Weve just returned from our first visit to Egypt & had the best holiday ever! This hotel is fabulous & more than lives up to its 5 star rating & Thomson gold medal award for the past 2 years. The staff were wonderful & so friendly. This extends beyond the resort too - the Egyptians are the nicest people we have ever come across. The cleanliness in the hotel was remarkable & there were staff constantly cleaning. The main restaurant (tiran) was lovely & you are spoilt for choice with food especially desserts! There was a themed night each night & the waiters got dressed up for the occasion. The waiters & restaurant manager were so welcoming & were more like your best friend by the end of the holiday. The beach was spotless too & there is a beach bar with waiter service also. Baron is 1 of the few resorts in Sharm that has a conventional beach as well as a jetty where you will find beautiful coral & the most amazing fish. Snorkelling is a must!! The pool area is also immaculate & has a waterfall which was lovely to sit under in the 45 degree heat!! There are very few bad points to this hotel the first being people reserving beds by the pool, if you wernt by the pool by 7.30am you had no chance of getting a bed. Another bad point is the service in the bar & restaurant is sometimes slow - we didnt mind this as afterall were on holiday & had all the time in the world but some people found it annoying. Overall though we had a fantastic holiday here & would definately recommend this hotel & we will most certainly be returning. Retford

Right ..... Just returned from the Baron Palms stayed there 7/7/08 - 14/7/08 and first up I see where the confusion is on the two hotels Baron Palms and Baron Resort , Well they are side by side !! . Anyway the experience of checking into the BARON PALMS was perfect it couldn't have gone much smoother the staff were polite and even got a welcome drink so no problems there , The room was large enough for the 3 of us (2 adults , 1 Child) and we had two WC's in our room which was handy . I'll break it down in my view . The hotel - 100% spotless incredibly clean . Entertainment - They tried and they tried but nothing can beat an english film on one of the TV's satelitte channels . The room - 100% spotless incredibly clean The food - Now we went all inclusive and to be honest it was a very restricted all inclusive , If you wanted fresh juice in the morning then you had to pay ?2 for it !! Or you could make do with the powdered orange juice made by adding water that tasted more like sherbet , Whatever was for lunch was 95% going to be on the dinner menu and the desserts was more a game of how many times can you disguise a sponge cake , I've never seen so many types of different bread on display and the salad bar was a total NO NO NO !!! Wife fancied a salad and within a few hours good old Dr Diacalm was called luckily she got away with it . The choice of food was OK and thats really all I can say OK . Saturday night was fish night but again if you wanted the prawns / shrimps / lobster these were all additional cost and not part of the all inclusive offer . Poolside bar and beach bar was okay but it is very difficult to enjoy food in 40C of heat even if it is under an umbrella , We tried it and ended up in the air conditioned Tiran restaurant which is the main one on the resort . Drinks - Okay but make sure you drink them whilst they are cold becasue in about 5 minutes they get warm !!!! Beach - Spotless and the snorkelling is out of this world ,The coral & the fish are amazing you can even see decent fish just by snorkelling in the shallows but if you go to the end of the floating piers then you will be amazed as to what lives under the surface of the sea . Pool - Beautiful freshwater pool , The pool opens at 7.30am and you get a queue of people with thier towels forming a queue from 7am !! It really is funny to watch as 7.30 approaches and they all RUN yes RUN to get their beds for the day , To make it worse after they have put their towels/books/sun cream on the beds they then bugger off back to their rooms to have a lay in , I was very tempted one morning to go down and start moving peoples stuff around on other beds but the wife wouldn't let me do it , Another reviewer quotes these people as being SADDOS well I must agree , Tons of sun beds on the beach + you get a breeze off the red sea much better than sitting round the stagnant air of the pool area . Weather - OMG !! HOT HOT HOT . I have never been anywhere where the heat is constant and relentless if you sit in the sun between 10am - 3pm then you are a fool , I thought I knew how hot Egypt was going to be but it turned out to be a whole lot hotter , BEWARE - The strength of the sun in Egypt is frightening and if not careful it will BURN you and you WILL end up very ill , I had to up my SPF to 50 !!! And even then after 15 minutes you can feel a burn !!! Please please be careful .....It's amazing how many English women we saw in their 40's / 50's turning bright red !!! It really isn't nice and it doesn't look attractive . Tipping - Whilst I accept it is part of the culture , Towards the end it got on my nerves as people seem to ask you for money just becasue they are standing in front of you breathing !! , This got on my nerves more at the airport when the cases are being loaded and taken off of the coaches . You make ypour own mind up Currency - Theres not really much point in taking much in the way of Egyptian pounds as Sterling & USD seem to do just as well and by the way NOWHERE seems to take plastic . Visa - The amount of people who rushed to passport control and bought visas they didn't need was almost comical , If you are not planning to leave the Sinai area then you DO NOT need to pay $15 for a visa , There were at leat several people we met in our hotel who bought a visa they did not need . Shops - The hotel has a string of shops on the walk up to the beach , The vendors really are harmless they do shout things out , but they really are harmless , In fact the nicest guy we met was Ali Barber !!!! in the oils shop , What a fantastic shop and he does a great selling pitch . as you walk past him he shouts out "I'm Here" . If you want to go to Narma bay then go for the experience only , as you won't enjoy it especially if you have children with you my daughter's 12 and it was too much for her and me and the wife . Funny Smell - Not kidding and not sure where else it was but we were in the King Tut wing and every now and then a foul smell of waht I assume is sewage came up from somewhere .. Bizarre but true . All in all - Nice relaxing holiday , But the hotel does not deserve a 5 star rating purely because of the food on offer , Everything else ticks the boxes except the food

Please don't be put off by negative reviews of this hotel, I almost changed our hotel because of this, but I'm so glad I didn't. The hotel is lovely, really well kept and exceptionally clean. We found all the staff from the cleaners, gardeners, waiters and reception staff to be very friendly and were always asking if there was anything we needed. We did not tip, as on arrival we did not have any small denomination notes and then as we got to know the staff felt a bit uncomfortable tipping them, but we still received excellent service and never felt under pressure to tip. We did tip at the end of our stay - Sayed who did a fantastic job of cleaning our room and Saad in the Tiran restaurant who was always very happy (unlike his name!) and friendly. He said that the tips were shared amounst the staff and we were pleased about this as they all worked so hard. We found the food good, typical buffet food, but you are kind of restricted with what you can provide with a buffet. As an alternative try the Paradise or Egyptian restaurants which were lovely and made a nice change. (also included in the all inclusive). Although the pool area is lovely, it is quite crowded, so we went to the beach which is great and you could get a sunbed any time of day. There are sellers that ask you to buy their stuff but a polite 'No thank you' is sufficient. Visit Feras at his stall on the beach, he is lovely, v friendly and so clever, speaking 4 languages! Ask if you can sit and watch them fill your bottle with sand, it's amazing how they do it. We went on 2 trips - quad bikes and cleo park (a water park in sharm) . We booked our trips with Mohammed at Bobos on the beach, who was great, very helpful. The Quads are well worth doing, it cost us ?25 each for the sunset trip, really good value for money, the trip lasted about 4hrs, door to door and we were on the quads for about 1 1/2 hrs. Cleo park is quite small, but there is good music and an animation team organising games. For ?17 each we had entry to the park and a car that took us and collected us at our chosen time. The only thing that lets this hotel down slightly is the entertainment, which shall I say is 'unusual'! A transvestite show is not my idea of a good time! Some of the shows however are worth watching, it's all down to what you like. My top tips are: Take GB? or US$, as these are widely acccepted and in fact all the trips are priced in US$ and even in the shops they prefer these currencies and you will get a better price. Buy snorkel shoes - the rocks in the sea are quite sharp and slippery. Also the sand gets very hot! We bought ours in Naaema Bay for ?4 per pair. Although you can buy them here before you go. Drink loads of water! - we drunk the water by the glass at the hotel and on the beach with no problems and also had two bottles of water brought to our room each day. If you go to the casino in Naama bay take US$ as they don't accept GB? or egyptian ? Take the bus to Naama bay, at ?4 return each it was good value. When you get dropped off, don't get caught by a shop keeper saying welcome - he will lead you off to his shop to try and sell you something! There is something for everyone in Naama bay, restaurants, night clubs, shops, bars, casino's and will only take approx 30mins from the hotel. It's worth a visit but be prepared to be asked if you want to buy something, what seems like every 2 feet. If you want to buy a nice souvenir visit the "Aladdin"shop in Naama bay, (next door but one to the "Pacha" night club). Snorkeling is a must- the fish from the end of the jetty are amazing and the water is very warm, especially this time off the year. Snorkel gear can be bought at the shops in the Baron. If you decide to go in July or August take factor 50SPF sun lotion as the temperature doesn't go below 40 C (104F) during the day. Barter for everything! I hope if you go to the Baron Palms you enjoy it as much as we did, just go with an open mind. Although some of the reviews didn't rate the hotel as a 5 star, please bear in mind what you paid, in our opinion this holiday offered excellent value for money.

Simple... good hotel, well staffed, safe and convenient

We arrived on monday 30th june and had the best time ever the staff are what make it (we met the general manager as they do a "General managers evening")make sure you go,you Get an invite through the door.We have stayed in nice places all over the world and we like clean and nice places and i would reccomond anybody staying here.I was so so angry about all the comments on this site,as we nearly cancalled yes as people can really scare you of this place!!!!! ITS THE BEST I promised the General manager i would write a review as before we arrived we were very concerned about the reviews on trip advisor as they were reallly really bad, and i told him this,he was aware! By the way we are the couple mr general manager who were in room 510 and stayed between 30th june and 10th july (Mr & Mrs Mead)and my husband was the man who sold expensive cars!!!!! and you told us what you were getting!!!!! ANYWAY On arriving everything was fine we were in a ground floor room which we didnt want ,so they moved us,not a good scenery but we didnt mind as that cant be helped.The rooms are big with a twin and a double and so so clean and fresh.,with 2 bathrooms.The food is great I did get ill after the 1st day and it wasnt the food or water,I am well fussy but you get bottled water at lunch given to you and at dinner time (evening) just ask for 2 bottles of water and you get them.I was sick and had the runs for 6 days out of 10 but I just got it bad.That wouldnt stop me loving the place and i would go back.The reason why us English are ill when we get there,i dont care what anyone else thinks but its because we dont drink enough water when we are there and just drink loads of beer etc and then eat the food that is going to be different to home stuff and thats how which ever hotel you are at you are going to maybe get a funny tummy at some stage.They are great the staff, you tell them you dont feel right and they tell you what to take and even give you hot honey,when my husband was ill we had booked a table at the nice restaurant and I got room service they just cant do enough for you.The whole place is fab just wear loads of sun cream as I am mrs factor 2 normally and i kept factor 30 on all the while.The wind is great as well as it takes he heat of it,even more so to keep the high facotrs on. Make sure you get out on trips as well as you really need to get out and see it all.The jetty where you can walk up to see all the fish are right by the sea front but go to the one that is the furthest away as we love all that kinda stuff and there isnt as many people there its the one on the right as you get down to the beach hardly anyone goes there and that is where the big fish are fab stuff. We would like to thank the general manager and all the staff as we just loved you all and it was m y birthday when we were there and I got 2 CAKES!!!!! one delievered to the room and the other one at our table and all the bar guys bought me a little pressie.Make sure you try the afternoon tea out,no one mentioned this when i was reading it up,it is between 4-6pm and its great thats when you think of home. thanks your great people and we just loved it all,all the people that wrote the reports that were bad,you nearly made me cancel this holiday and we only got married last year and we went to Thailand and had it all,but this was maybe our favourite say no more.So you will love it,talk to the staff as people have said that they are misrable and only talk to certain people,you are IN THERE COUNTRY MAKE AN EFFECT.We have some of there emails thats how nice they are and they all speak english,I read a review that said they struggle hat are you talking about! THANKS