Grand Sharm Hotel:

Spotted this one week holiday to Sharm El-Sheikh that co-incided perfectly with my week off. Usually prefer to visit greek or european destinations but as it was february thought that it wouldn't be hot enough. As it was, temperatures were constantly 22 deg C and above.

Entrance/Arrival

Got a taxi from the airport which cost 170 LE (Egyptian pounds) or approx £17. This was slightly above average for the journey (which on the way back cost us 100 LE / £10. Dropped off at the very grand looking entrance to the hotel, where I was immediately shooed away from touching our luggage at all, the porter taking care of all this. We were invited to sit down in the comfy and plushly furnished reception, and given hot towels to clean our hands with.

Check in took a very short time whilst we were sat in our comfy chairs following the long flight, and then we were shown to our room. The room was lovely, large, and well furnished with TV (limited channels) and small fridge. Definitely no S/C provision however. Unfortunately, our room was one of a few with a very poor balcony/terrace area (was more of a corridor between buildings), it looked unfinished and had very little view over a small grassy area. Other rooms however had much better views. There is the option to specify a pool or sea view and I feel that this would be well benefited from (as long as your view is not of the heated/winter pool, more on this later).

The bathroom was very large, well lit and clean looking. The shower was a seperate annex, was strong, hot and well drained.

Room service/housekeeping was excellent, with a daily sheet exchange and room cleaning. My only criticism of this was that some days the room service was as early as 0845 when we were still in bed, which could be annoying.

Hotel Facilities

A very large private complex, the staff were friendly and accommodating. There are three pools, a large unheated pool (more or less unusable in february, due to the cold, despite the ambient air temperature) a smaller winter pool, frequented by children and a diving pool (which we did not see). The winter pool was very noisy, and I felt sorry for people who's room overlooked it, as they were doubtlessly awoken by noisy children and aerobics instructors. Also, again annoyingly, whilst sunbathing by the pool you could expect to be approached about 3 times in every hours by members of the hotels outsourced companies, offering you photos, massages, day trips, watersports even bellydancing! Some of which at additional cost. This grew tiresome throughout the week.

The restaurants are excellent, and although the breakfast was not suited to my own palette, there was a wide variety of fresh bread, pastries, juices and cereals available. Omelettes could be requested, eggs cooked the way you like, regular fill ups of tea and coffee.

From 730pm onwards, a restaurant called "La Seppia" opened, with views over the red sea, and the cuisine is of the highest order. It is very reasonably priced too, a four course meal for two costing only 350 LE or £35.

Room service could be ordered at all hours, for all day breakfasts, meals, snacks and drinks, at reasonable prices.


Summary

An excellent hotel, which for me was let down by our poor terrace and hassle at the pool side. Also, it was very frustrating that the large pool, (which in turn gave access to the pool bar) was unusable (apart from the russian/ukrainians who obviously have thicker skin than I!)

I would recommend the hotel, and would return here.

Re-read reviews of this hotel just before we left for a weeks holiday there (7th February-14th February 2008), was a bit wary after reading some of the not so good reviews. Therefore what a pleasant surprise the Iberotel turned out to be. We had a lovely room with seaview and a really large balcony that was a lovely suntrap. This was the first time we have ever been Fully Inclusive (we booked this option on the advice of Tripadvisor reviewers) and were a bit apprehensive at first. But we soon found the food in the main restaurant was good, okay it's not A La Carte but we managed to find something at breakfast, lunch and dinner and I must admit we enjoyed it. Twice we ate in the Italian restaurant, (where you have to pay though fully inclusive guests do get a 25% discount) the first night our three course meal came to £13.50 per person and the next time £11 (and that included a very good fillet steak). Service in all of the restaurants was quicker than we have found in at lot of other hotels and all the staff we had dealings with were very pleasant. Often we didn't have lunch due to the fact that we were still full from breakfast therefore once we had finished on the beach (normally about 4pm) we would go and have something to eat at the pool restaurant and again this was really good quality and all included in the fully inclusive price. The scented rose water sprayed on you to cool you down was wonderful, also the glass cleaning service and the strawberries went down very well. We wanted to relax on this holiday therefore the location was perfect for us, though Naama Bay is easy to get to by taxi or hotel minibus if you want a bit more night life.

Theweek we were there the weather had improved from the previous week and temps were about 23' everyday, which was lovely sunbathing weather and we even managed to go snorkelling in the sea. The main swimming pool was a bit too cold for me but my husband did go for a swim in there a couple of times and said it was 'refreshing'! The heated pool was really nice to swim in, though it is quite small therefore does tend to get a bit busy at times.

Some reviewers have commented on the fact that the Spa Staff are always on the beach/by the swimming pool trying to sell their massages, and I must admit this is really annoying. Leaving information in your room on what massages are available and prices would have tempted me a lot more, than the constant hard sell tactics they use. Never seen anyone sign up for a massage the whole time we were there!

It would also be nice if the hotel offered room service (think members of the Pharoah Club have this option but not sure) as there were a couple of nights we would have preferred just to eat in our room. We did enquire about upgrading to the aforementioned Pharoah Club but decided that at 13 euros a day wasn't really worth it for us. We never go back to the same hotel even if we do go to the same resort but I really think if we did return to Sharm we would go back to the Iberotel.

We had a beautiful room by the pool, with nice sorroundings and view. The best for us were the breakfast with the view and the dinner in terrace at the evening sunset. I recommend for a romantic getaway and if you are just planning to stay in the hotel to relax. Otherwise there is not much to do outside. Inconvenience is the access to the sea and the average age of the guests (around 50 year old)

A friend and I spent Christmas and New Year in this hotel. The whole experience was fantastic. The food was great, rooms very clean, the staff were really helpful and friendly.

We had a fabulous holiday.

There was a really big effort made for Hogmanay - a stage was built and a big show put on. We had no idea that this was happening before we booked this hotel, it was a very pleasant surprise.

I would definately go back to Egypt and this hotel and would recommend it to anyone.