Ветреная Хургада в январе. Windy Hurghada in January.

Our criteria for a winter January holiday: a budget hotel, a warm pool, the sea within walking distance, a sandy entry into the sea, the availability of infrastructure near the hotel.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   The hotel Sunny days Mirette 3*. The second line did not bother, very close to the dining room on the 1st line and to the sea, pools. Go to the first line across the road or through a clean underpass.

We were lucky and we used all the benefits of hotels 4* Palasio and Palma Sunny Days. The same restaurants and warm pools, wonderful beaches and sea views, water parks. But a week later, the restaurant in Palasio 4 * was no longer allowed to visit.


The food is normal for a 3* hotel. You can drink beer, wine and alcoholic cocktails. But we brought our own Sapphire gin for cocktails. Lots of bars. The coffee is not tasty. There was no visible dirt or debris in the canteens. Gardeners and cleaners worked on the territory of all 3 hotels.
We visited several a la carte restaurants.
Italian - more or less normal, but the fish (worse than the dining room) surprised me with tasteless fish and paper cups for coffee! A pleasant moment for vacationers is congratulations with birthday cakes in these restaurants.
The Mirette room has a large bedroom, a living room and a kitchen with a tea set, 4 bottles of water for two, a flat-screen TV, a bar, a free safe, a rather big balcony overlooking the pool, a clothes dryer on the balcony, rusty in places, a very narrow compartment in the toilet room for showers and showers without a hose, uncomfortable. Soap in packages, gel, shampoo in bottles, tea and coffee were given every day, a hairdryer on request, but they were also taken away without permission) Bed linen was changed after a few days, towels - every day. Cleaning the room consisted of straightening the sheets on the bed. Sometimes they swept the sand. It seemed that the hotel had a problem with bed linen.
It is clean, but very thin and decrepit, with pellets, torn in places. The duvet cover was put down once in recent days, before that the duvet lay between two sheets, which was very uncomfortable. There were two more pillows and another blanket in the closet.

There are two noisy air conditioners in the room. Perhaps adjustable, but we did not use them in winter. In the evening, small mosquitoes flew on the balcony, but there were none in the room. They left chocolates several times - they made figurines out of towels for us)

Since Sunny Days is the territory of 3 hotels, the distance to walk was. Amazing views - and the lagoon, and the open sea, and the desert, and the city with an eternal construction site) In some rooms, you can meet the sunrise or sunset from the balcony.

It was sunny in January, warm during the day, but very, very windy! ! Because of the constant wind, we both caught a cold and coughed.
You can find a calm place to sunbathe, but the wind somehow often changes direction and strength.

The hotel has a sandy entry into the sea and into the lagoon, at a depth - a reef with fish. In winter, the water in Egypt is cool. You can swim, but not for long. Due to the strong wind, it is uncomfortable to get out of the water. By the end of our stay, the water warmed up more. When we arrived at the hotel, the temperature at night was 11 degrees, during the day 21. By the end of the rest - at night 14, during the day 26. During the day we sunbathed, and in the morning and evening we walked in windbreakers.

In several pools, the water was warm, the wind was quieter. There are deep pools for children, a water park with slides. Beach towels received / changed by cards near the pools.
During the day, sports entertainment, volleyball, darts, yoga were held, after dinner - hotel animation for children and adults with invited local artists.
Entertainment usual for Egypt: dance with skirts, belly dance, fakir on nails, folk dances and songs, miss and mister of the hotel.

One day we saw a foam party. But not at all impressed. Some foam on the sand. In Turkey, in the pool, such a party looked much cooler.
Not far from the hotel within walking distance is a beautiful modern walking area Marina Hurghada, where there are yachts, restaurants, cafes, shops. We were in Marina on Friday, we watched the collective prayer of Muslims near the mosque to the sounds of the muezzin.

The well-known fish market near the mosque was not visited, as seafood is not particularly interesting.
In the direction of Marina there are several shops where they bought delicious halva for gifts for $ 1.5 a package, and fruit stands. Mangoes were sold for $2.5-5, strawberries for $1 per kg, figs for $1.5. You can go to the fruit market, which is not far from the El Ezaby pharmacy.
On the roads, annoying taxi drivers are constantly honking to take you somewhere. Several times in the evening, women who looked like gypsies ran along the road and asked for money for their children.

Due to illness, I didn’t want to go on excursions, but I had to look into pharmacies. We walked during the day on the navigator on foot to the pharmacy with fixed prices El Ezaby. In a pharmacy near the Zahabia hotel, next to our Mirette, the prices are slightly higher. But in the hotel pharmacy, the prices are sky-high! The pharmacist invents them himself and, with a smart look, writes out some kind of prescription instead of a check) Before buying medicines, google how much they cost, for example, in the Russian Pharmacy in Hurghada. See the difference.
We did not experience the hamam at the hotel, but bought from the guide for $ 20 per person visiting the hamam without massage in the city. On the spot we were offered a massage for $5.30-40 minutes. I liked the massage, but the hammam, sauna, jacuzzi and the whole atmosphere were so-so.
We bought a SIM card at the airport and regretted it. Gigabytes quickly ran out. Later we bought another SIM card at the hotel. Wifi in hotel lobby is weak. There are ATMs.
In the first days of rest, employees who offer boors, excursions, braids, manicure, pedicure, massage, foot peeling with fish, boating, parachuting, diving services are very annoying. By the way, there are many small fish in the lagoon, and if you stand still, they swim up and start biting your feet slightly. Peeling for free!

                    For a budget holiday, the hotel is suitable. The sea is beautiful, but there are few fish in winter. Vacationers feed them with bread and boiled eggs, and the rescuers do not pay attention to this.

It is advisable to enter the sea in special shoes. I saw sea urchins, lionfish, and almost stepped on a stingray with blue spots.
During the day, huge flocks of rather big fish swam up to the reefs, which for some reason the locals called "horses", they looked like a Spanish moquel.