I want to share my impressions of my 30th vacation in Egypt. Rested with a friend in the Sheraton Sharm 5* hotel for 7 nights, all inclusive. This was my second stay at the hotel, I left a review (the first time was in November 2020, there were almost no tourists due to the global pandemic). I will not repeat myself, I will write about the main thing.
Traveled through our tour operator "Join Up". Departure from Chisinau. It took about 13 hours to get to the airport by direct bus from "Join Up", Kyiv-Chisinau, it was difficult, but it was worth it. Stops were at gas stations every 2-3 hours, you can drink coffee and eat something. You can charge your phone on the bus. They stood at customs for about 1.5 hours. Do not pack suitcases in film, they will certainly interest the customs officers. We flew with our Ukrainian crew, a very pleasant flight.
We arrived at the hotel after 8 o'clock in the morning, checked in immediately, at my request we were given a room on the sixth floor with a breathtaking view of the sea and almost the entire territory of the hotel. At sunrise, the view from the balcony is magical. I never heard the neighbors, only planes flying over the hotel. The room was located far from the elevator, but it was not a problem for us. The room is one-room, zoned, cozy and spacious enough. 2 comfortable large beds with quality bedding, a sideboard, a coffee table, a table, a sofa. The equipment is normal (TV, refrigerator, hairdryer, safe, kettle, air conditioner), everything worked. Water was replenished daily. Robes and slippers were brought immediately after a request at the reception. The bathroom has a spacious shower cabin, towels, and a minimal set of normal cosmetics. The daily cleaning was of high quality, many thanks to our cleaner.
The territory of incredible size was and remains one of the main advantages of the hotel. Many towering palm trees, flowers, flowering trees. It is clear that the hotel is well cared for.
There is a main pool with fountains in the shape of lions' heads, very nice and unusual, but I personally don't care about pools at all.
Separately, I would like to draw attention to the unusual architecture and style of "Sheraton Sharm 5*". Such hotels are a rarity. It alone has 7 floors, all rooms have a view of the sea. The decorated hall uses expensive natural materials: marble, copper, wood, stone, rattan palm. There is a white grand piano in the lobby bar. There are wonderful paintings on all the walls. High classical style is felt in the smallest details. The hotel has been slightly renovated and it shows.
Food. Used the main restaurant and à la carte restaurants. In the main restaurant, the choice is not large, but you can always find a dish to your taste. The main thing is that the products are fresh, and absolutely all dishes are very tasty.
There are many spices and sauces to choose from. It was not scary to eat ready-made salads with dressing, because the wines looked fresh. Food is healthy and useful. I thank the chefs very much! There are no long queues, there are always free tables, it is quite clean, and the service is good. There is an open terrace with a charming view of the sea.
We visited 2 à la carte restaurants: Italian and Oriental cuisine. The dishes were very tasty, and the service was excellent. Thank you so much Chef Ibrahim! I liked the Italian restaurant "Portofino" more: the dishes were extremely tasty, and the atmosphere was reminiscent of a cafe in provincial Italy: a cozy interior of Italian streets, high-quality romantic Italian music. I would like to commend the manager of Portofino named Abram Zakria and his entire team for excellent service, attention and a very good time spent in this restaurant. Everything in the restaurant was organized flawlessly.
There are two all-inclusive bars: there is a main bar and a beach bar.
The bars have standard Egyptian soft and alcoholic drinks. The quality of drinks is normal, the service is excellent. The bar on the beach is served by a wonderful bartender (in the evening he works as the manager of "Portofino") Abram Zakria. He managed to serve drinks to a very large number of people in a short time, was very attentive to the wishes of the guests and very friendly, made excellent cocktails. On the last day of our stay at the resort, we decided to order a Caesar salad with shrimp at the bar on the beach, the salad was perfect, it was delivered very quickly.
In general, service is a strong point of the hotel. Almost all the staff are very attentive and polite. Service is not intrusive and with a smile. Well done Thanks to the excellent service, I didn't want to pay attention to some minor problems. I want to sincerely thank you!!!!
Animation is the weak side of "Sheraton Sharm 5*". They did not impress me with anything good, I have seen much better teams. I think the level of this animation team is way below that of the hotel.
Very loud, low-quality music on the beach was annoying. The animators spent a lot of time sitting in the bar with cigarettes, in the evening they were obsessively invited to nightclubs in Sharm and asked to write a good review about them. I was unpleasantly impressed by the sloppy and even vulgar appearance of some of the animation girls. Damn, this was my 30th vacation in Egypt, I have something to compare it to.
The beach is clean and very large, the feeling is that it is empty, you feel comfortable. Towels are given on the beach in exchange for cards. There are a lot of umbrellas and sunbeds. There is everything you need. Perfectly!
The sea near "Sheraton Sharm 5*" is impressive. I swam from the Sheraton Sharm 5* hotel to the Sharm Plaza pontoon. Corals in the bay form a large barrier wall, the palette and architecture are incredible. Lots of butterflies, parrots, groupers, arotrons, hailines, flutes, tunas, etc. The shoals of cesiums and aboudebdoofs are endless, the fiery color of anthias creates a feeling of an unreal world.
There were a lot of pretty big aleuters posing for the camera. It is better to see once than to read a hundred times. On the first day of the holiday I saw a small napoleon, and on the last day an impressive giant gray moray came in, we swam very close with it at a distance of 1 m. probably for 10 minutes. Twice I saw very close a huge barracuda with a very serious expression on its face.
But, unfortunately, the reef has become poorer compared to the last visit, and there are reasons for this: boats began to swim close to the coral wall, near the Reef Oasis Blue Bay 5* hotel, water activities were organized (bananas, parachutes, etc. ), and tourists, hiding from the workers hotel, they feed the fish with bread. That is, people themselves kill the incredible beauty of this fabulous bay with their own hands. So sorry!
I can't help but mention the lifeguard on the pontoon named Mohamed. We met him back in 2020. He met us like old friends, it was very nice to see him.
He is very friendly and attentive to all tourists and their safety, he knows everything about fish and corals, his advice about the sea is very valuable. It is very important. Thanks for everything Mohamed!
Although I noticed some small flaws in the hotel, but thanks to the high level of service, kindness and attention of the employees, I had a wonderful vacation. The hotel left a very positive impression. I would like to come back here again.
Have a nice rest everyone, there will be questions, write, I will answer!
Buffet. The area of the restaurant I would like more, in the midst of a lot of people, you need to look for a free table. In addition to meat dishes, everything is quite decent and tasty (a feature is that half of the dishes do not have signs): a lot of delicious sweets, enough fruits, a lot of vegetables and even 4 types of cheese, pastries for every taste. Weak for meat - a couple of days there was a fish day (medium weak) on the rest of the days - beef in small pieces, very small chicken legs (we joked that it was a seagull and not a chicken) cutlets of a strange texture and bad smell, 2 times there were very tasty sausages and tolerable , very peppery burger patties, juices, as always, solid chemistry of a poisonous color, alcohol is weak but drinkable.
Territory. As such, no, the hotel immediately behind it is a swimming pool with a bar, then a path along the beach and the beach itself. Almost no one walks, everyone sits in the lobby on their phones and with alcohol.
Beach. The large distance between the sunbeds is very convenient, no one walks on the head and if he smokes it almost does not interfere. Intrusively and a lot of tour sellers go about 5 people in total, if not more. They come up regularly, more often than I would like.
Sea. Gorgeous reef, very clean sea, cool and friendly lifeguard Mohammed, the reef is the main plus of the hotel, along with the fact that all rooms have sea views.
Room cleaning. We communicated very politely and friendly with the staff, the cleaner and they always cleaned us perfectly, we always left tips and we were always met by swans and towel flowers even with flower petals (don't be greedy, they are wonderful people with very low salaries).
In general, we recommend the hotel, we will return with pleasure.
Food: the restaurant is small on the floor where the bar and reception are located. The first three days the food was varied, fish, meat, vegetables, pizza, side dishes, salads, crabs for the evening grilled meat and fish, fruit selection is small, but after 3 days the variety began to decrease, but the food is delicious and you can still eat, during the entire time of lunch or dinner, the food does not end, it is immediately brought if it ends, this is a plus for the hotel. The beach is big and beautiful, there are enough sunbeds for everyone, but they are already old and you can’t sit on them without a towel. Towels are asked to be received at 8 am and handed over at 17.00, we did not hand over every day, it is inconvenient when you go to the beach at 6.00.
Sun loungers begin to occupy those closest to the sea at 5.30. When we arrived, the sea was not very calm, there was a very large current and big waves, the wind was also strong, but in recent days, the sea calmed down a little, but those who cannot swim do not advise this bay. The reef is lively and beautiful but must be seen when the sea is calm. Many thanks to the lifeguard, very attentive, doing his job well, he helped us to pull out our child, who was carried away by the current. Special thanks to!
The hotel is quiet, although there is entertainment, filling 80% of Russians, a few Belarusians, Ukrainians and Egyptians, but nothing interfered with the rest, everything is super. There are 2 shops in the hotels, there is no pharmacy, it is far from the city. The territory is well-groomed, clean, the staff is good. At bars, drinks are poured into 150-gram plastic glasses, I advise you to take plastic 500-gram glasses from home. In general, we liked the hotel, I would come back here again for a vacation. I advise you to stay in this hotel.
The rooms are quite dated but were cozy and comfortable from the size of the room and the large balcony overlooking the sea. If you are in this hotel, wake up at 5-20 in the morning and look at the sunrise! A very beautiful and mesmerizing sight! The photos are just amazing! Upon request, a bathrobe and slippers were brought to the room. Separately, I want to note the cleaning of the room. The man cleaned very conscientiously. Linen was changed every day. There were no issues with towels and soap accessories. Everything was in abundance. Huge thanks to him for this!
Food: here the assessment is not unambiguous. Breakfast is good, there is a lot to choose from. I really liked the freshly squeezed orange juice (only it must be ordered, otherwise they will bring the usual juice from the concentrate). I liked the hot dessert in the form of choux pastry with nuts. Lunch: this was the worst in this hotel! Lunch was organized not in a restaurant, but in a cafe on the beach. The menu is customized and monotonous.
Sometimes I had to wait in the heat for a table to be free. Salads are terrible, sometimes the leaves in the salad are of poor quality. Vegetables for a side dish for the main course are generally half-baked, as if they were cut and doused with boiling water. Soups and desserts are the same. Our lunch ended up being pizza and beer. Tip - in order not to wait for a drink to be brought to you for lunch, it is better to order it immediately in the same bar before having dinner. Dinner: there were no questions, there was always something new. I liked breaded fish, fish in dough, duck with orange sauce, beef, lasagna. Desserts are monotonous and all taste the same. The most delicious dessert is strawberry jelly. From drinks you can take red wine. We drank it diluted with water. It is better not to take white, because it tastes terrible. Medium quality coffee and tea. Due to the small number of people, there were no queues for breakfast and dinner. Tables were always free.
The waiters are friendly guys, always with a smile on their faces. At dinner, the chef always came out and asked if everything was okay.
Internet: only in the lobby on the 7th floor, no internet in the rooms. If you need internet everywhere in your room and on the beach, then right there in the hotel where there are souvenir shops in one of the shops you can buy a local SIM card with internet connection. The price depends on the number of megabytes of the desired traffic. Tip: if you are traveling as a family, then take, for example, 20 GB of traffic for one phone for $ 30 and use a mobile hotspot to distribute the Internet to other family members, because for $ 15 you can buy only about 2.5 GB.
Beach: This hotel was chosen because of the huge beach and sea view rooms. Huge wide beach with a length of about 1 km. Places for every taste. Additional fences near the umbrellas made it possible to protect themselves from strong winds. They could be moved if desired.
Not very long stationary pier with a good descent to the sea! I would especially like to mention the lifeguard who works on the pier. His name is Mohammed. Knows Russian well. And other languages too. You can always ask for advice on any issue. Very smart, educated and positive person.
Animation Entertainment animators are great guys, always tried! But here is a question for the guests of the hotel, who were not always active, especially at evening shows. I would especially like to note Midoo, who could always persuade him to engage in activities, it was difficult to refuse him: humor, good physical shape, love for what you do, openness to people, mastery of different styles of dance and fitness! I liked the lessons with Nastya! Now about the negative moment that happened during the rest. I lost my cell phone on the beach. Was accidentally left on the lounger for literally 15 minutes. Who could take it (soft word) is hard to say.
A lot of people passed by this sunbed that day: hotel employees who sell excursions and massages, hotel guests, members of the diving club, people from other hotels who can freely enter the hotel from the beach side. There are no video cameras on the beach. Therefore, do not lose vigilance about the safety of your belongings on the beach. Thanks to the hotel administration for their attention to finding a phone, and especially to Natalia Plominska.
In addition to the hotel, we managed to visit the Old Town, the famous tourist place of Naama Bay, Soho Square - a must-visit!! ! Taxis are cheaper to take outside the hotel after 2 barriers. You just need to bargain. You can also walk to the highway (about 15-20 minutes), and then take a minibus and save money on travel. Souvenirs in Egypt of course for every taste!
What I liked: natural mango, guava and pomegranate marshmallow (price $ 2), produced by different manufacturers and therefore the taste may differ, of course, a variety of tea and black cumin oil (how could it be without it! ). Whether I will return to this hotel is hard to say, because the number of hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh is approaching 300 and there are plenty to choose from, but I will definitely return to Egypt! Thank you for reading the review to the end!
Be careful!
The hotel does not correspond to the declared category.
You can be taken there like a five-star hotel, for money, like a five-star hotel, but in fact you get an abandoned building.
My husband and I arrived at this hotel mid November 2019 and were shocked. Everything from the sign of the hotel to the ceiling in the lobby, everything is completely old, shabby, falling off, stained, dusty and smudges.
The bar is open in the lobby. It is impossible to call a bar on the beach (they will pour you a glass of water, ouzo or cola, that's all).
The food is no good. Canned legumes. There is no variety. Instant coffee only.
The elevator is in disrepair. Breaks down.
Phones in the hotel do not work.
The staff pretends nothing is happening.
The rooms are moldy, shabby, dusty, with stains on the curtains.
The beach is running. There is no backlight.
Stayed at the hotel for a day, then issued a replacement hotel.
The room was relatively clean, the furniture was old, shabby, the bed was clean, the bathroom was full of towels and a set of shower and hygiene, everything was in order, but twenty years old (without exaggeration). They lived in a villa overlooking the sea, the main part of the hotel could be reached on foot (about 10 minutes) or call by phone (not used because it was difficult to explain to staff what you want, poorly understood Russian and English).
In the sea you could swim only from the pier, small lagoons to eat, but small, many fish. The reef is not very diverse.
The hotel area is quite large, but most of it is abandoned, vacationers live in the main building, the villas - not many people, the area is poorly cleaned, although gardeners are constantly mowing, rowing, but janitors clean only at the main entrance to the hotel. At the bar near the reception on the day of arrival, except for coffee and juice could not ask for anything, although "their" gave and ice cream and cocktails and others. . Towels are taken right by the pool or on the beach, do not have to carry.
The animation lasted only three days and it was very conditional, the guitarist, accordionist and piano played, for children (only in Arabic) 30 minutes entertained the animator, very boring.
The food is monotonous, already on the 4th day, you do not know what to choose, especially for children. On a five-point scale, the rest would be rated at three. I would definitely not return there again.
The price for the tour does not correspond to the satisfaction received.