"Visited with my wife in September for 10 days, firstly the good points:
Standard and size of room was very good and housekeeping kept it spotless
Same for the grounds, they were extensive and everywhere you looked there were staff cleaning and tidying, I didn't see a single bit of litter anywhere.
Food was excellent with a good variety, we tried several of the a la carte restaurants, more on these shortly
The bits I wasn't so happy with:
Whilst the Tappenyaki restaurant was a fun experience with great showmanship from the chef, the noodle restaurant next door was a complete let down. There were only 2 other couples in there, we were all sat apart. The food was presented to us and we were left to get on with it. We were sat at a small table next to the window, it seemed like a street cafe. There was no music and no ambience whatsoever. A real disappointment.
The 2 main bars were situated off the main atrium/reception area, one a smoking bar and the other a non smoking bar. The fact that they were all part of the atrium area meant that smoke drifted over from one bar to the other. It also meant that we felt we were sitting in hotel reception all the time, the nearest thing I can compare it to is an airport lounge! Ok for an hour but you wouldn't want to stay any longer. Perhaps if they could be partitioned off from the main atrium it would give it a better atmosphere. The bar staff worked very hard, at times they struggled to keep up, additional help as busy times wouldn't have gone amiss.
I know it's been commented on before but there wasn't any sparkling wine on the all inclusive package, if you wanted this you had to pay extra. This seems a bit of mistake when targeting European guests as all other resorts in egTurkey etc include this. And if you fancied to splash out on a bottle of Moet & Chandon this would set you back over £500!
Entertainment was poor for a hotel that classes itself as 5 star. The main entertainment seemed to finish by 9pm on most nights and this consisted of the local entertainment seem dancing to some songs, often with a 5 minute break in between songs for a costume change. Given that the show lasted 30 minutes you didn't get much actual entertainment.
There is a lot of building work nearby although we weren't much troubled by the noise. There is a lot of gentrification going on in the area with lots of hotels and shops being built, although is has to be said most of the shops alternate between pharmacy, leather shop, perfume shop and tat shop every 100 yards, not much variety. And of course, being Egypt be ready to haggle. If you don't want to go through that hassle then go to the Red Sea Bazaar and Cleopatra's about a 100 yds to the right as you leave the hotel, these are fixed price shops. If you're looking for genuine fakes, make sure you try them on as sizing is all over the place, even for same size in same t shirt. I found quality to be rather poor, logos etc are pretty rubbish, you get much better quality and better prices in Turkey. don't come here looking for high quality garments at good prices.
Talking of shops, the hotel does of course have its own shops on site. I visited a couple of these and found them to be extremely expensive, eg in the perfume shop I was told it was £2 per ml, ie a standard 100ml bottle of perfume was £200. Twice the price of my wife's favourite Coco Chanel. It has to be said I don't think the shops did much trade during the time I was there. Managment, you may wish to revisit your pricing strategy!
Other than the tourist shops around the hotel there really isn't much to do unless you book an excursion (tip- use tripadvisor or getyourguide, not the rep/hotel). We visited the marina for a couple of hours one afternoon just to get out of the hotel for a bit. Tip, local taxi drivers will try and charge you 300, the uber price is 80 and we refused to pay anymore than 150. They will remonstrate with you but if you walk away they will call you back and happily do it for 150 - the ride is about 15 minutes just to give you an idea of distance/cost.
Tipping is very big in the Egyptian culture and this hotel is no different, you don't need to tip big, we just gave our table waiter or drink waiter a 50 every couple of days. Problem is there is nowhere to get change to facilitate this. There is a cash atm in the hotel reception, you can just drop you £ or € etc notes into the machine and it gives you Egyptian £ in exchange. The rate we got at time of visit was 70 to a £ which seemed reasonable. Problem was it was all issued as 200 notes. I tried changing some up at reception explaining that I wanted it for tips but their policy is that they don't exchange notes. Not very helpful for guests wanting to tip. Note to management, your staff would earn more in tips if you had a cash desk where guests cold exchange notes for smaller denominations.
Overall would I come here again? No. But if you are happy sitting around one of the many pools all day eating and drinking then you will probably love it. We just prefer going out and exploring a bit and found this hotel didn't really cater for our preferences.
Overall i ha"
