My fianc? and I have just returned from staying at the Sonesta for the whole month of June 2008 (our second visit). We loved everything about it (once again). We would like to express our thanks to Bassem, Adel, Asst Front Office Manager, Emir, Front Office Manager, the Bell Boys, Adel at the Pool Bar and his staff, the Chalets crew, the Palmira crew, our Room house keeper, room service (the food is second to none, especially the French fries!), Mohammed in the Piano Bar. We also thoroughly enjoyed our meals in the Scallini and the Blue Fish restaurants. We also had our laundry done - talk about professional. Shirts came back as if they had just been bought new - packaged! In fact, our only complaint is that parents are letting their children run around in the bar at night - toddlers and babies! Much too dangerous, bearing in mind that there is glass in the bar, and not very safe for adults when a baby is freely crawling around on the floor and toddlers are playing with Dinky car toys on the floor!! Nonetheless, we have booked up for a month next June!!

Sorry this review is a bit later but since I use this site regularly, I thought is was about time I contributed. The hotel on first impression is very good, the foyer in the photos looked posh and we thought we were in for a good holiday. But..let me break it down. Pros large pools (the one at the front is less popular and as a result there is topless bathing - offensive if you easy offended) and a decent large private beach. Nice staff, the room cleaners are worth tipping, I made a deal for a max 10 dollars we got 1 fresh bottled water each rather than the 1 we got on arrival an then you are expected to fill the bottle at taps outside for the remainder Spa, although small is good and reasonable - there is one big guy there that will give you a message which you feel amazing afterward, not so during though! The pool guys with tips would move mountains for you Cons Food isn't too great, we didn't each for 2 days after we got dodgy stomachs. The food in the italian is good and we ended up going there all the time because it was safe with no adverse effects - although authenticness is questionable - rossotto = long grain rice? The amount of iseralis and russians are immense, the iseralis are particularly rude, they would walk over the top of you. They have no control over thier kids. I caught one wiping his nose on one of our fresh towels The same with the food, they just puush you out of the way at the buffet. Finally, this is not a 5* more like 3 + as the rating is given by the Egyptian tourist board so don't be fooled! All in all we won't be back but I suppose I would put this one down as low to average.

We got there late at night and must say that was the best meal we had all week! The food was the worst I have ever had, not sure why the Russian's elbowed you out of the way when we went to look at what slop we had for our dinner! The room was ok, beds a bit hard and only one bottle of water on arrival, what was that about, thought it was supposed to be all inlcusive, yes and the beer got served in little shot glasses when they ran out of 1/2 pint beakers. Best thing was snorkling, the fish were fantastic just walk a couple of meters in and the reef is there - fantastic So all in all the food was awful, Spa was good as were the entertainment staff