Tropitel Sahl Hasheesh

Just returned from our stay at Tropitel. We had a nice break and enjoyed our stay but there were positives and negatives. Positives; *Staff were lovely and couldn’t do enough to help. Special mention to Monsour who was amazing and really looked after us, he was so kind and helpful. *The rooms are very clean. *The reef at the hotel was fantastic and we saw all sorts of things snorkelling there. Even just walking on the jetty we saw spotted rays, squid, and every fish you can imagine. *Our boys learnt to Scuba dive and it was a great experience with Crazy Waves based by the hotel. Highly recommend this for anyone interested in learning to Dive. *The Mexican and Italian restaurants are lovely and the food there on a lunch time was very good. On our All Inclusive package we were only able to eat at each once on an evening during our week stay, but you can eat there as often as you like at a lunch time. A good tip which we only realised after a few days. *We paid to eat at the Turkish and Indian (not very expensive) our Turkish experience was great as was our first night at the Indian. Unfortunately our second experience at the Indian was not so good as the chicken was full of nasty bits. *We also went to the bar next to the Turkish, this is not included in the AI package but it was quiet and showed sports on TV. The drinks there were not expensive and it is well worth a visit. * We enjoyed a day trip to Luxor (to show my son) and it was really well organised. Although a whistle stop tour, I certainly felt we saw the key points. Having spent a week in Luxor previously I still felt I got to see plenty on the trip. Be warned though it is a VERY long day, we were told it was around 4 hours each way to get there but it was more like 5.5 hours each way. We were away from the hotel for over 17 hours so probably not one for younger children. The drivers and Haithum our guide were brilliant, they couldn’t do enough to make the day a success. Someone on our trip was unwell and the care they showed was exceptional, they really did go over and above. Negatives; *In my opinion this is certainly not a five star hotel and had we not been expecting a better standard I may not have been so disappointed in the rooms. We paid for an upgrade and the room was still much in need of some attention. *The food at the main buffet was disappointing (mostly on an evening, breakfast was better). We have travelled extensively and are not fussy eaters but the evening buffet was very poor. We often struggled to find anything to eat and only ate there on our first night and after a trip out as there was no other option. *There are not enough places to sit on an evening. We often just went to bed early as the weather was a little chilly. (I feel the same would apply even had the evenings been warmer). *The range of cocktails was limited and all tasted very similar. *The hotel is quite out of the way which for us was not an issue but for anyone wanting to be near shops, acti