Прекрасный отдых! Great vacation!

Hello travelers! Recently returned with my husband from our beloved Sharm El Sheikh, rested at the Club El Faraana Reef from September 18 to September 28.2011. We would like to share our fresh impressions with you.
The impression about the hotel was very positive. We are satisfied with the holiday.
We flew from Transaero from Domodedovo (Boeing 747) - the flight was delayed for 45 minutes, justifying this by the fact that there was a wheel replacement.
Airport transfer is fast. The guide from S7 was silent and lazy, so we don’t even know his name. We were brought to the hotel at 11.30 am Egyptian time. They settled right away - they didn’t give money at the reception, no one asked for them. Got a nice room on the second floor overlooking the bar and pool.

HOTEL - keeps the brand! Clear work of all services, everything on time and as expected. The staff is friendly, without rudeness and familiarity, the work of managers is felt, everyone tries to speak and greet you in Russian, we have not seen dissatisfied and dismissive expressions even once in 11 days.
ROOM - standard, inside an outdated hotel fund. The area of ​ ​ the room is quite large, approximately 25 sq. m. At the entrance there is a tall wardrobe and a safe hidden inside. The floor is tile. Two beds pushed together to form one huge bed.
The AC worked decently, although it was a little noisy. Slept at 26.5 C - quite normal. The room has a dressing table with a mirror and 2 easy chairs. The style of minimalism was expressed in the absence of bedside tables. A very cramped shower and the presence of only two hooks for towels caused inconvenience at first, but then they stopped paying attention to it. The hair dryer is very old, wall-mounted, but quite adequate - in working order.
The TV showed 2 of our channels - ORT and RTR. Larisa Guzeeva in the program "Let's Get Married" and got it in Egypt!
The minibar was in the refrigerator, but we did not touch it - in the supermarket it is 2 times cheaper, and the bar is nearby!
Towels were changed and cleaned daily, left every other day for a dollar.
Our cleaner was a very honest man. Before leaving, I forgot my wedding ring (made of white gold) in the room - he found it and brought it to the reception. I miraculously remembered my forgetfulness at breakfast just before leaving for Moscow. She ran to look for her missing. I found out that they carried her to the reception, and there I already safely received my ring safe and sound. Too bad we didn't have time to thank him.
SEA - wonderful, beautiful, calm. A very big advantage is the location of the hotel - it is a bay, there are no currents and waves, if there are, then they are small. I must say right away that the path to the sea lay through 105 steps. Yes, not everyone can do it - but what a charge!
There are no showers and changing rooms on the sea. Wrap yourself in towels and change your clothes! Italian women sunbathe topless, so don't be shy.
The shower and toilet are located at a height parallel to the Grill bar - 50 steps.

Bring an underwater camera or box for a normal one. Learn and snorkel - and enjoy! Coral reef beauty indescribable! My husband and I have a lot of underwater photos, so we did not buy a box, but how I regret this...
If you swim to the left - towards the Reef Oasis 5 * hotel - all the beauties of the Red Sea immediately open before you: multi-colored corals - fiery (red and white), and lilac, and bright blue, and there are also many shells. There are just a lot of fish, and they all stand in schools - the “sergeants” swim towards you, greeting you, a flock of reef perches with big eyes just hangs in the water. The surgeon fish curls around the algae-covered cable. If you grab onto him, she rushes at you, making her little muzzle menacing. Rays (blue-spotted stingrays) on the sand in the depths of the sea were seen every day. They burrow into the sand, leaving only their eyes and tail. We saw a huge moray eel and an octopus, a lionfish and a whole flock of flute fish (similar to a “needle”). My favorite Picasso Triggers live there - good-natured handsome men. And we also managed to watch the games of long-spined hedgehog fish (they are so large brown spotted, and their eyes are large - like hearts) - there were 3 individuals and they all swam one after the other.
Thousands of fry rush at you - you stretch your hands forward - and they scatter in front of you in different directions. This has only been seen on TV before. I don’t even count colorful butterfly fish, angels, zebros, wrasses, kaboobs and clowns hiding in anemones - they live there. We saw another huge tuna about 1.2 meters long and a flock of medium ones - 60 centimeters each.
But be careful: go into the water only in special shoes, as sea urchins are already found about 5 meters near the shore, and they live on corals, and of different types - both short needles and long ones. The water near the shore was just boiling water. Where it is shallow, it is cloudy, but this is not due to the presence of sand. Apparently, this effect comes from the difference in the temperature layers of water.

FOOD - in general, everything is edible and even very tasty. The staff and chefs try to diversify the range of dishes. You won't be left hungry. If you do not want to go to the main restaurant for lunch every day, sign up at the reception in the Grill restaurant in the evening.
For breakfast there were scrambled eggs, sausages, sausage, cheese, scrambled eggs, pancakes, yogurt, vegetables, various pastries. Tea and coffee with milk and diluted juices.
For lunch, vegetable soups, grilled chicken, fish, meat, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplants, a lot of sweet pastries, various salads were given.
For dinner, fish, chicken, Caesar salad (tried to do), fish carpaccio, beef, vegetables, sweet pastries. For dessert - oranges, green melons, figs, guava, dates
The fish is very tasty. All vegetables are edible and fairly fresh. Not enough fruit, that's for sure.
ANIMATION - tuned for Italians - during the day - a game of volleyball, darts, water aerobics in the sea, gymnastics on mats in the sand and learning dances (Salsa and Bachata).
We went to the evening animation only 2 times. The first time we sat through to the end with difficulty. There was a performance by local Egyptians in our "Ryazan sarafans". Teams of men and women danced unpretentious dances. The costumes of the female half were far from oriental outfits.
Our second attempt to go to the animation turned out to be more successful - we watched 4 dances - 4 women and a man - the costumes and they were worthy and they danced well. Something reminded me of the program "Dancing with the Stars" - the performance was from the same series. We never got to the disco, but judging by the stories, there were very few people there.
The territory of the hotel is paved with stone, so walking in heels is not easy - take comfortable shoes with you.
Evenings my husband and I spent outside the hotel - then at 1000 and One night we'll go, then we'll go to the Old Market, then we'll wave to Naama.
We took a taxi (for 15 pounds) to the Old Market. We had dinner at the Fares restaurant (3 times) - very tasty and cheap - we recommend. It is popular not only with tourists but also with locals.

The composition of the tourists of our hotel was international: Russians, Italians, Poles and Egyptians. The animation is set for Italians, but there is no discrimination based on nationality in the hotel. Everyone is poured equally and the food is put in equal amounts for everyone. I would also like to add that the alcohol in the bar is diluted, although they are poured from bottles, but even for a local producer it is rather weak. For those who like to "break away" - buy duty free.
Flight back from transaero. It was the most painful flight of my life. The flight was delayed by 10.5 hours. We were supposed to take off at 11 am. But everyone postponed our flight. At 14.30 they reported that the flight was delayed until the evening until 20.30. The worst thing is that the plane is huge (Boeing 747) and there are a lot of passenger seats. We were told that we could not fly on the arrived plane for technical reasons, we would be waiting for a new one from Moscow. A whole crowd of tourists was taken back through passport control - again we were given stamps, luggage was given back to everyone. 6 buses were organized. We were taken to the nearest hotel. Everyone ate there. But accommodation was such a mess. 400 people who need to fill out questionnaires, then they still make copies of their passports, and only then they give the coveted key to the room. In general, as a result, we received a number in the last rows. I started taking a bath. An electrician came here and began to make an electrical panel, in which it was necessary to put a magnetic key. Through the open door, we saw that our tourists were already running to the buses. After drying our hair with a good hair dryer in a quick way, we rushed after them, dragging heavy suitcases filled with mangoes.
Despite the fact that we ended up in the last three buses, we were brought to the airport 3 hours before departure. And then there was an hour and a half delay. As a result, when our flight was announced, half of the waiting room actually got up from their seats and shouted: Hurray!!!
We arrived at home at 3.24 am Moscow time, instead of the planned 18.30. All the passengers were like zombies. Especially "lucky" for those tourists who have to go to work the next day.
Apart from some unpleasant moments associated with the flight, we are satisfied with the rest. The main thing is not to lose hope and be positive. Draw your own conclusions. Have a nice holiday everyone! Good luck!