Bellagio Beach Resort & Spa — Hotel in Al Ahia'

Edit: I am writing this review after out entire stay. We were a group of 22 people(7 families) which travelled to Egypt. Hurghada was supposed to be the highlight of our vacation. However staying at Ballagio Beach Resort and Spa completely changed this. This hotel claims to be 5Star but in fact it does not deserve 3 stars.

Rooms: Our group took every time of room that was on offer in the resort. Starting with the Deluxe room, family room, bungalow with beach view, Deluxe room sea view and the Ballagio suite. When we arrived we were all provided Deluxe rooms, Family rooms and most of the families decided to upgrade because of how shabby the rooms were. Most rooms were smelly and multiple equipment's in the rooms would not work. The fridge in the rooms are stashed with a bottle of code and sprite and you are handed a note to check-in stating that you will be charged it these are used, even if you have booked the resort rooms as all inclusive!!!! The TV's do not work properly, the only saving grace was the AC worked which meant we could escape the heat outside.

Food: This is a total disappointment. I had read in other reviews that the food was decent and everyone is bound to find something to eat. This is far from the truth! If you are vegetarian then u literally will have to survive on salads and fruits. Food cross contamination is a real problem. If you do not eat Beef, you will in all probabilities end up consuming some here. The pasta station, pizza station and all live food places use the same appliances for cooking meat and vegetarian dishes, they do not even rinse the dish once something has already been cooked in it. We had 5 vegetarians in out group who had a really tough time here.

Entertainment: The live event shows at the end of the day are repeated every week and the songs are repeated every day. We were fed up of it in our stay of 5 days.

BEWARE Travel Agent Desk- There is a travel agent after the receptions counter on the left name Mohammed (Fox Travel) he is a sweet talking cheat. He will arrange travel and activities for you but if u negotiate the price what he would have told to you upfront is not what you would get at the end. We booked a day trip to Luxor which was supposed to cover - Luxor temple, Karnak Temple, Valley of the Kings, Colossi of Memnon and Temple of Hetshepsut, but as we had negotiated a lower price with him he promptly excluded Luxor temple and instead took un on boat trip to Banana Island to show us monkeys and a crocodile for which we had to pay 20 USD per head. This trip cost us on time to see all the other places and they do this time of thing in every trip that you arrange there. Initially when we checked in to the hotel Mohammed got hold of one of our names and got the name of all the our group from the Hotel front desk and called all our rooms at 7:00 in the morning to fix the trip.

The resort is a bit beat down. It might have been good once. The rooms are basic and most of the rooms seem to have one or the other issue. In our group 5 of the families had to change rooms due to issues. Location is good with good connectivity to Cairo. Swimming pools are good and the beach next to are great. The shisha bar is good, but beware everything suddenly gets charged in pounds or dollars inside the resort. Food is mediocre at best, very few options for vegetarians. Mis labeled food is also a serious concern. The staff try to be courteous but language can be a massive barrier. The timings on the swimming pools and beach! Are crazy! The cocktails/mocktails in the bars are some of the worst we have had. The travel agents inside the resorts are like flies, the will just not stop bothering you. Overall this is a 1-1.5 * resort at the best, but the price being quoted is 5*. Disappointed! Would not recommend anyone...

This is a 3* at most, tired and run down, some photos on here are professional so makes me think reviews not real. The entertainment group were standing over ppl round the pool whilst they type good reviews, they did this to my 12 yr old daughter. Rooms nice and clean, but mattresses are very hard. the pool lounges isn’t enough for all guests. You will NOT get a sunlounger after 8am. People are reserving and laying their towels down onto sunbeds from 5:45am.no policies in place for unattended loungers so towels on empty loungers left all day long. Food... I will eat anything, and not fussy. But this is not 5* food it is 3* There are two main restaurants which have the exact same and a very limited variety, It was eating the same things that I struggled with. Whereas in the Jaz I was absolutely blown away by their food every single day, and the variety was unbelievable there, now that is a 5* in the Jaz hotels The sweet deserts all taste the exact same, very tasteless, . They look really pretty as you can see on hotel photos but taste of nothing. In the snack bar in the afternoon you can get pizza, fries, hotdog or a burger. These are not the best quality burgers or hotdogs at all. The pizza is nice, handmade. But there is always a very long Que to wait for a slice of pizza so be prepared to wait, and Egyptian guest don’t Que they push in you may be stood a while waiting for a slice of pizza and people in the queue will go up and take one or two slices (what they think they can eat) but if you have any Egyptian guests before you they will take the whole pizza, so you have to wait another 15 mins for another to be cooked. The staff allow them to push in and not Que like everyone else. They also do this with all the food I have observed. They stack plates full to the brim of food on their tables, then leave the majority, to be thrown away. I find wasting unbelievable amounts of food like this hard to watch . It’s strange how it’s not just one family… it’s like this on every Egyptian guest table. reception has nice decor but the outside doesn’t look like the photos, it’s more of a 3* stagnant dirty water around the bungalows, hence the biting flies. beach isn’t great one pier rotten and collapsed doesn’t look like the photos, just like the hotel outside which is tired. The main issue we had was whilst sunbathing or walking around the hotel grounds we were approached 26 times in one day from ‘touters ’ that work in the spa in the hotel trying to sell you a massage, foot massage, tattoo, hair do, trips, spa, etc etc …. They wake you whilst you’re sleeping on your lounger, they constantly harass you on the hotel grounds whilst walking to the beach. The problem I had was they wouldn’t take ‘no I’m not interested’ for an answer and every conversation became a full blown 20 min discussion ! It becomes draining, being constantly hassled to buy something from the spa staff. They show you extortionate price lists 4x prices in uk then they try to persuade you it’s a bargain if they half that price lol I complained after 2 days and was told I could be given a red flag to walk around the hotel grounds with, which indicated to the touters not to hassle and approach me. I didn’t find this out until I complained. When you cave in and do have an extortionate price facial whilst you’re there in the hotel spa you can’t relax because whilst your having treatment they’re trying to sell you creams and scrubs etc … it’s none stop trying to get more and more money out of you Why they get there staff in the hotel to do this is beyond me, it really ruins your holiday with constant hassle! Never had this in other hotels, but we thought we’d have a change this year and try a different 5* hotel and wow what a mistake that was!! Never again...

The hotel itself is good. Not our usual experience of 5* though. Food and room cleaning not great. Variety of food was okay, but there were a LOT of carbs, sugar and heavily oiled options and not enough natural options. Fish, chicken and beef was daily but usually heavily spiced and too hot for kids. The “healthy food” was boiled chicken, fish and beef or steamed veg, all of which was way overcooked and dry. The fresh fruit was sitting in tap water and that basically left the pasta, chips and pizza options. There is a sweet bakery which serves sugar 24/7. If you miss breakfast, you can basically only have some cake or biscuits. There was one yoghurt with fruit and oats option, but it isn’t nice. It sits there for hours on end and is very watery.||The entertainment was okay but the staff were excellent! They work from early morning until like 11pm and are always happy and engaging with all guests. They really made my kids feel comfortable and they joined in the kids entertainment. We were surprised by their long hours in the blazing sun and energy lasting all day!||The beauty salon treatments are excellent but very expensive. We wish we had worked out what they were charging before committing to family sessions. The spa massage was not good. They were talking the whole time and were not concentrating which prevented us from relaxing. Again expensive.||The doctor and the clinic staff were superb! One of our kids became ill while we were away and they looked after her very well. It is sterile and clean, with fully stocked availability. Therefore, we did not need to go to the hospital. There is a pharmacy which is also excellent and well stocked.||The room was clean but we had to ask for towels, toilet paper and conditioner twice, which annoyed us. This is not 5* service! If there are 4 people in the room, you provide 4 bath towels, not just 2 small ones!||Therefore are shops for whatever you would need but you have to haggle for everything, which is frustrating when you just want to enjoy your holiday.|||Bar staff and restaurant staff were a bit over the top with the kids and annoyed them a bit. It was all “I love you” and “habibi” and annoying touches (not inappropriate, just constant hair flicking, etc.)||The entertainment is loud and heard from inside the room until about 10:30, but it’s quiet after that.||The gym provided everything we needed and it was clean and manned every time we visited. Only downfall was not enough sweat towels available and someone at the gym has to link their phone to the speaker for music, otherwise it’s quiet.||There is a jeweller there which provides basic jewellery and it was mainly reasonably priced but some items were expensive and you have to haggle.||The souvenir shop was good. It has standard souvenirs and snacks not available elsewhere like crisps and nuts.||Beware! EVERYONE wants cash tips and they don’t like coins, only notes. They are not ashamed to ask for tips constantly either!||Overall, we enjoyed our holiday, but feel ripped off with the treatments being so expensive and frustrated with having to haggle...