Nothing too much trouble - Review of Sultan Bey Hotel

be patient when you cone here. incredibly slow! many rooms were noisy and have no view at all.
esp. the staff around the pool was lazy and even harsh.
food was very good.
atmosphere is very artificial. the complex could be everywhere in the world, no egyptian influence. even prices are stated in euros. expensive.

Firstly this was purely a late minute booking for myself and a friend to go kitesurfing for a week on the Red Sea. So when compared to our normal camping trips on the Gower etc this was rather palaceus! A weeks 4* B+B for £100...can`t grumble.

So the Hotel was as expected, if you don`t mind the copious use of marble, absolutely everywhere and even a 4* shower sprayed the floor, hence the need for extra towels on the floor. However, we had two single beds, enough room for coffee table, settee, mini bar and a small (none flatscreen) TV. The staff were friendly, the manager directed us to the key guy at the local kite school, really no complaints

Breakfast, we were rather getting our monies worth, (bit of an irony compared with how little it cost!) But you know what I mean we usually spent over an hour there making it a sort 7-8 course affair. Nice seating arrangements inside and out, and not too crowded being off season

The area, the hotel had its own boat to shuttle residents to its own little island, which was where we hooked up with the local kite school and payed them a tokenry fee for launch/land and safety boat cover, (we took or own equipment) they were a good bunch of local guys really appreciative of any income at this time of the year I would imagine.

El Gouna - I would describe it as an Egyptian theme park in the desert on the coast. All very clean safe and tidy, but if you wanted to see the "real Egypt", then I guess you would want to go on a lot of excursions. But for us it was perfect. You can eat really cheap, it`s a bite like scam city with everything from Quicksilver T shirts to Rolex watches. They`ll tell you quite openly that all the T shirts are just printed out the back, I succumbed to a pair of Oakley's but drew the line at a Rolex!! The Oakley's my be convincing at a distance but a Rolex for £30 aint gonna anyone...

In summary, at present with the strength of the GBP against the Egyptian pound it was a good bargain and as I said at the opening I really can't fault it for what we wanted v what we paid. But the sad thing though...would I take my family there for our summer holidays? Definitely not we would allways opt for southern Europe, but for the specialist activities Egypt is great, the main sport is diving, by the way, but with kitesurfing the up and coming "new kid on the block" None the less will I go back? You bet yes at the right time and place.