Fort Arabesque Resort and Spa

This was our first trip to Hurghada and it certainly won't be our last, my wife and I were in the west wing which is audalts only which meant the pool area was very relaxing,the food was very good plenty of choice, the staff were amazing could not do enough for us, our room was very clean with fresh towels every day, the beach with its fantastic reefs were a short walk, we loved every minute of this holiday.

Visited early August for 10 days, couple both in our twenties. This review is 100% honest. PROS: - BEACH: This hotel has a gorgeous beach. The sea water is clear and blue and full of beautiful corals and tropical fish. We did 2 boat trips with snorkelling stops and the snorkelling on the hotel beach was better, so don't bother booking a snorkelling trip. I recommend to purchase a snorkelling mask before you go. The full face snorkelling masks are used on this beach by a lot of people. Wonderful for swimming with the fishes. The ONLY thing about the beach is that the sand is a little rough on your feet, not powdery sand. Flip flops/swim shoes should help. * If you love swimming in clear waters with beautiful fish, this hotel would be ideal * - ADULTS ONLY WEST WING: We did not want to be around kids on our holiday this year and we found the West Wing fantastic! It has an adults only pool and bar right next to it. The beach on the West side was not adults only, but we found that most of the people with kids went to the East. This meant that the beach was always wonderfully quiet and peaceful. - EGYPTIAN HOSPITALITY: We found that most of the staff at this hotel did absolutely everything to make us happy. The cleaners were friendly and work so hard. They also make your towels into cute hearts and swans just as a friendly gesture! - CLUB 159: Wonderful place to unwind and relax especially on evenings. It's €15 for all inclusive guests, you can have steak, chicken and a selection of desserts etc. They will make up a private table on the beach if you ask, free of charge. Wonderful and romantic. Definitely recommend! CONS: - ILLNESS: Our biggest problem with this hotel was when we both got ill. My boyfriend suffered with an upset stomach throughout our whole stay, and I had awful sickness and diarrhoea. We missed two of our excursions and I actually couldn't leave the room for a whole day. Bit of a waste when you have paid more than £100 per day per person! We heard quite a few other guests say they were ill there too, unfortunately. * I don't know if our illness was caused by the food or swimming in the pool, but there did seem to be a lot of people who became ill at the same time * - SOME STAFF: Unfortunately, some of the staff were inappropriate with the way they look at females at this hotel. Especially during eating times in the restaurant area. Some of the waiters made a point of coming up to me several times a night and saying "Helllooooooo" to me whilst staring at my cleavage, all IN FRONT of my boyfriend. I was very uncomfortable every time I went around the hotel without my boyfriend as I would be asked questions by male staff about who I was there with, if I was married etc. * Most of the staff are lovely, but some were so inappropriate. * - GERMAN GUESTS: Around 70% of the guests here are German. Most are lovely, but some can be very rude and hostile for no reason. Just something to be wary of! - ENTERTAINMENT: The entertainment is quite poor, unfortunately. Some nights are better than others. It is meant to start at hald 9, but usually starts at about 10. One night, the animation team were on stage for about 10 minutes, then they started doing their end of show dance. I couldn't believe it! You sit there and wait for about 45 minutes and then it's over in 15. Sometimes they do a decent performance, but it is awkward as they don't interact with the audience much. It wasn't the worst entertainment I've ever seen, but was definitely not good. - BREAKFAST: Breakfast options were quite poor, no English breakfast items at all. We usually skipped it and went straight to the beach. - MONEY FOCUSED: This hotel seems a little money focused. Lots of add ons and extra charges. TIPS FOR STAYING HERE: ○ If you get a sunbed on the beach, ask the towel centre for a red flag and attach it to your umbrella. If you don't, you will be continuously harassed by vendors ALL day long. ○ You exchange your towels card for a beach towel at the towel centre - MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR TOWEL CARD BACK FROM THE TOWEL CENTRE. We were charged 10 Euros each because the towel centre kept our cards and lost them. ○ WI-FI - Rent a Wi-Fi dongle from then hotel. (50 Euros deposit and 10 Euros for 3.5 gigabytes) We found this much better than paying 20 Euros for a week as we were the only people using our dongle Wi-Fi, so the connection was really good. *** When you pay the 50 Euro deposit, they will put it in an envelope behind the desk with your room number and name. MAKE SURE that you take a picture of the envelope. When we tried to get our deposit back, the guy behind the desk has messed it up and we struggled and nearly lost 50 Euros. ○ If you go on any excursions, the Mahmya Island is a must! White sand and blue water makes a lovely Egyptian Caribbean.

We stayed in the main hotel for 11 nights, it was me, my husband and our son who is 16. On arrival we were quickly checked in and shown to our room by the porter. Our room was on the lower level and in the older east wing of the hotel, I requested a lower level due to having mobility problems and walking with a crutch. The room was a little dated and you had to sit side saddle on the toilet due lack of space for anybody who has legs!!, apart from this it was fully functional, we had a full size fridge which for some strange reason only had 2 bottles of water when there were 3 of us. Also there was a television which had two channels which played movies and these were mostly in English. Our son is 6ft 4" tall and there were 2 full size double beds in the room so plenty of room for his long legs. The beds were comfy and the air conditioning which is controlled by the hotel kept the room at a nice temperature which you are very grateful for when coming back in from the 40 degree temperatures. There is a safe in the room which is included in the price of your holiday, and a hair dryer located in the bathroom. As our room was on the lower level we had access to the outside via patio doors to a terrace which led straight to the beautiful gardens, beach and sparkling sea. My husband and I spent our days on the loungers on the beach and I must admit I did get up at 6 am every day to secure the loungers by the beach bar as I didn't want to miss a minute of any day, but you could pay 8 euros a day or 50 euros a week to reserve beds and have a cool box delivered to you containing various drinks and fruit each day. Our son chose to spend his days in the 'swim up bar' pool as that is where all of the activities took place and where he made lots of friends of all ages. The pools are kept exceptionally clean and this is the first holiday our son never contracted an ear infection from the swimming pool water. There are various places to eat and drink and I can honestly say that they are all of top quality especially for an all inclusive hotel. You can have freshly cooked pasta and pizza at The Pizzaria from 1pm - 5pm every day. The beach bar does sausages, burgers, fried chicken, minced beef, chips, salad on a rotation each day, they also do freshly cooked bread, morning and late afternoon snacks and ice cream at certain times of the day. In the evening you can book to have a BBQ meal at the Beach Bar, and the food was well cooked and very tasty. In the main dining room there was always plenty of choice at each of the sittings, breakfast, lunch and dinner, including freshly cooked doughnuts,pancakes and omelettes at breakfast time. At Club 159 you could book to have an a'la carte dinner, or just pop in for a drink and look at the fantastic views from the veranda across the bay, both day and night. Club 159 also have their own entertainers in the evening. At night at the Arena the hotel entertainers put on nightly shows, we didn't go every night but most of the shows we saw were good. Also in the Lobby bar there were nightly singers of varying ability; and we always had a good time, especially singing 'who the fxxx is Alice'. There was a belly dancer on two occasions and she was very good. I need to give a special mention to Mena who was one of the bar staff in the Lobby bar, he was very entertaining and was wonderful with the customers. On the beach there are various vendors who walk up and down all day selling their trips or services e.g. fish doctor, dive centre, quads and safari's, spa services and para sailing. My husband and son went quad biking in the desert 3 times, twice in the morning and one at sunset and they loved each and every time and can thoroughly recommend. These excursions were booked through Karim, who is one of the beach vendors. I would definitely recommend booking through Karim as he is very helpful and wants to give you the best experiences whilst on your holiday. He became a friend during our holiday along with Ali Babar, Abdo (fish doctor), Fox, Adel (Dive Centre), Muhammed (parasailing), Sammy (hotel photographs), Mustafa (Beach Boy), Thomas (Hurghada excursions) and Ashma (Beach Bar waitress). All of the staff in the hotel were friendly, helpful and welcoming. We've been to Egypt twice now and have never been disappointed by the local people. With regard to accepted currency, they accept Egyptian pound, Euro's or GBP £. We took Euro's but if we went again again we would take GBP £. There are 2 ATM machines outside the front of the hotel which give out Egyptian money but this can be exchanged at reception. There are various shops in the hotel which sell snacks, souvenirs, clothing,handbags, jewellery and there is a pharmacist on hand for when 'Egyptian' belly rears it's ugly head, which is probably due to the heat. Tips for the staff are to be left in main reception where there is a collection box and this is distributed amongst all staff but I must admit we gave tips to individuals that we felt gave exceptional service and there were quite a few of them. We made some really lovely friends and will continue to keep in touch with them and we are definitely going to return to this hotel and cannot wait until this day arrives :)