Reviews of Coral Sea Resort Hotel, Sharm El Sheikh

We have just returned from the Coral Sea Resort and wow what a wonderful time we had, we will definately be returning. We could hardly fault the hotel at all, there was a good selection of food, plenty of sunbeds, beach on your doorstep so the snorkeling was wonderful, staff were fab and very friendly and accommodating. There was only one downside and that is the cups served at the beachhbars, they do not seem over clean and there were lots of tummy bugs going around so we felt this may have been the cause as we stopped using them and we were fine but other families carried on using them and their bugs lingered. I will take my own pleastic cups next time. If you do get any signs of tummy bugs go straight to the pharmacy and get medication as it works immediately, do not waste time with English medicines as they do not touch it. There is a pharmacy just outside the hotel main door to the right as you walk out. The staff can speak very good english so will know what you are asking for.

We were very sad to leave and we had a fantastic time and enjoyed every minute of it.

Just be aware that if you go off the hotel grounds you get pestered by Egyptians to buy things and if you go into Naana Bay they really are irritating especilly if you have a 13 year old daughter with you!! The times we got offered camels fr our daughter was unbelievable. Other than that I cannot fault this hotel.

P.S It is soooooooooooooooo hot in August, I will be going in April next time

Got back last week after a fortnight at the Coral Sea. Myself & 2 kids aged 11 & 10. Overall had a fantastic holiday - see comments below:



Hotel: Huge reception / bar area, marble floors, air conditioned (& my goodness you need it!). Staff generally friendly & very helpful - tips (20LE ish) seem to help smooth things along. There are a couple of "tat" shops in the hotel too, plus a chemist which seemed to be a bit pricey but not too bad. Everywhere was VERY clean. Gardens leading down to the pools were well tended - staff working into the night.



Room: We had a family room which can only be described as huge! 3 "Not quite" double beds in it, although one was a camp bed, albeit a full-height one. Very comfortable, very clean. Huge balcony overlooking both pools & the sea. Minibar was expensive-ish, even with me having a beer or 2 every night after the kids had gone to bed my bill was only about £30 for the 2 weeks. There was a tv in the room but we never watched it - always busy doing other things! Bathroom was clean, shower v good. Aircon fantastic!



Pools etc: 2 pools, one huge (the "noisy pool") & 1 small quieter pool. Both had swim-up bars, neither ever got overcrowded & were both very clean. Staff worked from sundown until late in the night cleaning them. Sunbeds were available but you had to get towels on by 8am lates to claim 1! They do have a good rule that if towels are on the beds but not occupied by 10am then they are removed. Stops the selfish people claiming them then going out for the morning. Hotel provides free beach / sunbed towels every day.



Food: Large buffet-style dining room. Good choice of food every night although it did get a bit samey after 2 weeks. Various salads, choice of hot & cold foods - chicken, fish, beef, veggie etc. Salads beautifully presented. Friday night was bbq night which was nice. Think some food was Egyptian style but most aimed at the Brits. If you were sad enough to come to Egypt & eat hot-dog & chips every night you could. Beyond me while anyone would though. Waiters served drinks although you could go to the bar yourself. Whilst the room was always busy we only struggled to find a table on one occasion. Main downside was that waiters did rush you a bit - clearing your plate almost as soon as you'd finished.

Ate in the Italian on 2 evenings (pay for drinks) & had 2 fantastic meals, including the best steak I have ever had, bar none!



Health: Kids were both ill on 2nd night but this was down to acclimatisation. If your sensible & drink plent of water, be careful with the sun the 1st few days etc you'll have no problems.



Entertainments: FIRST CHOICE: SORT IT OUT!!!! Poor to say the least although there was a good singer on a couple of nights. During the day there were various pool based activities ie water polo, volleyball but that was about it. Night time we didn't really bother, kids disco then bingo (Why???!!!) then some sort of show. Sound systems were awful. We had more fun playing cards in reception in the evenings!! "Irish bar" was just a very dark bar with loud music!

Reps did their best a massive shout for Nathan (Vernon Kaye!) who was great. The girls tried their best but were let down by the equipment (and their inability to string a coherent sentence together!). Craig was ok.

THIS REALLY WAS A DOWNSIDE TO THE HOLIDAY! Fortunately my kids are of an age where they can take or leave stuff like that.



Excursions: Day snorkelling in Ras Mohammed. Fantastic! Very knowledgable guide who would dive down & point to various fish / eels / corals etc. VERY good value for money.

Day trip by air to Cairo: A long day but well worth it for the Pyrmaids / Sphinx etc. Also included was the Egyptian Museum which is amazing - has all the Tutunkhamun treasures in. Our guide was very knowledgable too.

Was also good to see "real" Egypt - makes you realise how poor the country is & how Sharm is just for tourists & very sterile & insulated from reality.



Overall: The hotel is huge (300+ rooms) but you never felt as if you were in a crowd wich was good. Never felt the need to go elsewhere (apart from excursions) as there was enough to do in the hotel.

Its location is amazing, literally on the beach - there was a small coral reef 400yards offshore which you could snorkel out to & see some fish etc.

I would recommend both Sharm & the hotel as long as you don't expect 1st class entertainments every night! Just remember your going to a large package holiday hotel so yes the food isn't going to be A la carte - your paying for what you get! This holiday was cheaper than going to Fuerteventura by the way!

was my 3rd time this year and was again wonderfull food was great too and if you did not like what was on offer they would cook you some think you did like if you asked them and the staff wonderfull and very very clean the idiots who was drinking from 10am till 5pm in the really hot sun wonder why they got bad bellys then blamed the food we have never had a problem with food the staff are wonderfull and helpfull and the managment is really good and take the time to come and talk to you and ask if all is ok mr ali is respected by guest and staff alike the staff even say what a fair man he is and thats what i found too i say this to the moaners if you want fish and chips go to a uk holiday park and the idiots who get drunk in the sun all day wake up its not the food its you and your drink problem

this was our 3rd time this year so as you can guess we love it at the coral sea resort the staff are just wonderfull the food is fantastic and if theres nothing you like then tell them and they will cook some think for you what gets me is the idiots of get drunk at the pool and drinking all day and in the heat and then say they got a bad belly from the food never mind the booze they had from like 10 in the morning till about 5pm and get burnt and wonder why there belly is bad ??? anyway has i was saying food great staff great and well managed even the staff respect and like the manager mr ali who does look like danny devito ha ha ha i find it like going home going back there i think the moaners need to go look at the way they drink in the sun and i bet half there homes are not has clean has this place and i bet none of them worked as hard as they do and for such little pay and do it with a smile on there face i find it well run very clean very warming and the staff wonderfull the manager even takes time to walk round asking if you are enjoying ya self and if not why not many managers do that i am going back in october and again for 3 weeks in jan 09 and its great value for the money it cost moaners go back to spain and fish and chips and mushy peas

We arrived home from the our holiday at the coral sea resort 4 days ago. There was eight of us 4 adults, 2 14 year olds , an eleven year old and a 5 year old. When we arrived at 11:30pm it was 37 degrees which we thought was unbelievable. In the daytime it went up to 57. We enjoyed the holiday as it was based in a strip of hotels and

shops and restaurants.The sea is amazing the fish swim around your feet and its like a burning hot bath. Be aware the egyption men can be a bit to friendly outside the hotel and will also try 2 rip you off a lot but barter because they will definately drop there price by at least half in most cases. The hotel staff are very hard worked and very frindly and polite. Giving them a little tip will sweeten them up and youll get treaten much better. We did really enjoy the holiday and made friends like you do.The entertainment was terrible there were only 5 entertainers which done all the entertainment for day and night. Nathan was brilliant and tryed so hard,but it just wasnt good enough it wasnt the entertainers thought as the hotel refused to pay for a new mike so we had no evening entertainment for one night. Poor amy trys her best but her and craigs voices where just not up to scratch. The only downful of the whole holiday was the food. This was appauling as when you pay for an all inclusive holiday you expect a variety of food but to also eat for free in your hotel most nights. In our hotel this was impossible as walking into the restaurant made me feel sick. We ate out 11 nights out of 14 which was not good enough. At first we couldnt understand what people were moaning about until the second night and seeing that the food is excactly the same everysingle night. Rice,chips pizza of spaghetti bolognase. There was a italian restaurant where you pay for drinks which wasnt very nice either and an indian which was 10 pound a head children and adults. No one went there ever.We spoke to many people which had been tpo the same hotel in 2007 and they said the indian was free the year before the food had much more variety and the entertainment was great having beach partys etc. We had notjing like this we also gt told the year before all the water sporst were free but this year they wanted 10 pound for a 2 seater or 15 english pounds for a 4 seater.Little things like bringing ice flannels round to keep you cool were very good but i think if we eent in 2007 by what we got told we would of had a much better holiday.We also got told that they are trying to fase children out this hotel so its mainly for adults and try nd push families into the holiday village which we had nose in and are trying to book up for next year.Egypt itself was lovely but the hotel was just ok,and again a bit shout out for nathan he was brilliant!! To ask any questions e-mail me onm daniellejb1994@hotmail.com its my daughters adress but ill be answerin the questions thank you !

We travelled as a family with older children (son 19yrs and daughter 14yrs) on a two week break and were looking for somewhere with great weather and a place to relax and basically doing nothing for a couple of weeks. The holiday fully delivered against this expectation.



My summary:-



First Direct Reps - non-existant much of the time and when on site we found not very helpful and a 'could not be bothered' attitude.



Accomodation - We had 2 rooms - double and twin. Large, clean and very functional. Excellent air conditioning. Beds very hard. Bathrooms fairly basic - far from a power shower and the toilets seemed to work when they chose to! Look out for the black out curtains hidden behind the nets - we did not realise for several days and spen the first few mornings being woken by the glaring sun at around 6am - Doh!



Food - Fairly basic and repeatative but generally acceptable. One point of serious concern followed the night we found a cockroach on the bread - although the resort management were quick and decisive dealing with this (shut down the area and as we understood carried out a clean of the area - other guests witnessed this). We also ate the three special meals on offer:-

*Egyption Night (£12/head)- Very good. Tasty food and good entertainment. My only moan was that the evening was a bit rushed.

*Italian Night (Pay for drinks) - Rip-off. Hideous food, no atmosphere in the restaurant and expensive after paying for the poor quality drinks - which are available for free in the bar!

*Indian (£10/head) - Great food, great service, great location - fully recommend.



Drinks - I have been on other all inclusives and found this to be one of the better choices of drink. Saying that the drinks were often too warm and better effort could be made to ensure cold drinks are offerred. Coffee and Tea available at various times and generally ok. More bottled water would havebeen good, but that just requires some thought and planning from the guests to obtain in advance (when served during lunch and dinner) - also available at a cheap rate from the Metro just outside of the resort.



Resort Generally - Clean and generally well maintained. We laughed at the 101 poor ways to use concrete - sad attempts all over the resort to lay concrete and rocks in various different patterns and uses. I would say the resort seemed to me that it has had better days and is starting to show signs of ageing



Resort Staff - Overall very good - Friendly, helpful and well humoured (especially towards tip time at the end of the holiday!). The resort staff work very hard and i can;t relloy fault them.



Entertainment - Poor and by far the biggest let down of the resort. The on-site entertainers did their best, but with little talent and little interest from the Brits they are on a hiding to nothing. This is especially the case in the evenings - we managed to resist the urge to play cards in the bar (a past-time followed by many of the other families). The Irish bar was a strange place - more like a low class, back street pub.



Location - Near to the airport. Some overhead noise from planes, but we did not find this a major issue. Close to a small range of shops and the area seems to be expanding. Other areas like Naama Bay are only a short taxi journey away.



Excursions - We went on a snokelling trip to Ras Mohamed - really good day out and i though reasonable. Great experience. Also did the 'welcome tour' to old Sharm and Naama Bay - I thought a complete rip-off and just an excuse for the rep to take guests to various locations for him to pick-up commission from sales - do not bother.



Misc - The mini bar is expensive and the hotel levi a further service charge of 1EP + 2.2% despite the mini bar tariff stating the contrary - watch this. Also the resort seems to feel free to raise all sorts of service/handling charges agianst all room charges.

We had 2 family massages in the health spa - both very good and at an overall cost of around £150 seemed fairly reasonable to me.

Chemist is expensive, but there are alternatives near by.



Health - We experienced minor stomach problems, but no real issues. Just follow the obvious rules - drink loads of bottled water (room temp), do not drink alcohol during the day (this seemed difficult for the pot bellied and tattoo ridden Brits - and I am refering to the women!), brush teeth in bottled water, ensure food is hot, be careful with salads, be carfeful with ice (the hotel ice is OK)..etc



Overall - We really enjoyed the holiday, but would not return to either the resort or SHarm. This decision is not really a reflection of our expereince, but rather there seems little to bring us back to Sharm. The 'Sheesha Man' was a god and we spent many a good hour sucking on a pipe - bless him. I found the entire resort too British as either crawling in Brits or Egyptians trying to act like Brits - I will scream if I every hear certain phrases again - "BOGOF", "lovely jubbly", "ASDA Price" - not to mention the continual "where are you from?" "First time in Egypt?" "Who is your fav football team?" "Steven Gerrard is the best!", "I love the British", "you have a beautiful wife/daughter", "I give you a gift"...etc



Do you research before going to Egypt - climate, health, dealing with the locals (esp shop keepers!)..etc.

does the coral sea resort not understand what good entertainment is???!!! it lets the hotel down big time! you have a lovely day enjoying the sun and activities by the pool, but then when the evening comes its dreadfull! i saw more entertainment in the hotel reception at night where guests were resulting to playing card games every night! we ended up going to bed at 9 every night and watching one of the many enjoyable films on the tv just because we were that bored.



the food is ok and edible, i have seen worse in other hotels. saying that i mainly lived on the home made pizzas every night. 2 or the 3 of us did end up with the dreaded egyptian bug and yes it is extremely expensive to cure, with it costing £30 in the pharmacy!



rooms were lovely and spacious and very cool, lovely big balconies to have a drink on in the evenings. cleaners did make an effort especially with love birds made with the towels etc.



namma bay is a must, the hotel shuttle bus is only £1 one way, the only shame is it finishes at 12 when the night life there starts. i would recommend visiting hard rock cafe the food is extremely good value for money!



bar staff were fab! as were all hotel staff, they all made you feel welcomed and put a smile on your face!



in all it was an average holiday, i wouldnt go back for at least another 5 years when the Sharm el sheikh may have liven up a bit and gets a bit more built up

We have just spent our 4th holiday at the Coral Sea Resort and have already booked our 5th for next year. There is only one reason we keep going back and that is the people, the staff at the hotel are amazing, everyone from the management to the guys cleaning the room are friendly, charming and great with our Son. We were even invited to "tree naming" ceromony on our last day and we now have a palm tree named after our family. I was ill this time for about four days, I do put this down to the glassses around the pool not been washed adeuqately and once we avoided this and gave our feedback we were all o.k. We do need to remember that the heat in Egypt is very intense and not like most European destinations, people were getting ill that had spent an enormous amount of time in the sun and not drinking enough water, so please be careful. The mini bar in your room is expensive my advice get it emptied and make a trip to the metro supermarket and stock up on sweets and chockies from there.



First Choice need to re-assess the "entertainment" having spent 4 years there it is still exactly the same format and the same music!!!! no originality and the reps just seem to get younger everyyear and not really care, one was quite rude to my son who happenned to know the correct answer ro a quiz question that they got wrong!!



All in all an amazing place with so much to see and do outside the hotel, diving is a must don't just go to Egypt for the sun it is much more fun under the water.

First impressions of the hotel were great, we arrived late and the staff had prepared food for our arrival! but as we got to our room, the door handle fell off! the staff came and fixed it for us, but for the next 5 days of our holiday this happened everyday and on one occasion we got locked in our room and couldnt get out!

the other things that went wrong in our room was

the hairdryer was broke

the shower rail was broke

the taps were bent

the last straw was when my husband ran a bath for me and as i sat in the water he pressed the button to start the jacuzzi, i dont even know how to describe the colour of what came out, it was a dark, brown, lumpy mess! i was outraged! this was out honeymoon and it was being ruined!

the men that came and cleaned it used neat clorine and were very rude.

we also got ill and would recommend to look around for a good pharmacist as some are expensive and the tablets dont work!

we were also very let down by the pyramids in cairo! we paid £300 to go and see them and we still had to pay extra to go in! not one person offered us a bottle of water in the 2 days we were there in such heat!

we also went on the nile dinner cruise the staff sold us the excursion as a romantic dinner for 2 but instead on our last night of our honeymoon we had to sit with 14 other people and in a really noisy room!

the good points of the holiday were that the weather was fantastic and the towel boys and bar staff were brilliant. also the beduin experience was the best day out, they were lovely people and were very considerate!

the coral sea reosrt is just wonderfull the staff are fantastic and clean and so is the hotel and its so well managed and there so helpfull and they go the xtra mile for you every time and they go out of there way to make sure your holiday is fantasic when there was a minor problam they delt with it right away and with no fuss and the food if just great some of the sweets that are on offer are to die for just wonderfull all round and if theres nothing you fancy to eat there just ask and they will cook some think for you that you will like with out any fuss what more can be said for this hotel and the staff and managment over all fantastic

Having return from our fantastic holiday only last week and like many other holiday makers we too are pinning to go back. In fact I've already obtained prices for next year. Our family room was more than spacious accomodating 2 adults and 2 children, aged 16 & 9. with a fantastic sea view. Hotel staff are very friendly, helpful and polite. The cleanliness around the hotel and our room was of a high standard at all times. The variety of food available was more than adequate and hot were needed, you couldn't fail to find something appealing. Our boys are very keen to go back next year having met some great friends who return to the same hotel year after year, roll on 2009...

My family and I together with my brother and his partner were lucky enough to have a holiday at coral sea resort. The Hotel was good, the service excellant and the staff terrific. Whil'st there unfortunately, my son had an accident (he inadvertantly went through the very clean sliding doors) The doctors, at the in-house clinic, were professional and polite and my son was patched up in the clinic. The medical service provided by the in house clinic proved to be excellant - my sons dressings needed to be changed every day and by the time our return joshy was up and running in every sense of the word ( he is six years old).



I would like to stress how good the service provided by the hotel was. After the accident even the duty manager came and held joshy's hand to comfort him. All the staff, from the security to the general manager went out of there way to make our stay enjoyable and help in adjusting to the change in circumstances - josh couldnt swim for a week. A dvd machine and movies were provided and a lovely chocolate confection was sent to joshy in our roomand a wheel chair provided (some examples of the kindness shown)



when we left at the end of our holiday the children even gave the very large security men a big hug, egyptians are very people friendly!!!



Unfortunately, our first choice reps were as much use as a chocolate tea pot and despite numerous requests failed to come back to us on a particular issue and of course, when we had the accident, they failed to even enquire what had happened or whether we required any help at all!!!! thank goodness for the lovely eqyptian staff.......



p.s. dont worry about laundry the in house laudry is great and very reasonable.



p.p.s if you take the bus to cairo (which was great once you are there) dont take children, the bus trip is too long more like 7 and half hours each way and very very hot and dusty.



i hope this was of some help

My husband and I were there in May and had a fantastic time food exellent and the one's that complained of tummy upsets were usually under the weather with the booze the night before.

I would highly recommed this holel as the staff were great and always available to help you.

10 out of 10 we are trying to book to go back in September but cant get a flight from Glasgow direct to hotel.

We had a great time but there are a few things that let the hotel down badly. There are serious health concerns. Everyone you spoke to including myself was ill for the majority of the holiday. The drinks are served mainly from bottles and are warm to say the least. I echo the opinions about the pharmacy, it's a complete rip off. I would advise anyone who wants to buy anything to avoid the hotel shops altogether as they are twice as expensive as the shops by the main entrance.

Went with my partner middle of June. All i can say is thank god for the weather. Airport is a right circus. Alot of military staff just looking at the women go by. After our second day we both got bad stomachs that lasted after we got home.



Accomodation: Room was nice and well equiped but bath was peeling.



Food: Im not a fussy eater at all and try most things but the food is always the same most nights.



Bars: Kept out running out of ice on the evenings. Not the bar staffs fault as the work very hard.



Entertainment: Shocking. Never been anywhere so poor. All the reps were interested in were a group of lads. Other reps did there best.



Overall wouldnt return to this hotel. Weather is fantastic and the sea and marine life makes the holiday.