"We have just returned after a two week stay as a family of 4 with two children aged 11 and 15. We travel often and can honestly say it was one of the best holidays we have had. This hotel was the perfect mix of chilled vibes and the right level of entertainment that did not turn this beautiful hotel into a tacky experience.
Rooms: we had a ground floor deluxe family room with 2 double beds with our pool being 5 steps away from the doors. The room was so spacious with more than enough storage for 4 people. The room was SPOTLESS and cleaned daily as well as all areas of the hotel.
Pools: spoilt for choice with a pool at our room, 3 main pools, a lagoon and the beach. We opted to spend the mornings at our room pool which is more relaxed before moving to the main active pool at lunch time which is where the majority of entertainment is held which had a great vibe. There is so much space between the sun loungers giving the option of moving your beds into the sun or shade and still not have any other families right beside you. No crazy rush to get sun beds, we always managed to get beds at any stage of the day. The pool grounds are kept extremely clean in all areas of the hotel by the lifeguards, special mention to ours Mohamed Essam who went above and beyond for us every day sorting our pool towels and putting them on our loungers for us. The bar and waiting staff at the pools work extremely hard, giving guests the best experience by not allowing them to queue for drinks but deliver them to your sun loungers promptly. Special mention to Abdallah Ahmed, who looked after us every day and who knew our drinks order every day and made sure we never had an empty glass without asking. The staff here work such long hours and are so attentive but the main pools could definitely benefit from extra bar / waiter staff as they are clearly under pressure to attend to the amount of guests.
Food and drink: The food was beautiful with plenty of choice with 6 different styles food of food to choose from in each one. Our personal favourite was L'Asiatique which is Chinese and had fun experiences from the chefs at the live cooking stations. The food does get repetitive after two weeks but that is expected at all inclusive, it does not deter the quality of the food and overall we enjoyed it all. The drink options were limited but the staff did their best to make different cocktails with the ingredients they had when requested. We did think the hotel was lacking in ice cream during the day time which would have been a nice option for the children to cool down. We got it on one occasion at the aqua park during the day but it never seemed to be open again every other day we checked.
Entertainment: The staff again work very hard all day putting on foam parties, fruit festivals, beach carnival, dancing, pool dances etc which we enjoyed during the day. However, the evening entertainment does get repetitive with the main show generally being a different dance group every night, we know this is common in Egypt for evening entertainment so it wasn’t an issue for us as it wasn’t something we particularly look for in a holiday. There was a large outdoor screen showing World Cup matches every day which was particularly great during Egypt matches which had fireworks, a Dj and extended restaurant hours. The staff at the stage and lobby area again were fantastic with a special shoutout to Mostafa Mahrous who looked after us during our stay and made sure our glasses were never empty.
kids and activities:
There is so much for the children to do, our girls were too old for kids club but enjoyed the swans, the bike buggies, the waterpark, the VR room and the football and tennis courts which were all free, the paddle court is an additional price of €18 per hour. Snorkelling at the end of the pier is fantastic with great views of the coral and sea-life, life vests are available for free. The galaxy lounge and Andiamo bar were a perfect chilled vibe and a nice change of scenery from the main area and less busy. There were also more cocktail options in the galaxy bar which was nice. The Andiamo bar overlooks the beach and was the perfect spot for an afternoon break to admire everything around you.
Overall:
Check in 14:00 and checkout 12:00, both very smooth, however a lack of consistency with room prices for late check out with guests being given different prices. We were quoted €87 to keep our room to 6pm but opted not to take it as other guests being given much lower prices. We were allowed to shower in the Spa - be sure to take hotel towels with you as the Spa didn’t want to give us any of their own despite the hotel confirming they would do so. The shops in the hotel grounds are also inconsistent with pricing and are very expensive as there are no shops local outside the hotel giving them the option to charge what they want so i would advise bringing snorkels / rubber rings etc with you (the staff at the bikes can inflate these for you). Like all hotels in Egypt, there is a lot of salesmen trying to sell excursions/ treatments etc but a polite no thank you was always enough for them to know you weren’t interested. The hotel has SO much space in all areas which never made it feel over crowded throughout the day which did give it that 5* feel. We would absolutely return."
