Traveling from 27, April to 7, May 2013
We were traveling by URAL AIRLINES this time. As usual the plane was late for two hours. We were in the hotel in the middle of the night 27/28 of April.
Amwaj hotel is quite far from Hurghada (more than an hour away by bus). There were a lot of people from Russia and Europe (mostly Poland). Sometimes we saw Egyptian families from Hurghada and Cairo. The hotel is designed in the form of a trapezoid, the beach – this is a base, long, 4-storey building with rooms – the sides. Reception desk and main restaurant in the center. The area is situated within this structure. There is a little lawn, fence and desert outside the trapeze. Nothing else around.
We booked Family Room type. The room was big enough for 4 people. 2 beds, 1 folding bed and a sofa were there.
The sea was very beautiful.The entry into the sea was only from pontoon. For adults, this was OK. But the children were afraid to swim despite the fact that there were children’s life jackets at the sides of pontoon. In other hotels they usually cut down a part of coral, so that children can swim. That’s why my kids most of the time spent at the pool, not near the sea as desired.
There were two swimming pools on-site. One big was with fountain. The water was very cold there. It was look like the water were cold in purpose. The other is next to the gym and sauna. It is decorated like nature rock. The kids loved to climb there. At the same area there was cildren club, a playground and a swimming pool for the babbies(the depth ~50 cm)
The children club was not interesting. Once we left the children there, and had gone to jump from the pontoon. When we returned, the older daughter was on the playground alone. And 4-year-old son was swimming in a pool of 140 cm depth. Witnesses told: “come to sun lounger, changed shorts to swimming trunks, put on inflatable armbands, explaining to everybody around – In order not to drown – and went swimming”. Then he explained us his behavior as he just was bored at the club. Perhaps animator just did not understand that we were going to the sea and left the kids alone. We had to emphasise this before leaving.
In addition to the club there were children discos and various events where children participated with pleasure. For example, at Easter children painted eggs, fed chickens and rabbits, made cookies.
Animation for adults: aerobics, beach games. We did not attend, but other people participated. At night there was discos in smoke-filled room.
The meal in my opinion was not good enough. The products were good, but they were not cooked very tasty and the choice of dishes was poor. One time I got almost completely raw fish. The trouble with the coffee from the main restaurant: it tasted salty. We think, this was because of bad desalinated water. The coffee was normal in bars. Usually we had lunch in Italian restaurant on the beach (included in “all inclusive”). The meal looked more tasty there and it suited more, because it’s not necessary to change beachwear. There were bars on the beach and near swimming pools, so, there were no problems with drinks. Each bar was equipped with a dishwasher, the glasses should be cleaner than after the handwash. But sometimes at the bar on the beach there were not enough glasses. So they were washed by hand, that’s quicker. Two bottles of water were in the room when we arived. Then we had to buy water in expensive stalls in hotel or pour from the filter near reception desk. The water in the filter is accumulated in a tank rather slowly. As a result, you can come to get water and find that the tank is empty.
Closer to the beach there is a diving center. You can take diving lessons, buy a tour of the bathyscaphe or glass bottom boat tour. Departure directly from the pontoon in the hotel. If you take a boat tour, be sure to tell the captain what you want to do. Jump diving, land on the island or fishing. We took the boat tour and because we were not very active in the negotiations we have very short swim with scuba diving. Inflatable vests for children it is better to take with you. On the boat, there were not vests for some reason. The boat looked like it had just been in the firefight between the pirates of the Caribbean Sea.
We bought “dolphin show” excursion through our tour operator. We were only on performance. Although in the morning for a fee you can swim in the pool with the dolphins. Presentation conducted in Russian. It’s always fun to look at animals-actors. We liked them. But it was near Hurgada, more then 1 our by bus from our hotel. Otherwise we’d like to go again swimming with dolphins.
The cost of this trip is 115,000 rubles (~3500$) for 4 persons (2+2) with the flight.