Well this was our fourth time in Egypt and the reason for coming to Hurgurda was to do a trip to Abul simba .More on that later;-)

Normally we go for a 4 star hotel but for cost reasons ( we were in Tunisia only 5 weeks before and Brussells 2 weeks before this trip ) chose the resort based on the trip adviser reviews.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS


Not good to be honest , I think we had been spoiled by the newer resorts at Sharm el sheik we had visited.
Although very clean , it felt in need of a major refurb.


THE ROOM

The rooms although small , had very comfortable beds, with linen that was changed on a daily basis.
Once again the rooms looked a bit tired and in need of a refurb.


THE BEACH

This is a small resort and a beach is available.
There seemed to be plenty of sun beds , be aware that it does seem to get windy here so go for one of the beds with a windbreak, Towels and soft mattress were available for free or a small payment if not on ALL INCLUSIVE deal.

THE POOLS

The person who took the photos of the pools should receive a pat on the back for being able to make the pools look big :-)

They are small but actually suit the size of the resort .
Unfortunately they were not heated but were refreshing.
Plenty of sun beds around them.
Easy to watch kids and for those without kids the other bottom pool was always quieter
Cleaned daily.

FOOD

There is one main restaurant for Breakfast , Lunch and Dinner.
Plus a lunchtime snack area for pizza , burgers etc.

Breakfast was fine , the usual mix plus a guy doing omelet's or fried eggs and another doing pancakes.

Lunch was good in the snack bar.

Dinner was not so good , although a good choice not one evening meal we had was hot. We tried going in when it opened but still the same.
After our trip away , we complained to the Excellent customer Liaison man, Nasser and the problem was fixed with meals being Hot from then on. We also received a nice sorry card and a bowl of fruit for all of my party. Thats customer service :-)

DRINK

The Local brands of Spirits were good and generous measures and the mixers were also nice.
Beer was a bit gassy but that is down to personal taste.

1 bar was pay only .

Bottled water was only available from the main restaurant.

EATING OUT

The Triton also owns 2 restrants nearby and I must say we had a excellent meal for 3 at one of them.

Hurgurda

This unlike Sharm is a working city and if you like to see the locals real lives then it is a very interesting place to be.

TRIP TO Abu Simbel

We tried to get here from Sharm el Sheik but could not do it .
We assumed we could fly from hugurda to either ASWAN or Abu Simbel but this is impossible to do.
We eventually arranged a private trip from Hurgurda to luxor then onto Aswan and the following day onto Abu Simbel.

Having been on trips in Egypt were you have to visit the gold shop, papyrus factory etc , I was expecting the same.

However what we received was a excellent service in fact it was so good the only thing more they could of done was actually carry us around the sites :-)

On getting to ASWAN we were staying on a 5 star river boat , great rooms and lovely food.
then a hour on a Felucca on the Nile then the Sound and Light show at Philae Temple. Stunning by the way.

Next day driven 300km to Abu Simbel and what a site Ramesses II monument is.

After lunch back to LUXOR and had time to visit LUXOR TEMPLE the back to Hurgurda.

A long trip but brilliantly organised and they were willing and able to accommodate our every need .

Please contact me if you wish more details.


CONCLUSION

First impressions were not good however we had a good time ,
our problem with the food was addressed and overall based on the price we paid I would recommend the hotel.

This was an absolutely excellent hotel to stay at - real value for money. The staff were extremely helpful and attentive. We even recieved daily confirmation for each excursion we had booked through Viator (not even through a rep or the hotel).

The pools were nice and there are plenty of sun loungers around. The beach is quite gravelly but the snorkeling right off the hotel was excellent and definitely made up for it.

The room we were in could do with being updated, but it was clean and comfortable (with aircon). The food largely catered for a more continental palate, but there was always something good on offer, and plenty of it.

We would definitely stay at this hotel again.

I liked stay in this hotel. Rooms are simple, but clean. Beach, territory small, but really nice, food is good (better than I expected to get in Africa...). As territory is small, everything is concentrated: rooms, beach, beach bar with snacks and drinks, restaurant. You don't need to walk long if you just forgot something in the room - very comfortable with the small kids.
Don't forget tip and will get kind attention from hotel stuff, will find nice flowers and birds made from hotel towels on your beds...
I would propose this hotel for the tourists who are not crazy about luxury and fashion surrounding or shining design.

We stayed here for a week and all in all I would say the hotel is good value for money although there is a couple of gripes - I shall start with the good points.

- Lovely gardens and surroundings - all very clean and neat.

- Good selection of food served at the restaurant and the staff go out of their way to help once they start to recognise your face. Food was cvery varied and wide choice. Large slots for mealtimes to suit all although avoide dinner when it starts at 7pm - we could not get a seat and went after 8pm from then on and had no problems.

- Pools are lovely although be warned only one is heated - a good thing in January

- Beach is lovely and the glass bottom snorkling trip is excellent - well worth the money

- Staff were very helpful

All in all a good hotel for what we paid and nice location. The rooms were a bit sparse and initially we had a twin but asked to be changed to a double which was much much bigger and brighter. The twin was very small and probably would have become an issue if we had stayed in it for the week.

Now for the negatives

- There is very little guidance on what is avaialable in all inclusive. Whilst there is a folder in the room with hotel information it only listed breakfast and dinner times in English so I had to try and read the russian section to get lunch times. it did not mention what was included in terms of drinks. There seemed to be no direction given to all inclusive guests as to what they could and could not have. There was mentioned of a quiet bar and library - we never found it. Again we were on day 3 when we found out about the sunny terrace serving lunches as well as the buffet in the afternoon - we were not told about this at check in.

- those wristbands !!! I realise that all the hotels in the area use these for their all inclusive guests but we felt like we were in a prison so removed them as we were todl we could by recpetion. We ensure that we mentioned our room number at meal times and showed our wrist bands however every meal time for the first two days someone would come up looking for our wristbands - we ended up getting quite annoyed and wondered what the point in having staff check details at the restaurant door was if no one checked with them!

- there seemed to be a lot of supervisors in leather cotas just lurking about during the day - not actually doing anything other than looking at the guests - maybe I am being picky but at one point there was four of them at lunch time - enough already!

- the nightime entertainment - awful!!!! The majority of guest were Russian and Polish which is fine - I didn't come on holiday to hang out with fellow Brits but this did seem to lead to some bizzare nightime entertainment from the animation team including a 'Miss Empire' competition which had pole dancing - very bizarre!!

The hotel was near to some shops although the majority of Hurghada night life and entertainment is in Sekala a ten min tax drive away - about 20 Egyptian pounds which was good. The hotel is great for a base but don't expect entertainment and it is good to get out of the hotel for a meal a couple of nights.