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Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) Reviews |
Anonymous
Guest
Visited in:
June 2007
for a period of
2 wks
Accommodation:
Hotel
Dreams Beach
Voted this Destination:
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| We stayed at the Dreams Beach hotel in Sharm el Sheikh. It has its own private beach. The steps down are great, its the coming back up that's the problem!! Two sections of beach, one side less crowded, although none of it was really crowded, being private. Nobody trying to sell you jewellery etc! as its private, just the odd one trying to sell you a day trip or something which can actually be useful. (And the men are gorgeous too, which helps!!!) Beautiful, beautiful sea. Music played in the morning on the beach by the animation team, peace and quiet in the afternoon. Bar and snack hut. Large pool with bar and restaurant right by, although we aren't pool people so we hardly went there. Massages to be had by the pool or beach, lovely. A few day trips, one we went on to see the coral, nothing spectacular really, but to be out on the open sea in that warmth was great. The town of Old sharm is only a few miles away and lots of cabs waiting to take you, also a couple of alternatives for nightlife the same distance away. We went on a trip to the pyramids, we booked it with the tour operator to be on the safe side, although there are plenty of people offering you trips there. We went by plane as it is a long gruesome 2 day trip by coach. The pyramids are spectacular although a little disappointing as far as wonders of the world go, hoped they would be out in the wilderness, but not so. A must see though, once in a lifetime probably. The day was too long though, they packed too much in, we had to go see a papyrus 'factory', something else that I can't remember, lunch on the nile, which turned out to be the equivalent of a beefeater type pub on the side of a dirty river overlooking slums!! The Egyptian museum where Tutenkamun was, which should have been good, but be warned, there is no air con in there, it is absolutely sweltering, add that to the crying kids that don't want to be in there and you have a recipe for a few murders! and then the final bit of the day was a walk round the city of Cairo, TOO HOT, full of people trying to sell you something you don't want when you are exhausted and want to go home! Coach goes off and you have to wait for it to decide to come back! But I've seen the pyramids, and the memory is worth all the hassle. so the point of telling you all that is, if you get the chance to go see the pyramids and do just one other thing, take that one. We left at 5 am and returned to hotel at 11.30pm! Plenty of choice of food at the hotel, it is normally an all inclusive one, I am a veggie, so my choice was limited slightly but it has to be said I never was the most 'try anything once' sort of person anyway and would probably have eaten what I did anyway, there is a lovely man who cooks fresh pasta to order in front of you and that is great. The waiters are to die for, they can't help you enough, wonderful. The pool bar and restaurant is good, for lunch and you great one free italian evening meal there a week included in the price and that is good. also one free evening meal a week in what is supposed to be a really good restaurant in the main hotel, but we waited for hours for our meal and when I complained they looked at me as though I had two heads! I think they thought I should think myself lucky I was in there as an all inclusive guest. Not so!!! That wasn't important, and so minor not even worth mentioning really. Rooms cleaned and beds changed every day, brilliant, encouraged by the staff, to use all the freebies! the cleaners are great too. In fact everyone associated with the hotel was lovely, couldn't fault them. The one thing that was a bit of a pain was we only had one key. And as I was prone to sneaking out at night, I had to leave the key with my friend or she wouldn't have been able to have the air con on, as it doubles up as the power key too. So I had to go to reception and ask to be taken back to and let into my room late at night as they won't give you another key. I was told how to get round them though by the reception staff, they weren't supposed to do it! In the end, they just winked and said, ah - key locked in room!! then a security guard would come and walk me back, great! I really didn't want to come home. The armed guards are a bit of a shock on the roads but you get used to them. You are incredibly safe there, absolutely safe and you can feel that. I would recommend it for a laze around holiday, where you just want to lie in the sun and get a tan. Disco every night at the hotel and other entertainment too. My most wonderful momory which will stay with me forever was the beautiful sea, nature at its most unspoilt, the colours of the fish swimming round your feet, just incredible. In fact we are going back to the same hotel in a couple of months time, so its gotta be good.
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JIMJAM
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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| The Radisson is a very large resort hotel, in about 30 acres of gardens and water features. Magnificent layout - at no expense. Wonderful swimming pool layout, with island and bridges to it. Own, man made beach, which is large and totally uncrowded. Good choice of restaurants, and half board allows you to eat at any of them. Food standard is good, and quality of facilities are good. Certainly a very relaxing place. Little to do in the area - mainly for snorkel/diving. Just enjoy the sunshine. The hotel is isolated from any local town/shopping, but a courtesy bus runs regularly to the local town.
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TIMBERL
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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My husband and myself have just returned from a 14 night stay at the Tropicana Grand Oasis in Sharm El Sheikh. Although only graded as a 3 star it is easily a 4 and with a bit of a tidy up in the rooms in could be a 5. We travelled with another two couples and all six of us would have no hesitation in recommending this hotel to anyone. The staff were some of the most courteous we have met. Bar staff in particular were excellent, especially Mohammed, Mohammed Said, Ozi to name just a few. I had read on previous review to tip the odd £1 (10 Egyptian) which we did on our first night. From then on we had to actually stop them bringing drinks, they all remembered our order and the next one was on the table before the first was completely finished. Same with the beach bar, everyone just so friendly. This goes for all the Egyptians we met inside and outside of the hotel.
No problem with getting sunbeds, if they weren’t together the towel man would soon arrange them so they were, again gave these the odd £1 here and there. Gave proper tips out at the end of the holiday to those we thought deserved, which was just about everyone.
Our room attendant was equally excellent, towels changed every day and was happy to get whatever we asked for.
The pool were great, the heated one was the more used and is where they do the games but although the other is not heated, the weather was so hot that we were glad to use that one and it never got crowded.
With the exception of breakfast the food was excellent with a vast choice, especially good was the pasta station. Unfortunately there was no egg station where you were supposed to get egg fried, scrambled, or omelettes etc., as due to bird flu the only eggs were hardboiled, therefore breakfast was limited to continental with a dubious sausage and various pastries. I stuck to toast and bought a jar of marmalade. Not too keen on the cereals. Although they did not seem to mind the birds that flew into the restaurant in the mornings and landed on the pastries, thought this strange bearing in mind their worries on the bird flu.
5 our of our group of 6 got Egyptian tummy but we took the necessary medication with us as we had been prewarned so it was soon sorted. Water is given out by the bottle with no problem so it is easy to keep hydrated.
Snorkelling is simply fantastic, the fish are amazing and all via the jetty from the hotels private beach, no need to go anywhere else.
Unfortunately the only downside is the entertainment and as with other reviews I have to agree that this is geared toward the Italians, who I must say could take a few lessons from the Egyptians and of course the British in manners. Found it best to ignore them. They did have an English duo twice a week who were entertaining but when you have seen them once, three more times is a bit too much.
Although we went with Thomson, another guest recommend we book our tours outside the hotel with a firm call Cataract Tours, best move we made. They are in Naarma Bay just behind the Hard Rock Café and we saved a fortune, for example with Thomson the quad biking was £25 each we paid £15 for two and the day trip by plane to Cairo was £108 each whereas with Thomson it was £175. Seeing the pyramids is a must and because we booked outside we had a guide for the six of us who was simply fantastic. He arranged for us to go inside tombs that those on the Thomson tour never got to see and he also arranged a boat trip on the Nile which only cost £5 per couple. Also shopping was included in the price of the trip which was perfume, carpets etc., but we opted out of this so he took us back to a restaurant on the Nile where we had drinks until it was time to head back to the airport. The domestic flight from Sharm to Cairo is something else but worth doing as it is 6/7 hours by coach each way.
Only trip with Thomson we booked was the Dolphin swim. Here if I can recommend anything PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS SWIM. There are three dolphins who spend all there time in a pool less than half the size of the main one in the hotel. I have done the dolphin swim in Miami and dolphin encounter in Montego Bay and at both these locations these lovely mammals have so much room and freedom whereas in Sharm the really do not have much room at all. We entered the pool and were allowed to handle the dolphins as we wanted, I have to say that they did seem to like interacting with humans but their backs were badly scratched which I think is from where they perform shows in such small surroundings. Apparently they have been raised there and could not be released back into the wild but they could be moved to more suitable conditions. I have pictures of the pool they live in and really anyone who has done this sort of thing before would be broken hearted to see them, so again if more people boycott this then perhaps something will be done.
All in in all Egypt is definitely the place to go for guaranteed sun and relaxation, people are great and I would recommend this holiday to everyone.
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GILL
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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| The hotel was beautifull very clean and well kept the staff were so friendly its unreal!!! The entertainment, well it was crap to be fair it was all egyptian dancing and the freak animation team couldnt organise a tea party if they tried, but they tried and with so many different nationalities there it was quite hard!!! Food was great different theme every night!!! If you want a relaxing holiday and a quite one this is definatly for you!!! But if your like us and want to party go somewhere else!!! Overall i enjoyed myself watch out for the italians in speedo's, urgh!!!!! p.s if you get the shuttle bus to namma bay get of as quickly as possible or you well get dragged into a shop and you WILL have to buy something!!!!!!!
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HILARY
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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| The hotel was isolated being a 25min taxi ride from namma bay, the food was mostly tasteless & cold . Nice pool area just a pity the pool was too cold for anyone to use. In our 1 week stay there was 1 nights entertainment which wasn't very entertaining .Dreadful weeks stay & if this is typical of eygptian hotels we won't be going back
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CLAIRE
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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| A clean and well maintained hotel in a quiet location about 10 mins [taxi] outside naama bay. Staff friendly and helpful. Could be a fantastic holiday if there was entertainment provided occassionaly and variation in the food available. It would also be nice to have food and drink available for longer hours. There appeared to be too much emphasis on spend a pound to save a penny. Most people aren`t greedy when it comes to all inc so why did we all have to queue for a glass of water which then had to be recorded by the barmans manager.
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GILLIAN
Guest
Voted this Destination:Not voted yet
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| We have stayed once at the Baron resort and twic at Baron Palms. The hotels are immaculate inside and out. At all times the rooma are spotless ansd very spacious. Staff are excellent and very friendly. We had a fabulous 40th wedding aniversary party laid on by the staff. Well done Ahmed Khaled (general manager) and Yasser Shata (hotel manager).
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