Новый 2011 год в Египте New Year 2011 in Egypt

I'll start my review from afar. The desire to celebrate the New Year in the rays of the warm sun and on the seashore appeared back in 2009, but did not work out. And so I prepared in advance for the meeting in 2011. This is not my first trip abroad, before that I had a rest in fives and fours in Turkey and Israel.
The prices and conditions of the New Year's tour began to be clarified for many months, namely in September. Booking tours in advance, of course, is scary - it is not known what can happen before New Year's Eve, whether it will be possible to take time off from work, etc. However, I took a chance. First, I decided on the number of days of the tour, at least 10, because acclimatization takes about 3 days, especially the sharp change in temperature (we usually have +3 + 5 degrees in Rostov-on-Don, and under 30 in Hurgda). But the main thing for me was the excursion program 2 days for the Cairo-Alexandria trip, 2 day-Luxor, well, I also thought to decide on the excursions on the spot.
It was hard to fit so many excursions into a week-long tour, and therefore there was no doubt about taking 10 days (although it came out much more expensive).

The prices for NG were prohibitively high, even though I fell under the early booking promotion (until September 30). In this regard, I didn’t have to especially find fault and choose a superhotel. My requirements were such that at least 5 stars, close to the center of Hurghada, good infrastructure of the hotel.
I chose Sunny Days el Palacio 5 *, it suited me in all respects and was also advised by a familiar girl from a travel agency. Do not think that I did not know where I was going and what kind of hotel it was. I read all the reviews about him, I saw a lot of negativity, but I also took into account the positive aspects. To be honest, I thought that many people just snickered and were always dissatisfied with everything, so they write all sorts of nasty things and divide all reviews by 2. In general, I didn’t expect much from the hotel, I understood that this was a four, and far from 5 stars. But he came up to me for the price (7.
Worst of all is the queue and it's not 4-5 people, it can be up to 20! ! ! ! First time I saw this! While standing behind the meat, you already want to eat 3 times. You have to eat everything that has cooled down cold, while you are standing behind one, the other is cooling on your plate. Even the standard dishes of scrambled eggs, pancakes, etc. in this hotel are very tasteless and the portions are very small. New Year's Eve dinner was generally amazing, a lot of dishes, but not all tasty. But at the end of the holiday, we probably got used to the taste of local dishes, learned how to choose edible dishes, and stopped complaining about food. BUT, I want to separately note that for 10 none of us got poisoned. This, after reading the reviews, I was afraid of most of all, especially since there are problems with digestion.
There were few fruits. Every day dates, oranges, grapefruits. Sometimes apples, tangerines, guava. Once they gave a melon, green, but tasty.
On festive evenings, all fruits were served))) Strawberries, pineapples, coconuts, grapes in addition to the standard set.
Baking is not bad, but mostly monotonous biscuits and puddings, jelly.
Rooms.
The room was standard on the first floor. The usual environment, plumbing serviceable. I was surprised that there was no hair dryer.
Animation.

I was little interested, the shows were held every day, but the performances consisted of only dances. At the end of the vacation, I got tired of watching the belly dance and the dance of the dervishes with skirts. It seemed to me that there are few animators for such a large hotel.
Territory.
The area of ​ ​ the hotel is its biggest plus. The buildings are in the form of the letter P, in the middle there is a large lagoon, it protects from the wind. We were not very lucky with the weather, it was 23-25 ​ ​ degrees, but at the same time a strong cold wind was blowing. It was possible to sunbathe only on the shore of the lagoon, it was worth going out to the sea to the beach in the open space, the wind knocked down.
It was cold to swim, in my opinion, only walruses swam. The water was sometimes warm, but because of the wind it was cold to enter and exit the water. I didn't swim and I don't regret it. Those who were at NY 2010 that year said that it was very hot up to +35, but it doesn't happen year after year.
Further about the territory, it is quite clean, there is greenery. The staff fussed all day, ran, washed, cleaned. It would be cleaner if the vacationers themselves were not too lazy to bring their garbage to the bin.
The location of the hotel is very good, close to the airport, not in the noisy center. And the territory is closed from all sides, there can be no people from the street. Even the beach does not border on other hotels, although it does not exist as such, there is only a descent into the sea along the stairs.
Tours.
I bought all the planned excursions from my operator, I think that although it is more expensive, it is more reliable. These were Cairo-Alexandria (2 days), Luxor (1 day), an overview of Hurghada (from 2 to 10 pm).
The excursions are amazing, organized by Koral at a very high level, the guides speak Russian well, they told interesting stories. Antiquities amaze the imagination, it is useless to describe it, you just need to see it.

Due to bus accidents, were afraid to take the trip, but did not regret it. Yes, the Egyptians adhere to very peculiar traffic rules, or rather their absence. But on trips there were 2 drivers who replaced each other, guides and a security guard! It's scary to drive, but everything went well, and only positive impressions remained.

The most interesting thing began on the day of departure. The day before we went to the hotel guide and found out the time of departure and the time of departure from the hotel. At 9.20 we had to leave, at 12.30 we had a flight to Rostov. At 9.20 we were sitting in the lobby, but no one came for us either at 9.20 or at 10. They caught the hotel guide Khasyan, forced to deal with the situation, and then he claims that our flight is delayed by 11! hours are the same Utair. Departure from the hotel at 20.20, flight at 23.30.
We decided not to wander around the hotel all day, because we had just returned from a trip to Luxor and were tired and paid $ 40 extra for a room until 18.00. They pulled out things, went to sunbathe, then again returned to the room. Somewhere at 14.00 a call to the room, hello, our hotel guide calls and says, your flight is delayed for more than a day, no one knows the time, you are definitely flying out not on January 9, but on January 10! ! ! You are moved to another hotel, 5 minutes to get ready.
A bus with a guide came for us, we drove around the city for more than an hour, to hotels, collecting tourists from our flight. Nom was brought to the Princess Palace Hotel *3+, and in comparison with him, all my dissatisfaction with Sunny Days looks simply ridiculous. Princess Palace *3+ is the level of a Soviet boarding house on the Black Sea, two-story houses, ancient furniture, mattresses on plywood on the beds, dirt, mosquitoes, cockroaches everywhere. Just awful, but you can survive one night.
Thanks to the guides of Koral, they were with us until late at night, there were 5 of them there, they helped in any way they could, reported on all the changes in our flight.
It was necessary to live in such a hotel, just to compare all the others later. But we got home, albeit with adventures, but successfully.

Summary.

The rest was super, a lot of impressions and new emotions. I think travel is the best way to relax 10 days of holidays without salads and irony of fate. The choice of location is up to you. I liked Egypt, I need to approach it and its hotels without prejudice (wild Arabs, sharks will eat us there, we will be left with only slippers on the beach, we will be poisoned by local food), without comparison with Turkey and other countries, leave your show-offs at home. Enjoy the most beautiful sea, ancient monuments, do not sit in a hotel, go on excursions, develop yourself.
As for the hotel, know this is not 5 stars, but a weak four and treat it the same way, then you will not be very disappointed. Once again, I would not go to it, not in the holiday season I would choose a better hotel, but you can relax and have fun in it.