The fact is that you won’t be able to swim in the sea in the usual sense - the depth is knee-deep. Well, during high tide a little more. Moreover, the entire bottom is strewn with large pieces of coral that can break your legs. To go deeper you need to cross the coral reef along the pier. But there is another problem - there is no bottom there. That is, when you go down the steps into the water, you find yourself in an abyss 10 meters deep. Plus, there are always high waves. Divers will love it, what about you? And that is not all. Most of the time there is a red flag, yellow usually appears from 15 to 18 hours.
The variety of fruits in the restaurant is also not very good - only apples, melons, guava and grapefruit. Watermelons were served once a week by the pool, with pathos and music.
And it was called “fruit festival”. You won't be able to buy other fruits in the store - there is nothing around the hotel at all. The hotel has a pharmacy, but prices there are 10-20 times higher than average Egyptian prices, so it is better to take all medications with you.
The rooms are a bit tired (we were in 5120) but the linens and towels are new and good quality. Cleaner Mohamed kept the room clean with daily wet cleaning until the very departure, for which special thanks to him. In fact, he tried very hard and was as friendly as possible, every day he made different shapes from towels and beautifully decorated with flowers))) from the room to the sea it was 100 meters!
The water park is small, but in windy weather on the beach it is great for spending time and besides, there is the only heated pool. The central pool of the hotel of different depths from 0.9 to 1.8 and in December was very cold, few people swam. Near the pool and the water park there is one bar each, and there are 5 of them in the hotel.
Swimming is allowed until sunset. There are no lifeguards at the pools. We spent the first three days on the beach)) the beach is good, wide and long. In early December, the water temperature is +24/25, the air during the day is +27/28. There are many places on the beach. The reef near the shore is dead, but there are many fish, in general, it is very suitable for small children. Steep reef when descending from the pontoon/pier. Lots of fish and beautiful corals. Deep, from 2 to 10 meters. The hotel has a diving club. Usually two lifeguards sit on the pontoon. The yellow flag is not allowed to sail far. The red flag pontoon closes. We were lucky only 1.5 days there was a red flag and we moved to the water park.
From mid-December to March - strong winds promise. The hotel has a safari center. The price is very high compared to the Charm, at $40 for an ATV. Bargaining is difficult, because there is practically no competition. However the tour is good, 2-2.5 hours. We drove 30 minutes to the first stop.
Animation is average. It can be seen that the guys are tired, but the show of fakirs and comedy shows in the amphitheater in the evenings was pleasant. Wi-Fi
weak even in the lobby. But I took a card at the etisalat airport for 15 USD. e. It was activated after 4 hours, the Internet was good, there is a tower next to the hotel. At the expense of alcohol - typical for Egypt, local and not strong. Beer is not bad - bottled. The territory is green, many flowers, palm trees, birds, pools are clean. All in all, considering the price for 3 people at $1k for 7 nights and 6 full days, it is beyond expectations.
Very good experience for children interacting with staff in English. By the way, at the time of arrival, there were few Ukrainians, only a few families.
Mostly vacationers are German pensioners, family Poles, Czechs, Italians, Serbs, etc. By the end of the vacation, probably half of the vacationers are from Ukraine. Charters arrived from Kharkov, Lvov, Kyiv. Russians do not fly much, because they only have charters to Hurghada, and from there they still have to travel 200 km to Marsa Alam. The rest left a lot of pleasant emotions and I consider it successful.
The reef is beautiful, but the underwater world is a bit boring for me. Fans will be ok. There is diving, maybe you can see better places there, I haven’t tried it. The winds are sometimes warm and not problematic. There is an entrance from the shore for children, you can wrestle, but not deep, as in most hotels. The pier is not long and close, which pleases. Exit from the hotel directly to the pier or pool, everything is cozy. During this time we saw red/green/yellow flags. There were no problems. The youngest was not allowed on the yellow one, 7 years old, it was possible, there were small waves. Red was for a short time - somewhere in the afternoon, somewhere in the morning, somewhere in the afternoon, but during the day it changed to yellow.
Few people speak Russian, you need to go with Google translator or know English. Animation is excellent. Behind the hotel you can walk along the beach and see how the shells crawl like an anthill, it is worth going further. And if you increase the distance, you can get to a gorgeous bay, the photos are super there. The bus journey from Hurghada is not stressful and there is something to see, very beautiful. Excellent for a relaxing holiday.
So - the hotel is good, a solid triple turning into 4 (and not 4 turning into 5 : -)) well, it doesn’t pull on 4, the flies at the reception, but the triple is good. The pool is shallow - a maximum of 1.5 in one place. The water park for children is small and only open until lunch. The canteen is standard, the food too, but there was also a positive point - there were melons, watermelons, peaches, bananas and oranges, that is, in this regard, everything is not bad, but there was nothing like shrimp or crabs at all, although there was fish. There is a la carte restaurant, but for a surcharge. There are no complaints about the staff either, everything is fine. The hotel itself is green, but the rooms are in need of cosmetic repairs, although we may have come across one. Refrigerator was warming, but not cooling : -)
Now about the main thing - the sea in this hotel is practically inaccessible. That is, there is a beach on the seashore, but a strip of water from the coast 10 meters wide and a meter deep is available. And in this strip you can plunge, and that's almost all. After 10 meters, a coral begins on which you can’t walk, and there’s nothing to do there. There is a pier from which, in principle, you can go down to the real sea, but in 11 days it was open 4 times in the afternoon. Then it is open, then you can really swim in the real sea along the very coral on which you can’t walk. The coral is not bad, but it was almost impossible to swim along it.
The problem is that the wind rose in the area of the hotel is such that almost all the time the surf is high. Because of the high surf, the sea is inaccessible. Maybe this is some kind of seasonal anomaly, but in other neighboring hotels there was no surf at the same time at all. We were in Port Khalib and sailed on the tour boat Nefertari to watch sea turtles and dugong. And yes, we saw as many as 5 turtles and the last of the dugongs. So we sailed on it along the coast along different hotels, and didn’t notice any surf point-blank.
So the sea is there, but you can't use it.
I especially want to note the service on the beach - I have never seen a better service anywhere. They will rearrange the sunbeds for you, and bring the mattresses, and the towels will run and change and lay on the sunbed. A trifle but nice.
And the last thing - do not exchange money for any of the beach agitators, especially before leaving.
Room: I liked it, the furniture is good, cleaning is daily.
Sea: with no or minimal wind, a beautiful reef and a lot of marine life. At low tide, coastal corals open up and birds fly in.
Meals: normal, usual for Egypt. Vegetables and fruits are included.
Animation: Lemy, Koka, Nusha, Hedra are just on top! You will not be bored!! !
As usual, choosing a hotel in Egypt is a rather painstaking task. As always, a million reviews were re-read, but nevertheless, on 11/15/17 the stars were aligned, and now 11/16. we are already at 4.00 in the morning flying in a plane to Marsa Alam.
The budget for two people was set at $ 700, they invested in this amount, including the cost of a visa for two of 50 USD.
So in order.
Room: large, there is where to turn around. The furniture is in good condition, we personally had no complaints. The only thing that is not clear is the presence of a bath in which there is only a standing shower. Everything worked properly. True, if you turned on the tap and hot water did not pour out of it, wait..... )))) it is still there. There are also rooms with three beds. There are more. The condition of the room pleased 4++++. Be sure to take with you at least shampoo, soap-gel only in dispensers near the sink and in the shower. There is a safe, TV, refrigerator. Every day a large bottle of water. To be honest, I never understood if the sheets were changed. Cleaned up well.
WiFi - 3+, ONLY in the lobby at the reception, lame, decent,
Food: Restaurant One
Breakfast: Nothing new here, as always the same set, but this does not mean that there is nothing to choose from, cottage cheese, pancakes, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, vermicelli, sausages, croissants, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, oatmeal, yogurts, balls , flakes, etc.
Dinner. Also, if you don’t immediately try to eat everything in one day, then you can easily find something new. The first dishes were different almost every day, there was always the same fish, cooked the same way. Also, beef, chicken, vegetables - baked, stewed, steamed. There are always two types of soup, regular and mashed potatoes, only potato soup turned out to be not tasty - disgusting... don't try it.
Dinner: Almost every evening dinner was dedicated to some country, but to be honest, in fact, I didn’t really see the difference, as for me, everything is the same)) There was always one dish specially prepared, and not repeated in the last . days (stuffed duck, baked tongue, baked duck, ham, etc. )
Separately, I was pleased with the choice of fruits: melons, apples, dates, guava, pomegranate, physalis - there was even one time, watermelon, oranges, tangerines, grapes. Vegetables, standard: cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, greens, and 5-6 types of salads.
Large selection of puddings - ate enough. And, of course, sweets.
Everything is cooked delicious.
Drinks, standard - yupi, cola, sprite, wine - white, red, rose. I didn’t like red, we didn’t try pink, we mostly drank white. Cocktails are not tasty, because the base is again UPI.
What I'm taking off the rating for is the lunch box. We left the hotel at 4 am, we had to be on the road at 11 o'clock, because. flew from Hurghada. In fact, we should have had at least breakfast, but instead of it a lunch box. So: Two lunches for two people, as it turned out, they were of different configurations, in one there were two long rolls, one with cheese, the second with disgusting sausage, one tomato and one cucumber (the cucumber was rotten, soft and bitter, as it turned out with our neighbors was the same), plus an orange. In the second, there are three round buns, two empty, they were accompanied by honey, butter and jam with plastic braces, and there is nothing to spread on the bun. And one roll with cheese, plus a banana. And water. All. Tip, first, it's better to fly back from Mars, but if it so happened that the return journey through Hurghada, take care of the food yourself. Take at least a day more cheese, fruits, vegetables. You can’t take food out of the restaurant, but if you don’t get impudent, then it’s quite possible.
Territory The hotel is very compact. Four buildings with rooms, In the center of the pool. Most of the rooms face it. In the evening there are no parties near the pool, so it doesn’t bother anyone to relax. In the area of the rooms and the pool, everything is green, grass, palm trees, flowers, etc.
Of the minuses: the pool was not heated (November).
Of the minuses: the area between the beach and the main territory is not finished. It’s not clear how the shower is located on the beach, it was really not convenient to go to him at all, and he was alone there, although there were already 3 such showers around the pool. Here the people carried all the sand from the beach to them.
Work is still underway on the territory of the hotel. Another building is under construction in the backyard.
The nearest hotel is 1 km away, on the other side there is only a desert, where you can walk to an abandoned ship, but don’t flatter yourself, the ship is aground in the sea, and there is still a decent amount of water before it, so you can only look at it from far away, or swim. . . swim. . . swim.... There is nowhere else to go, only excursions.
Aqua park: it is difficult to call it an aqua park, the slides are small, there are only 4 or 5 of them, and even there the water was not at all warm, colder than in the sea.
Entertainment: mini-football, basketball, volleyball basket, aqua aerobics (but in a cold pool, it's not cool), yoga gymnastics and something else, I don't remember.
Every evening, there was a performance in the theater, mainly given by the guys - animators, but there were also invited groups. Actually everything is in English. The guys are great, they always come up with something new. More lotto, disco.
Sea: entry is possible from the beach, but it's only water max to the waist at high tide, but there are fish there, the bottom is a stone - you need safety shoes, or very carefully. To corals, entry from the pier, 30-40 meters is applied. The reef is very beautiful, a lot of all kinds of fish, we saw turtles, stingrays. Depth of meters 9-12. The water is very very warm. But the wind was all the time. We were unlucky, the panton was closed for three days, it was very stormy, we swam only from the beach. The beach is clean and the trash is taken out regularly.
Excursions: We went to one in Abu Dababi, look at the turtles.
Immediately recommendations, if you are going to the turtles, it is better to take a normal mask, and not for snorling, be sure to take a life jacket, if you do not plan to dive to a depth, it takes a very long time to swim, 40 minutes, you really get tired, this is if you have a trip from the shore, but not from the water. But I don’t really understand from the water, because. in order to swim there, you still need to first go by bus, nothing lands near the hotel.
I was also a little annoyed by the number of guys inviting for excursions, but this is my subjective opinion, who cares.
The contingent: Germans, Dutch, Czechs, Poles, Italians, Ukrainians - very few, Russians in general once or twice, Belarusians are also a bit. In general, the hotel is focused on Europeans, all prices are in euros. Try to take everything you need (masks, medicines, creams, etc. ) with you. By the way, our guys ordered fruits and a pharmacy for the guide, and he brought them from Hurghada, cheaper than buying them at the hotel.
Vooot. Probably everything. Like I haven't forgotten anything. I will be glad if my review will help you make the right decision. Generally. the rest was a success, the sea, the sun and good company will always make the rest great.
To sum up: I recommend the hotel. Come, I think you will not regret it.