Невзирая ни на что, отпуском и поездкой мы остались довольны Despite everything, we were satisfied with the vacation and the trip.

Before writing a review, I want to note right away that we are not seasoned tourists (this is our second trip to hot countries on vacation, before that we were in Turkey in 2017), so I am writing a review as it is, based on my personal and personal feelings and impressions loved ones.

1. Period: rested in this hotel from 10.08. to 18.08. 2019; tour operator (travel agency) "ANEX Tour";

2. Road: the flight was carried out from Boryspil airport, the Azur Air carrier company (Boeing 767-300er aircraft), the plane is very good (it can be seen that it is new), clean, there is a lot of space, the staff is friendly, they tried to please everyone, although we almost flew 300 people flew at 3:48 to Sharm el-Sheikh (back at 3:53), I personally am very afraid to fly, but everything went well on this plane, probably because of the size? ;

3.

Arrival: we arrived at about 21:00, when we got on the plane’s gangway we were shocked by the heat, there was no sun, but it hovered like during the day at 30 degree heat, I also jokingly blurted out to my wife that this was evaporation from the aircraft’s turbine, but when we went down from the gangway to the bus realized that the hell is there from the turbine, it’s really hard to breathe, my wife was in a panic because it was hard to breathe (but the next morning everything fell into place, it became easier); then they drove us to the airport terminal, at the check-in counters we found our tour operator, we received cards there for all family members that had to be filled out in English (there is nothing complicated, you fill everything out from your passport, the only thing you need to remember, write two words on the back of the card " Sinai only", an example in the attachment), you then hand over these cards to the border guards, as we explained they are needed in order to give them guarantees that you will not leave the zone where a visa is not needed, the staff offer to fill out these cards for you, but they will ask for it from 5 to 10$; further, all procedures are standard: passport control, stamp in the passport, metal detector and x-ray for bags, etc.
. d. ; then go to the main entrance, where a travel agency employee will point you to the bus;

4. Check-in: they brought us to the hotel around 23:30.4 couples arrived with us, we were the last to check in, the guy at the reception just wanted us to give him a “tea”, offered some kind of superfood room, but we stood our ground and as a result got a wonderful standard room near the far pool and completely free of charge (our room was 515); then the porter ... , you can write a lot about this person, I’ll say right away, if you want him to leave you behind, give him $ 1 right away, he won’t unhook from you anyway, the one who carried our bags and escorted us to the room, in general, I said that $1 is not enough, but after I told him that he might not get anything at all, he agreed to $1; then some uncle came running and offered us a bottle of 1.
5 liters of water for $ 1 (by the way, we bought water, because we were with a child, there is nowhere to get water, but believe me I want to drink very much, later I saw such water in the store, and for $ 1 you could buy 3 and a half? ); they even brought us a late dinner (buns, boiled sausage, hard cheese, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, I’ll tell you right away it’s impossible to eat sausage, it’s just rubber, everything else is edible); at the reception you are given a key to the room and cards for towels;

5.

Room: the rooms are very spacious, there is everything you need, we had two “one and a half” beds and one attached, like a folding bed for a child, a huge wardrobe, a dressing table, a large mirror, a table, chairs, a small refrigerator (very handy), the bathroom is spacious, there is a hairdryer, there was even a safe, but no matter how much I asked for the key to the safe, no one gave it to me, although the safe comes as a free option; the same about the rooms, in this hotel they are all standard, the only difference is that the room can be on the first or second floor and the quality of the noise (the rooms that are near the far pool are quieter, and those near the children's there are music from 9:00 until 23:00), + on the ground floor there is a possibility of access to the courtyard through the terrace, but if you go somewhere for a long time, one of you will still have to close the balcony and the room.

6.
The territory of the hotel: the territory is large, everything is landscaped with artificial lawns, many palm trees, various bushes and flowers, opposite the children's pool, there is a building behind which very beautiful and lush bushes with multi-colored flowers grow (there are simply gorgeous photos, arranged with my wife and daughter there photoshoot, they are very happy); there are essentially three pools: for children with small slides, the nearest one is deep (max. 2.30m) and the farthest one with a gradual increase in depth, the pools are open from 7:00 to 18:00, after which they were closed for cleaning and chlorination (by the way, I never I saw this, they were chlorinated by a person who collected bleach from a large bucket with a small bucket and poured it into the pools, it’s not clear how he measured the amount of bleach, one day the pools smelled straight bleach, and on other days everything was OK);

7.
Cuisine: for me, this issue has always been and remains one of the most important when choosing a hotel (if I go hungry, then my vacation is already ruined a priori)! I must say right away that we didn’t go hungry, on the contrary, we can say “overeat”, so for those who are worried about this issue, I can say: be sure here everyone will find something to eat for themselves, both meat-eaters and vegetarians and lovers of sweets; another question, this is a bar, at the bar I took only beer and then once, it was nothing, just alcohol with the taste of beer, and you won’t feel beer because it burns like moonshine, my wife and I drink little and rarely, we took with you 0.

5 whiskeys in luggage and they were quite enough for us for 9 days of rest, so take your favorite drinks with you, but in general there were a lot of “ours” at the bar who quite successfully got drunk there to hell, that’s just what they drank and in what I don't know how many; about the cleanliness in the dining room, I’ll tell you this, some things pretty scared me, some were in the order of the norm, and we just turned a blind eye to some, but I want to say right away that there was no frank dirt, the guys tried to clean everything quickly, while they also had time to joke, they simply did not have enough hands for such a large number of people (P. S. at one of the dinners I counted 117 people in the dining room, and when there were a lot of people and the tables were all occupied, I had to wait in the hall);

eight.
Entertainment: three people from the animation team work in the hotel itself, they try as best they can, but there aren’t enough of them for everyone, although it’s already who they want, we personally didn’t want to participate in any competitions (water polo, darts, etc. ).
), there is a billiard table in the hotel, but it is one and in order to play there you need to wait 2 hours for your turn, there were no discos as such, they played mainly one Arabic music and all the same 3 people from the animation danced to it, however, I won't lie, once or twice a week they invite professional artists, mostly dancers, that was interesting to see; also, among other entertainment, you can order one of the excursions anywhere from your tour operator, but believe me, all these excursions can be found at the lowest prices on the same beach (the quality and safety will also be the same as that of a travel agency), personally my daughter and I went on a motorcycle safari on an ATV, and rode in the same conditions as people who bought this type of entertainment on the street from Arab guides, the only thing I can tell you who wants to can go, we got a lot of impressions (price $ 15 per person), just be sure to bring glasses and a scarf to cover your mouth; our biggest miscalculation, a bummer, was a free tour of the city (which our guide from the tour operator advised us), well, at least they told us so, but in the end we were rolled around the edge of the city in three places: a monument, a mosque, the Hollywood entertainment center, you can’t go anywhere, we took a couple of photos and we were taken to the shops of oils, perfumes and a sweets shop, in short, in a word, no one will force you to buy anything, but we still bought something in the sweets shop, but in the end we found the same the sweets themselves (the same packaging, the same manufacturer) are three times cheaper;
nine.

Beach: and finally, the most important thing is Farsha beach, tourists from all over Sharm el-Sheikh are brought to this beach, this place compensates you for all the shortcomings in the hotel, service, heat and everything else, it is suitable for everyone, children, swimmers and those who swim like an “axe”, the water is very clear, but at the same time salty (you can’t dive without a mask), there is a bridge, diving from which offers a gorgeous view of the coral reef (be sure to take it with you, or buy it here at instead of coral slippers, you will need them not to climb the reefs, this is absolutely impossible, the guards on the beach are watching this, but they are necessary so that if you step on a hedgehog, it will not sting you, during the day they hide under stones and in cracks, but even with us there were cases when people were stung, you won’t die from this, but some tourists had a temperature of under 39, swimming after 18:00 is just not possible because of these marine life) , the beach is more than 3 km away from the hotel, it’s not realistic to go there in the heat, but twice a day there is a bus going there; many write that there is another Hala beach, yes it really is and not far within walking distance (1 km), but it is paid ($ 1 per person) and there are no coral reefs on it;
10. Sharm el-Sheikh: to be honest, we were a little shocked by the fact that half of the city is practically in a dilapidated state (as the Arabs say, this is due to the fact that fewer tourists began to visit them, in particular Russians), the city is dirty, there is a lot of garbage; in short, you don’t really look anywhere, or rather you can walk, but there’s nothing special to look at, and my family and I love to walk around, look at the beautiful; we went to the old and new cities, but there is nothing particularly interesting there except for trade;

eleven.
Prices: for those who will live in this hotel, a big tip is the lowest prices, for almost all goods (masks, corals, water, sweets, covers for underwater filming, fruits, beer), you will find in a store near the hotel (leave with of the hotel and go left to the main street, the one along which you will go to the beach, this street is divided by an island, cross the road and there is a line with 5-7 shops, this is the cheapest shops we found, sweets are cheaper there at 3 -4 times than we bought), believe me, we traveled almost the entire city in 9 days, we have not seen cheaper prices + sellers are really bargaining here; about taxi prices, bargain and bargain again, there are so many taxi drivers here that if not one, then the second will take you where you need and for how much you need, they do not stand still, they are constantly on the move, for example, to Farsha beach from hotel price $1, to the old city - $2, to the new city - $3, to the Hollywood shopping center - $4-5;

12.

Flora and fauna: for those who are interested, everything that grows in Sharm, as they explained to us, is artificial, meaning artificially planted, we personally did not see any spiders, snakes or other frightening inhabitants of the desert, there are a lot of lizards on the territory of the hotel and in the city, but all they are harmless (they run away when they meet a person), there are a lot of crows, pigeons and cats, and geckos appear on the walls at night in the hotel, beauty and only, if anyone is traveling with children, then go to the store indicated above and immediately buy the child a brochure “Marine inhabitants of the Red Sea”, then it is very interesting to look there for those fish that you will see in the sea; a separate question concerns mosquitoes, many wrote that they are ferocious here and just bite, but to be honest, we prepared before the trip, bought a mosquito spray and an electric fumigator, it really helps, although we almost didn’t squirt with a spray;

thirteen.
Service: in general, everything suited us, the only moment, due to the number of people, the cleaners cleaned the rooms at random, repeatedly forgot to put clean towels, or rather there were towels, but one or two, and we lived in a room of 3 people, did not even save the situation the fact that at the beginning, every day we left $ 1 to the cleaner for a tip, the bed for 9 days, we were not changed even once !! ! ; during the period when we were relaxing, there were a lot of Arabs (also tourists) in the hotel and on the beach, in principle there were no problems with them, but their men really like to “stare” at women of Slavic appearance, this was especially noticeable on the beach, they repeatedly noticed that they even filmed them secretly on their phones;

14. Check-out: rooms are evicted before 12:00, you can leave your luggage at the reception and wait for a transfer from the hotel to the airport; We had two unpleasant moments connected with the eviction: 1.
After we handed over the key to the room, they immediately cut off the tags (those that cling to the hand), while they said that we can use everything on the territory of the hotel, I asked for the beach, can we go to the beach, we were told that yes, but in fact, when we arrived at the beach, the guard did not want to let us in without tags, we had to swear (to prove that we were from this hotel) and 2.

We were supposed to be picked up from the hotel at 19:15, that is, we still got dinner, but what was our surprise when we went into the dining room and almost got our portions to eat, when the manager flew in and asked us to leave, so as according to the rules of the hotel, dinner was no longer included in the price of the tour, we of course expressed our dissatisfaction with this situation, since we were with a child and the last time we all ate at 13:30, it turns out that we were left without dinner, but the whole problem of this situation is not that we were left hungry, but that the travel agency that sold us tickets did not warn us that dinner was not included in the price, if we had been told about this when buying a ticket, we would have taken a flight earlier (there was still a plane at 17:50) or would have abandoned the last day altogether.
It is worth noting, however, that later the manager and the guy from the reception approached us and asked for food in order to smooth out the conflict, but the situation itself is not pleasant (we refused dinner). I just can’t understand, is it really such a cost for a hotel if their guests eat before departure, and indeed if people fly away on a late flight, then add dinner to the cost of this tour.

Wish to the hotel: guys, you have a cool territory, a good place and beautiful architecture (we especially liked the design of the dining room), but everything is in some kind of gloomy, neglected form (garbage, peeling walls, dirt in the rooms) pay attention to this, hire more people or reduce the number of rooms in order to keep up with everything. Hope everything will be ok!

Conclusions: in spite of everything, we were satisfied with the vacation and the trip. As for the hotel - here is a solid 3! In this description, I expressed only my opinion and the opinion of my family!
Thank you all for your attention!