Steigenberger Alcazar

"This is a 5* hotel but it’s not perfect but the faults are minor (ish) But first, we booked through EasyJet and travelled to Sharm with them. This was ok. When you arrive at the airport, there is a bank prior to immigration on the left where you can change £50 into Egyptian points. Better than using ATMs. Immigration takes ages. Maybe just over an hour in a queue. But once through it is easy to get bags and then 15 mins to the hotel. Check in was lively with a welcome drink. An offer of a late dinner. Plane landed about 9:40pm and it was now close to midnight. The hotel and grounds are simply beautiful. The staff are superb. The reason I mentioned the money at the start of the review is that you don’t have to tip her but you should. The average weekly wage in Egypt is £50 a week and the vale of the EP is not good. This means inflation is also not good. The service from everyone here is 5* The food in the buffet style restaurant is good and varied and there are pastries daily to die for. Wow! A highlight of the trip. Lots of healthy alternatives if you don’t give in to temptation. We visited the Italian and Mediterranean restaurants and they too were good. I usually find all inclusive wines to be yuk, especially the red. The red was quite drinkable. I wasn’t sure if the house red was served in the speciality restaurants but it was good. The pools were large and 3 to choose from. Generally easy to find a subbed, though some reserving happened in prime spots. I would suggest finding some shade. The room was spacious and quiet. Here is my but bit about the hotel. It seems the person supposedly cleaning our room just simply forgot to do it or it was going to get done after about 4pm when we tended to return to our room for a freshen up. The beach towels are supposed to be replaced daily. We still tipped. In the week, it was probably cleaned by 4, 3 times without us having to ask. This meant we had to call reception. Our towels were replaced twice without us asking. Our shower leaked. Water ran right across the bathroom floor. They came to try and repair this but it’s a fault with a tile under the door. The slope of the tile is out of the shower meaning water runs out rather than back in. Only retiling will fix that. Minibar- I don’t get it. The mini bar sticks stuff you can get for free as part of the AI but it’s not free. You get two bottles of water in room, 1 litre in size- if they service your room. 3 would be better. You will need this for brushing your teeth. Tap water should not be used. Gym- not bad for a hotel gym. One of the better ones. Sunscreen- bring your own supply. Buying locally is expensive. Nivea was the only brand we recognised. About £20 a bottle. The hotel gives you 2lites of water in your room a day. They will give you more but 3 or 4 would be better as it is hot. The aircon was superb. So as I said we came with easyJet. Our flight home is 9.45pm. Checkout is 12 noon. We paid to have our room til 6, which was 80 euros. TIL 3 was 40 euros."

"Good staff. Not my best experience though l, tummy upset and many guests had the save issue and I don’t think the hotel dealt with this problem. Food/restaurants were decent. Room was good. Quiet evening entertainment."

"Beautiful hotel,food average,service good,reception helpful average,drinks average . Food lots of choices but not great, Service staff great ,not a single day did we see management around . Reception desk awful,had to wake up one day early for a trip,left a wake up call,they forgot and when asked it was like one passing the issue onto another etc,absolutely awful,it’s like they did not care,we nearly missed our trip to Cairo to see the pyramids. Drinks,first drink always came in cold followed by warm beer and served in assortment of different glasses,beer served in wine glasses,whisky glasses etc .shocking either they did not have enough glasses or they were not educated on what goes with what . Pool bar,one young man on a trolley serving drinks all day,by the time he does his round on the pool it was be over an hour,then being served again with warm beer,not acceptable for a 5 star hotel . Overall it lack leadership . I absolutely stress,not a single sight of management in sight."