Отдых удался Rest was a success

I rested in the Hilton with my husband from 08/31/11 to 09/11/11. In Egypt - the eighth time, in Mars - the first. Like many who went to a new hotel, there were doubts about the correctness of the choice, but we did not regret it for a moment. I hope my review will help those who are going to this hotel.
Flight. We flew from Domodedovo by Transaero. We must pay tribute, the flight both there and back took place exactly at the indicated time.
Advice to those who fly with this company. A day before departure, you can go to the Transaero website, check in right there for a flight with the opportunity to choose a seat on the plane yourself. This will avoid queues at the airport.
Visa costs $15. Those who did not want to stand in line for a visa and for passport control gave $ 30 to the smart guide from Pegasus, and he saw them out of the queue, which, however, did not help the “impatient” much - luggage was still issued when most of the tourists passed passport control.

Transfer. Given that our hotel was the third along the way, the travel time was 3 hours 15 minutes. (with a 15 minute rest stop in El Quseir). The meeting guide was moderately chatty and polite. We arrived at the hotel around 2 am. Before accommodation, we were sent to a restaurant for dinner (the waiters did not disperse and were waiting for our group). Then we were put on an electric car and taken to the room (although it was possible to walk there in 3 minutes).
Accommodation. Bought a room with a garden view. Imagine our surprise when in the morning, going out to the balcony, we saw that it overlooks both the garden and the sea. No one asked us to pay extra for such a room. Although, I admit that such a “mercy” is explained by the fact that I treated the meeting guide with a chocolate, maybe he asked the receptionist to give a better number.
Advice. Do not be lazy, take a few bars of our usual Russian chocolate with you - you will give it as a present and you will be happy : ) If earlier the Egyptians expected money as a tip, now they are happy with chocolate.
We lived in building 24 on the second floor. This is the last building put into operation at the time of our stay there. All others are still in the finishing stage.
Advice. If there is an opportunity to choose a floor, then I advise you to settle on the second one: - in-1, it has a better view, in-2, the ceiling above the balcony of the second floor is not solid, but resembles a reel (wooden beams laid in 30 cm increments). This design will allow you to sunbathe for days right on the balcony (if you are too lazy to go outside or want to sunbathe "nude"), and in the evening - to contemplate the starry sky without leaving your room.
The room has everything you need - TV, refrigerator, hair dryer, kettle, dishes, iron with ironing board and even scales (apparently to see how recovered from such a relaxing holiday). They clean daily, bring a 1.5 liter bottle of water, as they are used - tea leaves, coffee, sugar.
To open the rooms, electronic keys are used (a regular white plastic card). I don’t know why, but sometimes these same keys are either demagnetized, or something else happens to them. If you come to the door of your room and cannot open it, do not panic, go to the reception, where it will be reprogrammed in 2 minutes and you will continue to use the key safely.

Territory. Despite the fact that there are many buildings, they are all located quite compactly, and the distance from the buildings to the restaurant, the central pool and the beach does not differ much depending on the location of the building.
The hotel has one central pool (life is in full swing around it - animators work, there is a bar, evening shows are held), 3 small pools near the buildings on the "extreme" line of buildings (one regular, one with a sign "children under 16 years old are not allowed" and one , imitating the sea - with a sandy bottom), one diving pool (near the SPA building).
Behind the fence is a desert, there is nowhere to go, so those who like to hang out outside the hotel are clearly not here.
The hotel has, in my opinion, 4 or 5 shops, and each of them specializes in something of its own (somewhere they sell jewelry, somewhere - souvenirs, somewhere textiles and bags, somewhere - cameras for underwater shooting and swimming accessories). Shops are open until 23-00. The choice (meager) and prices (high), of course, cannot be compared with Hurghada, but the most necessary (for example, creams for / after sunburn, fins / masks, feminine hygiene products can be bought there). On the seashore (outside the hotel) there are several small shops, they sell the same thing, but cheaper by 5-7 dollars. So do not be lazy, and before you buy something at the hotel, look into the shops on the beach.
The hotel has a doctor, but, just in case, take a "duty" set of medicines with you. We didn’t need any medicine all the time, but, as they say, the supply doesn’t tear up the pocket.

Contingent. Most of the tourists are Italians. There are many Germans, Poles, there are Englishmen, Austrians, Swiss, Arabs. At first there were very few Russians, then they increased, but still there were no more than foreigners. It is very pleasant to note that the Russian-speaking audience was quite intelligent - there were no drunken screams, brawls and neighing. Apparently, those who look like the heroes of “Our Rashi” (“Tagiiel! ”) Do not consider it necessary to drive 3 hours from Hurghada (you can drink there too), which personally makes me very happy. The attitude towards everyone is absolutely the same - friendly, I did not notice much difference in relation to the staff, for example, towards Italians and Russians.
The only problem that may arise is the language barrier. Communication is mostly conducted in English, although the service staff is slowly beginning to memorize Russian phrases. In which case, you can contact the Russian-speaking animator Daria, she will help "overcome misunderstanding. " In addition, there is a Russian-speaking employee at the reception, so you can find out the information you are interested in even with a lack of linguistic knowledge.
Separately, it should be said about the animators. These are very positive, friendly, active guys who obviously enjoy their work.
Nutrition. The food is decent and varied. For breakfast - scrambled eggs, porridge, vegetables, cheese, sausage, sausages, hash browns, toast, vegetables, fruits, breakfast cereals, yoghurts, dried fruits, pancakes with a variety of jams, tea-coffee, "fresh" (tomato, orange, melon , watermelon). Baking is always a lot of the most different.
For lunch and dinner, given that there are many Italians, there is always pasta with different fillings (they cook in front of you, you can choose the ingredients yourself) and pizza. In addition to fish, chicken and beef, every day there was something from seafood: shrimp, squid, crabs.
Every evening, defiantly, some dish is prepared right in front of you (either sushi, or something similar to dumplings with cheese, or some kind of “show off” salads). In a word, a whole action is arranged from dinner.
Fruits have always been watermelon, melon, guava, pears, apples, grapes, oranges.
Alcohol is the same as everywhere else in Egypt. If in a restaurant during dinner the waiter shows you a whole bottle of wine and offers to pour it, specify whether it is paid or not (otherwise you, confident that it's all free, will be billed for the wine that is not included in the system). "all inclusive").
There are many tables, but if you want to choose at your discretion, it is better to come to the beginning of lunch (13-00) and dinner (18-30).

The restaurant has a dress code. For breakfast and lunch they will not be allowed in swimsuits (women) and bare-chested (men). For dinner, men in shorts above the knee and sleeveless T-shirts may not be allowed. They also seem to demand that women come to dinner not in shales, but with us, this rule was not really followed by anyone.
Breakfast is served in the central restaurant, lunch is served in the central restaurant and in the bars by the pool and on the beach (snacks), dinner is served in the central restaurant, as well as on the terrace near the restaurant. Inside the restaurant, smoking is prohibited, so if you want to smoke at dinner, you will have to take a table outside.
For those who want romance, the hotel has provided a very interesting service. You can order dinner to your room. They will elegantly lay a table for you right on your balcony and allocate a personal waiter. This kind of service costs 200 Egyptian pounds per person (approx. 35 dollars). So, if someone, for example, is going on vacation to make a marriage proposal, you can take this opportunity.
Advice. The waiters do not stand idle, scurrying back and forth, so be prepared for the fact that no one will come to your table for a long time. Feel free to wave your hand to the waiter, he will guess that you need to come up. And further. When ordering tea, specify that you want green tea, otherwise they bring black tea by default.

Guide at the hotel. This is SOMETHING. Many have already written about Karim, I can not resist. Of the 7 previous trips, the impression of the guides was only the most positive, the eighth time was not lucky. My desire to communicate with the guide ended at the very first meeting, which took place the day after arrival. What would your opinion be if your guide, having been late for 40 minutes, did not even apologize, sitting down, he would start selling tour tickets to those who are not the first day at the hotel, and then, finally paying attention to you, issued would you approximately such a tirade: “Fill out a statement that you take full responsibility if something happens to you. You can go on excursions, you can not go, I don’t care, I have enough money even without you. And in general, the less you Russians will come to Egypt, the better - there will be more order. There are no specific hours when I will be at the hotel, if you need something, call me on my mobile. ” The tone of the monologue was rude, harsh, I would say, boorish, one got the impression that he was paying us money for the trip, that we were poor relatives who had sat on their necks. In preparation for the meeting, I made a list of questions, but when I heard a “friendly” speech, I put the notebook with questions away and realized that it would be better to find out everything myself by trial and error. If I didn’t have anything to compare with, I might think that in Egypt they just have such a negative attitude towards Russians, but, fortunately, I understand that all these words, apparently, from Karim’s small mind or from his lack of education.
If Pegasus employees read my review, a big request is to remove this boor, he cannot work with people.
And one more piece of advice. If you are leaving early in the morning and, accordingly, skip breakfast, do not forget to go to the reception the day before and order yourself a "dry ration", the so-called lunch box. In other hotels, this is done by a guide, but given the above, you yourself understand that taking care of you is your own headache.
SEA. This is the main thing for which it is worth going to Mars. Much has been written about the splendor of the reef. A few tips. It is best to swim with a mask early in the morning (at 6 o'clock) and in the evening (at 4 o'clock) - the sea is calm, there are few people. I personally did not need coral slippers - the entrance to the sea is sandy, and then you put on flippers. But, if you swim without fins, it is better to wear slippers - sometimes some kind of living creatures can swarm right by the shore (once we saw a stingray almost 2 meters from the shore). It is better to buy slippers on the spot. For comparison, I bought them at Sportmaster for 690 rubles, and there the same ones cost $ 10. I don’t know the prices for masks and fins, since we travel to Egypt with our own.
If you want to swim with the turtles, walk along the coast to the building with the inscription "Diving Center". Opposite this place, go into the sea for 30 meters and swim away from the Hilton (to the right if you stand with your back to the Diving Center). When you see grass at the bottom, know that turtles are “grazing” somewhere nearby. You can see if there is a cluster of “snorkelers” in the area I indicated, which means that there are turtles somewhere. We saw 5 turtles of different sizes at the same time. Once every 5 minutes they swim to the surface to take a breath of air, at this moment you can swim up to them and touch them. It is also interesting to watch how turtles eat jellyfish.

If you just want to flounder in the sea, without fear of stepping on something (I mean corals or fish), you can safely go to the beach of a neighboring hotel (200 meters ahead from the place where snorkelers enter the sea), where you can freely swing on the waves.
By the way, despite the periodic tides, high waves were not observed near the reef, which could not be said about the beach of the neighboring hotel.
Summarizing the overall impression of the hotel, I can say that the rest was a success. Yes, there were some small comments, but in general, I can safely recommend Hilton to my friends. Prices are still low for a hotel of this level, so it's a sin not to take the opportunity to have a good rest for a fairly low price.