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Why We Won't Be Staying at the Hilton Fayrouz in Sharm El Sheikh

Where: Naama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Let us preface this post by saying that we are not hotel snobs. We can take just as much pleasure in spending the night in a bamboo shack on the beach (more of that tomorrow) as we do checking out the latest fancypants hotel (although we’ll make sure we’re wearing full-cover, Damian Barr-style PJs in the shack – just to make sure of those sheets).

However, if a hotel is trading under a brand like, oh, say, Hilton, we do expect it to be a certain standard. And that standard is a little higher than a lobby that makes us want to run straight back to the airport:

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Hotel Video Tours / Four Seasons Hotels / Sharm El Sheikh Hotels / Egypt Hotels / → All Tags

When 67 Steps Are 67 Too Many: The Funicular at Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh

Where: 1 Four Seasons Boulevard, Sharm El Sheikh, Sinai, Egypt

Note: This video is about two minutes and 20 seconds long, which is how long the funicular ride is. Enjoy!

You know the drill: you’re on holiday, you’re feeling kinda lazy, lying by the pool is great but hauling your bod back to your room is a trial.

Luckily, the folk at the Four Seasons in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, feel your pain, as we found out when we stayed there last week*. The resort is built over five levels running down the cliffside to the Red Sea below. Which is ace, because it gives buckets of space for the 200+ rooms (they’re self-enclosed little cottages), meaning that the resort feels half-empty even when it’s at full capacity as it was while we were there.

The downside, of course, is that with the pool and beach at the bottom of the resort, the reception and restaurants at the top and the rooms in between, your day could involve a lot of walking, which would hardly be conducive to a holiday state of mind.

There are 67 steps between the pool and the lobby – a lot for holiday feet. So to avoid over-stretching your calves (it’s hot, after all), they’ve had a funicular railway shipped over from Sweden to lug your sunburnt bones back to your room. It goes up and down all day, the journey takes just over two minutes and, as you can see from the video, gives you some pretty nice views of the resort.

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VIP Hotel Revies / VIP Hotel Reviewer Series / Chris Clarke / Sonesta Resorts / Egypt Hotels / Beach Resorts / → All Tags

Sonesta Beach Resort Serves up Smiles and Skin in Sharm El Sheikh

Where: Naama Bay, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.

Our next VIP reviewer is Chris Clarke, the blogger behind the hotel industry site Vacant Ready He's traded living in Vancouver for Egypt for a little while and of course is checking out the hotel scene over there. Here's his story on a little holiday he took.

I'm currently based in Cairo, and like most of my colleagues here I look forward to getting out of town for a little R&R. Last weekend I checked into the all-inclusive Sonesta Beach Resort for five days of amazing Red Sea snorkeling. This was not my first time visiting Sharm, but it was my first visit to the Sonesta Resort.

The expansive resort grounds are very well maintained, and offer just about any activity imaginable. Guestrooms are huge, though fairly sparse in amenities. Food and beverage offerings were surprisingly good for an Egyptian all-inclusive -- right up until I got sick the last night after dinner.

This surprised me since my system is accustomed to all kinds of abuse from Cairo's culinary scene.

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Egypt Hotel Reviews / Cairo Hotel Reviews / Hotel Pools / → All Tags

The Charm of Sharm el Sheikh

Where: Ras Um El-Sid Cliff | South Sinai,, Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

What to do in Egypt when you grow weary of the Pyramids of Giza and the ancient Sphinx...when the tales of Cleopatra's romantic and political connections and influence to the Roman Empire get old... when the sprawling city of Cairo seems like one big dusty drag and you just wanna go pool-hopping?

Then get yourself over to Sharm el Sheikh at the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and do a little dunk at the Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort. This area of shore along the Red Sea is reputed to offer the best diving in Egypt.

Here the Hilton chain takes advantage of the waves and throbbing sea with a 401-room resort that has six pools, a beach, and a jetty out to the "house reef." It's more relaxing than a handful of hieroglyphs.

Tripadvisor reviews boasts that the resort is popular with Russians and Eastern Europeans; the pools are kept deliberately cool to offset "the devils' anvil" (what Omar Sharif called the sun in "Lawrence of Arabia"), and it gets big points for liberal towel dispensation.

On the downside, it suffers from a slow funicular that brings you from pool to lobby level.

And food?  Did someone say food? There's an Italian restaurant, a Lebanese restaurant, a main dining room and, of course, the Seashore Pool Bar & Restaurant, not to mention the usual American fare if you want it - pizza, burgers, and the standard US breakfast buffet.  There's also four bars, a health club, Jacuzzi, massage, dive center, and steam rooms, plus a cyber café.

Ask the hotel concierge about the shuttle vans over to the nearby resort strip in Na'ama Bay for a change of pace, or take a desert exploration trip for a bit of sand in your shoes. One day outings to Petra in Jordan are available, so you can get back to feeling like a big dusty drag.

[Photo: Danrees]

Related Stories:
· Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort Reviews [TripAdvisor]

Egypt Hotel Reviews / Hotel Heaven / → All Tags

Clean Sunglasses and Perfect Service in Sharm El Sheikh

Where: Shark’s Bay, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Where is Jennifer? Okay, perhaps the right question is who is Jennifer, but blogger whereisjennifer is in Egypt right now, raving about how wonderful the Grand Rotana Resort at Sharm El Sheikh is. Not only is the price good (as she mentions, thanks to the terrible intermittent terrorist attacks that make this Egyptian destination just a little less popular), she scored an upgrade to a "super-deluxe ocean view room". But the largest chunks of praised are reserved for the swimming pool and the employees who lurk there:

Friendly pool employees jumped to adjust our pool chairs, put up our umbrella, bring us refreshments, clean our sunglasses, and practice their commendable command of the English language. We were in heaven. Everywhere we went, employees were standing by to treat us like national treasures.

Whether or not you want someone else actually cleaning your sunglasses is another question (we can live without it ourselves) but plenty of reviews from other happy customers seem to support Jennifer's rave.

And if being waited on hand and foot at the pool all holiday isn't your thing, from the Grand Rotana Sharm El Sheikh you can also get into diving, snorkelling, windsurfing, horseriding and even camel riding and desert safaris. They just probably don't clean your sunglasses for you out in the desert.

Related Stories:
Grand Rotana Resort and Spa reviews [TripAdvisor]