Al Diwan Hotel Reviews

We booked this hotel as we were looking for a cheap family holiday during the school holidays . Originally tried the usual Spanish and Greek Resorts but the price was the same for accomodation only in these resorts as for all inclusive in Egypt. Hotel room very large which suited us as we have a teenage daughter and she had the lounge area to herself. Cleaned every day to a high standard. Brilliant free air conditioning which is essential due to high temperatures sometimes reaching 50 degrees mid day. Pool area good fun-music playing , plenty of sunbeds and shade and pool side bar. Pool itself had a few broken tiles but we have been informed that it is due for re-tiling before next season. All inclusive from 10am until 10pm but friendy bar staff shouted last orders and were more than willing to give everyone extra drinks so as to carry on enjoying the 'free' booze. Bars still remained open for may hours afterwards.A couple of entertainment nights were arranged during our stay which were fun with traditional dancers and belly dancers but it was a free for all when dinner was served which spoilt it slightly. The resort was a bit isolated but even though a free bus service was provided daily to the beach it was only twice weekly to the bars and restuarants at Naarma Bay otherwise about 8 pound return in a taxi. Sharks Bay is the nearest beach and free sunbeds are available. The snorkelling is brilliant and plenty of fish to see. Friendly staff at the hotel made our holiday including the manager and the bar staff especially Hossan, Reda and Hanif. Food was okay especially the salads and pasta dishes. Just got a bit monotonous after a week when you got to know that you would get a chicken or fish dish and a beef dish for each evening meal but some of them were really tasty. Could have done with having some more spicy dishes too. I will definately go back to Sharm el Sheikh maybe not to Al Diwan as it is not really a good location as we have a teenager to amuse and sometimes we just got taxis into Naarma just to have a meal and a change of scene. However if it's a restful cheap holiday that you want then it's a good place to stay.

I had a week in the Al Diwan at the beginning of March and can honestly say it was the worst place i've ever stayed in.
I went there with fairly modest expectations and was disappointed with what i found.

The rooms were generally tidy although in need of serious maintenance (sockets hanging off the wall) and the toilet/bathroom had a lingering smell as if something had died in it.
Each morning and evening around 6am/pm a man walked around the grounds spraying insecticide, from what appeared to be a converted leave blower,which found it's way into the apartments.
The food was dreadful, clearly catering for the masses of ignorant eastern bloc residents, and we generally ate only the breakfast preferring to eat out away from the hotel.
The eastern bloc residents i refer to found it necessary to act as though everything was rationed and had no concept of politeness(the free shuttle bus was a free for all, no point in queuing as you'd be lucky to get on, better to sharpen those elbows ready to jab in some ribs!)
We went all inclusive and were given a nice pink wrist band which we were required to display whenever we wanted a drink or some food, this wasn't such a problem except that most people couldn't easily remove it, it did feel as though we were being branded, why couldn't the non all inclusive inmates wear the bands?

After a couple of days we realised that we weren't going to get the benefit of being all inclusive when the ";free"; drinks began to be served in small wine glasses(plastic cups if you're by the pool) and i must congratulate the bar staff on their ability to get such small amounts of liquid into a glass whilst making the glass appear full (1 part liquid,9 parts froth).
The cut off time for the all inclusive guests was 10pm so we tried to get a few drinks in before 10pm to see us through but this was curtailed when we were told that we couldn't have another drink until we had finished the one we'd got and brought an empty glass back.

The final straw for me was on our last day we had checked out, duly noting that we had no entitlement to anything all inclusive, and i went to the bar to buy a couple of beers.
All week we had been served ";Stella"; (not Artois) beer which wasn't a bad drink and i asked for two bottles of Stella.
I was aware i'd have to pay and had the money ready only to be told that i couldn't have them, i had to have Sakara(nothing wrong with it i just didn't like it) as the Stella was only for the all inclusive inmates.
To get around this i asked a resident who was still checked in to buy a couple of bottles and i'd give him the money. Alas no, the all inclusive guests couldn't have a bottle only a glass/plastic cup.
By now i'd have enough so made as much of a scene as possible to which the bar staff made a couple of calls to the management and relented.

As a parting gesture we had a run in with the holiday rep when we tried to bring the issues to his attention.
The presence of the ignorant individual, who appeared after a few days of our holiday, at the end of the bar recording every glass of beer sold and who it was sold to was also curious.

The blue and white taxis should be avoided like any one of the biblical plagues, better to get the hotel taxis who were friendly, courteous and reasonably priced.
Sharks bay has little going for it at the moment, it's practically a building site, Naama bay is better established (geared up to exploit the tourist though) and has a nice beach (ignore the private beach signs, i wasn't challenged once).

All in all i didn't enjoy my first visit to Egypt, would i go back, probably, would i go to Sharm, possibly, would i go back to Al Diwan, definitely not!

The Al Diwan is situated just outside Sharm El Sheikh and as such there is very little to do at the hotel, fine for relaxing in the sun but no entertainment in hotel or nearby. Food very poor, and repetetive, chicken every night, hard boiled eggs every breakfast. Snorkeling in sharks bay awesome, just down the road from Hotel courtesy bus provided.

Would go to Egypt again but to a different resort and would not go back to Al Diwan or recomend it to anyone else.