Excellent all round, food for every taste. Staff brilliant and friendly but watch out for "Del Boys" shop in front of hotel.Lots of Italians there but they included you in everything if you wanted to.Did trips 1 day to cairo and 2 day luxor excellent tour guides quite a lot of trvelling but well worth it.

Well where do i start!

Me and my girlfriend have just comeback from 2 weeks at the Calimera after booking with Thomas Cook, we spent time reading the reviews on this site which were all great.

After arriving at the airport we were shown to the coach by our rep Simon, coach driver put our luggage in then put his hand out waiting for a tip! Even after seeing his jumper said "Free Baggage Service" lol. Anyways, all good, quick drive to the resort which was nice, plenty of sand and sea and quite worrying seeing nothing for miles and then all of a sudden we arrive in the array of resorts. Checking in was nice and easy, baggage was delivered to room promptly, we stayed in a Superior room which put us in the center of the resort close to everything. As others have said, the resort was brilliantly maintained, an army of staff constantly cleaning and gardening, puts our english standards to shame!

Ants everywhere! Our room got swamped so we called reception got transferred to someone and we got told that someone will be with us shortly. We eventually asssumed they did something the next morning when we arrived at our room smelling of ant spray! So maintenence is iffy there. A friend we made on holiday had a problem with the AC but took 2 days to sort out, not nice!

Food was pretty standard, nothing special, the lady that commented about the Italian side of the restaurant would have just had a bad week as everyone was pretty mixed around.
Nice pasta by the Italian Chef, unfortunately we didnt have a chance to go to the other restaurants as we didnt have any trousers and shoes, so dont forget if you go!

Bar wise, pretty standard, not enough choice for my liking but there you go, there is a massive long bar outside the restaurant which you have to pay at as it has imported spirits but unfortunately no european beers! They have coke machines which were constantly running out of gas and mixer, and trying to explain to the bar staff what the problem was ended with a round of 5 beers! A bit of miscommunication there!

Stay away from the Calimera side of the beach unless you like the Italians shouting around you! What we didnt get told was that the Calimera houses Eden which is an Italian resort merged in with the Calimera, so they have taken over the beach. Water there is fantastic for snorkelling, although we got whistled at by the Italian reps for going too far out although we were nowhere near as far out as the Italian swimmers...
On the first week we stayed mainly at what was the Eden pool, but what we didnt get told was that this is apparently a strictly Italian pool! So we finally found our corner of the resort which was the Activ pool by reception, the relaxation pool was nice although small.

What we didnt get told by Thomas Cook was that the Calimera is in fact an Active resort, so every morning there was loud music and games on all day and night which could be heard throughout the resort, which dont get me wrong is great, but we were mislead as we wanted a nice quiet holiday. The amount of Italians there is ridiculous, the majority of them were rude towards the english, mainly because they were probably lead to believe they were going on an Italian resort and had to share with us English!!

Overall I would say I was dissapointed by the holiday, half the staff were great, the other half ignored you and as soon as I left my girlfriend on her own she was lynched by the staff leering at her and making her feel uncomfortable with crude comments towards her looks. I would certainly not reccommend this as a young couples holiday. If you are into your snorkelling go for it, but Value for money was appaling, you only get 2 small bottle of water free a day then you have to pay for bottles of water! Then if you try and fill up at the machines you get told off by the bar staff, then stand in amazement as he lets others get away with it.
Most of you are thinking its down to not tipping, but I took a good £80 in dollars just for tipping which went in the 2 weeks.

What mainly put us off was that we went on an all-inclusive holiday thinking most things were included, we had to pay for water, internet had to be paid for even snooker/pool was being charged for! We were mislead into thinking it was a nice quiet place but in fact better suited to families and you divers out there!
We went to Sharm last year and for less money went to a higher star resort and the value for money there was brilliant.

As a side note, definitely get insurance and get the jab from the Dr at the resort if you get ill. £13 for tablets to begin with and then 95euros for the injection if tablets dont work or if you are vomiting, i didnt get ill until last 2 days so i lasted out until i got back to england.

Feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions :)

What an amazing holiday! We arrived at the Calimera Habiba and were checked in promptly and found our room - one of the beachfront suites - it's definitely worth paying the extra for one of these, they are fantastic! As we were having a bit of a look round the suite, our cases were delivered to our door. We washed the plane off and decided to find food, so we wandered down to the restaurant, 2 minutes walk from our room.

Food is good quality and varied - as long as you don't have a bit of everything every night! We also tried the Italian restaurant which was nice, this isn't included in the AI but after 3 bottles of wine between 2 of us I couldn't tell you how much it was, not much though, about 30 dollars I think for 2 meals with 3 bottles of house wine.

The hotel complex itself is huge, and very, very well looked after. All the lawns are beautifully green and there's an army of staff cleaning and gardening all day every day. The one thing that really struck us more than anything else was how happy the staff were to help - I'd read the reviews that said this but I really was amazed, nothing is too much trouble for them.

There are 4 pools, but we chose to spend most of our time at the Relax bar nearest the restaurant, the pool attendant there was lovely, and offered to save us sunbeds without us having to ask! On one day he forgot and when we arrived he went off and found us two more from a different pool, despite our protestations that it was really ok and he didn't have to do that!

Excursions-wise, we went night snorkelling (not something I would reccommend unless you are experienced - I'm not and I wouldn't go again) We also went to the Dolphin House which was the most amazing experience of my life - we were lucky and swam with about 30 spinner dolphins! Then on the last evening we went quad-biking - probably best we did this on the last night or we would have gone every day, it was fantastic, but don't wear any clothes you don't want to get filthy, you will end up wearing half the desert, and it's worth the £5 for the headscarf!

Anyway I'm rambling, if anyone has any questions don't hesitate to contact me, this was an amazing holiday and we will be returning next year, and the year after probably!

Me and my boyfriend have just come back from the calimera habiba beach resort. it has been the best holiday i have ever been on, the only down side is that the staff are lazy, 1st night we got there and our safe was not working so we foned to reception to see if somebody would come up and get it working we waited 2 hours and nobody had came so the following morining we went down and they said somebody will come later and again nobody did so at this point we gave up and just left it, another time my boyfirend wasent well and you only get 2 bottles of water a day so we had ran out and asked very nicley if we could have some more as my boyfriend was not well they said sure no problam we shall send it to your room we waited most of the night and still no show that was the only thing what botherd me. We both got the famous belly aches and sickness witch on the complex theres a doctor go to him if you are suffering from sickness and the trots he will give you the best tablet you will ever take. There are loads of trips witch takes place in the resort like quad biking witch we did that was fab, ciro and luxor 2 night trip , dolphin trip, scuba diving, trips to the nile. there are a couple of shops that sell cigarettes only £2.00 for 20, food, gifts,ect. they do like euros and dollers, english money but do expect to be ripped off. The food is ok, just what ever you do ,do not eat the fruit. All meals are diffrent everyday, if you miss lunch you can have it at the pool bar, witch i did like much more. The night enteranment is not fab but is a laugh, there are loads of germans and italians witch is so annoying but dont let them put you off. When you arrive you will get given a towel card make sure you dont loose it or it will cost you £15.00. a towel card is you can get a towel for a day and then at 6.00 you give it back and then you get your card back. Marsa alam is a massive culture shock when you get of the plane you see sand everywere from the airport to the hotel you will see children in the street, and wild dogs its kind of heart setting you dont know if you should look at them or not. Visa when you are on the plane you will have to fill out an EU card so when you arrive at marsa alam they can understand what you have put and all you infomation, then you get your visa we thought you had to pay it on the spot you dont you go through all the baggage and then you get on your coach and they come round with a bag its $18 £10 and LE 100 witch isnt bad. I would not belive what all the people say about egypt it is the most relexing place in the world, and the most wonderfull experiance its turely amazing.