We flew with Egyptair. Safe and good service.
The hotel is located between the old and the new town of Hurghada so both parts are quickly reachable by taxi (10-25min). We landed at 1:30 am and we had no problem to find a taxi. We were 6 and we paid 20$-15€ after (not much) bargaining. A fair price during the night would have been 110EP (egyptian pounds).
Tip: You can almost pay everywhere in €, $ or EP. If U can, pay and bargain in EP, it's always cheaper !!
Btw the planes are no at all a problem regarding the noise. The airport is 10 min away and the planes don't fly over the hotel.
In the hotel lobby, there is a bank (small desk) open everyday but friday and also an ATM which give you EP with your credit card, maestro or even money you can insert in the machine. Very handy but beware of the final amount charged by Visa. For a cash withdrawalIf of 300EP (38-39€), you will pay a fee of 5,34€. So don't take too small amount of money. Furthermore, Egypt (at least Hurhgada) really is a safe place. The only people you could be afraid of are... the other tourists.
The rooms are very cozy with comfortable beds. The airco is a little bit noisy and temperature can't be set. There are sometimes power and water outages but.. hey you are in Egypt!
Believe me those problems are minors in comparison to the overall quality of the hotel. Good service, clean everywhere, garden and facilities well maintained, good food (always something you like in the buffet), outstanding location with 2 private lagoons and the largest swimming pool of Hurhgada. A very nice penisula leading to the open sea with a lot of chairs and restaurant at the end (look at the hotel on google maps to see what i mean: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=27.242144,+33.846034&t=h&vps=3&jsv=173b&sll=27.243088,33.845605&sspn=0.008737,0.020556&ie=UTF8&hl=fr&geocode=FaCunwEdEnMEAg&split=0).
The guest are mostly germans, Dutchs, Russians and Frenchs. There is a good mix of teenagers, young adults or olders, friends, couples or families.
The All Inclusive formula is really inclusive and you could spend the whole day eating or drinking.
You'll find spa center (you can bargain a lot there), tennis (free), 9 snooker table ! (free), fitness room (free), 3 or 4 ping-pong tables (free), pedal boats renting (9€ for 1 hr or 60EP which is cheaper), atm, shopping arcade (ali bazar is just outside and arcade is on the street), ...
There is also a very professional and outstanding diving center (shared between hotels Arabia and Arabella). See http://www.blue-water-dive.com . German management and most of divers germans but the staff speaks english too and I know one of the instructor (Diana) is speaking french, italian, rumanian.. too
Whatever you are an experienced diver or a complete rookie youy will enjoy your time with them.
Good to know: there is an hospital just beside the hotel able to treat some diving problems and there are hyperbaric chambers in the Naval hospital (500m away) or in the Hypermed center (10 min away).
2 points in the egyptian mentality could be badly perceived if you don't get used to it and believe they only do it to tourists which is wrong.
1) you have to bargain for a lot of things. Yep that's right it can be boring sometimes. You don't have to but prepare to pay the high price then. Sometimes it can be really fun with both parts having a good laugh. In some parts of the new town, shop keepers will refrain to harass you on the sidewalk (which is really boring but a steady "Laa choukrane" is enough to make them stop) and some shops have fixed prices (ask the taxi company in the lobby about that) but these are not the more interesting shops unfortunately.
2) "not here, see my mate" is occasionnally answered when you ask for a service. Don't get angry, even if obviously the guy has nothing else to do and just go to his colleague. Keep smiling you 'r on holidays :) Anyway the very vast majority of ppl is really willing to help everywhere (and not necessarily for money...).
The temperature is as you can guess quiet high in august (29-31°C at night, 36-40°C during the day) but actually you won't suffer too much of it as the wind brings you some coolness. On that point of view, going to Louxor or Cairo is something completely different of course... You better go to Louxor in october or november.
We didn't see a single cloud during the 14 days we spent in Hurghada :-)
The bottom line: We spent really great holidays with our 4 children (from 10 to 16 y.o.) at this wonderful hotel. We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone
- Arabia Beach Hotel
