Well not a beer crisis but we sure put a dent in supplies.
We live in Maadi and another trip to Sharm was not high on our "like to do list" but with family visiting from Canada it was great. There was ten of us ranging in ages from 67 to 12 years, so we had to whole spectrum of "who likes what and who wants to do what".
We all traveled from Cairo. and sister had booked the hotel and tickets from Canada. I arranged all travel to airports etc, as discussed in my previous blog.
Hotel - Renaissance Golden Beach Resort
We wanted family rooms so that restricted hotel choices in Sharm as only 2 offer family suites to accommodate up to four persons. (Check out booking.com as best one I have found for hotel bookings). We had booked 3 suites. Now the fun began.
Transport to Hotel
I phoned ahead and asked if they had a van/bus to pick us from airport thinking they would have a courtesy bus. No, but they could send 3 cars for $30 per car. Did not want to hassle with taxis so agreed. Being Sharm I wrote this down as first rip off.
Hotel Arrival
Rooms were not ready and they seemed to have trouble figuring out what suites to assign as insisted they be next to each other, with sea views. Well, not a big deal as us boys went to Lobby lounge for beers and rest did a wander about. Also wanted to keep and eye on luggage stacked outside entrance as no rooms had been written on tags yet. First comment by family was "Jeez" the place is nothing but stairs everywhere"! Anyway, got the suites and they had electric carts take us and luggage to suites. Yup more stairs and 2 suites on second floor and one on ground floor (mine).
Suites
Nice - with separate bedroom (cw TV), living room another TV, bit of kitchen, one full bath and also half bath. View incredible. Beds comfortable. Large balconies for suites on 2nd floor and garden for ground floor .Thumbs up! Now here is a funny - brother-in-law phoned desk and said no electric working. They never saw a place where you have to put room key in a slot to turn on the electric. We had a good laugh about that and sure front desk did as well.
Navigating the Place
If your not in shape you will be by the time you leave - we were a week and in end I could actually climb one terrace flight of stairs without heart attack. Not a place for anyone mobility challenged. Pic below gives some idea of number of terraces. Beach area not visible as one more terrace down.
Beach - what beach?
Hotel web site states 350 meters of private beach. One imagines laying on golden sand and when bit hot running into the surf. Nope that is not the case. Maybe 350 meters of sun tanning area one terrace above sea .Beach entry to sea is miniscule and then they ban you from walking on rocks (they say coral?). but have bars a plenty. And have a floating wharf to get to open water and swim. Picture below is sun tan area and looks like on sea adjacent but you'd have to jump off the rock cliff.
Food and Service
Just fine - we liked Acapulco Joe's on lower terrace. Room service good. Food at top terrace restaurant was OK but service was really slow. It was chilly in evening so outside restaurants were great.
Other Activities
Most of family went on a snorkeling day trip, which was 200 LE per person all found, including lunch on board. (Take your own beer). Boat was really nice but water was freezing. Would have been better if they had recommended renting wet suits. They did provide all other snorkel gear.
Ship wreck corroding nicely -
Day trip to Saint Katherine's (I organized through Limo Marco in Cairo).
Nice van and guide. Up to St Catherine's then lunch and walk about at Dahab.
Town Center, Naama Bay, Torrisono Beach
Hotel had a free shuttle bus at 12 noon each day to Town Souk Shopping and Naama Bay. Us boys opted for Naama center for few beer at Hard Rock Cafe and stock up with beer, mixes and even some water from store as price is about
1/3 of hotel.
On previous visits,Torrisino beach was a lively fun beach area with bonfire at night. It is public beach area favored by locals and informed tourists. Was located across road downtown, but now has been relocated across bay and was dead as door nail. We were only ones there and was boring. Had a decent fish meal and left.
Departure
Only exciting thing to mention, besides having to get 3 cars back to airport at $30 a pop, was our luggage. Electric carts came and pick up the bags, and us, and took up to outside reception. They stacked them pretty close to many other bags so I said to sister, I'll stay and guard. Sure enough, tourists started boarding a bus and staff were picking up all the bags they could find to put on bus. Had their grubby hands on ours as well. Thank goodness we had foresight to keep an eye on the bags or for sure would have been on the bus en route to Italy.
Only hotel prices left to mention. If one lives in Cairo we get shocked by the prices in Sharm. As example, small bottle of water here is less than 2 LE but 8 LE at hotel. Why do these hotels need to gouge so badly?
All said and done, we had a great time and got in shape with all stairs. But for sure my last time in "rip off land".
No comments:
Post a Comment