We have just returned from a fabulous week at this resort. The room was lovely, on the ground floor with sea views and just by the pools, which are clean and warmed up nicely by mid morning. We had our 2 children with us and the staff were very kind to them.
The hotel has a number of pools (6 I think) so you never feel the crowd. There is an excellent choice of food at breakfast time, plus a bespoke kids buffet. We stayed B+B although did eat in the hotel twice, again a good selection of food kids eat free and a meal was £27 for 2. There is a large Russian clientele. A nice kids club with friendly staff. The only (slight) negative I can think of is that the private beach is a bit small, although its is clean, sandy and you see many fish! Recommend submarine trip.

All references in this report to £ are in English Pounds

I won’t go into detail which has already been covered in previous reports so lets see if we can cover something else.

Food

We went Bed & Breakfast so we didn’t have to worry about the Russians in the evening and so ate where we wanted to.

Verdi’s Italian was excellent – could not fault it.

Sea Shore Sea Food Restaurant – they like to cook with lots of salt whether grilled or fried, if you don’t like a lot of salt then tell them up front when you order the seafood/fish at the ice counter.

They weigh up what you want and price it per 100g – for this you get a starter, soup, green salad, main course and a desert.

If we ate outside the hotel locally – 10 mins up the road to the right and second left are loads of gift shops etc. and 100 metres down opposite the shops on the right is Columbus Restaurant who do anything from lovely cheeseburger/chips/salad/garlic bread for £2.35p, bowls of cheese pasta for £3 and steak with prawns etc.

If you go into Naama bay – you must try Dananeer Grill and Seafood restaurant near Beach road – their fillet steaks are to die for and only cost £5.00.

Drink/Wines

Wines were very expensive, if you really want French then it will cost you around £40. If you want a close alternative to nice white and red try the Obilisk red which is a Shiraz grape and the Omer white which is a Pinot.

The same wines at a local Supermarket are £5.50.

Sakara Beer was £3.00 and a Scotch was £4.10 so not cheap.

A 1.5Ltr Bottled water in the hotel is £1.50 – it is £1.20 at the local supermarket but then you have to carry it 10 minutes back to the hotel.

Cheapest supermarket in all of sharm is in Naama bay near the beach – same water cost 30p!

Accomodation

We e-mailed reception a week before our holiday and asked for and got a lovely room on the lower level right next to the swimming pool and a sea view – the swimming pool was 25 feet away from the room and was ideal for popping back to change, eat or drink or use the toilet.

Positives:

Nice pools - though ladder down to baby pool !!!
Fair sized beach with comfy double mattresses
great snorkelling
good dive centre
lovely italian restaurant

Negatives ( which did outweigh the positives)

Shabby rooms - old mismatched furniture, hard mattresses, grubby floor ( and we were staying in one of the top rooms!) Cleaning not up to scratch - noticed a dead fly in corner of the room, was still there after 2 days. Perhaps if they spent a little less time on towel art......

Poor service - took 1.5 hours to get 2 coffees to our room. Similarly by the pool everything took ages. Went to latino bar one afternoon and asked for some tea and cake - was told it would be at least 30 mins as chef had to make the cake -when i said I was surprised it arrived after 20 mins - but wrong one - etc etc. Asked for room service menu - took 2 days, asked for a tv guide - took a day. I could go on.......

Restaurants - All bar the Italian one were not very good quality. Evening buffet particularly bad.

All in all - I wouldn't recommend this hotel if you are looking for a luxury 5* holiday - go and stay at the four seasons or ritz carlton. It is in my opinion not more than 3-4 *.

Resort number (circa) 400 in Sharm with little to differentiate it from others, but does that job well enough. Room was great, staff were very good, some of the other guests were obnoxious and unpleasant however. The restaurants for evening dining were very bland.