Новый отель в Хургаде New hotel in Hurghada

Hotel Citadel Azur Resort *****.
Rested in this hotel 7.10-21.10. 08. In Egypt, we rest every year in October, so there is something to compare with. When departing from Kyiv, a tour for two cost us about 3300 USD, tour operator TEZ TOUR. Flight, meeting, transfer to the hotel, as usual at TEZ, no complaints, even better, because. now their buses are parked separately from other tour operators, so there is no particular crowd. We drove from the airport to the hotel quite quickly, in 30 minutes, with a stop at the Titanic and Dana.
Hotel. Huge territory, the length of the beach is 1800 meters. The architecture is impressive, the citadel style is 100% consistent. The hotel is built of natural stone, vaults, turrets, arches are everywhere, 90% populated by our Slavic brother. Thanks to the placement of buildings on a hill in several levels, the sea is visible from almost anywhere in the hotel. Rooms are ALL with sea view! And this is not a piece of the lagoon, which can be seen through a spyglass waist-deep from the balcony, but a really gorgeous view (even from the window in the toilet). For those who want everything to be close, this hotel is not suitable - there are many different ladders, passages, corridors. We walked for pleasure, because. Walking for 5-7 minutes on such beauty is just nice. The hotel consists of separate residential buildings, outwardly slightly differing in balconies and the shape of the building, we lived in No. 3 (3127) by the upper pool, just in the middle between the beach and the main building. The construction of the hotel has been going on for more than 11 years, the opening, scheduled for October 1, did not take place. Again they say that the opening is in a month, but in the two weeks of our stay there they have not progressed very much. Work does not interfere at all, perhaps we were just lucky. Two pools are open so far - with fresh and sea water, next to the upper pool there are about a dozen jacuzzis, which can be used from 10 am to sunset for free. Greenery is not enough, but what kind of greenery is in the citadel?! ? This is a military fortification))). It is 25 km to Hurghada, a shuttle runs twice a day (by appointment) for 5 euros per person, you can take a taxi, but you don’t run into much, so this hotel is not suitable for those who need the city.

Number. At the reception, upon check-in, they asked for a room with a balcony - they gave it without any problems and without money. They take you to your room in an electric car, which is cool. The hotel rooms are spacious, everything is new, everything is enough. Two beds, marble table, dressing table and coffee table, sofa, large TV, air conditioning with climate control, mini-bar (cola, fanta, sprite and plain water), kettle (three types of tea, coffee, three types of sugar, cream) , a phone with Internet access (the cord can be taken for free, a laptop for 5 euros per hour). Everything in the toilet room is as usual: a washbasin with a marble shelf, huge mirrors, a small magnifying mirror, electronic scales, a hair dryer, a cord for drying clothes, a shower behind a glass partition is very comfortable for me, three sets of towels, bathrobes, slippers, only detergent liquid soap. The water was at any time of the day, the pressure was excellent. At the entrance to the room there is a separate dressing room, there is a safe. Cleaning without complaints, crocodile swans were spun, flowers were worn, the bar and tea set were replenished, we left tips of 10 pounds three times. Every evening one of the staff came and asked if everything was in order, if there were any complaints, and there was a piece of paper hanging on the door, on which you can tick off what doesn’t work for you and hang it outside, everything is solved very quickly.
Nutrition. This is the main disadvantage of this hotel, and the only, perhaps, such a minus. Only three restaurants are open so far: the main "Citadel" (breakfast, lunch, dinner), Italian (dinner and late dinner by appointment) in the lower level of the hall and the eatery by the sea "Harbor Inn" (lunch and snacks). Food at the level of the Egyptian "C grade" of the middle hand - every day the same thing. Sometimes they forgot to put plates with the names of dishes, but there was no need for them, because. Everyone knew exactly what was where. I don't eat much, but I like it to be tasty - that's a problem in the Citadel. For breakfast there was a standard set: sausages, eggs, tomatoes with cheese, vegetables, olives !! , yogurts, cheese, sausage, two chefs fried scrambled eggs and pancakes, a variety of pastries and toasts, melon, dates, lots of cereal and muesli. Fruit salad was missing as a species, a couple of times managed to get on canned peaches and pineapples. Tea is poured by the waiters, but there was always a problem with boiling water, so sometimes people sadly wandered around the restaurant with cups in search of teapots and coffee pots. We were in Arabia last year, so there was tea and coffee on every table, it seems to me that it is much more convenient. Lunch starts at 12.30. We went from the beach to the Harbor Inn - the assortment there was rather meager, but we are unpretentious in food, as I already mentioned. Every day there was: rice, stew, stewed vegetables (asparagus, carrots, peas), jacket potatoes and fried fish, separately made “pasta” - different pasta with dressing of your choice, pizza, tomatoes, cucumbers, two types of salads. Everything is kind of insipid, without a soul... Only pasta and pizza are really very tasty! From fruits melon, oranges and guava, sometimes pears and wooden dates. Delicious cakes, but it's better to take it in advance, because. there is a problem with updating the one that ended there - there may be an empty display case and a couple of slices of melon on a tray ((. From 15.30 in the Harbor snacks - pizza, sandwiches, hot dogs, salad, sweets, fruit. From 12 to 22 in a cafe " Gelateria "free ice cream. Dinner from 19.30 every day is themed. The restaurant is decorated according to the theme, the outfits of the waiters too. Beautiful. In general, the main restaurant is very beautiful - a wonderful view of the sea, there are sections for smokers and non-smokers, as well as tables outside. One problem - FLIES that no one fights. A little annoying. At dinner, there is always one main dish that the chef distributes, grilled outside, but otherwise everything is the same as for lunch + two types of soups, diet dishes and a children's menu ( french fries are only there), there are almost no fruits, a lot of sweets. The hotel works on the Ultra system, so there are no problems with drinks - the lobby is open around the clock, the bars on the beach and by the pool from 10 am to sunset, in restaurants during lunch, snacks and supper . Alcohol is mostly local, they make good cocktails (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), delicious milkshakes, white, red wine, juices from packages, tomato from glass bottles, tea, coffee, espresso, cola, fanta, sprite, water. The waiters and bartenders in general are very cheerful, sociable, pleasant guys. We became friends with many.
Beach. Gorgeous, spacious sandy beach. Good new sunbeds and mattresses, fences from the wind (which is very important, because the wind in the Citadel almost does not subside). All beach life is divided into two sections - an artificial lagoon on the right and a sandy lagoon on the left (if you look at the sea). Animators work near the right lagoon and from there you can swim out into the open sea, they say even without slippers. We didn't like it there. the sun loungers are already very dense, and there are fences from the wind only further to the right along the beach. We chose a place between the left lagoon and the left bar on the beach. The sun loungers are far from each other, wearing slippers you can walk along the coral, see all kinds of living creatures. The people swam straight through the stones into the sea, but we did not dare, because. storm all the time, you can get injured. In the left lagoon, the entrance is sandy, immediately deep, then a small ridge, then very deep, then a high ridge of stones, and behind it the sea. There you can walk between the stones and swim out to the corals, only slippers are required and strength must be calculated, because. The current in the open sea is very strong. You can see enough corals and fish in the lagoon, there are a lot of them, there are also plenty of hedgehogs, so don’t believe that you can do without slippers.
Entertainment. With this, the Citadel is not very good, the hotel is calm. More suitable for a quiet family vacation, not for a party. The youth will be bored. In the afternoon, the animators arrange something there, with them you can ride bicycles around the hotel. There is a good gym. There is a diving school near the pier, where you can also rent masks and snorkels free of charge on the security of a passport or on a deposit. In the evening, a hookah bar is open, where you can sit comfortably inside or outside, smoke a hookah, drink tea, of course, for free. In the amphitheater there are daily evening shows, quite interesting and a disco for children. During dinner, live music is played in the lobby or outside. For other entertainment you need to go to Hurghada.

Service. The service is excellent, everyone is attentive and friendly. There is no usual five minutes for Egypt, all issues are resolved here and now. English is required at the reception, but in any case they will try to understand you and help you in resolving any issues. If the same swans are spinning in the room, then not one of your clean towels is involved, but an additional one, which will be taken away the next day. When you check out, you simply leave your luggage outside the door without any warning, and in a couple of minutes it will be waiting for you at the hotel entrance. Nice unobtrusive service.
Children. There is a playground, a mini club and a club for children from 9 to 13 years old, a children's menu and a disco in the evening, we didn’t see anything else, but there were a lot of people with children, including very small ones.
Tours. As I wrote above, we visit Egypt regularly, so we have already visited all possible excursions. This year we went to Hamam (Turkish bath) and to Jerusalem by plane. Borrowed from your tour operator. The guide at the Mustafa hotel is very good, he tries to help everyone, he does not bother with excursions. Our camera broke, so he spent three days with it around Hurghada until he found where Olympus was being repaired. In short, the guide is surprisingly very good. Well, a Turkish bath is just a Turkish bath, nothing special. If the hotel already had a sauna, then this trip could be dispensed with. But we bought something along the way in Hurghada. Excursion to Jerusalem is very interesting, but physically stressful. By plane AN-24 we fly to Taba, where we go by bus to the border with Israel, cross the border on foot on our own. We were not lucky at all - the Israelis had some kind of holiday and the border was closed for a couple of hours, as a result, we stood in a terrible crush for six! hours in a stuffy room, and even late for the tour for the same 6 hours. The guide was normal, but the bus was clearly too small for a group of 48 people. There was no toilet on the bus. And so everything was very informative and interesting, only very much running, because of the reasons I described above. Despite the terrible fatigue, we were very satisfied.
In general, the holiday was a success, the hotel really liked, the service is excellent. After opening everything that is planned there, it will be simply gorgeous, but I'm afraid that it will be very expensive. Recommend for a quiet family vacation. We are satisfied and wish you the same! Go back there again? Why not…