A little late with this review, hopefully things have improved by now... We stayed 11 nights early May. Our 8th visit to Egypt, the first time to this particular hotel.
Arriving very late at night we were disappointed with our room as the bathroom was dirty, the tile grout and sealant were mouldy, and the air conditioning didn't work. We requested a room change but were told by reception the hotel was full, there was nothing they would do. Next morning, miserably unpacking in our grubby room, we decided the weather was just so super that we’d just get on and make the most of it.
Breakfast was ok, (the main restaurant is nothing special, but adequate) Then with sun lotion, water and books in hand off we wandered to the beach - but alas no available sun loungers (well, we had left it to the ridiculously late time of 8.30am to go down there!!) We walked back up to the pool area but there were no available sun loungers there either! How can a beach resort hotel not have enough sun loungers available for their guests? It’s not like everyone just turns up on the off chance now is it! By now the lawns were filling up with families and sunbathers. Turns out it was a Russian holiday, hence the hotel was full, but still no excuse for not being prepared as there was loads of empty space for sun loungers, chairs etc. Some guests have an early morning habit of leaving their beach towels on loungers (whilst banging doors going in and out), around 5am is the norm. Shame the loungers they plant the towels on are not used most of the time. Perhaps they leave towels at both the beach and pool and see what takes their fancy when they arrive late morning after their lie in (well, they did have to get up early after all). Maybe I am banging on about this a bit much, but the hotel Management can easily rectify this by using towels cards and not letting people have as many towels as they like and not have to return them at the end of the day. It’s nice the hotel does it, but unfortunately there are always going to be some who ruin it.
Positive points:
It’s a great beach & fabulous sea - super for all ages and with many water sports facilities available for the adventurous! Kite surfing, wind surfing, skiing etc plus lessons available too.
Plenty of bottled water available.
Pleasant and helpful staff in the restaurants and pool bars, pleasant but rather unhelpful staff on reception.
Tea and coffee making facilities in room but no milk.... Powdered milk just doesn't work in tea - Save an empty water bottle and take some from restaurant at meal time.
A few more niggles, so I'll try to be brief:
Nice white wine at the bars, much better than we've experienced at other Egyptian hotels. However, don’t bother opening the bottle of supposedly “French Chablis” in the mini bar, it costs a fortune and tastes like vinegar – totally undrinkable. I doubt it is real. When we brought this to the hotels attention the Hotel Management insisted we pay for it even though only a small amount had been taken from the bottle due to it being off. This pretty much ruined the end of our holiday as they made us feel like we were lying. In the end they allowed a 25% discount – but it was very upsetting to have to pay so much for something we had never been able to drink.
Randomly asked by staff for our room number when asking for a bottle of water but never for alcohol? Weird.
A children’s play area in the “Quiet Zone” of the beach – strange…!
A la cartes - pleasant but way too many items incurred an extra charge.
Beach bar at far end of the beach is not included in the “All Inclusive” – everything there is an extra charge (inc water)
Cappuccino – extra charge. Lots of pretty regular stuff – extra charge!
Dirty plates in main restaurant – probably the cause of the stomach upsets we had.
This is the first 5* “all inc” we've stayed where you had to pay extra for so much.... I'd call it “sort of inclusive as long as you don't want anything but the basics….”
I am sure by now most trip advisor readers looking at Egypt for the first time would have gathered that 5* in Egypt is 3 or 4* anywhere else! I’m not just being grumpy, we’ve been to Egypt many times so we are aware of what you would normally receive at a 5* Egyptian hotel! We would give this hotel a 3 star rating. We personally prefer Premier Le Reve.
