I really felt that I recognised this hotel from the reviews. It as, as reported, a comfortable, friendly and well-run hotel.

Christmas Weather: 2011 was bright, breezy and invigorating. You could sunbathe from 9:00 to 3:30 if you were behind a windbreak. The sun is not strong - a lick of factor 15 was enough to protect me for a full day. I got a light, healthy-looking tan in a week.

Beach & Swimming: the hotel beach is not the best - the reef is protected so you need to walk to a roped off area and you need reef shoes to use it. This is fine at Christmas, but I wouldn't like the restriction in hot weather. The sea is like iced champagne, cool, but warm enough to swim. One of the pools is heated, which is nice. I didn't like the shuttle bus beach - it is near a road busy with trucks - and they all use their air-horns when they see you! I sat in a deckchair under a shade for an hour and went back to the hotel to use the wind-breaks and comfy sun-loungers, which are free, as are the beach towels. The hotel jetty is wonderful to walk along, or sit in a deck chair on, but the red flag flew for two days and the yellow for four days, so you need to be a strong swimmer to go down the scary ladder and into the sea from it. I didn't dive, but people seemed to be enjoying the instruction in the pool.

Food: I thought it was like frozen or supermarket meals. It looked nice, but was a little tasteless, even the bar-b-q. However, there was tons of it, it was all clean and eatable, and even the faddiest foodie could find washed, safe salads and lovely ripe fruit to fill up on. Egyptian dishes like cous cous were nicer than the mashed potato. The baklava-type cakes were nicer than western deserts like coffee tart. There was always plenty of bread and real butter. The hotel put a terrific gala Christmas Eve dinner on. I could have eaten the food for a second week, and I don't say that very often, because we both cook and eat fresh food. It is warm enough to eat outside in the lovely gardens.

Rooms: Lovely & spacious. Nice big, clean bathrooms. The hotel water comes from a German desalination plant and there is plenty of it and it is nice and hot. The loo didn't work in our first room, but the third time DH went back to growl about the engineer not turning up, they gave us a nicer room with a sea view. Can't say fairer than that! I often work on holiday (I write Regency romances) and there wasn't a desk set up, but I'm sure they would have brought one if I hadn't wimped out and taken a complete break! The balcony was lovely. There were plenty of drawers and wooden hangers. The beds were firmly sprung, but I didn't think they were hard. We both slept very well in white cotton sheets and a fluffy blanket. Good reading lights and extra pillows were nice as well.

Hassle: none! It was the best thing about the hotel. The atmosphere is lovely. Solo females would feel perfectly safe here. You leave everything in a free safe and carry no money. The isolated location means there is no-one hanging around & no fear of theft. There are NO hawkers. Bliss!! The staff are friendly and happy. The animation team came over to say hello, but understood that not everyone loves organised darts and so on and just smiled and left us alone from the first day. Everyone seemed to enjoy the events they put on - it looked like old-fashioned fun. The manager wanders around talking to everyone. He bought us a cup of tea and also came over to say goodbye. The delightful air of happiness and holiday fun was so relaxing.

Take everything you need. There is nowhere to buy anything.
Take a travel kettle if you like that bedtime cup of tea with a book.
Mineral water is expensive - buy 8 bottles and have it delivered to your room.
Exchange is better at the hotel than in the UK.
Take a mosquito net. The hotel spray, but there are always a few buzzing around.

i wish we'd booked two weeks! Writing this review makes me want to go back.

I greatly enjoyed my one-week stay here. The room was spacious and very clean, with a balcony and overlooking the sea. The staff were friendly and helpful and the food was good, with an excellent selection of salads and desserts and some Egyptian dishes, and a plentiful variety of food for breakfast. The gardens are well kept and have a large variety of flowering plants, trees and shrubs, and hundreds of sparrows, some butterflies and even quite a large number of dragonflies. With cloudless skies and little light at night, it was a delight to see the starry night sky; and to watch the sun setting and rising. The dervish dancer on the Saturday evening was a tour de force of skill and stamina – colourful and beautiful to watch. The snorkelling too was excellent, though the reef does drop down steeply and deep and has to be accessed at the end of the jetty. One can also go to the public beach about 4 kilometres away, where the reef is shallower. The hotel provides a free bus service every hour, although one can walk there.
There is a variety of excursions. I went on three: to the ‘Dolphin House’ at Samadi where I saw a pod of thirteen dolphins swimming underwater within a few feet of me; to Abu Dabab where I saw three giant turtles; and to the desert where we rode on camels and then quad bikes to watch the sun setting. The desert has an austere beauty so if you like deserts this excursion is worth going on.
On my last day the manager invited me to take tea with him. He regretted the lack of British tourists and wondered why this was when there used to be a lot. I could provide no answer but just hope that trade from Britain would pick up.
On the subject of currency, it is better to take sterling or euros to exchange. I was advised to load my currency card with US dollars, which turned out to be poor advice.

I spent 1 week in this hotel. The rooms are huge. The restorant and bars are good and stuff is friendly. Hotel has a great fascilities (three pools, wolleyball court, children play area etc.). What I was missing is WiFi access, but you can use internet on hotels computers (so don't bring your lap-top with you). The only thing that bothered me was the fact that my room was fronting the spot where in the evening first the kid's disco was going on and latter the music was pretty loud- but it finished around 23.00 o' clock (normaly that won't be a problem, but when I took a Cairo trip I wanted to sleep as the tour starts early in the morning). Allthough El quseir is a great place it is relatively far from Hurghada and the airport, so be ready to travel 1 hour and a half to reach the hotel or airport.

I took 3 days off from my hectic stay in Luxor to relax next to the Red Sea.
It cost me about 600 LE for a return taxi from Luxor to El Quseir (money well spent) and cost approx 300 LE per night at half board.

The food was OK, but is more continental than Egyptian (to cater to the mostly Italian / German clientelle). It was plentiful though, and breakfast was all-you-can-eat.

Drinks are VERY expensive though, so be sure to bring your own Cokes and bottled water.

The diving centre was great (much more friendly than the arrogant Moevenpick) and the house reef was loveley also.