Высокий сезон. High season.

We decided to relax by the warm sea. My brother loves to scuba dive, so they didn’t hesitate for a long time. It is quite obvious that this is Egypt, Hurghada. The choice is up to the hotel. We chose Safir because it is located close (15 minutes walk) to the Frogman Diving Center, which my brother likes. And I read all sorts of "negatives" about the hotel and sad. But she did not stop her search. In the end, I managed to find reassuring "fresh" comments from 2010. Let's go with peace of mind.
Our path was more or less calm. Transaero Airlines delivered efficiently and politely. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit the Duty Free shop at Hurghada airport, and we didn’t stock up on drinking water (you can’t drink tap water, and the prices at the hotel are “mom don’t cry”), so we had to go to the city (from the main building of the hotel - to the right) - to change money and look for water.
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About money. You need to change them only in banks or exchange offices. The dollar is approximately 5.9 pounds, the euro is 8.4. At the airport and hotel, the exchange rate is unfavorable. So tourists still need to look. The bank exchange office (near the Abu Ashara shopping center, where we bought water, juices and sweets) is open from 18.00 to 21.00 and offers the most successful exchange rate. If you do not have time to exchange at this time, go further along the main street in the direction "from the hotel" and look at the exchangers for the exchange rate. The Egyptians are doing well.
Paper piastres have been replaced with coins.
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About prices. At the Abu Ashara mall I mentioned, Baraka drinking water costs £.1. 70 per 1.5 liter. Fanta, Coca Cola, Sprite - about 6 pounds for 2 liters. Juice 35% (guava, mango) - 6 pounds per 1 liter (but there are cheaper ones with a lower percentage).
If you go on an excursion (we went to Luxor), take 1.5 liters of water per person. Because you want to drink a lot in the desert, but you can buy water either on the bus (I don’t remember the price, but it’s expensive), or from merchants near historical sites for $ 1 (small bottle), or in a cafeteria in the desert for 15 pounds (which is Baraka 1.5 liters, which is Sprite 0.33) or in a cafeteria on the banks of the Nile (a cup of tea - 10 pounds).
Apparently, the same story and on an excursion to Cairo.
Souvenir dealers get a lot. You almost have to fight them off.
During the tour, the guide imposed goods - oils, figurines, jewelry. With the words: "You will not find anywhere better and better", they were brought to the aromatic "factory", the figurine workshop and the jeweler. We didn't succumb to it. It would be better this time to take a walk in historical places.
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About the hotel.
PROS
I will not duplicate the positive reviews of previous years. I completely agree about cleaning, rooms, table setting, beach. I will write about the changes in 2011. We settled on the second line. This is the so-called Garden View (insect spray got rid of the ants). I did not want to overpay for a "sea view". Especially from which side they would settle, because the hotel has 2 "wings" with a garden and a swimming pool in the yard. Hunting all day long roasting in the sun (sunny side) or not seeing the sea (if settled on the ground floor). In addition, the right wing was closed due to the small number of guests. We have been happy with our choice many times.
1. Cross the road to get to the main building easily (very little traffic at any time of the day).

2. You can bring anything to your room, even a piano. And no one will say a word.
3. The windows are illuminated by the deadly hot sun only in the morning, then - shade.
4. Quiet. Then, when the arrival of Egyptian families happened, we felt sorry for the guests of the main building. Believe me, this is something terrible!
The territory is treated from insects 2 times a day (at five in the morning and after five in the evening). All the time, workers are cutting, cleaning, watering something. Rooms are cleaned regularly. Cleaners are polite, efficient, smiling. The beach is sandy, small, but along the edges (at the piers) you can watch the marine life. Who wants the space and wealth of the Red Sea in full - welcome to the boats. Near every hotel in general, and near Safir in particular, there are a lot of yachts and yachts. Around 9 am they leave for the reefs and return around 4 pm. (We rested on a yacht from the Frogman Diving Center, where the workers are trained so that the owner, Sam, may not go to sea with his subordinates. Always order and teamwork. And of course, the open sea is not at all like swimming at the coast! )
There was no animation. Which suited us perfectly. In the evening, in silence, we went to the beach (this is when we got tired of walking along the streets, among the annoying merchants). Look at the sea and at the stars. We drank tea right there, on the beach (we had an electric kettle, and next to the sunbeds, at the empty rooms, we could use any sockets we liked).
There were 25-30 guests (before the arrival of several Arab oh-so-very numerous families)! Apparently, the revolutionary situation as a whole is having an effect. The people are nice and quiet.
And this is where it starts
MINUSES

The policy of the hotel is that everything depends on the "high season". We heard this wording from the mouth of the representative of "Natalie tour" Lilia. Lilia was generally not particularly tired of her unfulfilled duties. The phone number she gave us was permanently switched off. We could only find her by calling another hotel, where she sometimes visited. Other tourists also complained about her work. But back to high season. We began to find out the reason for the lack of a buffet for dinner (we had a breakfast-dinner service, because we got lunch (and very worthy! ) On a diving yacht). The promised buffet was replaced by a complex dinner:
the waiter brought a basket of rolls, a few pieces of butter, a bowl of soup; then they brought a salad and a main dish (rice, potatoes or pasta, vegetables with meat, fish or chicken (i. e. side dish + meat without the ability to choose - what you brought, then eat)); bread/butter is taken away and dessert is brought (a piece of cake or a few slices of watermelon - this joy is every other day). Satisfying, not hungry. But! Very undignified behavior of the hotel managers, especially since the contract promised something else. The tourists grumbled, but quietly. Their small number of votes (our suspicions that everything depends on the NUMBER OF GUESTS was later confirmed!!! ) was not interesting for the owners of the hotel. So we realized that we did not come in the "high season".
The breakfasts were poor. You could eat only an omelet and only by "training" the cook. They told him how to cook this omelet: fry the onion (he strove to put everything raw) and only then pour the egg. The pancakes were still edible. But you can't just eat pancakes! Camel sausage is very amateurish. Beans are very, very amateur. Milk is clearly 0.5%.
And only when the Egyptian families arrived with their children and household members began to feed according to the promised program. We all felt this three days before departure (June 28.2011). Breakfast:
mashed potatoes-salads appeared, a sweet bread casserole (on websites, in reviews, people called it an omelet with bread for some reason), pancakes became thicker (! ), there were 5 types of bread and 5 types of buns (against the previous 3 trays of bakery products), with jams also became more diverse.
Dinner became "Swedish table":
4 types of bread, butter, 2 types of soups;
4-5 types of salad;
mashed potatoes, rice, pasta, fried or boiled potatoes, stewed vegetables;
cutlets, meat, chops, chicken, fried fish;
sweet casseroles, cakes, souffle, watermelon, oranges (fruits alternated "day after day").

I don’t write about drinks, because we drank ours wonderfully (tea or juice, and not what you might think) later, in the room.
"Old vacationers" tourists rejoiced. One German who used to curse under his breath: "Scheise! " (during dinner), began to walk and smile.
Arab children, poking around in the food bowls, did what they wanted. To the credit of the staff, I want to say that they stopped this vicious practice quickly. They, too, were horrified by the sight of cutlery strewn about in common dishes, cakes torn apart, and dishes torn apart. (The next evening, the chefs tried to serve dishes in portions and in a limited way. Wait! Starving tourists from those who arrived before the "Arab landing" quickly politely but firmly stopped this vicious practice. And then (the most correct decision) the kids were simply not allowed to lay out the lining . )
On the beach. Egyptian women in clothes sat or lay on trestle beds, some bathed in the same clothes. It became crowded in the small lagoon of the hotel beach. Children rushed from the pool - to the sea and back. Some "women of the East" (in clothes) swam in the pool too. Egyptian men, it seemed to me, looked at European women in bathing suits. True, they didn’t pester (the wives are nearby! ) And they didn’t stare brazenly.
In the evenings, the Egyptian guests sat in the courtyard of the hotel, clamoring, pigging (then in the morning plastic bottles, glasses and all kinds of plant debris floated in the pool). They also say nasty things about Russian tourists! Look at the Arabs!

The general indifference of the Egyptian workers was also depressing. When we checked out of the room, we had to hand over cards for beach towels. We usually exchanged a beach towel for a new one, rather than renting it in exchange for a card. It turned out that the beach boy takes the cards left in his drawer at the end of the day to the receptionist. And then this card lies with the porter and you can get it only by exchanging it with the porter (! ) For the towel left by the guest. Those. the beach boy is excluded from the exchange process. We understood this, again, by "hemorrhoids". Normally, they did not explain this "nipple system". They made surprised eyes (in the morning, when we checked out, and before that we swam on the path, the porter and the manager said: “Yes, give towels on the beach, and here they are with the porter”) that we do not have towels. They said that it was the policy of the hotel when the guest gave the towel to the porter in exchange for the cards brought by the beach boy. To our question that 2 hours ago they did not explain this, they shrugged and demanded towels. The brother went to the beach, took some towels from the beach caretaker, gave them to the porter and he calmed down.
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But in general, about the rest there was a pleasant impression. Because we expected the originality in the behavior of the Egyptians.
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And finally
About crime.
My brother, an experienced traveler, assured me that everything was calm here, "theft does not steal. " But we still put the valuables and documents in the hotel safe. It was rumored that last year a laptop was stolen in one of the rooms. Valuable things we locked in a suitcase.
And yet I was robbed. We often walked along the promenade. Both together and alone. To the diving center and to the city (it's all in one direction, to the right of the main hotel building). In broad daylight, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. On the hill, near the Granada restaurant, I see that there are tourist buses. Guys with fake Chinese papyri are spinning around them. I'm moving on. The tourists left and the guys stuck to me. Buy and buy papyrus from them. And everyone huddled up to me from both sides. Covered tightly. Several times I managed to get away from them. But they caught up with me again and again: they took a taxi (! ), landed in front of me and pestered me again. I am aware that tourists are not attacked (no one grabbed their hands). But there were no pedestrians around - hot, sunny. It was about 20 meters to the Sun Rise hotel (and the diving center is close there), when the guys fell behind. I look, and my shoulder bag is open, and the purse is bye-bye! And it was only 26 dollars in their monetary equivalent. Well, what is there! I don't remember the taxi number. We informed the receptionist at our hotel about the incident. There is no point in going to the police.
Then, when leaving, on a bus with tourists, a couple of tourists were told that some of their relatives had also recently been robbed in the same way or they had heard about such crimes.
Tourist - watch out!
And at the airport in the price tags (not cheap) in some cafes there is no 10% tax! Those. still had to pay extra.
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But the Red Sea has not yet been spoiled by people. And if you follow the "rules of a tourist", then you can always relax and not "get caught".
And ask the tour operator: "Do they have a high season or not? "!! !