle - one and a half glasses of which, while in the store 1.5 liters of water cost a maximum of 2 pounds). Not so much straining to pay for water, but straining all this engine with bills, crediting these bills for water to the “account of my room”, often in Egypt in general this account for some reason is replenished with things that you did not order ...
In addition, with HB in “Sol Cyrene” they don’t give any strap on their hand at all - when entering / leaving the hotel, the guards took out a couple of times with a demand to show the strap (and where did I get it if they don’t give out at HB? Showed the key to the room with a key fob - calmed down, missed).
If not for these inconveniences, then HB is quite enough, because all AIs who leave the hotel beach for lunch at 13.00 do not return to the beach (after 13.00).
00 in winter the beach is free, even empty).
Well, in general, the food at Sol Cyrene is great. Such lasagna, such barracuda, such pasta (I didn’t think they could be so tasty! ), and I have never eaten the best cheese in my life. Another dish, the name of which I don’t know, well, outwardly, rectangular meat products cut into different colors ...In short, I can’t really describe it in words - but VERY tasty! ))) Classical music in the restaurant - successful, soothing.
A couple of times a musician walked around the restaurant with an accordion in national Italian clothes - he calmly played soothing melodies on the accordion (judging by how this accordionist "cut circles" in the restaurant near that raging Russian-speaking man in an embroidered shirt - I understand that the Italians tried to to somehow calm the psyche, so that it does not interfere with the entire hotel to rest peacefully).
Room cleaning: I have never seen such a circus (although in the last 7 months this is my 5th stay in the Red / Mediterranean Seas). You leave the room for 10 minutes - the cleaner sneaks into the room and folds everything, washes, cleans, changes. He secretly follows something (when you go out - although no one seems to see you, how you go out, go out). I have already hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign around the clock - it seems normal, the cleaner did not climb into the room.
Then somehow I went out to the beach for an hour or two, during which time this sign was blown away by the wind (the corner number - gusts of wind just pulled it off the handle, lay on the floor) - the cleaner in my absence broke into the room and folded / put everything on places. What I did not need, just arranged everything the way I was comfortable. I glued this sign with adhesive tape, did not let the cleaner in for 5 days (well, I don’t need him).
On the 5th day, he figured me out on the way from the beach, sat, rubbed the railing of the stairs to a shine near the room, spoke in English: “No matter how much I try to enter the room, it’s impossible all the time, why don’t you let me clean it? ". The janitor was offended, you see... ))) Sometimes he left a couple of pounds on the TV for him - maybe this was the secret of his efforts (although then he stopped leaving it - he cleaned it diligently anyway).
The staff in "Sol Cyrene" is generally trained to the strings simply. It seems to me that such cases are impossible there when our girls write reviews like "hello to Mahmud, Said, Mohammed and everyone else" (everyone "groping" in the subject matter understands WHAT these greetings mean). I got the impression that the staff of the hotel itself (but not the beach) is well-trained, they keep employees in discipline. This is far from being the case everywhere in Egyptian hotels.
What is in the room and what to take with you: the room has a cold tiled floor everywhere: beautiful, but cold (take slippers - very handy).
There is no hair dryer in the room (you have to ask at the reception) - it's better to take your own. Shampoo and soap are not very good there - take your own. Take a corkscrew, my corkscrew broke on the very first evening - you can’t buy a corkscrew in all of Sharm - I traveled all the shops by taxi - well, there is no corkscrew for sale (by the way, in Arabic a corkscrew is “fattaha”).
Tennis rackets (small tennis) - you can not take it, there is a cool table "KETTLER" + rackets near the lobby bar (Italians almost never play table tennis at all - the table is always free).
The room has a refrigerator (small, absolutely silent), a new TV (there is a DVD output on the TV). The air conditioner is simply impeccable - powerful, classy. The Internet is available at the reception, on the second floor - well, very expensive, it seems that the card costs 75 pounds for half an hour.
And in the district there is no Internet access on foot at all, the closest one - in the Concorde area, I seem to have seen a sign for an Internet cafe (as you go by taxi from Naama - then if you look out the right window, then 5 minutes before Sol Siren a sign flickers "Internet Cafe").
There is no mini-bar in the room (and it’s very good that there isn’t - otherwise these eternal strains with the fact that it needs to be checked for completeness at the entrance, at the exit - to hand it over, then the Arabs wander to your room with the phrase “mini bar control” - and so I immediately loaded this empty refrigerator with my products).
For the first day or two, sometimes for some reason the water in the taps disappeared for 40 minutes, sometimes the water was not very clear. Then the Italian commission came from the owners - put things in order, a bunch of plumbers ran around (they came to my room - they checked all the pipes) - after that there was complete order with the water.
It’s hard to move it, however, this table is 50 kilograms. It’s easier to put it on the rug and already on the rug (it glides so on the floor without scratching it - drag it)
There are no safes in the rooms, there are some small cells for rent at the reception (but knowing the Arabs, I would not leave anything there). In short, leave laptops, camcorders, expensive things at home. Although the security there is attentive, it seems that I have not heard anything about the disappearance of something. But when the territory of this pioneer camp for adults is nearby (“Sol Sharm” is meant), then anything can disappear. If you can be calm for the Italians (they won’t take it), then the unhindered access of the residents of the neighboring Sol Sharm is a guarantee of the desire to leave any valuables.
What's new at the Old Market, at Naame Bay: it was amazing that they openly offer “g-ash-shchich / m-u-r-i-u-x-a-n-a / g-i-r -a-i-i-n ”(that’s how they pronounce it) in Naama Bay.
I was walking at two in the morning (swaying after drinking rum in a local cafe) along Naama with two of our girls - the Arabs come up, offer these "cases" without any problems. I thought they were joking - no, it's all for real. It didn't seem to be like that before. I don’t use it at all, but whoever sends children (teenagers) there to rest - know that now this one has somehow become “no problem” there. (((
Well, in a cafe on the waterfront in Naama, as always, they cheat: advice - DO NOT give menus with prices until the moment of calculation (otherwise you will not be able to calculate your price - they can give a second menu with higher prices or just say different prices)), keep your account ordered in mind, remember that they will add + 10% tax and + 15% service charge - there it is printed in small print in the menu below - but they will also try to shortchange it. For example, with a total score of 170 pounds from the 200 given to them, they will no longer give change (they say: “it is customary for us to give baksheesh on top of the whole bill - there will be no change”).
At the Old Market, the sellers are very, very rude and pestering if they see our woman without a man (girls, just negotiate with one of our guys at the hotel - and go to the Old Market with them - don’t go yourself). Well, I won’t give examples here of how the Arabs are joking over our girls there (but you can’t refuse the Arabs in wit, that’s for sure). ))) If possible, it's better to quickly buy everything and get out of there (or better not to go at all, a visit to the Old Market did not bring a good mood to a single person from our hotel - the sellers are too "loaded").
The assortment in the Duty Free at the Old Market is small, for example, there is no martini at all. They sell as much as you want and for any day of your stay (although in general, according to the law, only the first 2 days of your stay can be bought at Duty Free and only a few liters there).
But they put a mark in the passport about the alcohol bought at the Duty Free at the Old Market (with a pen near the Egyptian visa they write the number of liters purchased and the letter A).
The Duty Free at the Old Market closes at 18.55 (taking into account the fact that all other stores at the Old Market open only in the evening - I didn’t have time for it in the first days, then I arrived specially earlier and bought everything necessary - for the entire half-month stay).
Yes, they have a new fashion (to cheat in "exchanges"): in exchanges they are specifically fooling. At the airport, when exchanging dollars, they gave me part of the Arabic bills not in pounds, but in piastres (gives a bill of 25 piastres - and counts it as 25 pounds - such a deception method). There is a queue behind, a bunch of people, noise, he gives you a pack of bills, there is no time to count (and he uses this).
At the Old Market in the exchange office, which is the same at the entrance (only in profile), when exchanging dollars for pounds: as soon as I counted the Arab money in my hands and checked the amount with the receipt - I raise my eyes inquiringly - the Arab silently gives me missing money. Again, I've never encountered such a blatant miscalculation before. They always gave in bank exchange offices correctly (I only talk about them - I always change them in them).
Yes, and on Friday in the morning it is generally unrealistic to change anything there: I once went to the bank near the Grand Azor Hotel (this is in the Sharma area, which is called Nabq Bay) on Friday at 12 noon ...An empty room, in the middle of the bank there is a pair of shoes, in the corner an Arab is on his knees, he put his head on the floor and prays. And I really needed to change money (I was going to take a taxi to visit those whom I met on the plane). I went out, waited 20 minutes, came back.
The same picture: boots, an Arab on his knees and no one else.
And this is during WORKING hours in the official bank. In general, on Friday in the morning they have religious rites. In that particular case, I eventually caught some Arab managers in suits (who were clearly shirking this religious rite), explained the situation to them, exchanged dollars at the rate of 5 pounds for 1 dollar (instead of 5.4, which was in the bank).
Holidays with children: there is definitely nothing to do with Russian-speaking children, the animators are Italian, they don’t know a word in Russian-English. Yes, and children in the restaurant are put at a separate table, what is there for a Russian-speaking child to do among this gop company of noisy small Italians ... )))
In the neighboring "Sol Sharm" there are simply legendary personalities among Russian-speaking people: okay, girls who promote Italians "for money", this is, as it were, already in the order of things. But there was in mid-February (I didn’t see, but many told me about him) the legendary “Seryozha from Sumy”, this comrade:
a) managed to order a bunch of "fresh juices" (freshly squeezed juices in the sense) + expensive alcohol to his room and leave for his Sumy without giving up the number, i. e. without paying anything for everything he drank - he just left the key in the door;
b) he managed to burn through the lid of the bedside table in the girls' room from Russia - they then smeared it with foundation;
c) he managed to “spin an affair” with 4 different women on vacation, who remembered him simply as a legendary person, on the beach all that was heard from the girls was “how we are bored without Seryozha from Sumy”.
Conclusion: it seemed to me that it was very successful for a guy + a girl who wants to be alone and only together. Real Italian style, inexpensive, while everything is very, very high-level (“level” restaurant, new rooms, well-trained staff). But going there for more than 12 days is not worth it, by the end of the second week it just gets boring.
The area where it is located: in Sharm, this area is called "Montaza" (Montazah). On the map, the area near the airport, but the planes are not heard at all - they take off to the side. The bay where the hotel's beach is called Nasrani Bay. opened Sol Cyrene around August 2007.
The novelty of the hotel: everything is new. The hotel belongs to a group of owners who own more than 350 hotels in the world with the brands Melia Hotels, Tryp Hotels, Sol Hotels, Paradisus. In general, all Sharm hotels that begin in the name with Sol (“Sol Y Mar”, “Sol Virginia”, “Sol Sharm”, etc. ) are their hotels. The rooms are really new, neat and spacious. The hotel is Italian, no one knows Russian at all, but English is quite suitable for communicating with the staff.
The sign of the hotel and the appearance of the entrance do not make a special impression, but this is only at first glance.
Taxis, minibuses: I took a $5 taxi to the Old Market. To Naama Bay - the same price (although it is closer). In local pounds, I paid somehow 30 (that's $ 6). You can ride for $8. You can also for $ 10 (even more - it's just not worth it anymore). You can pay more, but overpaying local taxi drivers is like pouring water into the sea (no matter how much you pay, the driver will still tell something and ask all the way “where are you from” and / or beg for more money).
What is very bad is that the hotel is located so far from the main road along the coast that it is almost impossible to calculate / catch a minibus at all (only in the morning or in the morning, minibuses sometimes call in this area, and then on the road, which way to the beach - in photo 3 you can see that from the main road - it passes OVER the airport in the photo - this hotel is very far away, there are only "local" blind paths nearby).
Do not try to walk to the main road and don’t try - I went: 40 minutes of fast walking - and only reached the airport (the green line in the photo is the 3rd place where I walked) - and from there to the main road still go and go.
Although lovers of night views should go to the airport in the evening: every 5 minutes a huge plane takes off at night, the whole airport is in flashing lights, the view is amazing, you won’t see this from inside the airport - go to the airport to the right along the road, which is on the way to the beach, to the side "Baron", past the construction of "Melia Sharm".
Taxi near the hotel is really not enough there, a couple of times for about 15 minutes I stood by the road and waited for at least one to appear. Near the exit from the hotel there are 2 taxis on duty, but they “beat” the prices, it is better to wait for the passing one. There are two roads that pass near the hotel (one - which you cross on the way to the beach, the second - to which the central entrance of the hotel goes). So it is better to catch a taxi (more often it is there) on the road, which you cross on the way to the beach. A minibus - of course, for 1 dollar (5 pounds) it will take you anywhere.
In general, the prices in Sharm for a taxi are the most “ceiling” - it is $ 15 (from one end of the city to the other), on a minibus - $ 1 (also from one end to the other). It is better to have money for a taxi without change, in a separate pocket (to answer extortions that there is no more money, except for the agreed amount - then they calm down). Every second taxi driver does not know exactly where Sol Siren is located (the hotel is new and small in general). Tip: when you say “This hotel in Montaza, near “Baron Hotel”, near ‘Concord hotel’”, then taxi drivers immediately orient themselves (then bargaining begins).
Nearby Hotels: Sol Cyrene shares grounds with another hotel of the same owner: Sol Sharm. You can walk freely from one hotel to another. The beach is also one for two "Sol Sharm" + "Sol Cyrene", animation teams are also common (Sol Cyrene has an animation team in white and blue T-shirts with the inscription "Alba Tours" and speaks ONLY Italian, "Sol Sharm" has an animation team team in red T-shirt shorts and speaks sloppy Russian).
Yes, immediately to the left on the beach there are also such blue sunbeds through the fence - this is the beach "Sol Y Mar Belvedere" (you will hear the animator yelling at the whole bay in Italian from anywhere in any of the listed hotels - in the reviews of the Konrad hotel, which is 2 km to the left - it is written about the cries of this animator heard even in "Konrad" throughout the bay).
Tip: if you sneak into “Sol Y Mar Belvedere” - there is a cool warm pool right next to the sea - you can swim (but the guards are vigilant there, it’s better to sneak out of the sea, and not go directly from beach to beach - the guards of “Sol Y Mar Belvedere” sit just at the end of the path that connects these two beaches).
For those who like to “get excited”: the whole center of dating and “romances” among the Russian-speaking “Sol Cyrene” is a local disco in the neighboring hotel “Sol Sharm”, it starts immediately after the animation show (show from - 22.00, disco - from 22.45-23.00) For vacationers in "Sol Cyrene" admission is free there.
A lot of holiday romances take place there, our lads drag roses from Naama to girls (it’s a feat to go by taxi to Naama to get roses, but then this girl with the one who gave flowers was the whole vacation), vulgar competitions for the size of a bra among visitors (and what do you think - no one plays - HOW DO YOU PLAY THIS - more than 12 bras were handed over by girls, a girl from Russia with size 4 won - so when returning each bra, the Arab animator tried on each, whether it was her size).
In general, if you are in the movement to "walk" - then you are at the disco at Sol Sharm (in winter / spring it is on the second floor of the Sol Sharm reception, in summer, they say, in the Sol Sharm theater on the street).
A little vulgar and plebeian there, but the fun there is incredible. While ours at the disco in "Sol Sharm" are lit - at the same time, the Italians in "Sol Cyrene" until late at night guess the songs of the whole audience (I sometimes went from one hotel to another for animation, going back and forth several times a night - t . to.
for the second week, I knew all the animation everywhere by heart). While ours in "Sol Sharm" indulge in unbridled fun, the Italians sit on chairs in a row and guess the songs (very, very DIFFERENTLY, ours and Italians still have a rest). )))
"Sol Sharm", of course, is a worse hotel (the food is worse and the rooms are shabby) - but the fun is still there, the hotel is cheap and the Russian-speaking people gather there "that one else. " And the movement there is “concrete”. Especially the Russian girls “give heat”, I went in the evening just to look at the performance, local girls from “Sol Sharm” (holidays from Belarus) with the phrase “oh, you just arrived, haven’t you seen you before? Go sit with Lena. Lena - this is for you")))
Beach:
The beach is close, 3-5 minutes leisurely walk, an open bus runs every 5 minutes. Music plays almost all the time on the beach (this motive of the Italian song “un Cairo . . rum und coaino” is already specifically tired in the end - well, there’s nowhere to escape from the music - it’s loud, they turn it off only from 13.00 to 15.00).
There are cool toilets on the beach: marble, mirrors, cabins (you can change clothes).
There are wooden and plastic sunbeds on the beach, plastic ones are definitely better. At 17.00 everyone is driven off the beach (mattresses are taken away - you can stay on the sunbed or bench itself), although it gets dark only at 17.40. From the wind, the beach is not closed in any way, as soon as the wind - immediately discomfort. At many hotels, the beach is somehow in the bay, the wind is not felt that way (there is a plain here).
By sea:
1) there are no corals + fish on the beach. Absolutely not. The water is muddy. I swam in fins-mask all the water near the beach - well, there are no corals or fish there. About 500 meters from the beach I swam towards Tirana - there are no corals, no matter how much you swim towards the depth. Maybe 5-6 unfortunate lost fish can be found, well, that's just ridiculous. But sea urchins are already 3 and huge, they live 150 meters to the right of the pontoon ...((((The sea in the bay is subject to ebb / flow, at low tide it is generally a disgusting sight.
2) the water is colder than anywhere else in Sharm.
This is due to the fact that, in general, warm water in Sharm is largely due to the flow of warm water (not due to heating by the sun). The current just doesn’t get into this bay almost - therefore it doesn’t give water - because the water is cold + as for Egypt, it’s rather muddy (there is no running water - therefore muddy). Given that the Sol Cyrene pool is not heated, Italians hardly swim at all. Ours are bathing, shouting "In Odessa, they swam in colder water. "
3) swim to watch corals and fish vacationers from "Sol Cyrene" go to the neighboring beaches of the hotels "Konrad", "Baron". Although they are often not allowed there at all, they just drive them away (the beach is of other hotels, much more expensive). I don’t know if it’s worth going there ...Making your way there, begging the guards of other hotels (“let me in, please”), being in the state of a person who can be kicked out at any moment is somehow stressful.
Ours from Sol Siren went there (to neighboring hotels) - a group of 4 people was not allowed, then 2 girls went - they were allowed.
4) on the left, after 800 meters of walking along the sea there is a spit (cape). "Wild", in the sense of empty, primordial. There, the water is pure. Sandy beach (wild, just sand-stones). Corals and marvelous stones that the sea carried out - just kilograms lie there on the spit. If you go into the water right in front of the sunken ship, then there is such an underwater ravine of corals, about 500 meters long - it stretches under water. Beautiful, very beautiful, such as a wall of corals goes, this ravine goes at an angle of 45 degrees from the coast (that is, they are not parallel to the coast, as is usual in Egypt - but, as it were, go into the sea in a line).
The strip of corals in the ravine itself is of this shape ^^^^^^^ (that is, there are, as it were, bays in this ravine of corals). There are a lot of fish on the spit in this ravine-wall, they are beautiful, there are shoals of fish 200-500 each, these shoals seem to hang.
Immediately when swimming into this ravine, there is a strong current, but you work with fins of 20-30 meters - and then you calmly swim in the coral ravine itself.
BUT, this is a WILD beach, there is not a single guard / lifeguard, there is no one at all (except sometimes the wind carries garbage). It’s a little scary to swim on this wild spit: after about 300 meters from the coast in this underwater ravine, after one of the turns in the coral ravine, I met a stingray, quite large (you know, such a gray flat oval animal with a tail behind).
This stingray allowed me to swim away calmly, although in theory it is possible that you can die from a stingray's tail (it attacks like this in nature). Except for me (I spent two days on this spit), NOT A ONE PERSON MORE THERE WAS SWIMMING AT ALL on the spit (once a group of Arabs plunged literally for a minute and ran out of the water).
Well, I swam there 15 times in the distance, looked at the underwater world - everything seems to be in order (although I personally grew up on the sea and swam with a mask from childhood - that's why I feel confident in the water).
And the structure of the bottom there on the spit is not easy: you need to enter exactly opposite the old sunken ship, swim along this ravine of corals to the left at 45 degrees (as if in the direction of a small sunken boat). It's better to swim there. In any other place, corals grow in a continuous carpet, all the time there is a risk that you will find yourself in such shallowness that you will run into corals with your stomach / legs. So far I have found this ravine - I swam on this “carpet” of corals a couple of times, until I got out - a couple of times I had to literally lean / push off from the corals with flippers (the cuts-scratches from corals on the flippers were SUCH, who better not to think what would happen with legs/belly).
The contingent of tourists: Italians. Italians. Italians.
Almost the entire "Sol Cyrene" consists of vacationing Italians.
Even the chefs and beach attendants are often Italian (you tell the kid in the Recriation T-shirt in Arabic - he replies that "I'm Italian, not an Arab"). Such a funny people, very funny, by the end of the rest I could pronounce “Skuzi, rogazzi” (Russian - “sorry, dear”) without any problems and a bunch of other Italian words “driven into my head”. You sleep on the beach, and then an Italian does gymnastics for girls, repeats “uno, duo, . . quanttro” 200 times, etc. - by the end of the rest, I just memorized all their numerals in Italian like a parrot (having heard 200 times - not cannot be remembered).
Once, having heard on the animation in "Sol Siren" (the whole audience guessed the melodies there), a familiar motive and the words "Losha te mi cantare", I began to broadcast that this was Celentano (but I was mistaken - it was Cutugno, as it turned out). Well, the Italians can take and sing this same “Losha te mi kantare” with the whole audience. Moreover, they made me sing (how I knew the words - I don’t understand myself).
The feeling all the time is THAT YOU HAVE BEEN ON SOMEONE'S BIRTHDAY - THE ITALIANS ARE CONTINUOUSLY SCREAMING, GESTERING, RUNING. Even their grandmothers, who are 80 years old, are “more alive” than any of our citizens.
To say it openly, you often feel at ease somehow - the animators don’t talk to you, the waiters don’t understand you (they don’t know English, but I don’t know Italian and Arabic), you don’t understand a word on animation. The main deficiency in the hotel (beach, restaurant, reception) is the lack of silence. I did not go to the beach and read books near the pool precisely because I did not have the strength to listen to this music on the beach (+ the pool has no wind due to its enclosure with the buildings of the "Sol Sirena").
Yes, to the girls who go to rest themselves: do not tell (do not show) your room number to anyone - in the evenings, Italians scratch at the door and try in every possible way to get into the room. The Italians are still those womanizers, they are somewhat similar to the Georgians, they are active.
))) All more or less Russian-speaking pretty girls had such problems, all of them.
"Our" in the hotel:
Well, in the last days of my vacation, OURS arrived. Moreover, comrades from Ukraine arrived (so that no one doubted, they put on their first “embroidered shirts” for dinner, such Ukrainian ones - white shirts with a stripe of ornament from the throat). Yes-ah-ah-ah-ah. Drunk, yelled at the whole beach. This "ours" fell under the tables, lay on the floor of the bar on the beach. The Italians raised him, he fell again, shouting for some reason "Ol Wright". ))) Then he fell on the path, lying there as a corpse (from the beach to the hotel).
Italians in everyday communication are generally very correct, they have continuous “Grace”, “Skuzi, Signora”. And here the corpse of a drunken "ours" is lying around and yelling at times - they somehow already became sad all the Italians. As many as 6 Sol Cyrene guards gathered, our “n…” sends them. They say something on the radio, well, they walked around him for about 20 minutes.
Then this comrade of ours threw up the path near his building, so the cleaners did not specifically wash this path (in general, all the territory is cleaned thoroughly). A cool type, in general, immediately reminded somehow of the Motherland. )))
And how these OURS yelled at the waiters “Where the hell are you going, give me water, epta” (the waiter doesn’t understand Russian, but they all shouted anyway). In fact, all the Italians were in shock - when these OUR people were yelling, people just left the beach, they even turned off the music. How Russian speakers are treated after that - guess (yesterday I saw on the TezTour website that this hotel "Sol Cyrene" set STOP for all sales to Ukraine for a month in advance).
By the way, many here write that the residents of the CIS are sold cheaper vouchers to hotels in Egypt than residents of the EU countries: this is not the full truth, for example, the very cool Albatros Hotel (in Sharm, in the Nabq Bay area, this is near the mangrove) sets prices for "Russians" much higher than for Germans (i. e.
a German citizen buys a ticket there cheaper than a resident of Ukraine).
And the same “Sol Cyrene” simply put a STOP for Ukrainians at some point (I would simply raise prices for the CIS countries if I were them - because those two comrades from Ukraine spoiled the rest of the Italians SO much that about 200 people vacationing in the hotel really experienced serious discomfort due to the drunken debauchery of 2 Ukrainians - either on the beach or in a restaurant).
Most of the time you spend in the nearby "Sol Sharm"
And you go to the territory of "Sol Sharm" (they have a common territory with "Sol Cyrene") - so there is "our" hotel: more than half are Russian speakers. In the evenings, animators don’t even let Russian-speakers onto the stage in the evenings, because Russian-speakers are already overactive (well, in this case, I always chose some kind of more kindred country - Holland, for example, and was sick - applauded / supported the citizens of the Netherlands).
Animation in the evening in Russian / English / German / Arabic (all phrases are spoken 4 times in 4 languages), Russian girls - a lot. Hotel "Sol Sharm" is cheap, it seems that they gathered "brothers" and their "panicle girls" from all cities of the former USSR. Well, there is security in “Sol Sharm” as in the “zone”)) They somehow mistook me out of fright for just walking in through the entrance of “Sol Sharm” (they don’t give a strap when feeding NV), so I almost gave birth when I was suddenly caught up and grabbed by the shoulder on the territory of Sol Sharm by an Arab (black) in a paramilitary uniform and with a walkie-talkie, he asked me to leave the hotel (showed him the key - I say, I live here, in a nearby hotel).
Imagine, you are walking “relaxedly” through the hotel territory, then a black Arab in a spotted uniform catches up with you from behind from the darkness and grabs your shoulder from behind ...Brad, it’s clear that the guards there (in “Sol Sharm”) are trained to communicate with ours " brothers. "
In general, the security in Sol Sharm is inadequate (with me, an elderly Dutchman poured beer on a girl in the Sol Sharm bar - there was only one crazy Dutchman there - so the guards did not return this Dutchman to normal behavior even after calling the tourist police - because that is a citizen of an EU country).
Restaurant (breakfast, lunch, dinner) at Sol Cyrene
Very, very, very worthy. I somehow mistakenly went to the restaurant of the neighboring Sol Sharm on the first day and had breakfast there, so I had the opportunity to compare (it’s easy to confuse: there is only one territory - and for the first time I didn’t go to my restaurant - they even tried to make me pay for not having eaten in “my own” restaurant – but I expertly put them in their place).
So, if in “Sol Cyrene” there is a restaurant with classical music, educated Italians, a high ceiling, then in the neighboring “Sol Sharm” there is a canteen, with half-naked “our” squealing women in flip flops / swimsuits and a poor assortment of dishes.
By the way: entrance to the restaurant in Sol Cyrene is prohibited in swimsuits, in beachwear (this is written in the memo, which is handed over upon arrival). I personally liked it: everyone in decent clothes, no half-dressed fat aunts from Ivanovo and “boys in sweatpants” from Rostov. ))) Stylish jeans and sneakers are the usual clothes of Italians in a restaurant, although there were elderly Italians in such evening dresses ...These elderly Italians are a bit funny))) In general, Italians dress differently (with more taste than ours, more stylishly), on the eye immediately notices the difference between ours and Italians.
The waiters try to seat all Russian-speaking people at the table together (although there are a lot of free tables), or at least at tables nearby (to make it easier to clean, they group everyone in one place, as it were). Cutlery (forks, glasses, napkins) is simply removed from all other tables.
Do not pay attention to the waiters - take the device you need (fork + knife) and go to the table you like. I did that all the time. ))) And many Italians did this.
Otherwise, you will have to sit next to actively talking Italians - and so you took forks and knives and went to a cozy table in the corner - you eat calmly. ))) Sitting down in a restaurant next to Italian children is a MISTAKE of mistakes. ))) They seat all children at 1 table - in the right hall (if you enter the restaurant from the side of the pool). Italian children yell SO much that words can not describe. From the sound of their ora, the fork falls out of the hands. Well, adults are also active with them, but children are generally like in films with Andriano Celentano (when he tried to teach a lesson there at an Italian school, and children shot at him with slingshots, etc. ).
Which food to choose (HB or AI):
When selling tours, tour operators say that with HB in Sol Cyrene, water is free in the morning, and in the evening - for money.
Not true: with HB in the morning, only the analogue of "Jupi" (and only ice, from the machine) can be obtained for free. Water both in the morning and in the evening with HB for money (7 pounds - the price of the smallest bottle - one and a half glasses of which, while in the store 1.5 liters of water cost a maximum of 2 pounds). Not so much straining to pay for water, but straining all this engine with bills, crediting these bills for water to the “account of my room”, often in Egypt in general this account for some reason is replenished with things that you did not order ...
In addition, with HB in “Sol Cyrene” they don’t give any strap on their hand at all - when entering / leaving the hotel, the guards took out a couple of times with a demand to show the strap (and where did I get it if they don’t give out at HB? Showed the key to the room with a key fob - calmed down, missed).
If not for these inconveniences, then HB is quite enough, because all AIs who leave the hotel beach for lunch at 13.00 do not return to the beach (after 13.00).
00 in winter the beach is free, even empty).
Well, in general, the food at Sol Cyrene is great. Such lasagna, such barracuda, such pasta (I didn’t think they could be so tasty! ), and I have never eaten the best cheese in my life. Another dish, the name of which I don’t know, well, outwardly, rectangular meat products cut into different colors ...In short, I can’t really describe it in words - but VERY tasty! ))) Classical music in the restaurant - successful, soothing.
A couple of times a musician walked around the restaurant with an accordion in national Italian clothes - he calmly played soothing melodies on the accordion (judging by how this accordionist "cut circles" in the restaurant near that raging Russian-speaking man in an embroidered shirt - I understand that the Italians tried to to somehow calm the psyche, so that it does not interfere with the entire hotel to rest peacefully).
Room cleaning: I have never seen such a circus (although in the last 7 months this is my 5th stay in the Red / Mediterranean Seas). You leave the room for 10 minutes - the cleaner sneaks into the room and folds everything, washes, cleans, changes. He secretly follows something (when you go out - although no one seems to see you, how you go out, go out). I have already hung a “Do Not Disturb” sign around the clock - it seems normal, the cleaner did not climb into the room.
Then somehow I went out to the beach for an hour or two, during which time this sign was blown away by the wind (the corner number - gusts of wind just pulled it off the handle, lay on the floor) - the cleaner in my absence broke into the room and folded / put everything on places. What I did not need, just arranged everything the way I was comfortable. I glued this sign with adhesive tape, did not let the cleaner in for 5 days (well, I don’t need him).
On the 5th day, he figured me out on the way from the beach, sat, rubbed the railing of the stairs to a shine near the room, spoke in English: “No matter how much I try to enter the room, it’s impossible all the time, why don’t you let me clean it? ". The janitor was offended, you see... ))) Sometimes he left a couple of pounds on the TV for him - maybe this was the secret of his efforts (although then he stopped leaving it - he cleaned it diligently anyway).
The staff in "Sol Cyrene" is generally trained to the strings simply. It seems to me that such cases are impossible there when our girls write reviews like "hello to Mahmud, Said, Mohammed and everyone else" (everyone "groping" in the subject matter understands WHAT these greetings mean). I got the impression that the staff of the hotel itself (but not the beach) is well-trained, they keep employees in discipline. This is far from being the case everywhere in Egyptian hotels.
What is in the room and what to take with you: the room has a cold tiled floor everywhere: beautiful, but cold (take slippers - very handy).
There is no hair dryer in the room (you have to ask at the reception) - it's better to take your own. Shampoo and soap are not very good there - take your own. Take a corkscrew, my corkscrew broke on the very first evening - you can’t buy a corkscrew in all of Sharm - I traveled all the shops by taxi - well, there is no corkscrew for sale (by the way, in Arabic a corkscrew is “fattaha”).
Tennis rackets (small tennis) - you can not take it, there is a cool table "KETTLER" + rackets near the lobby bar (Italians almost never play table tennis at all - the table is always free).
The room has a refrigerator (small, absolutely silent), a new TV (there is a DVD output on the TV). The air conditioner is simply impeccable - powerful, classy. The Internet is available at the reception, on the second floor - well, very expensive, it seems that the card costs 75 pounds for half an hour.
And in the district there is no Internet access on foot at all, the closest one - in the Concorde area, I seem to have seen a sign for an Internet cafe (as you go by taxi from Naama - then if you look out the right window, then 5 minutes before Sol Siren a sign flickers "Internet Cafe").
There is no mini-bar in the room (and it’s very good that there isn’t - otherwise these eternal strains with the fact that it needs to be checked for completeness at the entrance, at the exit - to hand it over, then the Arabs wander to your room with the phrase “mini bar control” - and so I immediately loaded this empty refrigerator with my products).
For the first day or two, sometimes for some reason the water in the taps disappeared for 40 minutes, sometimes the water was not very clear. Then the Italian commission came from the owners - put things in order, a bunch of plumbers ran around (they came to my room - they checked all the pipes) - after that there was complete order with the water.
It’s hard to move it, however, this table is 50 kilograms. It’s easier to put it on the rug and already on the rug (it glides so on the floor without scratching it - drag it)
There are no safes in the rooms, there are some small cells for rent at the reception (but knowing the Arabs, I would not leave anything there). In short, leave laptops, camcorders, expensive things at home. Although the security there is attentive, it seems that I have not heard anything about the disappearance of something. But when the territory of this pioneer camp for adults is nearby (“Sol Sharm” is meant), then anything can disappear. If you can be calm for the Italians (they won’t take it), then the unhindered access of the residents of the neighboring Sol Sharm is a guarantee of the desire to leave any valuables.
What's new at the Old Market, at Naame Bay: it was amazing that they openly offer “g-ash-shchich / m-u-r-i-u-x-a-n-a / g-i-r -a-i-i-n ”(that’s how they pronounce it) in Naama Bay.
I was walking at two in the morning (swaying after drinking rum in a local cafe) along Naama with two of our girls - the Arabs come up, offer these "cases" without any problems. I thought they were joking - no, it's all for real. It didn't seem to be like that before. I don’t use it at all, but whoever sends children (teenagers) there to rest - know that now this one has somehow become “no problem” there. (((
Well, in a cafe on the waterfront in Naama, as always, they cheat: advice - DO NOT give menus with prices until the moment of calculation (otherwise you will not be able to calculate your price - they can give a second menu with higher prices or just say different prices)), keep your account ordered in mind, remember that they will add + 10% tax and + 15% service charge - there it is printed in small print in the menu below - but they will also try to shortchange it. For example, with a total score of 170 pounds from the 200 given to them, they will no longer give change (they say: “it is customary for us to give baksheesh on top of the whole bill - there will be no change”).
At the Old Market, the sellers are very, very rude and pestering if they see our woman without a man (girls, just negotiate with one of our guys at the hotel - and go to the Old Market with them - don’t go yourself). Well, I won’t give examples here of how the Arabs are joking over our girls there (but you can’t refuse the Arabs in wit, that’s for sure). ))) If possible, it's better to quickly buy everything and get out of there (or better not to go at all, a visit to the Old Market did not bring a good mood to a single person from our hotel - the sellers are too "loaded").
The assortment in the Duty Free at the Old Market is small, for example, there is no martini at all. They sell as much as you want and for any day of your stay (although in general, according to the law, only the first 2 days of your stay can be bought at Duty Free and only a few liters there).
But they put a mark in the passport about the alcohol bought at the Duty Free at the Old Market (with a pen near the Egyptian visa they write the number of liters purchased and the letter A).
The Duty Free at the Old Market closes at 18.55 (taking into account the fact that all other stores at the Old Market open only in the evening - I didn’t have time for it in the first days, then I arrived specially earlier and bought everything necessary - for the entire half-month stay).
Yes, they have a new fashion (to cheat in "exchanges"): in exchanges they are specifically fooling. At the airport, when exchanging dollars, they gave me part of the Arabic bills not in pounds, but in piastres (gives a bill of 25 piastres - and counts it as 25 pounds - such a deception method). There is a queue behind, a bunch of people, noise, he gives you a pack of bills, there is no time to count (and he uses this).
At the Old Market in the exchange office, which is the same at the entrance (only in profile), when exchanging dollars for pounds: as soon as I counted the Arab money in my hands and checked the amount with the receipt - I raise my eyes inquiringly - the Arab silently gives me missing money. Again, I've never encountered such a blatant miscalculation before. They always gave in bank exchange offices correctly (I only talk about them - I always change them in them).
Yes, and on Friday in the morning it is generally unrealistic to change anything there: I once went to the bank near the Grand Azor Hotel (this is in the Sharma area, which is called Nabq Bay) on Friday at 12 noon ...An empty room, in the middle of the bank there is a pair of shoes, in the corner an Arab is on his knees, he put his head on the floor and prays. And I really needed to change money (I was going to take a taxi to visit those whom I met on the plane). I went out, waited 20 minutes, came back.
The same picture: boots, an Arab on his knees and no one else.
And this is during WORKING hours in the official bank. In general, on Friday in the morning they have religious rites. In that particular case, I eventually caught some Arab managers in suits (who were clearly shirking this religious rite), explained the situation to them, exchanged dollars at the rate of 5 pounds for 1 dollar (instead of 5.4, which was in the bank).
Holidays with children: there is definitely nothing to do with Russian-speaking children, the animators are Italian, they don’t know a word in Russian-English. Yes, and children in the restaurant are put at a separate table, what is there for a Russian-speaking child to do among this gop company of noisy small Italians ... )))
In the neighboring "Sol Sharm" there are simply legendary personalities among Russian-speaking people: okay, girls who promote Italians "for money", this is, as it were, already in the order of things. But there was in mid-February (I didn’t see, but many told me about him) the legendary “Seryozha from Sumy”, this comrade:
a) managed to order a bunch of "fresh juices" (freshly squeezed juices in the sense) + expensive alcohol to his room and leave for his Sumy without giving up the number, i. e. without paying anything for everything he drank - he just left the key in the door;
b) he managed to burn through the lid of the bedside table in the girls' room from Russia - they then smeared it with foundation;
c) he managed to “spin an affair” with 4 different women on vacation, who remembered him simply as a legendary person, on the beach all that was heard from the girls was “how we are bored without Seryozha from Sumy”.
Conclusion: it seemed to me that it was very successful for a guy + a girl who wants to be alone and only together. Real Italian style, inexpensive, while everything is very, very high-level (“level” restaurant, new rooms, well-trained staff). But going there for more than 12 days is not worth it, by the end of the second week it just gets boring.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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