"It was the photograph of the Pickalbatros Citadel Resort and its marina that made us think about booking this hotel for our March holiday. It looked absolutely stunning, and it didn’t disappoint.
Built in the style of a fortified city, as the name would suggest, it’s a huge resort, so if you like walking, you’ll love it. But if you don’t, there are golf buggies and a regular minibus service to whisk you around the site.
Everything seems to be on a huge scale, and this included our standard double room. As well as a massive bedroom and ample bathroom, there was a hallway for suitcase storage and then some, and a walk-in wardrobe with free-to-use safe. The room was serviced daily, with clean towels, and toiletries, water, soft drinks and coffee all replenished.
The weather was great while we were there early March. Daytimes were always sunny and around 23-25 degrees with a refreshing breeze. But like other reviewers had pointed out, it was cool in the evenings and very windy.
There were plenty of places to eat, and we enjoyed the food. However, as someone who doesn’t eat meat, I wasn’t spoiled for choice but there was always something.
Most days we ate breakfast at the restaurant in the food court around the marina, as there was outside seating with sea/lagoon views (it becomes an Italian buffet at night). However, the other breakfast buffet restaurant upstairs seemed to offer a better selection, and was bigger, so the queue for eggs wasn’t quite so fraught! It didn’t offer such good views though, and the outside section was too under cover for us.
We ate lunch around the marina for the same reasons, although the white-eyed gulls could be a bit of an issue if a plate of food was left unattended for too long.
For dinner, we tried the main buffet restaurant, the Asian buffet (which has both Indian and Chinese-inspired dishes), the Italian buffet and the Rocks Lounge à la carte restaurant, which is the only restaurant that requires a booking. We went back to the Asian and Italian, and one evening had a pizza from the lovely, friendly pizza man on the marina. Such a good idea. And you can get a pizza until about midnight.
My only gripe with the restaurants was the labelling of food. Some dishes looked like they contained meat but I wasn’t sure. I did ask, but it was lost in translation. Maybe a vegetarian section would be a good idea. I also thought the salad section was lacking when compared to other trips to Egypt, when there’s always been tabouleh, bulgur wheat, lentil salads etc. Really enjoyed the koshari (rice and lentil dish), and would have happily eaten that every day.
We were also surprised by the lack of choice when it came to alcoholic drinks. Reviewers had said that there were only two cocktails but I thought that surely they would be able to make my beloved Negroni, as any bar worth its salt would have the ingredients. Sadly, it was not to be.
The wine and beer were very drinkable though, and we tried both the cocktails, pina colada and mojito, and both were good. There’s not really a proper bar as such, which we missed, with the indoor bars both being more café in style. That said, they did great coffee and cakes, so it’s not all bad!
There were three pool areas, with only one being loud, and a long stretch of beach with plenty of sun loungers and a couple of beach bars. We chose to spend our days at the lagoon where there were private sections with wind breaks, a table, four padded sun loungers and a padded sun chair with foot stool. They’ve really given thought to client comfort here. The sun chair was just lovely for sitting in and reading or just gazing over the lagoon to the luxury yachts moored in the marina.
The marina itself is a beautiful spot to sit with a drink (not a Negroni, though) or an ice cream (served 12pm-5pm, or all day in Starbucks if you want to pay) and watch the world go by. There’s tons of seating, so I don’t ever think you’d struggle to find a spot.
Every member of staff we met was friendly and welcoming and couldn’t do enough for us. In fact, they wouldn’t let us do a thing for ourselves, so a big thank-you to all of them. Must mention Hossam, who served us drinks at the lagoon, and lifeguard Yousef, who insisted on changing our towels for us and just being generally helpful (pool towels are available from several huts dotted around the resort).
Even with no Negronis, I have recommended this place to friends, and it’s definitely somewhere we would go back to!"
