Melia Sinai в дни Синайского потопа Melia Sinai in the days of the Sinai flood

Melia Sinai

Rested from 14/01/10 to 21/01/10. In general, I liked it very much. As for a 5 * hotel, the territory is quite small, but this is compensated by the fact that along the embankment you can walk 1 km in one direction and 500-600 meters in the other. The furniture in the rooms, of course, is a little worn out, the cabinet doors creak and do not always close, but the repairs in the rooms are good, the plumbing is good. As for choosing a room: we had a standard-room, No. 3015 with an almost direct sea view, but there was a restaurant nearby, in which the exhaust hood was noisy around the clock, so you should probably choose something away from the restaurant, pool and fanar bar, otherwise it will be noisy.


Every day at 5 pm, some smelly mosquito and mosquito repellant was sprayed on the hotel territory (although it seems that it is against people), the first 15 minutes it stinks outside, so when you hear a characteristic noise and stench, immediately close all doors and windows. However, this muck quickly disappears.
Every day there is a paid shuttle bus from the hotel to Naama Bay ($3 round trip) and a day later to the Old Town ($5 round trip). If you take a taxi, then you can get to Naama Bay for 5 USD. e. , back - even for 4 c. u. e. So, if you are traveling with a company, take a taxi, it will be cheaper.

Food: in general, quite good, although only oranges, dates, bananas and tart persimmons were given from fruits (we took only HB).

Beach: The pride of Melia Sinai is one of the best reefs on the entire coast of Sharm. A rather short floating pontoon (only 40-50 m) ends right above a gorgeous reef with a bunch of fish that could be easily observed even from the pontoon. The uniqueness of the reef was indicated by the fact that every day many pleasure boats sailed there with divers and snorkelers from other hotels. I will say more: the Ras Mohammed reserve after the Melia Sinai beach was not very impressive. That is, there are still much more fish in the reserve, but the corals themselves are no better.
Weather: the sea is warm, the water is +23…+24С. The air for the first three days was about +26C. Many probably already know that on the night of January 17-18.2010 on the Sinai Peninsula for the first time in the last 13 years (some say 16 years) there was a heavy downpour with a thunderstorm. So I had a chance to experience it in my own skin. It is clear that most of the hotels in Sharm were built in the late 90s, early 2000s, so their walls and roofs have never seen rain. Of course, thanks to the builders that at least the roof did not leak in the rooms, but the floor was completely flooded with water (the room was on the second floor), and all because water was pouring from the balcony and from the common corridor under the doors. In general, all night in the room I had to spank through the puddles. The cleaner came the next day and cleaned everything up.


The hotel itself suffered much more - in the reception hall everything was flooded with water, buckets were everywhere, because the roof was leaking everywhere, the main restaurant was closed altogether, the phanar bar was also completely flooded with water.
The area near the entrance barrier (around the flower bed) was flooded with water almost knee-deep, the guards walked barefoot and with their pants rolled up. However, the hotel came out of this situation with honor - all meals were transferred to the a-la-kart Sirt restaurant and there were no interruptions with breakfasts and dinners. All the puddles were wiped out, the water was pumped out, the pools were cleaned - after a couple of days nothing reminded of the flood.

Almost all night there was no electricity, and for about 1.5 days there was no mobile and regular telephone communication. That is, there is virtually no connection at all - the hotel was cut off from the outside world; TV, Internet - all this also did not work. The only thing that worked in the room was the duty lamp in the bathroom and a couple of sockets - because the hotel had started a diesel generator. I don't know what happened in other hotels that are simpler and cheaper.

They say that even the roof at Sharma Airport collapsed and one of the terminals was closed, but I don’t know how true it is.
On the day of my flight, everything was perfect there.

Animation: there is yoga, aerobics, Latin dances, Arabic lessons, in the evenings - karaoke, fakir shows, oriental dances, a saxophonist and an aunt pianist. For children - there is also something, but not much. There is a great fitness club for free. Sauna and bath - for a fee.

Excursions: if you take in Naama Bay or the Old City, it turns out much cheaper than the tour operator. But do not buy at all on the street - see that it was just a tour agency in a separate room, so that it looked more or less solid.


Compare prices: the tour operator Israel for 1 day costs 180 USD. e. , in Naama Bay - 90 c. u. e. ; from the tour operator Jordan for 1 day - 265 c. u. e, in Naama Bay - 220 c. u. e. ; Monastery of St. Catherine from the operator - 40 c. u. e. , here - 30 c. u. e. At the same time, the program of excursions is almost the same for everyone. Because of the rain, our trip to the monastery and to Israel, on the trail, fell through.
day we went to Naama Bay and we immediately returned the money without any conversation.

But there is a downside - the neighbors opposite went to Cairo for 1 day by bus, because of the rain they stayed there for 3 days and returned by plane. They took a tour from a tour operator. If they bought from a regular travel agency in Naama Bay, it's unlikely that a regular travel agency would have forked out for a plane and a hotel in Cairo. But this is a force majeure, I repeat that this is the first downpour in the last 16 years, so you are unlikely to be lucky enough to see rain in the desert!

Guests: there are quite a lot of Russians, but if they didn’t smoke like steam locomotives and didn’t swear, then this didn’t irritate. But when they started swearing in front of the children, it really got on my nerves. There are several Russian-speaking girls at the reception, but they are not always there, so learn English. Otherwise, you may have such a dialogue that I overheard at the reception:

Guest to the porter:
My toilet lid broke!
The receptionist did not quite understand, because he does not speak Russian very well and asks:
- Do you have any problem?
Resident:
- Yes, I don’t have any problems, but I can pee standing up, but my daughter can’t.
The receptionist did not seem to understand what was the matter, but wrote down the room number and promised to quickly send a plumber.