"Very mixed stay – look beyond the glowing reviews before booking
We stayed at Sindbad Club for 8 nights in September. There were definitely positives, some lovely hardworking staff and we made brilliant memories in Egypt, but as an all-inclusive hotel experience it was considerably below what we’d expected from the overwhelmingly positive reviews.
My biggest advice before booking Sindbad is simple: don’t just look at the overall rating – actually read what many of the 5-star reviews are reviewing.
The reviews / housekeeping
During our stay I started noticing a strange and very repetitive pattern in recent 5-star reviews. Many focused almost entirely on housekeeping – things like “Room XXXX very clean”, naming individual cleaners, photographs of towel decorations/freshly made beds, or guests posing with members of the cleaning team.
Obviously good housekeeping deserves recognition, but personally I consider having your room cleaned a basic expectation of a 4/5-star all-inclusive. It doesn’t tell me whether the overall holiday experience deserves five stars. I want reviews to tell me about the food, drinks, pools, rooms, maintenance, service, entertainment and atmosphere.
This became particularly relevant because we were personally approached by staff during our stay and encouraged to leave a 5-star Google review.
On one occasion we were asked whether we spoke English, encouraged to scan a QR code taking us to Google reviews, and then encouraged to select five stars and submit the review while the staff member was present. When I explained that I only review a hotel after completing my holiday, I was told I could submit it now and edit it later.
I declined.
To be absolutely clear, I’m not claiming these reviews are fake. I have no evidence of that and they may be genuine guests giving genuine praise. I’m simply explaining what we personally experienced, because I think it’s important context when interpreting the exceptionally positive rating.
Even during our final days I continued seeing new 5-star reviews mainly mentioning room numbers, cleaners and cleanliness.
Ironically, our own housekeeping didn’t particularly impress us. On one occasion we returned to no bath towels or hand towels. A sticky cup ring remained on our bedside table after the room had been serviced, and toothpaste marks I’d left on the bathroom mirror that morning were still there afterwards.
Nothing catastrophic, but our impression was a quick daily tidy rather than an exceptionally thorough clean. We’ve stayed at other all-inclusives where you can clearly see mirrors, tables and surfaces have been properly wiped.
Petrol/chemical smell and changing rooms
Our holiday unfortunately started badly.
Our original room had an extremely strong petrol/chemical-type smell, particularly around the bathroom. Staff sprayed fragrance/air freshener into the room/vent and maintenance suggested the smell was coming from within the walls.
We were initially told about potentially changing rooms the following morning. We weren’t prepared to sleep in there, so returned to reception with our luggage and eventually got moved that night.
The second room thankfully didn’t smell, but faced the road and was extremely noisy. After travelling all day, we eventually got to sleep at around 3am.
To Sindbad’s credit, the following day we were moved again into a much nicer pool-view room, which was far more in line with what we’d booked, and we were happy with that room for the rest of the stay.
Interestingly, later in the holiday we met two couples from Sindbad on an excursion who had stayed at the hotel before. They independently told us that one of their rooms had also developed a petrol smell one night, although they said theirs disappeared the following day.
Obviously we cannot know whether it had the same cause, but hearing another guest independently describe something so similar reassured us that what we’d experienced wasn’t something we’d imagined.
Relaxing around the pool – or trying to!
This was probably our biggest recurring frustration.
We choose an all-inclusive partly because we want to switch off, sunbathe and be left alone. At Sindbad we were repeatedly approached around the pool by people selling excursions, spa treatments and other paid extras.
This wasn’t somebody mentioning an excursion once. On one morning we counted roughly 4–6 approaches. Even on our final morning, within approximately an hour we’d already been approached separately about excursions and spa treatments.
Yet during that same hour nobody had approached us to offer a drink, so I eventually walked to the bar myself for a pineapple juice.
That pretty much summed up our frustration: at times it felt like there was more attention available for selling additional services than providing the all-inclusive service we’d already paid for.
There’s nothing wrong with offering extras. Once is useful. But repeatedly interrupting guests who are lying around the pool trying to relax becomes tiring.
Some people may genuinely love this atmosphere. If you enjoy lots happening, regular interaction with staff, activities and being offered different experiences, Sindbad may suit you brilliantly.
For us, compared with other all-inclusives we’ve stayed at, it felt far too stimulating to completely switch off.
Food
Food was mixed.
The main buffet was okay but wasn’t particularly memorable for us compared with other all-inclusive resorts we’ve visited.
The Asian and Italian à la carte restaurants were easily our best food experiences at Sindbad. Food was brought to the table from a set menu, drinks were regularly offered and topped up, and the whole experience felt more relaxed and attentive.
If you’re staying here, I’d definitely recommend using the à la cartes.
Egyptian belly
Unfortunately, both of us suffered from Egyptian belly during the holiday, and mine became bad enough at one point that I felt extremely weak and dizzy. It affected several days of what was supposed to be our relaxing holiday.
I want to be completely fair here: I cannot say Sindbad’s food caused this. Travellers’ diarrhoea can have many causes, we went on excursions outside the resort and it would be unfair to attribute it to a particular hotel or meal without evidence.
What I did find interesting was that the two couples we met from Sindbad said all four of them had also been suffering from stomach problems. They seemed quite accustomed to taking tablets and carrying on. We also noticed various online reviews mentioning Egyptian belly, Antinal and trips to pharmacies.
Again, that doesn’t establish a cause. I’m mentioning it because it’s something I personally would have wanted to know when researching the holiday.
Spending part of an all-inclusive holiday worrying about the location of the nearest toilet wasn’t exactly the relaxation we’d imagined!
A useful pharmacy tip
This is obviously not Sindbad Club’s fault, but hopefully it helps another tourist staying in the area.
When I became ill I visited a nearby pharmacy and paid around 950 EGP for Antinal, electrolyte sachets and other stomach medication. Some medication was supplied as individual strips rather than complete boxes.
Later in the holiday I went further down the road to Cure Pharmacy, asked for every price before buying, and got a full box of Antinal for around 100 EGP, plus cold & flu medication and another packaged medicine, with the whole purchase costing roughly £5.
So my advice is simple: ask the price of everything before anything is opened and agree the total first.
Brown tap water
Another unpleasant issue was the bathroom water.
On multiple mornings, when we first turned on the taps, the water came out dark brown for several seconds before eventually running clear.
I don’t know whether this was sediment, plumbing or something else, so I won’t speculate about the cause. But whatever the explanation, seeing brown water come from your bathroom taps isn’t pleasant.
We stuck to bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth.
Staff and service
I don’t want this review to give the impression that everybody working at Sindbad was bad, because that absolutely wasn’t our experience.
We met plenty of friendly, hardworking staff members and had some genuinely nice interactions. Once our room situation was resolved, our pool-view room was pleasant and we enjoyed the pool areas.
Service around the pool could be inconsistent, though. Sometimes we’d receive an initial drink and then not see anyone for quite some time, which became particularly noticeable when the people selling paid extras seemed considerably more persistent.
Late checkout
We had a late flight and paid €25 to keep our room until 5pm. We thought this was worthwhile because we could enjoy our final day and then shower and change properly before leaving.
There were definitely positives
This wasn’t eight days of misery.
The hotel has enjoyable pools and facilities, we liked our eventual pool-view room, the Asian and Italian restaurants were good and we met plenty of lovely staff.
And Egypt itself gave us some incredible memories. We visited Cairo, the Pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Nile, went quad biking and rode camels in the desert, and finished our holiday snorkelling in the Red Sea.
Those experiences were fantastic and we’ll remember them for years.
Overall
Sindbad Club isn’t a terrible hotel, and I can understand why some people absolutely love it. But our experience simply didn’t match the overwhelmingly positive impression we’d got from the ratings before booking.
The combination of the petrol/chemical room issue, repeated sales approaches, inconsistent poolside service, fairly basic housekeeping, brown tap water and being encouraged to submit 5-star reviews made the hotel considerably less relaxing than other all-inclusive resorts we’ve stayed at.
My biggest advice remains: look beyond the overall rating and actually read what the reviews are reviewing.
A 5-star review primarily saying that a particular room was clean doesn’t necessarily tell you what the overall resort experience will be like.
Again, I’m not alleging those reviews are fake. I’m simply sharing the pattern we personally observed alongside our own experience of being encouraged to leave five stars during the holiday.
If you want a busy, lively resort with lots happening and plenty of staff interaction, Sindbad may be exactly what you’re looking for.
If, like us, your idea of an all-inclusive is somewhere you can switch off, sunbathe, have a drink brought over occasionally and largely be left alone, I’d seriously consider whether the atmosphere is right for you.
We came home with some amazing memories of Egypt, but as an all-inclusive hotel experience, Sindbad Club was very mixed for us."
