Melia Sharm Hotel 5* Melia Sharm Hotel 5*

Hello, dear readers of this site, like-minded people and travelers!
I want to leave a review about our 7th vacation in Egypt, maybe it will be useful for someone when choosing a hotel. We rested with my husband in early March from 03/02/2013 to 03/09/2013. We make quite high demands on the conditions of rest, even our travel agent calls us “spoiled tourists”.
You can compare Egypt only with Egypt, this is not Europe, look at the map, if anyone does not know. ))) I will compare with other hotels in Egypt that we visited of approximately the same category and price.

Hotel and Resort Choice: The main factor in choosing for us is having a good house reef and a decent hotel. In terms of marine life and other underwater beauty, probably no other resort can be compared with Marsa Alam, but we took a vacation for only 7 days, it took us 4.5 hours to drive from home to the airport, 4 hours to fly, and from Hurghada to Marsa Alam transfer for another 4 hours. That's why we chose Sharm. The hotel was chosen based on reviews on several sites, many thanks to everyone who wrote and posted photos. With the reef, the situation was more complicated, for some people the presence of 3 fish is already a fabulous reef, for others, the Ras Muhamed reserve is rather poor, depending on who saw what. We read the description of the bay on various sites, and found a video of the reef “from Baron to Savita” in Yandex (link http://video. yandex. ua/users/o-l9/tag/corals/).
People, a huge human request, I think not only mine: in your reviews, post photos with views of the HOTEL, ROOM, RESTAURANT, BEACH, NATURE and REEF! Your faces, priests and other parts of the body do not give a clear idea of ​ ​ u200bu200brest! Leave your erotic and not so erotic photo for social networks and family albums. )))))
Transfer: Flight Kyiv - Sharm El Sheikh "Boeing 737-800" UIA airline, travel time is about 4 hours. Impeccable takeoff - landing, professional team, pleasant flight, THANK YOU SO MUCH to the crew commander. )))
They didn’t buy a visa, they asked with a smile “Sinai only” and no problems. Although the hotel is located at a distance of 7 km from the airport, we were the last to be brought in, the transfer took 30-40 minutes. I was surprised that half of the big bus was with tourists to our hotel, for a long time they had not seen such a full house in Egypt. ))))
Check-in: Settled within an hour, despite the fact that it is necessary from 14-00, the bracelets were put on immediately. We invested 10 American money and 2 chocolates in the passport.

Rooms: length room number 4031 on the 1st floor overlooking the garden, near the lobby, restaurant and the sea. We asked to change to the second floor, the reception said to come the day after tomorrow, we did not "bother". The room is medium in size, cozy, not "in ruins". There is a kettle, tea, coffee, sugar, shampoos, shower gel, body balm. The minibar is filled once upon arrival with soft drinks. There are 2 large beds in the room (the cleaner then remade them into one), normal plumbing, mirrors, wardrobes, 2 armchairs and a table, in general, there are all conditions for a normal rest. There are no bathrobes and slippers, but we didn’t go for them. ))))) At the request, they brought us 2 chairs and a table to the terrace. The soundproofing in the hotel is normal, however, the chairs on the balconies and terraces move very noisily on the tiles, it would be necessary to put some caps on the legs (well, this is a wish). The cleaner cleaned regularly, replenished the soap / rylnoe, only when it was over, he didn’t indulge in “creative towel”, but it was clean. We, in turn, tried to thank him every day for his diligence. Dear tourists, stop looking at the microcracks on the ceilings at night, the quality of the tile laying and taking photos of rust under the sink. What did you forget under the sink? You didn’t come with a construction inspection to hand over a construction site, don’t pay attention to nonsense, there are more interesting activities at the hotel!
Hotel and territory: the hotel is really very beautiful, as in the photo of the site. Snow-white buildings, a huge 3-storey lobby, coffee shops, marble. The territory is not very big, but very green and well-groomed, there are flowers everywhere. Beautiful cascading pools flowing into each other with panoramic sea views. At night, illuminated fountains near the lobby. CLASS!!!
The location of Melia Sharm is very good: to the north it borders on an abandoned small hotel, then Coral Beach Rotana, behind it is the Baron grid, behind them is a shopping street (the prices are normal, you can buy everything you need and you don’t have to go to the city) , closes the row is a very interesting hotel "Coral Sea Sensatori", further you can see 3 hotels of El Montanza Bay, behind them begins Nabq Bay. In the south, the hotel borders on Melia Sinai, behind it are some cottages, further on the cliff, all the hotels of the Knight's Bay are visible from the edge of the cliff. In general, we "walked around" not only our territory, but also all the nearest neighbors. We took a taxi to Soho - a very beautiful marble street with bronze statues, cafes, shops and entertainment centers. We watched / listened to the “singing fountain” on Soho, a bewitching sight, especially when the fountain suddenly began to perform “Kalinka”, people could not believe their ears !!!!! ))))))))
Nutrition:

I am very skeptical about the high ratings of food in Egyptian hotels, the most important thing for me is the freshness of the products and the absence of poisoning. But this hotel was a pleasant exception. There were really delicious meals. We were especially pleased with the seafood - the most delicate octopuses and grilled crabs. Not a single cut vegetable or greens looked “yesterday's” or “tired”. If the dish is over, after 5 minutes they bring a new one. From 11-00 to 17-00 in the bars by the pool and on the beach they prepare fast food, which is also delicious, I especially liked the tuna burger))))))). After talking with other tourists, we realized that many people have a similar problem with food (no, not racing on a “white horse”, but overeating), well, it’s really delicious! )))). The first hotel out of 7 visited was really pleased with the food, SHUKRAN chefs !!!
We didn’t go to the paid a la carte of our hotel, but to the left along the beach we noticed the fish restaurant of the Melia Sinai hotel with a very friendly administrator Hassan. 2 times took dinner on the beach (the 2nd for the celebration of March 8th). And again, the eternal feast of the stomach! ))) Tables right on the beach with lights 5 m from the sea, candles, the sound of the surf, quiet music, excellent service and a delicious dish. On a platter: half a lobster, huge shrimp, fish. 1 course is accompanied by 4 very decent salads and a basket of bread. This pleasure costs 25 dollars. USA for 2. One dish for 2 was more than enough for us. ))))) I remember with tears !!!!! ))))))))
Bars: They operate in the lobby, on the beach and by the pools. The all-inclusive system operates around the clock in the lobby, beach and pool bars are open until sunset. Juices only in packages, no chemical burda. There is hardware coffee (quite decent in taste) and tea bags. There are alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails (I liked “tequila boom”), the choice is large, any of your fantasies will be individually realized in a glass if you have the appropriate ingredients. Very good "canned" beer, good white wine in the lobby and main restaurant. Strong alcohol, especially vodka, has a persistent taste and smell of treacle moonshine, probably for special gourmets, it is hard to drink it even in cocktails. Take the "native" from Dewhi.
Service: if you are with a baksheesh and a smile, then they will not refuse you anything, they will serve you well, they will not infringe on anything, the word NO and IMPOSSIBLE, you will not hear there (tested on yourself). The hotel was full despite the political turmoil, so the waiters in the restaurant flew like bees to please everyone (although not always). We mostly spent time on the beach, so the beach bar staff were the ones we encountered the most. I really liked the chef Super Mario (Mohammed) there - a very smiling positive man, also the bartenders Ramadan (sometimes shows a cool dance with bottles), Mohammed (a good helpful guy), Islam (modest and friendly).

I so wanted to give the highest rating for the service, but in fairness to some of the other hotels we visited, I can’t. There was still one BUT: drinks are served to foreigners directly “in bed” (on a sunbed), moreover, the staff themselves offer to bring something, and ours go to the counter themselves. It seems to be a trifle, and it did not affect the mood, but it was striking. It is necessary to change their approach to “ours”, you need to wear either everyone or no one, as in other good hotels. Some “ours” also need to change their approach to the staff, smile more, and not sit with their faces always distorted, like at a dentist’s appointment, leave the lordly manners at home, not be greedy (at home we give tips in restaurants). By the way, the staff, well, very funny rejoices at our attempts to learn Arabic.
I will give as an example a story that also characterizes the Melia Sharm service. Our key was demagnetized, magnetized at the reception and the guard went with us to the room, it turned out that the problem was not in the key, they called an engineer very quickly, replaced the battery in the door. We gave a small tip. A day later, electricity was lost in half of the sockets and lamps, immediately after the call the same engineer came, quickly fixed everything, refused the tip with the words “I can’t take money from you every day. ” After 5 minutes, they called the reception, apologized and offered to change the room to "very good". We refused, because 2 days left to rest, but such a solution to the problems left a good impression.
Animation: there is a Russian-language daily animation. Unobtrusive, but also not indifferent, friendly, at a good level, they conduct gymnastics aqua aerobics, boccia, etc. Unexpectedly, the hotel was very pleased with the evening shows: karaoke, live music, saxophone, dance and fakir shows and an incomparable very expensive "imported" show with laser lights, capuero and ballet. Guys THANK YOU!!!! ))))))
And most importantly, the beach and the SEA: the beach is clean, cleaned, new sun loungers, enough towels, there is always a place, you don’t need to take it from the night. Wonderful beach bar with toilets, showers on the beach. A floating pontoon 100 m long. For us, walking 100 m to the “beauty” is not a problem (especially with such a diet), we also rested in hotels with a 700-meter pontoon.

SEA: no words, only emotions!! ! The hotel is located in the Ras Nasrani Montazah (Christian Bowl) bay, which is very good for snorkeling and diving. There are a lot of fish (butterflies, angels, arotrons, rhinoceroses, triggerfish, surgeons, heilins, parrots, pseudo-ballists, flutes, clowns), but more “little things”, matchless corals (there are also fiery ones), grow in gardens. We completely "combed" the bay from Coral Sea Sensatori to Melia Sinai. I really liked the section between the Coral Sea Sensatori and the Baron, we met a large wrasse with bright yellow lips, near the Baron pontoon we met a huge Napoleon who accompanied us to the Melia Sharm pontoon. Another interesting section between the Melia Sharm and Melia Sinai pontoons at the turn, I have never seen such a cluster of butterflies in one place. It is impossible to list everything, it cannot be described in words, it must be seen!!! ! They wanted to swim to the Savita, but really looked at a distance of several kilometers along the "wild" coast and did not dare. The reef is fully consistent with the video "From the Baron to Savita", unfortunately we did not see only the eagle stingray, but we wanted so much! )))))) Well, nothing, there will be a reason to return! )))))
EXCURSIONS: we took diving from our operator to Tiran, in the local diving center on the beach for some reason this excursion turned out to be much more expensive. We dived to 10 m and were very pleased with the professionalism of the instructors. Thanks a lot!!!
General impression: the hotel was pleasantly surprised by a fairly high level for a relatively reasonable price, to be honest, we expected everything to be more modest (territory, lobby, beach, food, evening shows). We are used to 5 * with prefixes to names like "Grand", "Royal", "Deluxe", but here it's just "Melia Charm" without any show-off)))))). Everything was great!!! ! The hotel unexpectedly got into the "three" favorites, where you want to return.
I recommend the hotel: to positive, active people who are in love with the Red Sea, who came with the goal of relaxing from the heart, not paying attention to petty nonsense!
I do not recommend it: to grumblings and bores who came to look for flaws, to people with inflated claims and "show-offs". It will also be difficult in the hotel for people trying to lose weight. )))))))))
Have a good rest, if you have any questions, write, I will be happy to answer!