This was the second time we had visited the Park Inn (formerly Golden Resort). On the previous visit, it had not been open for long and it was our first time in Egypt. It obviously made a good impression as we have now been to Egypt a total of four times.
On this occasion, the changes to the Nabq area and to the Park Inn were quite major: There has been a significant amount of development in the area and the hotel has had a couple of new wings built, as well as a seven-pool waterpark.
If travelling on a custom-built holiday (booking flight and hotel separately) as we did, it may be worth contacting the hotel and requesting they arrange a taxi for your transfers as this would work out cheaper than pre-booking a transfer through an agent.
The hotel comprises of a main block housing reception Panorama bar, conference suite and the two restaurants (served from the one kitchen, so the same menu in both). There are two pools: lower and upper. The lower pool is closest to the main block and has a poolside bar and the towel supply hut. The upper pool has a swim-up pool bar, and its patio area probably receives more of the welcome breeze. There are several accommodation blocks all comprising ground, first and second floor rooms. The large bedrooms are very comfortable. The Health Spa has a heated indoor pool, gymnasium, massage rooms and sauna. Behind the accommodation blocks are a Bedouin tent where some entertainment can be enjoyed, and the waterpark – Aqua Bast – which is free to guests and I believe to paying public. On the beach, which is a 5-10 minute walk, is a beach bar which caters from 1100-1700, and has ice cream.
The all-inclusive fare includes buffet-style breakfast, lunch and dinner; morning and afternoon snacks; water, non-alcoholic and locally-produced alcoholic beverages and beer. The restaurants are ‘canteen style’ but the food is perfectly edible and very good sometimes. As long as you do not have gourmand tendencies, there is sufficient selection to allow for a different main course every night over a week. At busy times, one may find all tables either occupied or requiring cleaning: This is no problem. When either the restaurant manager or staff sees you looking for a table, they attend to you very quickly to ensure you are seated without too much delay. The wine – white or red – is palatable and is served in the restaurants and the Panorama bar. The spirits however are a different matter: If you are at all fussy about your spirits, take out some duty free with you and request at the bar the mixers and ice which you can take to your room (equipped with a fridge). The beer is lager-type Sakara or Stella (not Artois) and is quite pleasant.
There is a large Russian guest population at this hotel, as with many others in Egypt, so be prepared for the odd one or two who don’t understand the concept of queuing and who may be rude to staff. Remember that the average service sector wage is about £40/month and that the service staff do rely on tips to a large extent. We tipped LE50 (£5) in the Panorama bar on day one and were treated like royalty for the week not being allowed to go to the bar for our own drinks. The porter taking your case to your room should get LE10; the pool towel man LE20 at the end of the holiday. Your favourite waiter and barman should get a farewell tip of LE50-100. This will probably be pooled and split between the restaurant / bar staff.
There were no staff to whom we took a dislike: They were all courteous, friendly and helpful. Also, we were not aware of any stomach upsets at the hotel during our stay, which is rare for Egypt in our opinion.
All in all, we found this hotel good value for money. It does not pretend to be a five-star and would deserve a 3+ rating. It will be great value for families with pre-teen children where they do not have to pay extra for the waterpark, soft drinks and ice-creams.

We booked the Park inn a week before the holiday for £350 All inc. each for one week on the 16th April 08

The hotel is very beautiful, the gardens are perfectly looked after, with a lot of out door features... like 4 pools, a playground for kids, a massive kids pool, loads of water slides, a bedwin entertainment tent.

The entertainment is poor, one night we had one single game of bingo and one night we had a dance show that lasted 4 songs (half hour). We never went to anything else as it was not enjoyable at all.

The staff are very polite, helpful, and in a dry sense of humour funny. The staff do not bring you drinks like some other hotels, so if you want one then go get one. The staff will always say good morning/afternoon as you pass them

The Food...
The one everyone wants to know... The breakfast was great, something for everyone. Same as lunch. Dinner was ok 5/10 something for everyone, some items were a little under cooked but still eddible. But the food seem to be the same every day. There were little veriations every day which we kept trying to go for to change our daily meal but it was not much, varied from chicken nugets, very dried beef (very very small pautions), and shish kebab meat (the one that looks like a sausage). It was ok but have had far better elsewhere

The room was massive, cleaned daily, bedding changed every three days, oragarmi towels, etc. Fresh water is not provided, you need to go buy this yourself externally.

Non meal time snacks are a joke, there is one bar that serves a snack for only 30mins around 3pm and flys all over the food. if your hungry your only choice is to goto the super market next door and buy crisps. :-/

The weather hit 41.c which is crazy heat and it only gets hotter as the summer approaches bring your own suncream as it costs £13 minimum for a cheap suncream.

The beach is not close, it is a half a mile walk accross the road. another reviewer wrote it is 5 mins away, i timed it, it took us 20 mins to walk at a good pace. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR OLDER PEOPLE. The hotel got so many complaints that the ocean was close. It is not, but there is a shuttle bus.

Location is very poor, yes there is building works but you can here it, and Nabq bar is boaring. there is not one single bar or resturant. If you goto nabq bay then you only go for your hotel that is it. Narma Bay is 18Miles away (£5 in a taxi) half hour ride each way.

Kids would enjoy it, but the elderly might not

i think the writer of the last review needs to stick to mablethorpe, we stayed here for two weeks 07-04-08 to 21-04-08 and me and the ife had a great time, the staff were outstanding and (cliche) couldnt do enough for you, if you anted water there were water dispensers at all the pool bars where you could fill bottles or sit for a drink, the large restaurant did get full but tables were easy to come by (if people didnt push in grab their food without first been shown to a table) these were the ones whose food went cold, i only took one pair of jeans so weused the resteraunt around te corner the dress code was more relaxed, the food at the park inn is based a lot around egyptian style but if you want egg n chips go to benidorm, the spicy okra was delicious.
if you are going to do a quad bike and camel ride book with meemo in reception he is reasonable (dont pay anymore than £25.00 each for quad bikes,we thought this was good enough.
i do have one gripe though but only a small one, the night time entertainment was non existant albeit for a singer one night who was very good, the bedoiun tent is based around kids but hey who am i to judge,
all in all a great holiday, hot weather, cold beer, good company, and a russian who tripped and hurt himself who could ask for more, i ould certainly return but not just yet, the resort is expanding and i guess this would only enhance the feature of this place,
by the way if you turn left out of the resort and cross the roundabout walk for approximately 15 minutes and you come to a small mall in that mall is the goerge pub it shows football and is a great place to relax out of the resort and the beers cheap.

Previous reviews were 5 " Excellent" now 2 "Ok, but some problems"

This was my third visit and it is hard to believe that in 69 days from leaving after the New Year celebrations that so much could change.

The good things first:
AQUA PARK-is now all inclusive for all guests and there is a bar which is also all inclusive. Ramzy was the barman there during our stay and you could not meet anyone who can keep a smile on his face despite abuse from some guests. Initially they were short on drinks at this bar as more guests used the park as the temperature rose and they realised the drink was free!!!
All slides were open for the 2 weeks duration of our stay, wave pool and there was no shortage of rings for the slides or the lazy river.
We were lucky enough to have an Aqua park suite- larger than the interconnecting rooms as it has a corridor between the rooms and there is extra storage there. These rooms are not as large as old rooms but as we lived in the Aqua park it was nice for us to be so close to our room.

FOOD- I would have to say that the standard initially was good when we arriver, after a day trip to Cairo it was like waking up in another hotel- things were being removed from the menu and it seemed that the same food was being served up eack meal with little or no variation. Another guest went with me to see the new Manager and he did listen to us and tried to improve things during the remaining days of our holiday. Cups , plates and glasses were in short supply and were on order- so it should improve in that area.I had mentioned the fresh pitta bread that used to be cooked on Egyptian night; this was cooked each evening at dinner time- for me with some dips and salad I needed no more to put a smile on my face.

STAFF- With new change in management it is expected that a few feathers will be ruffled- here you can feel the tension. The friendly staff that we have come back to for the third time are not at ease, and the new staff in the restaurant area are not of the same temperment. Maybe they are not fully trained in !! In general ther is a marked shortage of staff in the food and beverage area- thus chaos in the restaurants trying to get utensils and a clean table. Counting the staff on the floor it would be impossible for them to offer a good service.

EXCURSIONS- We went to Cairo on a day tour which was excellent , the guide was informative as well as making the history interesting for the teenagers and younger children on the tour.Tiran Island was a great day out for snorkelling and the team of guides with us also excellent and even managed to get my niece into the water who is frightened of the fish and the sea. ( She normally dips in the pool to cool down as long as she can touch the bottom of the pool) These trips were booked through Sharm club and were much cheaper than the others that I have seen on offer.I would highly reccomend them to anyone.

Finally I do hope that things will improve in Park Inn and that I will be able to return in October as planned, I will rely on all you who are there in the next few months to let me know how things are improving. Otherwise its sadly having to look for another hotel
something I do not want to do. Fingers crossed it will be all good reports from now on !!!