Joshua Clifton
"A Disappointing 5-Star Claim: Closer to a Nice 3-Star Experience"
The dining experience was mediocre at best, resembling a large buffet canteen rather than a fine-dining restaurant. The food selection was dominated by bland, "beige" items and excessive French fries, requiring guests to assemble their own satisfactory meals primarily from the salad stations. If you expect quality cuisine, this venue will disappoint.
The beverage service was equally flawed. Cocktails were inconsistent in strength and temperature, varying wildly from bartender to bartender, with no genuinely enjoyable mixed drinks among them.
Location is only 20mins from airport but nothing around the hotel so need taxis to town. Great scuba diving company next door which was perfect for us and one of the few plus points.
Pools are big and not over crowded. But sun beds go by 8-9am.
Service was a definite weak point, ranging from highly professional staff to others who seemed poorly suited for the role.
While the hotel's initial novelty and aesthetic design are impressive, the effect quickly wears off. You are left with an average hotel featuring subpar food, inconsistent drinks, and poor, Butlins-style audience participation entertainment. Having experienced genuine 5-star properties globally, this falls well short of the standard.
If your vacation criteria include high-quality food, consistent cocktails, an upscale ambiance, and guests who dress for dinner, we strongly advise looking elsewhere.
Leonie “Leejay” Coombs
This was an amazing experience. The hotel is unique. The Staff are very friendly and welcoming. There is a gem of a salon where we got our nails done and a pedicure. The ladies are gorgeous. And very professional as well. The food is really good and there is quite a good selection for vegetarian meals and vegan. The pool is lovely and the beach is kept clean. It was a lovely stay. If you get troubled with mosquitos then take plenty of spray and creams because there are lots of them. That is one of the only bad experiences I've had the whole time here. The other is the constant harassment to buy things whenever you go outside the hotel, which you are warned about and you are expected to pay for everything. If anyone offers to take your photo or to do something for you, be prepared to put your hand in your pocket. They are the only things that spoil Egypt.
Woody
Aesthetically, it's a lovely hotel. For the novelty factor that it's based around the Flintstones and the majority of the rooms are cave styled, it's a lovely looking place. We went there expecting a 5 star hotel based on previous reviews but it wasn't that. The rooms are clean, not sparkling. The food is varied to a point whereas they have seafood night, Chinese night, oriental night etc but mostly it's still very typical of the region although Betty's Bar, (within the complex), does provide more English style food throughout the afternoon. I went as part of a party of 15. Twelve of us ended up poorly for 2 days or more. Bad bellies, on the toilet etc. That's even after avoiding ice, tap water and salad. The main swimming pool is warm as is Barney's bar (which has a pool table in the pool as an extra novelty) but the beautiful lazy river that serves the swim up rooms is really cold which is a shame as it would be a lovely pool to swim in otherwise. Maybe it's warmer in the summer months, we went in November. There is not an awful lot outside of the hotel as the shops are a bit of a walk. The marina is nice but 30 min drive away. The local Chinese restaurant is quite nice, albeit a very limited menu. The hotel itself has 3 restaurants separate from the main one. We only tried Bam Bams steak restaurant but were not impressed at all. The orders were wrong, the food quality was poor and the whole service was a calamity. However, they were catering for 13 of the 15 so maybe that contributed to it? Another thing to mention is 2 of our party were stand ins for people who couldn't make it. I paid £350 to have their names swapped over. I had emails, printouts, proof on my phone etc but the hotel failed to accept it because the holiday company hadn't told them. They then had to pay £160 to stay for one night till we could sort it the next day. They refused to give us a receipt and when they eventually did, they then refused to return the money. Even the onsite holiday rep was useless as he was more bothered about booking excursions than helping us. It was a massive aggro that didn't need to happen so that massively diminished our view of the place. By the way, the excursions offered by the hotel rep are usually more expensive than the ones on the 'get your guide' app so I'd suggest checking that first. The animation and bar staff were mostly great and they have some fairly decent entertainment but nothing I've not seen elsewhere. All in all, a very nice looking, fairly clean hotel but expect poor customer service at reception if you have any issues and quite possibly a few days near the toilet.
Kyra Janssen
We had a memorable time! The staff was always friendly, nothing was ever too much trouble, and they're very grateful for a small tip. We ate well every day, and the buffet was decent. Try to bring plenty of banknotes so you can exchange their euros, as the Egyptian bank doesn't accept coins! The room was very nice and always spotlessly cleaned. We'll definitely be back.
Karolina Puławska
Overall, it was a good experience.
I don’t think it would be classed as a 5-star hotel in Europe. The design is beautiful – definitely the best thing about it! The food is nice; you’ll always find something you like, but the à la carte restaurants aren’t impressive at all. I’d say the Asian one with the show is the best. The Grill restaurant – I’m not sure why it even exists, as they don’t serve anything different from what’s available in the main restaurant anyway.
Most of the staff are really nice and helpful, but one day we went on a trip to Luxor and, even though the food was still served (late arrivals food) we were refused to go in because, as they explained, we hadn’t booked it (even though we were on all-inclusive). So that’s something to be aware of if you go on a full-day trip.
The staff were also trying to sell us trips, warning us that we’d get scammed if we booked elsewhere, but their prices were much higher than other companies. We booked elsewhere and everything was absolutely fine!
Cleaning standards in the rooms could be improved.
My Booking
