"We stayed here in Oct/Nov 25 for 11 nights (family with 2 teenage boys)
Location
The hotel is situated approx 30 mins from Hurghada. It is easy to book a taxi to take you to there if you wish. I recommend using the hotels service which is approx 30 euros return and includes the driver waiting 2-3 hours for you. Just outside the back of the hotel is a pedestrianised promenade which connects several hotels to Sahl Hasheesh old town. It is too far to walk its length but you can hire a golf buggy for about £20 for 1.5 hrs which is plenty to go explore. At night you can go for a little walk in either direction, there's a few shops next to the hotel next door and its a pleasant stroll next to the beach and is mainly lit up.
Atmosphere and service
The hotel has a friendly vibe. There is a mix of different nationalities and even though we went in the UK October half term not that many younger children. The hotel was at full capacity when we went but it never felt crowded. There was plenty of sunbeds which were nicely spaced both around the pool and on the beach and we never waited for a table at meal times. The lifeguards are amazing (shout out to Kareem especially). They see you coming in a morning and will get your towels and set out beds and parasols where you want them. Nothing is too much trouble for them they are very helpful and even if you come down to the beach or pool later they will go search for loungers etc for you. They are attentive and do their job well both at the jetty and pool, working hard to keep everyone safe. Kareem often picked us flowers to put on our table which was a lovely touch.
All the staff are friendly and welcoming. Nothing is too much trouble for anyone. Dalia from guest services often frequents the pool area, checking in on guests and asking how she can help make their stay even better. (We found everything perfect so couldn't ask for anything!) It was lively though just having a chat with her and she gave us lots of helpful hints and tips. She invited us to the Managers party one evening where we enjoyed sampling all the lovely cocktails and chatting to staff.
Cleanliness
The hotel is kept spotlessly clean. There are gardeners, decorators, maintenance all over the hotel keeping it looking amazing. The gardens are so pretty and are kept in tip top condition. Shout out here to Abrahim who works so hard keeping the toilets near the pool and the paths swept and mopped everyday. He was usually the first person I saw each morning and always greeted me with a warm smile.
Rooms
We booked 2 sea view rooms and did request interconnecting rooms which unfortunately we were not given. We had rooms on the 4th floor (4129 and 4104) which were actually quite far apart. We did request to move but unfortunately this wasn't possible and meant my husband had to stay in one room with one of our sons and myself in the other with our other son. Not ideal but we managed and used wattsapp to communicate between us.
The rooms themselves were adequate. Clean, generously sized and equipped with a fridge, tea and coffee making facilities, hair dryer etc. Bonus was that all toileties were included such as shampoo, conditioner, shaving gel, razors, shower cap, loofer, hand soap and more. These were replaced as needed. You also got big bottles of water, pepsi and 7up.
Housekeeping were fabulous. We has Hassain and someone else (cant rem who) nut we got some amazing towel art and Hassain brought us extra towels, pillows etc when we needed them.
Food
Main dining room - We found the food here standard all inclusive fare, Some nights were better than others and sometimes the food was on the cooler side. All in all though it was fine and no better or worse than any other country we have been to. Remember there are no pork products in Egypt so breakfast was not the full English we enjoy. There was however the most amazing variety of pastries and cakes, a fabulous omlette and egg station cooking fresh to order and a good selection of less conventional offerings.
Speciality restaurants - We booked with TUI and were therefore 'Ultra All Inclusive' which meant we could book one visit to each of the Indian Italian and Mexican restaurants. DEFINITELY DO THIS ASAP on the app as these restaurants help to break up the visits to the main dining room. The Indian was by far our favourite and you can pick one starter, one main, one side and a desert each. The menu is limited but delicious. The onion bhajis were the best have ever had. Emad the waiter in there is fab and he brought us extra bhajis as we had enjoyed them so much. He even spied us out in the Mexican one lunch time and invited us back for a second visit (no charge) as his special guests which was lovely. He even came to wave us off on our last day - its these little touches that mean so much. The Mexican was also very good and Moudy and Mahmood were great waiters - very attentive and funny.
The Italian and Mexican restaurants are also open for lunch everyday from 2pm. We preferred it there than the main dining restaurant as it was nice to be waited on. Lunch menu's were more snack based and included items such as freshly made pizza, chicken etc and fajitas, burgers etc. Try the Mexican burger it was delicious.
TIP - remember to tip the waiters each day. A little goes a long way.
Snack bar - Ahmed in the snack bar cooks different snacks by the pool from 1Pm each day. We loved Ahmed he was great and the kids really enjoyed his food.
Pool bar - we didn't really use the drinks bar at the beach or the swim up bar, as we sat just behind the lifeguard/towel hut on the grass so used the bar there. Mohammad was the regular man in there. He used to see me each morning and bring me a water and a latte without being asked. He was very attentive and often walked around asking people if they wanted drinks and bringing them to their loungers.
Pools
The pools were very good. We arrived on the 29th October and they were freezing but on 1st Nov turned the heating on which was great. There is a slide area round the side of the hotel but we didn't visit there as our boys are a bit old for slides. The good thing about the pools is they are all very shallow and start off zero depth so greqt for young children. There are loads of lifeguards and they are also very attentive.
Beach
This is a real selling point for this hotel. The hotel has its own private beach and jetty which is shared with the hotel next door. The sea is super shallow and you can walk a long way out. You MUST wear your beach shoes as we saw no end of sting rays half buried in the sand in the shallows. The jetty is long and takes you down to a lagoon and another roped off area in the sea. The lagoon is full of fish and these can be seen snorkelling. The better snorkelling is off the end of the pier as the coral is more alive and colourful with all different tropical fish including lion fish, Nemo and Dory fish, wrasse, mullet etc. We went on a snorkelling trip and the coral and variety of fish was actually better at the hotel.
Diving centre
The hotel has its own diving centre on the beach called Crazy Waves. This is a proper reputable company with insurance and good safety standards. We booked a boat trip to Orange Island with snorkelling which I would recommend and also a introduction to scuba diving for our boys. This was amazing and the instructor took some fabulous videos of our sons which we did buy for £45 which I felt for the quality and amount was a bargain. The session was supposed to be 20 minutes but took much longer. They were kitted out properly, given a lengthy demo and safety briefing and then got at least 20 mins if not longer in the water. I would defo recommend this if you have teens.
Touters - The only negative about this hotel was the amount of people that kept bugging you for spa treatments, trips, smoothies etc. It actually drove my husband potty and even getting a red flag didn't seem to help. This would be the one thing that would stop us coming back to Egypt again as the last thing you want when trying to relax is someone bugging you every 5 mins. One thing i would say is that although the sellers for crazy waves were annoying (we did actually quite like Sultan Bob and Amir as they were quite funny) and did book with them and were happy with their professionalism we couldn't say the same for the guys in the bright green poloshirts selling quad bike tours. We booked a quad bike tour and was assured our 13 year old could ride and was safe etc as they had different quad bikes. THIS WAS A LIE. We were picked up by some undesirable looking guy and dropped off in the middle of nowhere with lots of shady looking men. This was clearly NOT a registered or insured business. We were given no safety demo of how to use the quads, no helmets and these were not safe to use for under 16 ear old's and the quads themselves even stated on the safety sticker not for under 16s or riding 2 people on a quad. My son crashed twice and had to ride on the back of me. We were forced to ride on main roads with cars and busses zooming past with no helmets and a guy taking photos the whole time. When we returned they tried the hard sell and when we told them we didn't want them as had no money they wanted to follow us back to the hotel for money. I really felt so unsafe and to top it off we were shoved in a mini van with not enough seats and people had to sit on other peoples laps! If you want to go quad biking book with TUI or your travel provider and make sure they are insured and its safe. You might pay slightly more but for your families safely it's worth it.
Overall we had a brilliant holiday. Egypt is a lovely place and we would consider returning.
TIPPING - In the hotel this never felt expected but was welcomed and we did tip. We tipped in Egyptian money which we easily obtained from the machines in reception. We gave our housekeeper 100 EGP per day and tipped waiters, lifeguards, drinks guys 50 egp each day then a larger tip to certain stand out staff at the end.
Tipping in GDP, dollars, euros or Egyptian pounds is welcome but don't tip in foreign coins as the banks don't accept them and they are difficult to change. We often had staff approach us with a handful of pound coins asking us to change them for notes. Luckily I had taken plenty of £5 notes for this and the staff were really grateful."
