Amarina Abu Soma Resort & Aquapark — Hotel in Red Sea

Everything was perfect from the moment we arrived. We came to the hotel with Coral Travel Agency, Odeon Tours, they took us from the airport in Hurghada. The staff from the hotel immediately took our baggage and wanted to make sure that we don't carry them. I arrived with my sister, mother and father in the evening and they thought we are tired and immediately gave us a place to sit down, where we could rest a bit and think about what type of rooms we would like. Even if we initially had two standard rooms, they gave us two rooms with pool view, next to each other. We also booked a trip to Luxor (with the travel agency we came) where we visited Karnak Temples, Valley of Kings, Tomb of Ramses I, II, III, Tut Ankh Amun and Queen Hatshepsut. It was very very hot and we were tired at the end of the day, but we enjoyed it!||I was very happy with all the food from the hotel. I like it when there is a lot of cake in the all inclusive resorts. I love eating sweets. My favourite one was bananas with caramel sauce. And of course, besides the sweets, I tried rice, chicken, kebab, sushi, French fries with ketchup (of course, the best French fries), pasta, salads with tomatoes and cucumbers, fish and many other meals. All of them at breakfast, noon and dinner were nicely prepared and presented. They even have a zone with food just for kids. ♥️ Oh and all the waiters were very nice to us, very friendly and always joking around. It was very nice to see so many waiters that say "hello, good morning/afternoon/evening" every time they see us. It was our first time in Egypt and I didn't know about the Arabic hospitality. I've never seen such nice people and I've never received so many compliments in my life. It was the thing that surprised me the most and made me feel very good and appreciated. I want to take this moment to give special thanks to Shareef from the Element Restaurant, the waiter who, at some point, already knew exactly what we wanted to drink. He was the one that served us the most and we liked him very much. Oh and by the way, he served us with the best beer I've ever drunk in my life! I loved the cappuccino in the morning as well, very very tasty!|We also booked a dinner at Luca Toni restaurant and I loved the Italian food. Very very good pasta. I tried penne with pesto, spaghettini carbonara and Tiramisu. Delicious! 😋||There was just one problem: I unfortunately suffered from Egyptian Belly, because we come from Europe and we were not very used to the food and water from Egypt. We knew about this and of course we didn't drink water from the sink in our rooms (it's not tap water, we went to the reception to ask for bottled water) and we came prepared with the right medication and drank lots of peppermint tea.😁||In the whole resort there were so many people who came to us to ask us "where we're from, if everything's okay" and the minute they knew that we're from Romania, they wanted to say something in Romanian. I think that is very very sweet. 🥰||We enjoyed the private beach and the pools as well. The water temperature of the sea was just as we like it: warmer. Each of us had cards for the beach and pool towels and everything was perfect. We loved the people from the Aqua Gym, such a big energy! ✨ ||It was a pleasure to meet the person who cleaned our rooms, Jad. He was as kind as everyone else and always smiled at us. He even surprised us with new towels in the room: they were transformed in animals. It was very sweet! 🥰||I also loved the night parties (White Party for example, when even all the waiters wore white shirts, Shareef looked great in his white shirt) and all the music from the other nights as well. It was exactly my type of music and I always sang along with the singer.||Thank you very much for everything! You were amazing, it was a pleasure meeting you all. This was my...

We returned home on Fri after a week here....have to say our experience was mixed.|Our agents booked us in here, and we looked at it and the reviews and decided it looked a good one. It was a little disconcerting when we were met by a private hire cab, and the hotel was 36 miles away... no one told us this, and we thought we were going to Hurghada....our fault, I guess.|Our guide who met us, incredibly said we were the first English he'd met to travel there, which was a little disconcerting as we like to socialise with folk and language as I only speak some Spanish was going to be an issue. Turns out there were 2 others in the hotel.| The hotel itself is not a bad one aesthetically, gardens are well kept, and staff are lovely throughout.|Food it has to be said for us was a bit ordinary , a reasonable choice and reasonably well presented but didn't blow us away. The plates are not warm, so you have to get back to your table reasonably swiftly for a warmish meal. |We were offered a meal in 2 restaurants of different themes, the first one, Chopsticks, we visited on the Monday. I ended up with a diarrhoea for the rest of the week of this trip, and to my regret, I didn't visit the clinic, but dosed up on Immodium, and thankfully being home now I will visit my Docs...my wife suffered the same night but was OK, a fair bit quicker than me.|The egg queue in the morning was tiresome, and the 'Orange' from the machine was a poor quality, how can that be got so wrong?!|Any 2 days of very little, I went back to eat and did so without massive inconvenience, thanks to the Immodium.|Drinks, this was where the place struggled...it was said the drinks are branded.......they are not, apart from a few familiar brands behind the bar in unopened bottles , it is a brand called Yianni all the way, and all in plastic bottles...but the lowest part was my wife asking for a white wine in the Skylounge, and the barman poured it from a used plastic Coke bottle....I mean come on???|Rooms... lovely service from the cleaners, but we did tip them at least 3 times, which is another story.|Room..a little tired if I'm honest, and the TV may as well not be there.|WiFi....not great like many places unless you are in the lobby, and even then, just ok.|Beds, very comfy, but the pillows, ridiculous lack of support, you lie flat to the mattress effectively. |Wardrobe space, not enough for anyone staying over a week in our room.|Bathroom, basic, wished there was a bidet, 5* hotels, generally have these, and would have been welcome given my issues, but this is NOT a 5*.|Towels changed daily, |Pools, ok, but the metal, unsupporting sunbeds are like from the 1980s, and you have to get a Red Flag to put off the relentless hawkers of Spa, Boat Trips, Photographers, beach meals, etc, desert riding, otherwise, they are on you. Plus the shops in the 'wind tunnel'...we generally walked the other way. ...|Tipping..i read a review where it's said you don't need to...well my experience was it made me a little anxious as to whether to or not, certainly some are looking for it, and others not so you are in a bit of a quandary. One waiter in the main lobby area, we gave a 5 dollar tip the first evening we went in. The next night, he served us once, we didn't tip, and he ignored us all evening...|Given my health issue, the noisy Romanian family above us, the distance from Hurghada, we are glad to be home...however this isn't a bad hotel, just needs some attention to a few details to make it a good one.|And the tour operator...., should have done more homework, and us too, we were too quick off the mark booking it.|I really didn't want to write a bad review, the staff are so friendly in the hotel area, and the kids behind the pool bar, but I have to mention the...

Checked in at Amarina Abo-Souma Resort, Hurghada, Egypt, via Travel Republic, on 24th till 30th Dec. 2021, and it was a total let-down not only by the hotel but also by our travel agency(Travel Republic-UK) who had left us to go through the following without any support!

Going away for a holiday even after such a long lock-down and so much of travel restrictions, was just a dream, wasn't it?! So as soon as it became a reality again, you would just want to jump on a plane and release out all the stress and so we did, but unfortunately headed to the WRONG resort (Amarina Abu-Soma Resort and Aquapark, Hurghada, Egypt)

No matter how much we tried to make the most out of our stay and enjoy, sadly being around the wrong attitude in such a wrong place, made it only a wish!!

1. Heated Pool in Winter is a BIG LIE!!! Initially, Main pool and aqua park weren’t heated as clearly advertised on TR’s website, and found out later on by checking out previous Online reviews that it had been an ongoing issue with this hotel, following a”sorry-we’re-facing-a-Technical-issue” policy to sell and Increase their sales without providing the service! (Feel free to check what other reviews say about their ongoing issues with their non-heated pool and the aqua park on either Trip Adviser or Trust pilot, etc. )

2. Harassment Issue, we faced at the facility of one of the animation team to my 18 year old niece, where the Local TOURISM POLICE was called in upon our insisting request. Reception manager, by the name of Remon Bashy, claimed sacking the member of staff (Attaching photos of harasser for public awareness), as they have zero-tolerance Policy against harassment, to find out from some guest-friends we made during our stay at the hotel that the member of staff in question had returned back (possibly to re-continue harassing more guests) on the next following day of our check-out date!!!!

All turned out to be just a game, making fools out of us and certainly something to remember them with for long time to go.

3- State of the room’s bathroom was a bit of a disappointment, some yellowish powder for apparently marble finishing substance, was found in there, as well as holder of the shower hand-held handle was broken and lose,so imagine you have got to position your body where water shoots!!!

4- Please do not be fooled with the many positive reviews you may come across online. Many aren't genuine!! Eye-witnessing the animation team going round all day, on the beach, offering free private hotspots for a faster internet connection, instead of the painfully slow public service they had, in return for making guests fabricate online positive reviews. (feel free to read on some other reviews also referring to this)

Well, nobody learns for free, and that's for sure, but unfortunately that was a precious time none of us could have afforded to have it ruined as all was desperate to enjoy after long time of travel...