Like most tripadvisor people, I read all the reviews before going and have to say on the whole most are accurate.
My husband and I travelled on April 17th with our 3 and a half year old son. We booked with Portland.

Outgoing flights were fine. We were dealyed by 2 hours on return.

Arrival in Sharm

Lots of Queues but all moved with speed. Please ensure your airline give you the visitor cards before you go through customes as the people on the Brum flight had not been given them and they held things up! You do not need to buy a visa unless you are going outside the resort. Grab a trolly and make your own way to the coach - its not far!

Arrival in the hotel

Welcome drink - speedy check in - bags followed by buggy. No issues. Reception area is nice and about the same as most other 5 star hotels. Elaborate, marble floor, cool and fresh.

Hotel complex is what I would expect, its not massive (for massive go to the RIU Garopa in Sal - that was tooo huge for words!!) Its a nice size, well laid out, immaculate gardens and all pristine. Several pools, couple of towel huts and most rooms facing inwards over the pool. All leading to the beachfront which looks stunniing with the glass like sea going out really far until you get to the waves and the shipwreck. Beach is full of parasols and wind breakers and almost empty even when it is clear there are a lot of people. but the beach is not sand and at best is grit. You need to take shoes out (flip flops are next to hopeless! Jelly shoes are £5 in the hotel shops - and a must if you want to walk out to sea.

Bars

DO NOT BOTHER TO TIP in the first few days as in our experience it made no difference!! Pool bar (guy was a letch and amusing day 1 but by day 5 I got my husband to go!) service was always fairly good and I can't complain. They did run out of ice crean 2 days and crisps were intermitant. (Annoying when you have a child!) Beer was all cans. My husband likes a draught so this he thought was bad - but a shandy is a shandy to me! Spirits are foul. The bottles of gin are labled Gordens, but OMG it is not. I am sure they buy it from NASA. (rocket fuel) The rum is bearable.

The blue bar - the guy that is always in it made it for us. He was just lovely and he worked so hard (not just to us, but to all guests) and service here was always good.

Lobby Bar - no complaints really, Did not use much as this is where the evening "entertainment" is so we avoided it!

Beach Bar - they opened the second (there are 3) when we were there - and again, no complaints

Best eating area is the snack bar by the beach / pools. Food is really hot, quick and excellent, its all quick waiter service and Gordon Ramsey would love it. Small menu of salads, burger, fish gougons, pasta, pizza, but always piping hot and quick and you can see the chefs cooking it. Spend pleant of time here in the shade of the mid day sun!!!

Main resturant. I thought it was about the same as every other 5star AI hotel i have been to. (We have done carribean, mexico, cuba, tunisia, cape verde, cyprus) it does have the same staples every day and just a few specialities, but generally its all edible and if you look for it there is variety. i think the problem is that you are never really hungry - and you end up having a little of this, a little of that so you do not feel like you have had a meal - but I cant compalin and there was always something my son would eat!

Waiter service is resturant was hit and miss. But OK. So many staff!

The Thai a la carte was nice, so was the italian, although the italian was really slow service. Also if you use your voucher you will be second class to people that are paying.

MINI DISCO - really good - we don't put our little one in the kids clubs because we like to be with him - but he loved the mini disco and the childrens staff seemed really good.

Beach Party - we had 2 in one week and really enjoyed them. Good holiday music and fun! Dont miss them because they are not that well advertised!!

Room - nice sized family room - we paid for a family room but lots of couples we met had the same large rooms with second room. Nice big shower. We saw no towel art in our stay, and the cleaner was not great - we did complain about this because our frige was not filled and soaps not topped up. Now we gave a £5 on day one but clearly that was why he did not bother!

We had a lovely holiday. Really relaxing, long days by the pool. We hired bikes £3.00 and went for half a days ride down the beach road. You can hire electric scooters for£10 an hour, but we preferred pedal power - really worth doing, or take off for a day - lots to see along that route! We walked out to the ship wreck - best time to go is v.low tide at mid day - which I know is not the best time sun wise - so wear a t shirt and high factor on your arms and legs and you will be OK. It takes about 45 mins to walk out and the same back, and allow 20 mins at the wreck. Some good snorkling here but do be careful - you are shallow and close to the coral which can hurt! Best snorkling is out of the hotel on the left - a ten min walk.

We will be returning hopefully later this year.

My husband and I stayed at the Jaz Mirabel Beach Hotel in April for 1 week. It was our first time in Egypt and the first time I had gone all inclusive.

The hotel was gorgeous with a great pool area and staff were really friendly. They liked a bit of banter and it was nice to chat to them. We took some english and some egyptian money - I think they prefer english. (Make sure you take antibacterial wipes/handwash as their money is really dirty). We mainly tipped at the end of the holiday as service was good throughout. Make sure you try the free jacuzzi too, it is huge and just what you need after a day sunbathing.

There was plenty of space around the pool, we only ventured onto the beach once as we were happy at the pool and didn't do any trips. We felt they were a bit of a rip off when our rep told us that an average hotel worker's wage was 40 - 60 english pounds a month and then informs you that 3 hours quad biking is £35 each!!

The food was absolutely fine. When we go on holiday we usually enjoy eating out at good restaurants so were a bit worried prior to going. However most nights the food was really nice, they have themed nights and the only one that wasn't as good was the German. We also had a free a la carte meal in the lebanese restaurant which was great.

The beer and red wine were good, also cocktails if only having a few. Shame A.I ended at 12pm. Make sure you order drinks before you finish one as service can be a little slow in the evenings depending on which bar you sit at.

We ventured into Naama Bay one night. It was an experience! Worth going as a one off but be prepared for being pestered. A big difference to the relaxing environment of the hotel.

Rooms were nice, we had a corner one 2319 and this had fantastic views.

We would definitely go back to Egypt and this hotel. I would recommend it for a relaxing break.

I have just returned from a weeks stay at the jaz mirabel beach. The hotel is very big and looks really nice. On arriving at the hotel we checked in and got our room key. Our room was the furthest away near the beach (which is a bit of a walk from reception and restraunt) and it was also ground floor. i was very annoyed at this as i had emailed the hotel about 5 times within in the year i booked it requesting a top floor room. I asked if i could get a top floor room but i was told there was none avaliable which is a load of crap. the rooms are quite big and look quite nice. the good thing was the shower for two (haha). The bed was very hard and a bit on the squeaky side. the mini bar in the room is not included in the all inclusive package. The cleaners are all males. the room got cleaned with no problems and no-one ever hassled us for a tip. the alcohol is disgusting. i had to drink my duty free. the vodka is vile and so is the beer. the food was bad aswell but there was always something i liked. there was loads of veg and salad and fruits so if your a vegeterian you will be fine. i must say that the spag bol is amazing but the chef cooking it is a bit of a perv. also when you order drinks for your meal sometimes it takes about 15 minutes to arrive. We went to the shoppoing centre at the hotel and we got hassled all the time. Just remember to haggle all the time. cut the asking price by half and you will get the item cheap. You evenm have to haggle in the pharmacy!! We went to the italian restraunt in the hotel for a meal which was bad. everytime we were eating the waiter kept coming up and cracking jokes to my partner. telling him about 100 times that hes a lucky man. All we were wanting was a nice quiet meal just the two of us as it was out last night but that was imposssible because of that pest so we just got up and left. the waiter was also angry because we left half of our meal. if you women like to get looked at well this is the place to go because all you get is hassle and men perving on you. it just puts a downer on your holiday. our hotel was full of germans and russians. they can be quite loud and arrogant. the entertainment was terrible. especially the womans singing on a wednesday night. the manager at the blue bar is a **** aswell. some of the staff are really nice but theres a few that are arrogant. the beach is terrible. You cant even walk on it because its full of stones and camels. Its the most horrible beach i have ever seen. You will have to buy the jelly shoes for the beach. The water is full of star fish and sea urchins. We went on the quad bikes into the dessert which was really good. Overall i have had a bad holiday. i wont be returning to sharm el sheik again. I would not rate the hotel a 5*. maybe a 4*. the hotel is really nice though and the gardens are nice aswell but in my opinion i didnt like egypt and there was alot of things i didnt like about the hotel. If you have any questions about anything please feel free to message me.

My girlfriend and I have just got back from the Jaz Mirabel and thought we would give you our view of the resort and hotel.

First Impressions

The first impressions of the hotel were very good, the reception was very large and the reception staff were very helpful. As soon as we got off the coach our bags were taken off us and we were told they would be in our room shortly, which they were.

The Rooms

The rooms very spacious and very clean. There is air conditioning in the room but ours broke after a few days – one call to reception soon sorted that problem though. There is a mini fridge however you will have to pay for any items taken out (including bottles of water).

The Staff

The Staff spoke excellent English, they work very hard and are very pleasant to talk to. The maids are very thorough in cleaning the room and nothing is too much trouble. The waiting/bar staff are constantly making their customers laugh and enjoy a bit of banter. I was told that they don’t get paid much money so they try their best to earn tips but as long as they do their job well and with a smile I have no problem giving them a few extra pounds.

The Pool Area

There are two main large pools and one smaller one. The two main ones aren’t heated but don’t let this put you off as it was so hot that you were glad of it. We never had a problem with overcrowding and there were always sun beds available. The towels are provided for you so no need to bring your own.

Food and Drink

I wasn’t very impressed by the food but as people kept reminding me in Africa the food quality is a lot lower than in Europe or the Caribbean. There are two restaurants which are identical and serve the same food. I stayed away from the salad as I had heard from numerous people that it’s washed in Egyptian water and may give you a tummy bug. Same went for the ice cream and ice in my drinks. Breakfast was as shoddy as dinner, poor select and poor quality. There was a snack bar that serves pizzas, burgers etc. by the pool area during the day though. The food at the snack bar seemed a lot better so we always filled up so we wouldn’t go hungry.
People who drink beer or coke won’t have any problems as they come out of a bottle and seemed nice however if you prefer a gin and tonic or something of that nature you may have problems. I heard a lot of people complaining about the taste of thoes kinds of drinks.

Entertainment/Activities

What entertainment? We did play bingo one night. What a waste of time that was. We paid to play but didn’t realise they were going to play a song in-between each number that was read out! It took ages for the game to finish and ended up getting very irritating. Apart from that there wasn’t any evening entertainment at all.
There were day time activities like football, volleyball and water polo however I was too busy snorkelling and scuba diving to bother with them so I can’t pass judgment.

The Beach/Sea

I was very disappointed with the beach. In the brochures it appeared that the beach was sandy but it’s more like grit, and that’s not just our beach the whole coastal line is the same. The sea was excellent though. It was a really nice turquoise colour and the fish you can see just swimming around your feet was breath taking. You can’t actually swim in the sea by the hotel as it’s far too shallow but it’s worth just walking to see all the different tropical fish. If you walk for 15- 20 minutes along the beach you will come to an area of coral that you will be able to swim over. I really recommend that you take a snorkel, mask and under water camera as you want to miss the hundreds of colourful fish swimming right beneath you. Please be warned that the sea is protected and you won’t be able to take anything out of the sea (not even a shell).

The Resort

We didn’t really leave the hotel but I felt it was more than safe to take a walk down to the local shopping centre. I was under false illusions that Egypt was a dangerous place and that it wasn’t safe to leave the hotel. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Expect shop owners to try and get you into their shop but they do take no for an answer. We did venture into Narma bay, which was about 25 minutes in a taxi. Narma was a very busy place with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops. Definitely worth a visit.
Sharm El Sheikh was a very dirty place and had a lot of unfinished building work going on so please don’t expect the resort to be plesant.

Other things to watch out for

A lot of people get tummy bugs in Egypt, I’m sure this isn’t the hotels fault it’s just an African thing. My girlfriend and I managed to escape without getting it but we did take precautions. We didn’t have ice in our drinks, we stayed away from the ice cream and salad and most importantly we got some antibacterial spray (£1 at Tescos) that we used on our hands every time we touched the money (the money is very dirty). I would recommend you do as much snorkelling as possible, my girlfriend normally hates doing that kind of stuff but even she was gob smacked at how good it was. Those of you that feel brave enough I would also recommend the scuba diving.

When you arrive at the airport in Cairo you will have to make a decision if you want a visa or not. If you are planning on seeing the Pyramids then you will need one but if you’re not planning on leaving the resort then don’t bother.

Summary

The hotel was excellent, the staff are great and I really enjoyed snorkelling in the crystal clear ocean. Unfortunately the food was limited and disappointing, the beaches where made of grit and the evening entertainment was non existent. 3/5