Having received some very honest advice from TripAdvisor before my holiday, I thought it only fair to add my two-penneth about the Melia Sinai hotel in Sharm el Sheikh.

Staff / Accommodation
The Reception staff were very efficient when we checked in, but since the room we were given didn’t have a balcony and overlooked the main entertainment area which we thought may be noisy, we asked whether we could change. Although they didn’t seem very happy about it, they found us another room with a balcony. The only problem was that it was a ground floor room and the balcony overlooked the car park, so not really the sort of place you could sit and play cards or have a drink while the sun went down. We were too embarrassed to ask for another room and since this was further away from the reception and main entertainment area, we kept the second room (and never made use of the balcony!)

The room itself was large, clean and had a decent bathroom with shower, although at 5pm the taps run dry, so time your showers outside of “peak time”. We found that leaving a couple of Egyptian Pounds for the cleaners helped in terms of fresh flowers and towel sculptures etc. The TV had BBC World and an English movie channel which was sufficient for us as we didn’t spend much time in the room anyway. The beds were very comfortable, always had clean sheets and the wardrobe space was more than ample.

When we went to ask for change from Reception in order to tip the porter, we later realised that we had been short changed although we couldn’t prove it. They never agreed to change any further money and beware that the shops, restaurants and diving centre won’t change any notes either. Everybody wants baksheesh, but no one is willing to give you the small change to do it. In the end the girl in the diving centre suggested we ask the porters themselves in future as they’ve always got pockets full of small change and that was an excellent idea. They didn’t try and stiff us either!

Check out was very efficient also. Beware though – if you pay your bill with Visa or Mastercard, they will convert the amount from Egyptian Pounds (LE) to US Dollars. If you try and pay with American Express, it will be taken in LE. If at all possible, take Euros with you too, as all the diving/snorkelling equipment hire and often additional drinks etc. are charged in that currency. They will sometimes give you a Euro coin in change, rather than 8 LE if you are paying at the bar (this is particularly if you buy large bottles of water which are 12 LE, unless you charge them to your room, of course).

The pool staff were all very friendly and would reserve sunbeds (and beat the Germans to putting towels out) first thing, so you could saunter down after breakfast and find your seats. Make sure you tip them for this though.

Food
As has been said before, breakfast is probably the best meal of the day with loads of variety and unlimited buffet, whether you are AI or half board. Eggs, pancakes, fruit, yoghurt, cheese, cold meats, cereal, toast, pastries etc. and lots of it!

As we were half board, we lunched mostly at La Pergola where there was lots of fresh fish, pasta dishes, sandwiches and grilled meat / chicken. Almost everything was served with chips, but we eventually got them to do us grilled chicken with salad which was lovely – and very reasonably priced – 55 LE.

The evening was where it got disappointing foodwise: La Pergola was only open until 5.00pm and all that was available after that was the AI buffet which you could pay 75 LE for. There was supposed to be an A La Carte restaurant there as well, and you had to book in advance, but the placed looked distinctly closed the whole time we were there and we never saw anybody in there. The Baron Hotel up the beach (take a torch) had three restaurants catering for non-residents but we only tried the Italian – which was quite good. There is also an Indian and a Seafood restaurant there.

This meant we had to go into Na’ama Bay almost every evening which was a costly affair and brings me nicely on to my next subject …

Taxis
The hotel’s limousines (Toyota Carollas!) were extortionately priced (130 LE each way) and our rep advised us that a local taxi from the hotel to Na’ama Bay should be no more than 50 LE. One night we ventured out on to the road to hail a cab. A blue mini bus turned up and we managed to haggle a price of 40 LE so we thought we were doing well. What we didn’t bargain for was the trawl round all the other hotels in the area to pick up other passengers before getting to our destination. A lesson learned … On the way back, we walked away from a long line of taxis until we finally found one that agreed to take us back for 50 LE, but he then asked for baksheesh when we got there. We refused.

The next night as we were walking out of the hotel, a taxi turned up having been booked by an English family. They had “adopted” this driver and he came to pick them up every night and was very reliable. We agreed that we would wait for him to drop them off in Na’ama Bay and come back for us 45 mins later. This guy was great – he would always turn up exactly on time (to the minute – and you don’t even get that in the UK!) He drove us into town a number of times and picked us up again, for 120 LE round trip – a little more than the original price our rep quoted, but at least we knew he was reliable and seemed friendly. Until he dropped us off at the airport that is, when he wouldn’t agree a price initially and then took 50 LE (on the pretence of giving us 10 change) and drove off. You can virtually see the airport from the hotel and it is much, much closer than Na’ama Bay. It just goes to show that some of the Egyptians can be very friendly to your face, but at the end of the day are just out for your money.

Entertainment
Unless you’re into karaoke with Russian subtitles or doing the Birdie Song and Agadoo, this isn’t the place for an evening’s entertainment. The little bar at the end pool was quite nice and had the sheesha pipes, but it took a good few days before we heard anything on the stereo more recent than 1987!

We tended to stay around the pool furthest away from the beach, or near the bar mentioned above so didn’t see anything of the daily entertainment around the larger pool.

Diving / Snorkelling
As with many of the hotels along this stretch, the reef was excellent and if you had your own snorkelling stuff (easily obtainable from the hotel shop or in Na’ama Bay) you could just go out whenever you felt like it.

Getting to dive was a bit more complicated, however. I am an experienced diver and took my log book and qualifications along with me, but what I wasn’t expecting was that they wouldn’t let me dive without a letter from my Doctor saying that I was healthy OR a 30 Euro medical from their own Doctor (who was only around for two hours twice a week). I didn’t see the point in wasting 30 Euros and since they said they could accept a fax or e-mail from my Doctor, I decided to do that. The only problem was that by the time I found this out, it was Saturday and of course my Doctor wouldn’t be back in the surgery until Monday. My Doctor finally sent a fax late Monday night, so I didn’t pick it up until Tuesday and since we were going on a trip to St. Catherine’s Monastery which is high up in the Sinai Mountains on the Wednesday, I couldn’t in fact dive until the Thursday morning.

After doing a great “check dive” on the house reef (where we saw a massive Manta Ray), I wanted to book on a trip to the Ras Mohammed National Park, but they only do trips on Thursdays (which they were on at the time) and Mondays (and we’d be home by then). As a result, I walked down the beach to Sinai Divers at the Baron hotel, filled in a brief medical form (they needed nothing from my Doctor) and dived Ras Mohammed the following day. I have never before had to get anything from a Doctor before diving and although I appreciate the health and safety aspect of this, it put an unnecessary time strain on my diving. I wish I’d gone down to Sinai Divers on the Saturday (when I first found out about the need for a medical) and could have then spaced my dives out a bit and enjoyed them more. If you want to dive with Extra Divers at Melia Sinai, get a letter from your doctor before you go.


All in all, the Melia Sinai hotel was average and since we got a good deal (less than £1000 for two of us for 10 days, including flights with XL from Manchester) I can’t really complain too much. I probably wouldn’t stay there again, but that is mainly because of the lack of restaurants for the evening if you're half board and the cost of getting into Na’ama Bay each night which all adds up. Definitely not a 5* hotel though.

Two years ago I stayed at the FourSeasons in Sharm and as we were on a smaller budget I selected this hotel as friends told me good things about the Melia chain and I loved the lighthouse of this hotel cause I saw it from the beach of the FourSeasons.
We arrived quite early, around 1pm but got a room almost immedately. Room was very spacious and nicely furbished and even though I booked a twin room and this had a king bed, housekeeping quickly pulled the two beds away and in 5 mins we had our twin-bedded room!
I really loved the fact that it is a relative small (190some rooms) hotel with a very big beach (which is rather unusual in sharm, check on google earth).
Service is somewhat slow, thats Egypt, Europeans better get used to it as it is rather on the normal side in the Arabic world and also on many islands in the Caribbean and in Oceania. They have time, do not rush...
Throughout the stay we had only one major issue, the buffet dinner. Breakfast was rich and good, but dinner was rather poor, sometimes was really not easy to choose a food, if you dont like fish and other stuff you end up with chicken that was served for such people every day. But for a two weeks stay its a bit annoying, having chicken for every dinner. Luckily they also have a pasta corner with freshly made pastas (but my mom does not like pasta neither seafood, so for her it was chicken-chicken-chicken...)
Staff is really nice and friendly at the beach, at the pools (5!), also nice at the reception but not really helpful... Wanted to exchange money, they told me i go to the bankomat downstairs and use my creditcard as he 'forgot' to bring his cashier. Booked the bus to the city and 'forgot' to inform me about times, 'forgot' to give me the tickets. Small things but still...
A good advise: hotel operates shuttle bus to Naama bay and Old Sharm, to Sharm prices are around 3EUR/person each way and it is almost an hour to get there and if you take a taxi its around 10EUR (they will say more of course but you have to get to that price, it is normal, dont pay more!!!) each way and less than 30mins... And than you are also not sticked to bus schedule (have to stay around 2 hours in Sharm and there is nothing to do there after shopping which takes like 30mins-1hour..)!

After a few trips to Egypt I can say that the hotel was comparable to most of the hotels in Sharm. It's not really about perfection, just amazing weather in 5* facilities with 3* food and service.
However the service I received at the hotel prompted me to write this review.
The hotel is situated further from nama bay and old sharm in a resort that's in the process of being developed. The result is that all Taxi's have to be booked through the hotel and a taxi that should cost 50 will end up costing 3 or 4 times as much. The 'peace and quite' of the remote location, is not really worth the extra hassle of the longer journey.
Although I find Egyptian service friendly, the man at the pool really didn't understand personal space, with over friendly touching and a habit of standing beside us for minutes on end watching us play cards over our shoulder.
We checked out of our room with no problem and then spent the afternoon by the pool before our flight. When returning our pool cards we were told that a window on the patio of our room had been broken. On inspection the break was from the outside, on a ground floor room, but we were told if we did not pay the 500 then we would be taken to the police station. Since our flight was leaving we had no choice. Then the manager told us that our accommodation had not been paid for through the travel company. After a few heated words and half an hour later, he eventually agreed that the room had been paid for.
I understand that it's all about bartering in Egypt, but this hotel goes above and beyond in an attempt to overcharge.

Just returned from Melia Sinai.

My husband and I arrived at the hotel at about 10pm and were asked to take a seat in reception. We waited for about 10 minutes and then someone came to tell us the 'good news', "sorry we've overbooked and we have no room for you, however we can offer you a room in one of our other hotels" ,Sol Cyrene which is a 4 star hotel.

After debating with them for a while telling them that the room had been booked since January they told us that they would have a room available for us on the fourth night, we would have to spend three nights at the Sol Cyrene. What should have been a sea view room was replaced with a view of a white wall at the back of the hotel, with no safe or hairdryer. Then we checked the bed and found that the sheets had been slept in (creased and with airs on them) we had to trek back to reception who quickly got someone to change the sheets, eventually at about midnight the room was ready.

After we spent 3 nights in the Sol Cyrene, no one bothered to tell us anything, so we went to reception and asked them to call the Melia. Surprise, surprise there was a problem with the phone and couldn't get through, my husband then used his mobile phone and got through. While in reception at the Cyrene we met another young couple who had the same problem, and they had booked even earlier than us. We demanded that they send a taxi to take us to the Melia. We managed to get a room with a nice sea view which is what we had paid for but felt that the day was wasted packing and unpacking. All in all a very bad experience, I felt that our holiday was spoilt as we could not settle in one place or the other and by the time we started to enjoy our holiday it was time to leave.

I booked this hotel because of the good reviews, but turned out to be a great disappointment.