1. They immediately gave a decent number, without wandering around the "killed" and demanding a tip. By the way, all rooms in the hotel have a direct or side view of the sea.
2. In the room: a new TV, a powerful air conditioner, a nice bath, a large balcony, a safe, a hair dryer, a refrigerator. There are 4 sockets, a kettle, but there is none)) bottled water 2*1.5 liters every day.
2. Restaurant - I had no idea that such a thing could happen in Egypt, especially in a 4* hotel. EVERYTHING is delicious)) and a very large assortment. Even sweets are not of the same type. M? food, vegetables, fruits, marinades, sushi, grill, pizza, spaghetti, even cheese and sausages (several types of everything) it turns out, they have delicious ones)) for lunch and dinner white, red wine, beer are tasty and undiluted.
3. Beach: sand, palm trees, in addition to sunbeds, there are also several hammocks between the palm trees. On the beach there is a decent bar, shops, they bake pancakes with fillings and toppings. The beach is large, there are enough sunbeds.
The managers on the beach are not annoying)) the music is almost all European, novelties.
4. Animation is in English, almost everything is clear. Yes, minimal English is desirable. The animation is interesting,
5. Guests: this is generally a pleasure for my soul)) English, Italians, Germans, Dutch, Czechs, Poles. Accordingly, everyone behaves decently. Everywhere is clean, no one gets drunk.
6. The sea: it is shallow near the shore, but there is a gentle descent to the depth somewhere up to the neck. There is an ebb and flow. The pontoon is long, I counted about 600 steps, but it is not difficult to walk, the technical condition is decent. Two intermediate approaches to the edge of the reef. The reef is interesting, there are many interesting fish, two moray eels live, I saw balistodes, large arotrons, I saw aleutera, large rhinoceros fish, and the usual reef colorful small things.
They say there are turtles and dolphins, I haven't seen them yet)) personally, I'm a bit sorry that they don't allow you to swim more than 15 meters to the right and left from the pontoon, but I can understand them, it's almost an open sea.
It is worth noting that the hotel has all rooms with direct or side sea views, so do not be fooled by the "best room". They are all the same. The room is quite standard, as in other hotels in Egypt. Cleaning, of course, is lame, but it's not critical. The territory of the hotel is compact, well-groomed, a lot of greenery. There are several pools, one was heated. The hotel is not located in the bay and in the winter season it is quite windy and not very comfortable.
The hotel has one restaurant, the food does not shine with its variety, but everything is cooked quite tasty.
Breakfast - scrambled eggs, pancakes, yogurt, toast, sausages, cereals, vegetables, etc. For lunch - two types of soup, pasta, rice, potatoes (sometimes sweet, sometimes very salty), chicken, fish, goulash. For dinner - a brazier every other day (liver, minced meat sausages, chicken). Drinks - alcohol is just of very poor quality, they took it with them to duty free. Good only beer - from glass bottles, but poured into small disposable cups of 150 ml and one in hand. Good bar - just in the lobby. It is poured into glass, cola there from 2 liter bottles, and not from the apparatus.
The animation is unobtrusive. Children's animator Dasha perfectly entertains young guests. The beach is large enough, with a sandy gentle entrance to the sea, but the water near the coast is just icy. There is a long pantone and steps from it at the end of the live reef (there is a depth of up to 20 meters), and two steps along the pier (deep to the chest). Here we went swimming from the pier - the water is much warmer. Although it sounds kind of absurd).
On the left side of the beach there is Monkey diving center. It is better to buy excursions from them, and not from a hotel guide. ATVs are also cheaper on the beach. I'm attaching a photo with a price list and a phone number.
As a result - a fairly good hotel for a budget holiday. Tour for 6 days 2 + 1 cost 1.800 UAH. The only "minus" - very windy in winter.
Settlement went faster, for extra. fee (bargained for $ 20) we settled in a suite with a beautiful view of the pool and the sea. Without this fee, they said that separate beds await us. Although my friends got almost the same room as ours without surcharges, they had problems with hot water, but we don’t). The furniture is old, but everything is whole and nice. Plumbing in good condition.
Food at the highest level, a variety of food: vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, many types of desserts, grill, pizza and various pastries, spaghetti, different types of pasta and even Egyptian pasties.
Alcohol is poured into glasses here, can be diluted with drinks or juice. Wine and beer (tastes like our Chernihiv) we went. Cocktails are made by the pool. On the beach alcohol from 11 am.
The room was cleaned every day and towels changed. We made hearts and various animals out of them. Thank you a little, the guy tried very hard. We had room 204, building E. As for the language, almost everyone understands Russian. The visitors are mostly Ukrainians. All your own, it won't be boring : ) On the beach there are free sunbeds with comfortable mattresses, right under the palm trees. Volleyball, yoga, stretching with animators, and much more cheer up. One of the heated pools, suitable for children.
Weather: we were in January 2022. It’s cool here in the morning and evening, sometimes even jackets were thrown on, but in the daytime it’s 27 degrees, hot, cool. But take mostly warm clothes, and then what to wear to the beach. The hotel has a club, it's hot, you can dress up.
The sea on the very shore is icy, but if you walk to the end of the pier, then the water is 24 degrees, it is very warm and you can swim with a mask, the beauty is indescribable, there are a lot of fish.
Take small dollars or chocolates with you. The first day they ask “present for me” for everything. So bring your own bags to your room. Bottled water is given one-time, 2 per person, and then collect yourself in the cooler; The water is delicious there.
There is a pharmacy and kiosks with souvenirs and cigarettes. A pack of sticks is $4, for example.
Regarding excursions, we did not go, but they say cool. You can swim with a sea cow and turtles.
Elphistone lives up to its 4 stars. Rest were satisfied.
At the airport we bought a sim card for 30 gigabytes for $ 15 - I advise.
2. Room H205 - shady, normal, quite large, overlooking the pool and the sea - everything worked. Cleaned up every day. Water immediately brought 4 bottles.
The hotel does not have hot water - barely warm.
3. Meals are standard, as in most hotels in Egypt. Everything is well prepared. There were no problems with dishes. There were a lot of cakes. The cooks did all sorts of tricks with cakes (swans). Fruits - dates oranges tangerines grapes.
4. Weather. There were windy and quiet days, hot 28-33 gr.
5. Sea. The priority for us is the reef and the sea. The reef at the end of the platform did not disappoint, it was alive and the fish were small. In shallow water, huge flocks like algae, moray eels crawled there. We saw an eagle and an ibis and a heron.
In general, I liked the hotel.
The food is disgusting as is the alcohol, but that's not the case for this hotel anymore, it's the same as in others. Alcohol is diluted, poured into plastic 100 g glasses, 2 pcs in the hands, redneck, I didn’t want to take anything. On the one hand, the staff is friendly, but they only look after tips, who did not give - no attitude (for example, some of them book the best tables and alcohol in glasses / glasses).
In the dining room (there is no language to call it a restaurant), for several days there were no plates and a place to sit, you had to wait for someone over your head. Napkins need to beg, rumpled, where they were incomprehensibly. The unsanitary conditions are complete, the pandemic is “not terrible”. The pier to the reef is 400m, it's annoying every day, the reef is beautiful (1 point for that). There is nothing to do in the hotel, only the sea, you can’t go anywhere behind the hotel desert.
So the pros:
Sea, corals, location, sea view from all rooms, room cleaning, well-prepared food, enough landscaping on the territory, no Internet (yes, this is a plus for me), unobtrusive animation, good music throughout the territory (I am a musician, so I know for sure that it does not annoy the audience with different tastes)
Minuses:
1. Deception at the reception: different prices are charged from tourists for early check-in. They try to talk about the "best" rooms with a good view. They agree to show the room only after payment: after all, all rooms have one view: the sea
It seemed that the reception was sorry to hang bracelets before decorating the rooms and let people in for breakfast. This is a practical demonstration that the personal profit of employees greatly lowers the rating of a fairly good hotel. : (
2. Theft. On the second day of rest, it turned out that water tinted with a bluish color was poured into the bottle from under my transparent professional shampoo. Apparently they hoped that all people wash their hair with that soapy substance that they pour into plastic wall dispensers and that I would not notice. Ok, since there is such poverty for shampoos, next time I will bring the children's shampoo "Quack-quack" here for gifts.
3. Main restaurant. This is the first time I have encountered such a clear and eloquent demonstration of preference for Arab and local tourists: waiters occupy half of the tables for them before the restaurant opens, and guests from other countries simply have nowhere to sit! Next are the tables for the guests, who tip the waiters. Each waiter has fixed tables behind him and pays attention according to the size of the tip. I want to appeal to the administration of this hotel and other Egyptian resorts: giving preference to your own is not bad. But you also get the most complaints and the least money from your own. And foreign tourists bring you the main income! Lockdown confirmed this. Don't forget this and please remind your employees!
4. Drinks at the bars. Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic are heavily diluted. Although it may be for the best for many vacationers.
5. And the extreme, "fat" failure, which left the most indelible impression: on the day of departure, we were not allowed to have lunch! They wanted $13 per person! A large group of tourists was leaving, the transfer to the airport was at 14.25, there were families with children. So at the reception they said that those leaving do not have the right to move around the hotel. They also went to the restaurant to check that none of the group accidentally sat down at the table. It's a shame, given the already poor menu and conditional variety! Of course, after such "hospitality" no one was going to pay for lunch. uncomfortable.
Dear hotel management! You're throwing away leftover food! Is it really that hard to give people lunch before a long flight and earn yourself a good rating at the same time?
Everything in your hotel would be great if it were not for such an attitude towards guests!
2. Beautiful landscaping, a beautiful sea and the entrance to it, the entry from the shore was good, both children and adults swam (water height reached 1.5 m), because of the strong wind, the pier was closed for almost all 10 days of stay at the hotel.
3. The room was cleaned, but everything is old and the furniture is falling apart, it would be better if there was no refrigerator, it is very dirty and unusable. The safe is free and working in the room, towels were changed without problems, water was also brought for a tip, but not bad either.
4. Meals are standard as in most hotels in Egypt, but on the 5th day the whole family got food poisoning. Local alcohol (free in bars) was not even tried as we were warned that it was unsafe for health. I didn’t expect delicious free coffee, so I won’t comment, but if you are coffee lovers, then only count on a paid espresso for 2 €.
5. There is no hot water in the hotel and, as the administrator told me, this is the problem of the hotel, so hot water will not appear, only warm. With children in this regard, it was difficult, not everyone likes a cold shower even on a hot day.
Naturally, I liked the rest by the sea, even if we spent the night in tents), but the statements of the service did not correspond to reality. Animation tried to entertain the guests of the hotel, there are no questions for them either. The food quality needs to be improved!
But the employees of the Diving Monkey diving center on site made the vacation really unforgettable. In them, we chose an excursion to the Abu Dabab bay and the House of dolphin. Thank you very much for this. Special thanks to Hassan Madany who organized the dolphin swim in the open sea, he was a great guide and photographer who directed us where to swim to be close to the dolphins and took great photos with them.
Emotions are simply incredible, when you swim in a flock of dolphins, you can touch them, see how they play and hear how they communicate with their special whistle. These feelings are beyond words!
Thank you again Hassan for making my dream come true - it was just amazing!!
In the bay of Abu Dabab, everything was really as we were told no false promises: they said that the turtles would be for sure - they were, we swam with them and took pictures, the dugong - maybe or not - there was no dugong, but there were enough emotions from the turtles and great reef.
My family and I are already planning next year's holiday at the Elphistone Resort and Diving Monkey employees.
The territory is compact, green.
Animation software.
The food is good, a large selection of fruits and vegetables, there has always been meat, various types, grilled.
Our room was good in the main building, everything is clean and serviceable, no complaints about cleaning.
Wifi is paid.
Rest for all 100%,