Grand Makadi Palace Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

This has to be the most fantastic hotel that I have had the privilege of staying in.
The flight to Egypt and the bus ride from the airport had me a little concerned as to what to expect, not to mention the security barricade that sits in front of the entrance to the hotel.
When through this however, you are greeted with an oasis of palm trees and very well kept gardens. A completely different world to the one that you were in, when leaving Hurghada airport.
The hotel itself was fantastic, the reception area was impressively decorated and well air conditioned which comes in very handy, when getting a little to hot when on the terrace.
We had a junior suite, which was of a good size, with a massive bed; you could have gotten four people in it. The drink in the room fridge was not part of the all inclusive, however we drank from it every day and the final bill after 2 weeks was £98, which I was very impressed with.
I have marked this hotel as 9/10 as there is not much to do after sunbathing, swimming and taking part in volleyball, organised by the hotel. The Makadi centre was dead, stunning looking, but not what I expected. Beware of the perfume sellers, they get you in their shop, they will make a sale, and they are very good at getting money from you!
We were there during the world cup, so the entertainment and set up for the games kept me entertained for the two weeks, when it could have started to get a bit boring.
The staff are very friendly and if you tip well, you have a waiter for the whole holiday, if not the whole two weeks!
We took a day trip to Luxor and Valley of the Kings, which I would highly recommend.
Look out for the orange juice sellers at breakfast, it's not part of the all inclusive, would advise you to get your own, unless you want to pay £2, ok the first time, but not when you think it's free and have four or five.
On closing this was a great place to visit, however please be aware that it is very hot as a desert area tends to be.
Cheers.

My wife and I enjoyed the best fortnights holiday you could ever wish for.
The facilities, food, and service, could not be bettered. Always plenty of room and sun beds.
Trust me, your own mother could not treat you any better! Make sure you try the brilliant desert safari, a great experience!
Just remember a little tipping works wonders and be prepared for a day or two of tummy trouble.

We visited this hotel in Nov 2006 and had a perfect holiday. The resort was very quiet - probably not even half full.
We were amazed at the size of the hotel we have never seen anything so huge; as a consequence to get around the resort there is plenty of walking.
The pool was freezing cold to the extent it was numbing but the sea once waist deep was lovely and warm. We did some amazing scuba diving, walk out till you are waist deep and then swim forward probably 25 yards and the coral wall drops and the sight is amazing. You will need sea shoes as there are lots of rocks on the sea bed.
The food was lovely, always very fresh with lots of choice. The sunset restaurant just off the beach as you are walking back to the hotel does wonderful hot chicken baguettes. The Caribbean restaurant (next door) does amazing food and service. The food at the Thai is fab - really tasty.
Entertainment doesn’t start until very late 10 or 11 p.m. I can’t comment as we never stayed in the bar that late. We never struggled to find a lounger around the pool or on the beach.
Tipping is important; we did it all the time and got great service. The room boy was very appreciative of a couple of pairs of shoes we left.
As a guest of the palace you can use the grand next door which extends your choice of restaurants to use.
The massage on the beach is bliss and very reasonably priced.
You can get tons of duty free on departure and there are lots of perfume / handbag / booze / tourist junk shops when you go through passport control.
Don’t be conned by your hotel rep - they tell you that you have to buy your duty free within 48 hours of arrival - it’s not true - you will find all brands of cigarettes and booze on departure at the airport. There are probably more than 60 shops when you go through.
Highly recommend this hotel - you will not be disappointed.

Fantastic hotel, very clean and tidy. Three lovely big swimming pools with plenty of sun beds all with parasols.
Did not go a day without getting our own beds for the whole day but, you need to be early to get one by the pool, if that’s what you want although, there are more than enough to go round.
Plenty of choice for where to eat including the adjoining sister hotel. Would thoroughly recommend trying the different restaurants.
Would advise trying to make a connection with at least one staff member from each area as for a nominal tip every few days (or at end of holiday) they will make sure you are well looked after.
You wont need to go to the bar very often as they will make sure you don’t have an empty drink in front of you.
Hotel was a bit of a distance from anywhere so needed transport but you could easily mess about the pool all day. Every day was very relaxing and don’t scrimp on the suntan lotion as temps were above 100 most days.
The most frustrating thing, was that the hotel would not change Scottish notes for local currency and we were not told of this until we tried to do it.

1 reader found this review helpful

We got changed to this hotel last minute. What a superb hotel complex, you can use Grand Makadi next door.
Makadi Palace clean, staff cannot do enough and ample day and night activities from both hotels. Hotel gardens lead straight to private beach-many beach bars on the way.
All inclusive meant we could use the a la carte Mediteranean, Italian, Thai, Caribbean restaurants at no extra cost, also Discovery Restaurant and basic buffet. The Melange Restaurant was superb with chef cooking straight from the grill.
Nothing outside hotel, purpose built resort -but free shuttle bus into Hurghada daily from hotel-40mins.
All inclusive meant just this at this hotel, they certainly have the hang of it -some cocktails too are included along with the birthday cake I ordered for my husband for his birthday while we were out there.
Rooms cleaned 3 times a day. Pools and floors cleaned outside daily.
Recommend this hotel, we took my sister -age 12 it was her first holiday - She loved it.

In terms of its architecture, this is a magnificent hotel with fascinating architecture and extraordinary attention to detail.
The vast paved areas around the pool are still in pristine condition and the hotel has not deteriorated into the fraying-at -the-edges tattiness that I have seen at other hotels once they are through their first couple of seasons.
The service is generally very good, the pool boys, bar boys and room boys try very hard to please. If you are going to draw on their services on a regular basis, it really is advisable to tip daily.
If, like me, you use the bar a lot, tip well and make friends with the waiters - you soon become well known and they will give you levels of attention not given to the other guests.
The only reason I have marked the hotel down is because of the Dome buffet. For breakfasts it is brilliant, but at night it did not have the choice of cooked food that I would have liked, and more importantly, if you arrived late you were greeted by luke warm indifferent food.
However, this is not really a problem; I soon used the alternative restaurants instead and they were of high quality.
The one under-used resource was the Discovery Terrace for a slightly late lunch, probably because it is advertised as costing extra. Don't be fooled by this; we had a three course meal with a choice of either king tiger prawns or fillet steak for the main course and very nice wine to accompany it.
The "extra" amounted to £5.50 per person and was well worth it. I had expected to pay extra for the wine, but that still fell within the all inclusive package.
The pool was freezing, but this was December. Perhaps it is warmer in midsummer? The early comments in this site concerning difficulty in reaching the beach are long out of date. The hotel gardens merge seamlessly into the beech throughout the entire width of the beech.
As I am used to pushing wheelchairs, I would rate the wheelchair accessibility at 9/10. The hotel is built on a very slight hill and all levels are accessible by ramps as well as stairs.
Some of the ramps are just that little bit steep, but there are always longer ways round that are gentler. Sometimes it would pay to use the hotel corridors on the flat and use a lift to change levels.
I was delighted with my week's stay at the Makadi Palace and would definitely go back again. I just can't understand why it is only the My Travel group that pushes this hotel. More fool the other tour operators!

Airport; Not as bad as reviews had led me to believe. All new but not shiny. Bags were on carousel before we got there. UK£10 entrance visa per person payable on entry. SCRUM. Lots of local reps holding boards pointing way to coach, no problems with getting lost. Hotel; Makadi Palace is very big. Very grand. Marble floor to ceiling but not the good quality stuff you see in a really good hotel. You will get lost in hotel. Staff very friendly and helpful. Was full to capacity but we thought it was only about a third full as there were always loads of sun beds available. Pool too cold to stay in for more than a few minutes!? Food very good, something for everyone. Usual All Inclusive advice applies: get there early to ensure good table and fresh food. All staff are male. You may see the odd female worker but even the ladies toilets were cleaned by young lads. With ladies in there! Building work next door but complex is so vast you can get away from the noise and it won't disturb you. Grand Makadi next door is the Sister hotel. We can use their facilities but not vice versa. Not nearly as nice. Loads of kids and God forbid, Karaoke. Guests; Germans, Russians, Scandinavians and Brits in that order. Overall, very nice, relaxing, very clean, enjoyable. Will go back. Area; Makadi Bay about 1/2 hour walk along sea front. You get to see all the other hotels and beach areas and you realise that you made the right decision to book the Palace. Easily the best hotel in the area, even the locals say so. Not much in Makadi Bay itself but is a nice stroll. Hurghada is an absolute boil on the backside of the earth. Only go here if you are forced to at gunpoint. It is a dirty, smelly, building site with not a single redeeming feature. Local police and security very comical. All about 10 years old but they all have large automatic firearms. You see them all over so you do remain safe. Hints/Tips; Take some antibacterial hand gel to use every time you handle the local money or shake a locals hand or you will get the 2 bob bits. Carry it with you everywhere. You have been warned. If you must go to Hurghada for shopping, you will get harassed. Always haggle and only pay a 1/3 of what they want. If you have no intention of buying from a shop, don't go in and don’t go to sign their book if they ask you to. Ladies, stay close to your fella or you may get traded for some camels and find yourself living with some local tribesmen! BOOZE; you can only buy booze up to 48hrs of your entry visa stamp! Get drink on way out or wait until airport on way back. FAGS; Try and wait until airport on way back but, do not buy from little shops around edges. Find big place near pizza shop. They charge less than ½ what the others do. You must go diving or snorkelling. At the hotel you can go in the sea and it is amazing. Best, though, to go on an organised boat trip. See your rep. Do not however, eat the food on the boat that is provided. Stock up on food from breakfast and take it with you. Trust me, you will thank me when everyone else spends 2 days on the bog afterwards. Tipping the staff is a must. Bar staff generally earn EG£250-300 a month so an EG£10 (UK£1) per night ensures good, attentive service. Also a few quid for the room cleaners is good. Ladies, getting your boobs out is a no-no. This is a Muslim country and frowned upon. Makadi Bay is a real backwater compared to Sharm and as such not so cosmopolitan. You may see the Germans doing it but there you go. Take warm clothes for evening. Chilly this time of year. Overall; Stick to the guidelines above and you will be OK. We saw a lot of people learning the hard way. Very nice, relaxing and weather lovely. Nice breeze. Hotel lovely, although don't look too closely at details. Easily best hotel in area. Have a nice stay. PS. Take industrial strength Imodium with you. Someone will need it at some point.

Our first week was spent on a fantastic cruise down the Nile so this hotel had a lot to live up to.
The hotel is in a fantastic location and once you have braved the sharp coral the beach and fish are fantastic. You must buy a snorkel (£10 in hotel shop - although the price does tend to vary!!)
As others have stated the Palace guests can use our facilities but we can’t use theirs, did not really bother us but it did mean that the Grand was a far more busy/bustling hotel.
We could not fault the staff, their friendliness and service. We did not feel that they were only doing this for tips.
A couple of downsides - the lobby bar is not included in the all-inclusive and the evenings did get very cold for sitting outside. Beware when ordering orange juice, if you are not careful you will get brought the 'fresh' variety and then get charged £2!
The hotel is very picturesque but I would not say it is a 5 star, little things just let it down - smelly bathroom (although we were able to change rooms), shower head that did not slide up or down and French widows that you can un-lock from the outside.
In summary, we had a great time and would recommend this hotel.

We flew from Glasgow with Futura. The flight attendants were fairly uninterested, doing the bare minimum to keep everyone quiet. Because the weather was clear all the way, we got great views of Athens, the Greek islands and the Nile River during the flight.
First impressions of Hurghada Airport when we arrived were favourable compared to what we expected from reading some reviews. We obtained our entry visas before we left home, so breezed through immigration and waited on an air-conditioned coach while everyone else queued.
Our transfer took about two hours: we were last off and the road network is a little strange, with lots of doubling back and security checkpoints at all of the hotels. Although a pain, it does give some comfort, given everything you read.
We arrived at the hotel in the dark, so did not get a full idea of the architecture. Inside, the reception foyer was very impressive. Check-in took a while and the bell-captains walked us the long way round to our room. Our eleven year-old daughter thought the trek would never end! The next morning, when we explored our surroundings, we realised the place is far better than your usual concrete slab-block.
When we got to our room, we were slightly disappointed, thinking the room would be bigger and brighter. This was probably due to the brochure photographer using a wide-angle lens and flash. However, when we got settled in, it was perfectly acceptable and proved big enough for the three of us. Ahmed, our room-boy was charming and kept our room spotless. He couldn't do anything about the hot water being off one day and the cold being off the next.

Overall, the food was good. We found the Thai restaurant to be the best. Book early and get a table outside: the air-conditioning inside is ferocious. We were very disappointed with the Caribbean restaurant at the Grand Makadi after the rave reviews. The staff there had real difficulties understanding us, even when we pointed to the menu and half of the dishes were unavailable. On the whole, the buffets were great, especially the dishes cooked to order.
The pool areas are stunning. Choose where you sit by the pool. Some of the pool boys go absent, even when you have tipped generously. Others will happily serve you all day without being ingratiating.
One issue is the bar staff's reluctance to let you take drinks with you to your room. Generally, plastic glasses are provided by most of the bars, but the piano bar was particularly sticky and were insisting on charging us for any sort of "carry out".
The singers in all of the bars are dire. We found the most entertaining and varied to be in the foyer of the Grand Makadi.
Swimming in the Red Sea was definitely a highlight. Don't miss it, even if you are a non-swimmer, it is worth getting goggles or a mask and crouching in the shallows.
We also went on the desert adventure, complete with mental cameraman and wild drivers. If you are of a nervous disposition, go anyway.
The hotel staff did expect to be tipped, but we did not feel they were anything other than discreet and service did not suffer if we gave it a miss occasionally. One or two did, however, ask for Egyptian pounds in exchange for the Euros, Sterling and dollars they had accumulated.
On the way back, we understood the reviews of the airport. The departure area has yet to be brought up to the same standard as arrivals. The place was mobbed. Look out for people trying to jump the queues. One group from Manchester did this, but poetic justice prevailed and we saw them being sent back by security and then by passport control. Duty free was a shambles.
The flight home included the child from hell across the aisle from us, who kicked the woman in front of him unchecked by his parents until he fell asleep. Again it was Futura and the flight attendants did just enough to feed and water the passengers, and then vanished.
Despite all of the negative comments, we had an excellent holiday, which was great value-for-money and would certainly go back.

We have just returned from a week's holiday at this wonderful hotel. The brochures do not lie, and portray the hotel exactly as it is.
The hotel was only about two thirds full, but it is spread over such a huge area that even if it were full, there would be plenty of room for everyone. There is no need to get up early and "bag" your sun bed and umbrella - there are more than enough for everyone.
Upon arrival at reception, you cannot fail to be impressed. Fully air-conditioned, marble floored and greeted by pleasant staff dressed in full Egyptian dress - what more could you want? While we were waiting to be checked in, we tried to get an all inclusive drink in the lobby bar only to be told that this bar was not included in our all inclusive deal. Never mind, there are plenty more bars available to use.
Our room was situated way across the pool and sunbathing areas, and we thought we would never learn to find our way around the hotel. However, after a couple of days, we were trotting around the complex as though we had been there for ever.
We have traveled extensively, but can honestly say that this is one of the best hotels we have visited. The pool and sunbathing terraces are breath-taking. Swept, scrubbed and cleaned continually by ever-smiling staff.
Two of the hotels restaurants were closed during our visit, and we can only assume that this was because of the low capacity of guests. October is between the two main holiday seasons in Egypt and we expect things to get busier as the winter season progresses.
Breakfast is taken in the Dome self-service restaurant. A vast selection of food is available, and you won't go hungry. We used to have our lunch in either the Melange restaurant (another self-serve) or at one of the beachside snack bars, depending on how hungry we felt. You have a number of options for your Dinner. You can either eat again in the Dome or Melange, or you can try one of the specialty restaurants. We ate in the Thai Garden (good), the Italian in the next-door Grand Makadi Hotel (good), and the Caribbean (again in the next-door Grand Makadi Hotel: good for lunch, but we were disappointed with the food and service in the evening). If you feel peckish during the afternoon, you can get a snack at the Rendezvous Bar situated in the middle of the pool.
Our room was perfect. A large, well equipped bathroom, large balcony with two comfortable easy chairs and a table, and a super king-size bed with a coronet canopy above. There is an archway in the middle of the room, leading to a lounge area which contained a settee (which converts into a single bed) an armchair and a dressing table. Despite the fact that I counted 9 separate lights in the room, it is rather dark, so don't expect to do a lot of reading in bed! Our room boy kept our room spotless, and we used to leave him a small tip (say, Egyptian Pounds 10, about £1) on the pillow each morning. When we departed, we left him a variety of toiletries, etc. for which he was very grateful. Don't forget, though, to write a note to Security to allow him to take them off the premises.
One thing that did strike me, was the lack of women staff in the hotel. During my stay I only saw one lady member of staff, and she was a blonde lady called Anne in Reception! Obviously Egyptian ladies stay at home to look after the family.
The Egyptian Government obviously take tourist security and safety extremely seriously. We traveled to Luxor for a day trip, and we had a plain clothes policeman on our coach. We joined a convey of 136 other coaches to make the 300 km journey and we were escorted by the Police/Army for the duration of the trip. Metal detectors are sited at the front of each hotel and each property is guarded by security staff. At no time did we feel threatened by any of this and we felt completely safe at all times.
Beaches and tropical fish: Take a pair of those rubber beach shoes with you, or buy the special ones at the hotel (only £5) as you can't go into the sea without them. Sharp coral, stones and course sand coat the seabed, and you will be cut to ribbons if you don't wear them. We are not very keen swimmers, but we found it possible to walk 100 yards out into the sea and still be only waist-deep in the water. Take a bread roll or a couple of bananas out with you and you will be surrounded by the most wonderful, brightly coloured fish you can imagine. Even better if you are able to snorkel with a mask and flippers.
Just one last point: when you return to Hurghada airport, don't buy from the first duty-free shop you see. Go through the cafe area, and you will see about 50 more shops! Mostly souvenir shops, but more duty-free shops and they are cheaper than the first one.
All in all, we had a tremendous holiday at a first-class resort and hotel. Just remember, you are in Egypt and things may not be quite as you expect at home. Go with the flow and have a happy holiday. Enjoy yourselves.