not all that glitters is gold

Written: 19 november 2009
Travel time: 5 — 16 november 2009
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For a relaxing holiday; For families with children
Your rating of this hotel:
5.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 10.0
Service: 8.0
Cleanliness: 8.0
Food: 7.0
Amenities: 7.0
Hotel: The territory of the hotel is small, but cozy. Description and photos on the websites of tour operators correspond. According to the staff, the hotel will be expanded at the expense of the surrounding area, where preparatory work is currently underway. The hotel itself is still being put in order, while we were painting the paths around the pools and laying an irrigation system on the lawns, finishing work was also carried out in two cottages. In principle, it did not bother, except for the smell of paint for a couple of days.
There are 3 pools in total: 2 adults 165 cm each and 1 children's 65 cm deep. One of the adult pools has a volleyball net and balls are given out to play in the water.
The playground consists of a small corner with two swings and one hanging track.

Also on site there is a massage parlor, where the guys do different types of massage: from acupressure to hardware. Depending on the type of massage and its cost, the guys working there are sociable, so they will show and tell everything. We were satisfied with the massage.
Number: We got a large room on the ground floor overlooking the pools. There is a terrace with access to the hotel and swimming pools.
The bathroom is equipped with a shower, washbasin and hairdryer. Plumbing worked well, there were no interruptions in water supply.
The room has air conditioning, a refrigerator (empty), a TV (from Russian it shows only 1 channel - satellite RTR), two beds pushed together into a double bed, and a sofa for watching TV. The safe in the room is free, although the information on the tour operator's website is the opposite.
Beach: Walk to the beach at a calm pace no more than 10 minutes. There is a bus from the hotel to the beach, but this is for the lazy, and we have never used it (the timetable for its movement is displayed at the reception). The beach itself is sandy, equipped with sun loungers with mattresses, you need to bring towels from the hotel. Umbrellas on the beach are low, mostly made of palm leaves, do not fold, which is not very convenient. Several hotels use the beach, so if you arrive later, you may not get a sun lounger with a mattress.
The entrance to the sea is also sandy, but you need to go decently to the depth. The coral reef is small and there are few fish. On the beach, they offer to ride a yacht, catamaran, windsurfing, etc. , you can ride them to more picturesque places, naturally for $.
Also on the beach there is a bar, where, accordingly, everything is also for bucks.

Meals: There is only one restaurant on the territory of the hotel, perhaps we are picky people, but on the third day we were tired of this monotonous food, moreover, both were poisoned, which we did not understand. The choice of dishes is monotonous from day to day, and at the same time, often, for example, potatoes were frankly undercooked. Well, this, of course, is only our subjective opinion, and many, perhaps, were quite satisfied with the food. Of the pluses in nutrition is that there have always been very tasty pastries: buns, cakes and the presence of fruits.
They gave sliced ​ ​ melon, apples, oranges, grapes and guava. A separate theme is the parties held on the restaurant terrace every three days instead of dinner. These days they cook fried chicken and fish, but the problem in this case is not what is cooked, but how it is served. We have been to three of these parties, and all three times the dinner started with a huge line for food distribution, which led to a certain bewilderment, which speaks of a problem that the hotel management is not trying to solve. Although with patience you can wait an hour and have dinner without crowding.
Food and drinks can be easily taken to the room. The 24-hour bar and the pool bar have coffee machines where you can drink acceptable espresso and cappuccino. Also, in all bars, alcoholic and soft drinks are unlimited. Water can be drawn into a bottle from three coolers located in the restaurant and bars.
Entertainment: Well, as all previous reviews have already written, there is almost no entertainment. All three parties have approximately the same program, which consists of numbers with belly dances and the national dance of men in skirts. It's interesting to watch once, but the second and third....
In one of the bars (which works only in the evening) there is a billiard table, but it is one and it is clear that there are enough people who want to play. Also in this bar you can smoke a hookah for three bucks. A disco in a bar is cool only with a good company, but this time we didn’t work out with acquaintances, so we didn’t insert it at the disco, we preferred to just take a walk or sit in the bar with a glass of alcohol.
Service: The service at the hotel is excellent, the waiters, cleaners and the guys at the reception are very friendly and helpful, although this is a feature of the entire Egyptian people, any Bedouin will always say hello and will be ready to talk, which is not a hallmark of Russians, including us.

True, when leaving the hotel, and we left at four in the morning, for some unknown reason, we were billed at the reception for thirty bucks, supposedly for lost or damaged towels, we could not understand, because at the reception they suddenly began to speak very badly -Russian and could only say that you need to pay this bill. Since we had towels all the time in stock and in good condition, then, of course, we refused to pay. When a bus with a guide from the tour operator arrived to be sent to the airport, he also joined the showdown, and while we were sorting things out, the bus was delayed for half an hour, in the end we were left behind, because at night they could not show anything, although they were very stubborn somewhere called on the phone and found out where these accounts came from. Thus, the overall impression at the end of the holiday "wetted".
Souvenirs: Gifts can be bought near the hotel, where all kinds of pyramids, figurines, key chains, masks, flippers and other trifles are sold. Shops are located both on the right and on the left side of the hotel. The Arabs in these shops trade well and with passion, the price can be decently reduced, of course, it all depends on the quantity of goods bought from him. But in Naama Bay, they are less willing to bargain, since the influx of tourists is much larger there (tourists are brought there from all hotels), but the choice of goods is also larger. In Naama Bay, the bus from the hotel runs twice every evening for free.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original