I must start this review by saying im writing this in the comfort of my own home on the 24th of February. Why is this significant? Because my stay at the Sol Sharm officially ends tomorrow yet my girlfriend and I paid £85 pounds each to come back a few days early (21st Feb). So we booked a 2 week holiday and only stayed for 10 days. So let me begin...

(I apoligize for the length of the review, skip to the last paragraph for the sum up if you want a quick read).

My girlfriend and I are 18 years old and in the last year have finished our A Levels and gone straight into full time employment. After lots of hard work and stress we wanted nothing more than a couple of weeks away somewhere hot to completely relax. Sol Sharm seemed ideal, all inclusive, good Egyptian climate and pretty good price. In reality it wasn't ideal at all. The biggest problem we found was the location of the hotel, situated about 15 minutes from the airport it was in the middle of nowhere. The first few days this wasn't a problem, the weather was great and we had no problems spending the day by the pool soaking up the sun, getting up only to eat lunch. When the weather got too windy to sit in your underwear we found ourselves in a predicament, nothing to do at the hotel and about 25 minute taxi drive to the nearest town 'N'aaama Bay'. This is when the boredom started to hit us and we found ourselves spending more time than we would have liked watching DVDs on the little player I brought with me (smartest thing I have done ina while!).
After 5 days we decided to brave N'aama Bay, having some idea that it would involve a lot of hassle from the locals. As soon as we stepped out the taxi some guys decended on us asking how we were and where we were from etc. All the while ushering us to a certain zebra crossing in the road (we were dropped off by the main road) so he could walk us across and expect some money in return. Luckily my girlfriend spotted another crossing in the opposite direction so we managed to break away and use that. We then walked down past the N'aama Bay stalls getting chatted up the whole time. The men constantly try and hook you in by asking 'Where you from?' and as soon as you reply BAM they are there over you trying to sell you their grandma. I politely said 'No Thankyou' but that didnt work. They stay in your face so you just have to be a bit 'rude' and just walk off.
An Egyptian selling english newspapers then approached me and wouldnt leave me alone until i bought one of his 2 day old papers. I made the mistake of picking one up and that was a big mistake coz once that paper was in my hands he was not taking it back unless I coughed up some dinero. Anyway I digress, to cut the N'aaama Bay experiance short it involved so much hassle I felt uncomfortable and unwilling to return.

So back to the hotel, N'aama Bay was out of the question so we had to find a way to pass the time whilst we were there. On the second day we each paid £40 for a 2 and a half hour Spa treatment session which included a coffee scrub, massage and sauna session. I had a great time, it was relaxing and enjoyable being pampered. My girlfriend however was chatted up and leched over by a complete unproffesional which ruiend her experiance. We were seperated for our coffee scrub and massage sessions and met up inbetween in the sauna where she told me her 'masseuse' would tell her he missed her when he returned to her and would start most of his sentences with ' Don't tell you're boyfriend but...'. Ok so he was only being 'nice' but when you are in a vulnerable situation and paying good money you don't want that sort of behaviour. She got a lot of 'compliments' from the Egyptian men and in N'aama Bay I constantly had 'Lucky Man' being shouted at me. It felt like I was amongst of British Building site with all the comments shouted. The icing on the cake was on our final night when we were using the internet facilities (3 ten year old computers) and behing us were two Egyptian men delighting over a naked woman showing off her backside on her webcam. Right behind us with no attempt to hide what they were doing. The internet facility is also located in the Spa resort area of the hotel which is obviously the centre of sexual frustration in the hotel so women beware.

Now the food, the one thing which everyone has criticized is the food, and with good reason. The first few days it was alright, a nice selection of pasta, fish, chicken, salad and bread. Unfortuantley none of the dishes tasted brilliant so after day 4 when you have tried everything you find yourself eating the same food everyday and become fed up with it all. We mostly lived on pasta and bread so with our carb-full diets we found ourselves to be starving an hour or 2 after eating.The best meal we had was out of eating hours when we paid £2.50 for burger and chips. Now I'm very open minded with food, I enjoyed the octopus and Koftka that they served and I'm not one of those people who complain if there is no chips and pizza on the menu, it's just we never actually had a proper meal because you end up trying and picking at all the different things on offer and not eating much of any of it because of the taste. So to have a basic and tasty burger was great and properly filling with no hunger pangs in the following hours.

I found the staff to be quite helpful, but obviously their attitudes vary from customer to customer because we didnt recieve the same level of service that others have written/said about. They are friendly nonetheless, most of them anyway. We didn't have any personal bad experiances with the russians althought their arrogance annoyed me, especially in the bar. When queuing for a drink which we were told to do at a specific place at the bar, the russians would march in and bark orders for a coffee and get it right away whilst me and others will be left dumbstruck at why we were having to que. The beer was alright, supposedly 5% vol. which is Stella strength yet it definitley wasn't. It tasted weaker than Fosters and takes quite a few to get tipsy. The local spirits were undrinkable unless mixed in with one of the super sugary sweet cocktails. Although you can't have more than 2 of them without OD-ing on sugar.

So to sum things up, I don't want to completely slag Sol Sharm off nor give it a bad review. It's a nice hotel however not ideal for a 2 week stay, especially if you are 18-25. If I went for a week I would of given a much more favorable review. The problem is after a week you start to find the little things really grinding on you and the negative comments begin. The weather was good, the place was clean and the food WASNT bad. But the lack of entertainment and situation of the hotel made us want to leave early and spend the last few days of our holiday relaxing at home where we have things to do. One more thing to mention, the staff treated us like lepers when we told them we were checking out early. They were demanding an explanation (why do they need one?) then as we walked away from the reception desk they shouted for us to come back and ordered us to write in words on paper our reason for leaving early. I mean wtf?

we have just returned from sol sharm hotel so this is my honest review of the hotel and surroundings.
hotel is pretty spotless,staff are very understanding and on the whole can speak very good english.los of russians about though!
the all inclusive could have been better as everything is not included..wine for instance is only with meals and is warm.wondered why people added ice cubes on the first day.
rooms were o.k room service excellent.we did give him tips but he gave us double mattresses as they are rock hard and so are the pillows.
weather was excellent ,nudging just below 88 oc everyday.

pool was freezing and you had to be hot to get in,pool bar opened at around 10.15 everyday and it was getting dark around 4.45pm.
the only major snag of being by he pool was the jcb digger at the bottom of the hotel boundaries breaking the mountain up.the incessant banging drove me nuts.
whatt all the brochures dont tell you is that is building site exists between the hotel and beach complex.
the whole area is a new resort and be prepared for a building site wherever you go.walking is out of the question as no footpaths exist. naama bay is a taxi ride away and would recommend you going there its only £5 each way.

if you are going for a week its lovely to soak up the sun ,any longer and you may go mad with the building work.
overall though ive stayed in worse and the price you pay i couldn't knock it.

After reading the awful reviews we were not sure what to expect.

We were pleasantly suprised, ok the food was a bit samey, but there was always something to eat, they did fresh pasta every day and for breakfast fried eggs to order, omlettes to order, and the usual chicken and meat or salads for evening meal.
The staff are first class, nothing was too much trouble

Rooms are spotless, but could do with an update.

For the holiday price, you know you are not going to get 5 star, but what do the English expect, we witnessed how demanding and rude the English can be.

Overall we were happy with the holiday, don't be put off by the bad reviews, they should pay another £500 and upgrade to another place

Have just returned from the Sol Sharm having spent 10days there with my Husband on an AIC basis. What a waste of money that was. The drinks that are included are not drinkable, beer, wine and spirits obviously made on another planet!!! The food was very repetitive and tasteless. One highlight of the food was when the whispers around the pool was that they had had jacket potatoes!!!! 7 out of the 10 days I was ill, with sickness and other problems!!!! Tummy cramps became a normal feeling. The hotel is approx 40 mins away on the shuttle bus from Naama Bay and there is nothing around the hotel apart from the Baron Resort where we walked to most days and ate there, which took us about 20 mins to walk to. I have never been on a AIC before and this experience has made me not to want to do it again. We feel we have wasted a lot of money and precious time with our time in this hotel. Although we brought our gym kit with us we used the gym once, because most of the equipment wasn't working. The staff where very attentive and friendly but that is the only possitive comment we can make. The animation team do their best but the entertainment isn't something I would waste my time on watching. Please take your time reading the comments on this hotel before booking, you have been warned!!!