I think Briar has more than covered everything!

Strike 1

Kath HT Admin

OOPS I consider myself told off,previous posting deleted

Ok, call us wimps or cowards, whatever you like really, but my partner and I have cancelled our long looked forward to holiday, at the Conrad, which was booked in September 04. The terrorist attacks really gave us too much to worry about, and since my partner is a non swimmer, and likes to take the odd wander around to explore locally we decided it was better not to take the risk of being more or less confined to the hotel complex. Our proposed once in a lifetime trip to Petra also looked to be a bit of a non starter too.
Anyway, having seen some of the recent controversial reviews I am feeling a lot happier and think that we have made the right decision. I have had my suspicions for a while that things may not be quite so rosy at the Conrad as the pictures painted by some contributors to this site. My concerns were only addressed by First Choice with regard to the building work in progress at the Conrad the day after we had cancelled, when they finally confessed to the work in progress which we on this site have known about since April!
As long time All Inclusive fans we have experienced most of the problems referred to with regard to food and drink so were not too concerned. We have also learned to keep an eye on the minibar, and do the occasional check on the bill so we know if the odd 'extra' has been slipped in.
All in all I have to say you speak as you find. Some of you have had good times, in which case I am happy for you and others not so good, of course with you I sympathise. Either way my partner and I are now looking forward to our holiday elsewhere, albeit at an extra cost of £700, but at least we will be staying with a long established A/I hotel chain, from whom we have a good idea what to expect having stayed with them in the past.
Good luck to those who choose to go to the Conrad, I admire your confidence, and also good luck to those of you having come back with problems still to remedy after your visit! Either way everyone is entitled to voice their own opinions. I would, however, hope all are expressed on an impartial and honest basis on this site which I feel is an invaluable tool to assist in choosing a holiday!

Hi All

I have to say that we agree wholeheartedly with Templars review of the Conrad. We were there 21st July to 4th August also. I have not had much time as yet to post my own full review but will do so asap.

A point to note with regard to my FULL review...

It's funny how the only contradictions to said report concern:

a. The pleasantness of the staff.
b. The need to tip, or not as the case maybe
c. and subjective comments about enjoyment levels and relative value for money.

This leads me to believe that very few people can actually contradict the objective evidence presented.

The fact remains, the report I posted is a true reflection of The Conrad. I took the time to highlight the good, bad and ugly aspects of this hotel and holiday package. I am now being villified for doing so. If you are looking for great underwater views and guaranteed sunshine then this place is great, for everything else, there are far better places around the world and better deals. Unfortunately, they don't come in at the Benidorm price.

Hi All

My review of the Conrad.

This will be a long post as i will try to go into as much detail as possible.

Firstly the airport was not as bad as it had been in December . The staff were much more organised going out and coming in. There wasnt any problems if you didnt wish to buy a visa.There wasnt even anyone sitting on the floor !!. We had no problems - however ( hearsay ) others had change from their pockets taken when they put their money in the trays. On the way back a football had been confiscated by airport staff as it could not be deflated.
There are still the usual problems with people being helped with their luggage to the bus and then realising that these guys want paying. First Choice employ men to load your cases onto the bus. It is their job and they get paid for doing so. Again they asked everyone for money, some paid, some didnt.The going rate was £5. Some who didnt pay had their luggage removed from the bus. We called the first choice rep over to the bus and they sorted it out - giving the people who paid their money back and much heated discussion with the men who took it.
The day we were leaving the hotel First Choice rep CLARE told us that there was no duty free at sharm airport. There is. 200 L & M cigarettes £3.00. 1 litre malibu £10. 200 rothmans £10. There is also a place to buy pizza ( good after the food at the conrad ) and chips which had sprinkled herbs on. There are also sandwiches and baguettes at around £3 to £4.

When we arrived at the Conrad we were taken to the disco and given our envelopes which contained keys and wristbands, then escorted in groups to our corridors and our rooms were pointed out.The rooms are fairly big and clean but bathroom had stained toilet seat and tiles were cracked. There were very large ants on the balcony. The doors and wooden furniture are scratched and have seen better days. I found our bed comfortable but my husband said it was far too hard. Please beware of the mini bar ( read my previous post ). The bedding and towels are changed daily and the rooms cleaned well.We paid for 2 sea view rooms and were given the ground floor. On getting up the next day we discovered that we could not see the sea at all . All you could see were trees, sand, sunloungers the massage tent and the trips shack. We asked the rep CLARE to see if we could move and she did nothing. We asked at reception and they apologised but said they couldnt move us for a week. So we decided to unpack and stay put but try to get our upgrade refunded when we got home.A few days later we discovered that people were being offered sea view rooms through CLARE and the hotel for a fee of £158. After speaking to CLARE about this they found us 2 sea view rooms within an hour. We took ours however the room they showed us for the kids had 2 single beds in it and there are three of them so they had to stay where they were .

I have to say i was with the food. After reading other peoples reports i thought it wouldnt be as bad as it was. The best night was mexican, but the rest of it was terrible. There is rice, cold chips, some vegetables ( which werent too bad ) some form of meat ( usually chicken either in breadcrumbs or thighs in sauce ) and then fish ( usually sea bass or calamari ). Next you come to the "special" which is sometimes a meat for carving or another tray of cold chips!!! Round the corner of the food counter there is salad, cheese and bread. They had broccoli once and they served it cold with the salad section.
The desserts were varied and plentiful. The creme caramel is lovely.
The indian restaurant at the baron was ok but i ordered chicken and expected it to be breast meat. It wasnt. The lamb rogan josh was good and it made a change from what the Conrad served up so it was worth it. We paid £25 for 3 of us inc drinks.

The drinks!! ok they were terribly WEAK!!!!!! Maybe its because they have realised that if they serve weak drinks they will get more tips to make them stronger. The cocktails are appauling !! They are sickly and you cannot taste any alcohol. The pina colada is DISGUSTING!!! You have to find the right waiters to tip to get your drinks right or you will be wasting your money. Soft drinks are coke, fanta and sprite. They hardly ever have diet coke. The beer is bottles of stella and they make one bottle go round three drinks. They do this by giving you half a cup of froth!! What beer you do get is nice!!The pool bar tends to run out in the late afternoon - some people decided to buy the premium beer when they ran out which made it all the more hard for the rest of us to complain and get them to re stock!!

The entertainment is much what we expected - endless boring belly dancers and the usual culture shows. We had the singers for a night or two and then thankfully they left!! They did bingo a couple of times. The daytime entertainment in the pool consisted of aqua aerobics in the morning followed later by a game of water volleyball. Occasionally in the afternoons they put a surfboard in the water held by two people and had a competition to see who could skip with a rope on top of it the most times. We saw the odd darts game by the pool. The music is much too loud by the pool and its fine at the beginning of your hols but after a few days got on your nerves!! They played the same cds over and over!! The female entertainer Natalie is a hard worker and does her best. We asked for adult pool games ( lilo races etc ) on the tuesday night pool party and she brought the surf board into the water for skipping again!!

The beach is beautiful. The sea stunning. The coral, fish and snorkelling amazing. We saw lionfish, barracudas and loads of jellyfish which did not sting. There is the daddy of all fish down by the jetty but we dont know what he is its just massive. Hope my underwater photos come out so i can find out!! If you are looking for a cheap mask that works fine go to the supermarket at the baron they sell them separately for £3. We brought more expensive ones with us and they were useless.

We went on a boat trip on the sunday to ras mohammed . We booked this with the guys at the beach by the hotel. First choice was much more expensive and they said we needed a visa. It cost us £120 for 5 of us and we didnt have visas. They asked us to bring our passports for identity purposes which we didnt need on the day at all. The boat was uncrowded and the guides fantastic. We swam one to one some of the time. The lunch on the boat was soooo much better than the conrad !!! They had soft potatoes !!!!! They provided coke,sprite and water. The sea was very calm and easy to swim/snorkel in.

We used factor 30 and 40 suncream but still got burnt. It is very hot.
3 out of 5 of us got egypt tummy that lasted most of the holiday. Diax did settle it in the end. My son got ear infections and we got drops from the baron pharmacy.

ok here goes the insect repellant story: At the pool party on the tuesday night we saw a few flying insects so i went to our room to get the jungle formula spray. We hadnt had any mozzies but we had seen ants and i didnt want to get bit. I slipped my new black sparkly flip flops off and sprayed my ankles,feet and legs with the stuff and then put them back on. My feet started to feel sticky and i realised with horror that my flip flops had melted to my feet!!! I had to go to the room and it took ages to get them off!!! My feet were black and sticky and i had to scrub them for ages!!! Later after reading the back of the can it says keep away from plastics etc!!

We went to Naama Bay 3 times with the hotel shuttle bus with no problems. The Dannaneer restaurant is very good food - the steaks lovely. Hard Rock Cafe the kids enjoyed - cola floats and milk shakes. Pizza Hut is very cheap and very nice. Mc Donalds is very cheap over there - supersize milkshake for 60p.

What can i say about the rep - CLARE. Not a lot as she is a waste of time. The morning after the bombs went off we were in the breakfast restaurant with no idea what had happened and found out through other people who had recieved phone calls from home to say what had happened. We were all left to find out for ourselves what was going on and to me that is totally unacceptable. She did not let anyone know, there were no meetings, no cards through the doors - nothing. The general manager was left to come and talk to us around the poolside to say that we were supposed to stay in the hotel that day and if we needed anything to go to him. CLARE did not even do the checklist to see if we were all here until 2 days later.

After all the worry about the situation it unnerved us even more to find out the emergency meeting for all the arab leaders was to be held in our hotel on the wednesday.The first we knew of this was the high armed police presence in our hotel followed by searching of empty rooms and gadaffi strolling into the bar with his bodyguards. I felt that we could be a target for more terrorist attacks and again none of this was told to us by the rep we got more information from an egyptian newspaper which was printed in english from the bar!!!!!! On holiday you dont want groups of armed men strolling around late at night when their attention seems to be on your teenage girls. This came to a head on the wednesday night when they were using the hotel disco and the girls were being grabbed by the men. The disco was closed by howard (one of the djs ) because of this.

The Conrad is good value if you treat it like a self catering hotel with free beer and soft drinks and you want a clean hotel with a lovely beach and fab snorkelling. Trouble is its a 20 min bus ride into naama bay and thats quite a way every night for a decent meal. If you are looking for a good all inc hotel you will be dissapointed.

Yvonne

For those who remember my wife getting parasitic infection. She is now fully recovered and are planning nextholiday in Sept. Not sure where yet. The hotel is 3 star but its not that bad ..We are vodka drinkers and you just have to ask for more..Yes a tip does help. But as they dont drink they dont know how each dindividaul likes. I like a vodie with about 3 unit measures in it. And l got it.....Ent. is not good. But we were normally scooping for Scotland....Food.. We did not eat much but when we asked for a special at lunch time. We got what we wanted with no Questions and helpful concerned staff. Good hotel but not for wimps..

W O W.......

Some pretty strong words and reports !!! I know people's view are different , and must admit it has put me off a 'tad' from now going to the Conrad in September - However forarmed is forwarned... thanks for your view's guys ....

Pippa - What your view now your holiday is coming to an end - any real change to previous reports

Rgs
Gordon

Sorry, I might be misunderstanding the comment "...scooping for Scotland." but I'm sure it could lead to racial stereotyping! Tut, Tut! (Not King Tut!)

Hi Templar, we thought the idea of all inc. was to take advantage ofthe free booze. Egypt is the home of beer. So thats the first thing we noticed at the hotel. Local brew was very tasty. Wine not bad. Spirtits are spirits when mixed. Well nearly.....

Hi Victor

I truly believe that most of the waiters have a good idea how we like our drinks by now and that most ( not all ) of them know that we will tip to make them stronger.

I have no doubt that when asking for food thats maybe not on the menu that day a tip will ensure you get more or less what you ask for.We know someone in particular that has a liking for extra cheese in his omelette and a tip has ensured he gets it!!
Whether people are "wimps" or not has nothing to do with the fact that if we have paid for all inc then we should expect a reasonable standard of food and drinks. Not all of us are here for the beer!

The Conrad has an enviable position on a beautiful beach. My husband went paragliding ( beach £30 ) and saw that nearly all other hotels had a rock with steps cut out for their beach, so im glad we chose the Conrad for that reason, but after 2 weeks of truly terrible food and drinks we wouldnt go back.

Yvonney, sorry, I intended to be included in the wimps. The food is not good at all. We are going back to Southern Spain to an all inc. hotel that we have been to many times. Never been ill and the drinks are okay.. Hotel is only 3 star though. I could not get my wife back to the Conrad untill she has had another holiday...You need strong guts ect for this hotel not delicate tummys like we had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi victor

got my wires crossed i think as i thought you were referring to me !!!!

Just to say that we have been on many holidays abroad,( 12 since 1999 ) some b&b, some half board and many all inclusive and have to say that the food was the second to worst at the Conrad.

Hi there again, I thought the breakfasts were the only acceptable thing there. The parasitic infection my wife got had to come from the food. As we only ate in the hotel and drank bottled water. Did not go anywhere the pool. Its a good job we ended up with a doctor who recognized tropical diseases. We were there in early May and she only got out the hospital a few weeks ago. I thought she was a gonner....

hi again victor

im really concerned that your wife got so ill. How did you know that it was more than just an upset tummy ?? Symptoms etc??

This parasite infects the small intestine and is hard to detect. Check the website for causes. ?????? Contaminated food the probable cause in our case. Continual upset tummy. Stools that float.
Because the fat is not being absorbed into the body. Tiredness and getting weaker and weaker. We went to the doctors and the well women clinic. Blood tests and neither picked it up untill l met a doctor from New Zealand who recognized it immed. and wisked missus of to hosp. Who was bed ridden 6wks after coming home. Nightmare it was.....

sounds terrible!!

so glad mrs victor is well now!!

enjoy your next holiday - sounds like you both deserve it!!

Hi all,several of the most recent reviews are quite damning,apart from Templar who is taking legal advice has anyone logged an official complaint with first choice or eclipse,and have you followed the complaints procedure from hotel rep thru to tour operator.My complaint went in just after returning home on the 20th of June and although the letter has been acknowledged as of today 8th of August we have had no reply.
whilst at the Conrad many were moaning but were not prepared to follow the complaint thru,if the last few reviews are anything to go by nothing has changed since June,so come on put pen to paper and make a difference,its important that tour operators like first choice are not allowed to con people.
An associate of mine works at one of the major airports and tells me that tour operators are realy pushing Sharm because of the gaurenteed weather and shortish flights but havent got much of an in resort back up service or experienced reps at the hotels.
If this is the case we all need to make some noise to get things changed for future sun seekers.

we will definately be making a complaint to first choice about all the issues raised in my review.

I will probably hand a written account into the travel agent we booked through and take it from there. I dont suppose that these things are dealt with very quickly but i think perseverance is the key.