8 марта в Египте March 8 in Egypt

Rest period March 7-14.2012. Let me tell you right now, this is not 5 stars. So to whom it is important - they can not read further. Initially, my husband and I bought a ticket to the Azur Club 4 *. Relatively inexpensive, 13.000 rubles per person. Natalie has a last minute tour called "Last minet". That's what we took. We flew by Transaero, so the fuel surcharge is $80 per person. So 30.000 rubles for two met.
Flight. The Boeing-747-400.2-deck, was completely packed. We took off a little later, because for some reason it was necessary to douse the plane with anti-icing liquid, although there was no icing. This is an extra 40 minutes of sitting on an airplane. Naturally, we arrived in Hurghada late. That is, 40 minutes of rest were immediately stolen from us.
The flight was at 6.55 am, so the meal in flight is breakfast. Your choice: 2 pancakes with marmalade or scrambled eggs, it is not clear from what and boiled carrots to boot. Yogurt, cheese and something else on the little things in addition to this. In short, a nightmare. Being full is hard, especially for men. Before breakfast, as always, they gave out juice or lemonade to drink. Then, in flight, who asked for a drink - everyone was given water without gas. And before landing, they suddenly carried 7 UP. Question: why didn't they give it earlier? Among the passengers there were guys "from Tagiiiiiil". They sat in front of the wall, on which there is a cradle for babies. They made a table out of it and ate cognac from Duty Free on it for all 4 hours of the flight. Why did the flight attendants let them? Nobody understood. At the end of the flight, the cradle attachments were successfully broken.

At the airport, representatives of travel agencies immediately began to fool the people, showing which queue to get in for a visa. All the people stood up obediently. We stood for 5 minutes until we realized that they lined us up in the queue where the visa costs $17. That is, to the desk of the tour operator. We looked around, in the corner of the hall there were 4 windows from various banks, where they sold visas for 15 dollars. The people there were 3-4 people to each window. We got out of the “fooling” queue, went to the bank window and bought visas for 15 dollars in 1 minute. Why pay $17? This did not give any privileges later. We got our luggage and went to the hotel.
Hotel. The occupancy is low, so the Azur 4* Club is closed. All settled in Royal Azur 5 stars. Not everyone in the hotel understands Russian, but there is such a person in every shift at the reception. The territory of the hotel is well arranged, the interesting architecture of the buildings - many stairs with forged openwork railings - this gives some airiness to the buildings. There is a lot of greenery: sprawling palm trees, bushes all figuratively trimmed, a bar near the pool is beautifully braided with bougainvillea, flower beds. In the evenings, the hotel carried out fumigation of bushes from flies. The hotel has 4 swimming pools. Heated one. With fresh water. Everyone was rinsing there, because in the sea their legs were cramped from the cold. There may have been fish near the coral, but it will cost you more to see them - in such water it is easy to catch pneumonia. There were always enough sun loungers around the pool. At sea, too.
There are many bars and restaurants in the area. But in the main restaurant, where breakfast and dinner are served, there are many tables with a swinging tabletop, which is extremely inconvenient. You can eat from early morning until late at night. The food is normal. There is a choice of dishes. Everything is edible, but no frills. All the same, few people cook at home for 3-4 meals for lunch. If you fried potatoes in the evening, then the next day you eat them up. From fruit only oranges. Drinks and juices are normal, all from bottles and boxes, although there were Jupis in the machines (for those who wish). So you won't die of hunger or thirst. I can’t say anything about the quality of alcohol - I don’t drink in my life. There are always queues at the bars. In the chill-out near the reception, the waiters do not deliver drinks, but only collect dirty dishes from the tables.
Number. The furniture is old. Towels and bed linen are white. No complaints. TV old Grundik in a black plastic (slightly split) case. Russian channels: on the 14th - ORT. On the 18th Russia 24, on the 19th - RTR Planet. Minibar free of charge: 2 large plastic bottles of water (mainly used for brushing teeth), 1 bottle of Pepsi and 2 7UP (in glass). Replenishment of the bar daily. So either drink or put it in your suitcase, otherwise they won’t replenish it again. There are no shampoo gels in the bathroom (it's good that I read the reviews and took them with me). Liquid soap dispenser for hand and shower. The dispenser is so tight that it will not work to squeeze out the soap immediately. I just pulled out a bag of soap from the dispenser, made an incision in it, and only then it became possible to use it for my own pleasure. The tiles in the bathroom are old, the plumbing too, in some places there is mold in the corners. Hot water does not come out immediately. You have to wait 5 minutes. The water pressure is also weak. But my husband and I are not very fixated on this - we washed ourselves and went out. The air conditioner did not work to cool the air, it just drove the air. It's good that in March this is not very relevant. I also want to make this point. The cleaner in our room rearranged my makeup on the dressing table every day in different configurations as he saw fit. When I got back to my room, my combs were in one place and my hairspray was in another. It was necessary to rummage around with your eyes to understand what and where he shifted. He built various figures from my bubbles and jars. It seems like there is nothing wrong with that, but... I like to take my things exactly in the place where I put them. There were no cases of theft. If the cleaner forgot to replenish the minibar - one of the Arabs who hang out in the corridor all day needs to say in Russian "minibar" and show the tag with the number on the key - they will bring everything.

Animation, including children's, is not at all. Although the stage and all the equipment is there. Apparently it's not the season. In the basement, under the reception, a disco. A small room with a complete lack of ventilation. Sometimes in the chill-out next to the reception a girl sang karaoke. Her voice is good. You can listen. Some danced.
Vacationers. In the reviews, I read that there were few Russians in the hotel and there were no “Tagiiiiiiiila” at all. It's the other way around. There are many compatriots - over the pool, screams and obscenities in their native language are heard from morning to evening. It's good that the music drowns it out a bit. The music around the pool is mostly in French. There are plenty of French in the hotel too. And they didn't behave well. They gathered in heaps and yelled like rooks on our birches in the spring. Near the pool, one woman (well over 40 years old) sunbathed topless, the other (in the same age category) - without the bottom of her swimsuit. Another pair of Frenchmen (also well over 40 years old for both), with obesity of the very last degree, which is possible, immediately demonstrated the sexual revolution in the pool. In the water, he pressed her to the side and began to kiss passionately, while raising his hand up and throwing his fingers out of his fist - this is how he considered the duration of the kiss. He repeated this procedure 5 times, no less. I immediately remembered Russian weddings, where all the guests yell (count) aloud when the bride and groom kiss. He probably had it to warm up. After that, it became even cooler: he began to beat on his girlfriend with his whole body in completely unambiguous rhythms. I did not expect such looseness and temperament from them. Or is it ignorance? Don't know. For the first time I encountered representatives of this nationality and did not experience joy. There were also Germans, but they behaved more calmly, peacefully sucking free drinks, since almost all of them are pensioners of the 3rd Reich by age. The age contingent of vacationers is teenagers with parents, and people aged 40+. There were not very many with small children, and that was good. Our children have grown up, there are no grandchildren yet. And there is no desire to listen to the capricious cries of other people's spoiled children. I cannot but note that I have never seen so many overweight people in one hotel at once.
For those who like to sleep a little longer in the morning or an afternoon nap - just an ambush. The first time we got to the hotel, where screams in the corridor from early morning. From 7 in the morning, the French go along the corridor for breakfast (and why can't they sleep? ) And at the top of their lungs they discuss something among themselves and cackle. The fact that people are still sleeping in every room, including those with children, who cares? In any case, not them. Also, the cleaners of the rooms are not silent. Constant shouting down the corridor, zhrach - until the evening.
Every day it got hotter and hotter. At the same time, the reception was getting stuffier and stuffier. Air conditioning was not included. The guide from Natalie tours, Oksana, said that even in the summer it is not included here because of economy.

Oksana herself is in the hotel strictly according to the schedule, which is posted on the information board. A normal, adequate woman, a Russian woman. No money for excursions. If you do not want to go on an excursion - the money is returned without claims. He will change the currency, tell you if something is of interest. This is perhaps a rarity for hotel guides.
Conclusion: we will not go there anymore, even on a "last minute" trip. But... if someone does not have extra money, but you want to relax and all of the above does not bother me much - go.