Beach Albatros Reviews

when we arrived at 9.30pm we were given some cold meat and cheese.the room was clean and the aircon worked well we found the food well presented but seemed to cater more for germans etc. rather than english .some of the staff wre miserable whilst others very friendly.

our first day shopping was a dissapointment lots of hassle and rip off prices this disscoraged us from going out there loss not ours.namabay is nice, try the tavern this is english owned there is also a supermarket nextstore who actualy price things up.boat trips for snorkling etc are good value at £20 for a full day inc.food and drink lok out for mahmood on the beach he works for italy italy. and will look after you his nic name is rambo.the airport at sharm is new so you would expect clean toilets these were actualy a disgrace with wee and dried poo on the floors my wife said she had never been in any so bad neither had i

all in all i wont be rushing back i dont think it offers anythink special unless you want to dive or see pyramids. on your last day they cant wait to cut off your rist band ,from then on things change and they all know you have to pay from then on. one waiter was laughing and joking with us one minute and the next on the phone to reception because we helped ourselves to a coffee as i pointed out we diddent arrive until late monday so missed all the meals that day .this relay put us off mybe other hotles are better i dont know .

just returned from the beach albatross the hotel was very disapointing having been to egypt ten times this is the worst hotel we have stayed in the rooms are nothing like the brochure
they are kept clean but the fittings are very old and worn everything is painted white the windows are stained glass so no view unless you go outside
tiles missing in bathroom shower tray cracked ive seen better furniture on skips
food is ok
staff not like normal egyptions very miserable they make you feel they are really doing you a favour serving you
all in all not a good hotel but egypt is a wonderful place and will definatly be going back but not to this hotel

We too were in room 7003!! How uncanny.... Anyway, we were there for 1 week end of Nov 05, just came back and promised to leave genuine feed-back as alot of folk slag the place off. Yes, on arrival the hotel is in the scabby end of the resort, make no mistake. After a long day travelling, it looked disgusting, wild ferral cats looting the skips next door and general tippy type area that you would not like your Mrs to walk on her own. Lush.

The hotel appeared to be better, but the room on arrival was 1960's, NOT what you see in the brochure. The mini-bar was a knackered old fridge. There were mozzies in the room - but in fairness, we called ";0"; and they brought round a spray to kill them.. Also a cock-roach fell out of the menu card. The room was very tired and we were shocked. The food on arrival (10pm) was poor, and we were totally gutted at this stage. So we went to the bar, and yes the drinks were free, but the coke was flat, as was the lemo, so no matter what you drank it was gopping. There was an old Egyptian man singing along to his laptop, now we were suicidal. I kid you not - we would have flown back home that night.

So we slept in the iffy bed with an even iffier blanket that you would not wish to snuggle up to. So the morning came and what a change! The sun was shining, the beaches looked beautiful and the brekkie was better than the previous night. Yes we were tired but the points are still extant. We laid by the pool which was lovely, and was being water tested which we thought was good.

Then we went to the beach and had a lovely time snorkelling and seeing these amazing fishies. Truly. The beach bar was great and served pizzas from 1300 - 1700, which is when the bar closed and you can enjoy a nice beer watching the sun set. Gorgeous. We tried to upgrade, and our rep (Medhotels) was brill - he told us for a 5 star it would be £150, but with 4 days to go, we stayed there. In summary, hotel is not 4 star, maybe a 3.

The hotels's beach is a 5 star - maybe they aggreggate the scores! The staff were spot on - all of them. The room let itself down, food was OK - no more, beach superb. We would go back to Sharm, but Oasis Reef which is a real 5 star - and the brochure says only a £100 p/p. I hope this proves to be balanced and helpful.

Good flight with Excel. We booked extra leg room at £15/person each way. No problems at Sharm airport. The immigration card given out on the plane is easy to fill in and at the immigration desk I told the man that we were staying in Sharm, so he just stamped our passports. Other holiday makers were in a queue for visas at what looked like the bureau de change.

Outside the airport there are plenty of taxis, all trying to get as much as possible for a 10 to 20 min journey. The price started at GBP25, but we knew that it should be less than GBP10. We eventually paid GBP10 and had a 20min drive to the hotel.

Our first impression was not good, having driven by lots of fantastic looking hotels, the Beach Albatros looked mediocre. Once inside the complex we were much happier. We had room 7003, at the far end of the hotel, it looked perfect and was until later at night when the disco started in the pizzeria next door. The evenings were cool so we didn't bother with the aircon but both got mossy bites during the night. After that we but the aircon on low and the gentle hum covered the noise of the disco.

The hotel is all inclusive for everyone but we still had to have the wristbands. Food was very good, all on buffet style. At breakfast a chef cooked eggs and pancakes and there was a good choice on the buffet. Lunch could be taken in the main restaurant or at the beach bar. The restaurant had much more choice, with the beach bar having pizzas or burgers. Evening meals had plenty of choices from oriental, pasta, salads (fresh and well prepared) and other hot dishes. I noted from other reviews that one complaint is that the food is not very warm from the buffet. We found that many people tried to get everything at one go on large plates. We went for small portions and went back for more when ready. Beer and wine were ok and I mixed cocktails with local spirits and juice from the drink fountains.

The beach is accessed by stairs or a lift, it looks to be man made and is more shingle than sand. There was just enough sunbeds and we only failed to get two on one occasion but went back to one of the two pools and found room there. There is very little coral in Sharm bay but still plenty of exotic fish to see, with or without snorkel gear.

The town of old Sharm is only 10mins walk from the beach and we went most evenings. Yes, there is a lot of hassling from the shop keepers but we've been to similar places and didn't find it intimidating. I do get annoyed at the double standards in pricing anything. It's not so bad in a shop, you haggle until the price is right for you and pay your money. You don't expect to find the same policies in cafes and restaurants but they are. We had a fresh fruit juice at a cafe for LE5 (50p)on our first day, so when we called in different a cafe the next day, we expected the price to be similar. A bottle of beer, a fresh orange juice and a cup of tea came to LE50 (GBP5), not a lot but we felt cheated. We asked for the menu to check the prices but the waiter said they didn't have one, so we haggled and the manager halved the bill.

We checked out the prices for meals and feel that all inclusive is the best option. A meal for two with drinks would be around GBP25. We paid GBP400 each for 4* AI and we were tempted for BandB in Naama Bay for GBP350. I'm sure we got the best deal. We had a trip into Naama bay, about 10mins by taxi for LE25. It's a new resort, with wide nicely paved roads and paths but it seems a bit heartless and certainly not typical Egypt. On our way back we got a taxi from the hotel for LE50 plus LE10 for taxi entry to the airport. Elaina swears the driver only paid LE1 but LE10 seems to be the going rate on top of your agreed taxi fare.

The airport is new but the staff don't have good organisation skills. We arrived two hours before departure to find that the check in desks had not opened for our flight. After some panic, thinking the flight had been cancelled, we found some other people who had been on the same flight outbound so waited for 10mins until the check in desk opened.

The plane was a 737 holding around 200 people and one would expect check in to be fairly quick. No chance, we queued for almost 2 hours and then found that our pre-booked seats had been allocated to someone else. With the flight due to leave in 5mins, we together with our luggage were still at the check in desk waiting for the passengers with our seats to return. Although we told the officials that we would sort it out on the plane, they insisted that we stay until they sorted it out. We did notice that there were long queues at the immigration desk but by the time we got there it was clear. We also noticed that most flights were late due to check in problems. The tannoy was constantly calling for passengers for one flight or another. We did manage a quick look in the duty free to find that there were no prices on anything, so we didn't buy. Our flight took off about an hour late which seemed normal.

All in all a great holiday although not a place we would want to visit again in the near future.