Gemma Resort — Hotel in Red Sea

Too bad they have such a nice location. The staff of the hotel are just poor people pushed by managers to smile but the reality is that they just want to make profit by scamming tourists. If you buy an all-inclusive package at this hotel they would serve you the same food every day with a poor variety of meals, no diversity, no food on display on a buffet like other all-inclusive hotels do. No icecream, no drinks, no bottled WATER ! No fruits on display, bread baskets with ants, same cakes from one day to another but cut in different shapes on other plates. Do you like coffee? You better not because in the dining area they only have instant coffee, the one you get by mixing a 5g poket of dust with hot water. The manager is that type of person trying to ask you if everything is right and if not he will swear something in Egyptian to the employees making them to bow their head because he thinks that's what you want to see during holidays. The manager will not speak to women because even if they are an open hotel for international guests women should be treated as per his religion. They DO NOT give you bottled water and the one from the sink is forbidden to drink in Egypt. They pour beer in 100ml plastic cups - house rule because of covid19. They have the impression that tourists need more and more food when you just ask for diversity and quality. This hotel does NOT have food suitable for children nor places to let your children play safely.

At the end of our stay they surounded me in the lobby (4 or 5 guys) trying to make me sign a paper where I would approve their exemption of any future charges or actions because of my complaint about the way we have been treated.

Do not come here, a 5-star hotel doesnt have: Dirty rooms and bathrooms like they do. Saying they do not have the fridge key to bring us bottled water. No Fruits on display or on a buffet ( should be for all-inclusive boards) Unqualified personnel speaking english poorly. Guys in the "bazar"(souvenir shop) inside the hotel selling you things twice as expensive compared to the city market. 1980s AC units in the "superior" rooms which is too powerfull to run on the lowest setting, also too noisy - broken maybe. Poor quality food, they just give you something to eat - for example pasta with red sauce is more like pasta with ketchup in their menu.

In the end I want to say also that they asked the entertainment team to make us write reviews on tripadvisor for the entertainment guys and took those as proof as we were happy with the overall situation - which is a fraud, they photoshoped the reviews with screenshots from tripadvisor and put our names and some fake address I gave them on that paper I didn't want to sign at checkout.

The price for the entire trip was around 1100 Euros comming from Romania. Photos speak...

Everything was perfect. I have arrived slightly late for check in, and they kept the kitchen open after hours so I can have lunch. The check in process itself was very fast and easy, even greeted us with refreshing drinks. I went during my birthday and they surprised me with a nice cake in my room. Keep in mind I haven't told them anything in advance :).

Food was amazing and non-repetitive, as you would expect from an all-inclusive hotel. Every room "blocks" have their own private swimming pool, 10 in total! There are so many little things that will make your experience thousand times better that you will not get in any other hotel.

Rooms were very spacious, bathroom was modern and well maintained but most importantly very clean! The rooms were cleaned daily. Even the towels were sterilised and put in closed plastic bags!

The staff will go above and beyond to make you happy. Special thanks to Mr. Ayman the General Manager (Who sent us a fruit basket in the room), Ossama who works at the beach bar, and the restaurant manager whom I don't remember his name, and many countless others who will do anything for you.

There are a couple of things that the hotel should definitely improve on.

Firstly, the spa. Most of the time there was no one in the spa, even though its open. When I have finally met someone after visiting several times, most of the services are unavailable. Granted, they have told me they've recently just opened because of the pandemic and everything is still under maintenance, so I understand where they're coming from and just gave it a pass.

Secondly, there is no dining room service. This is frustrating, because during the day in Marsa Alam, usually you will be outside the hotel doing some kind of activity. You come back to the hotel after a long tiring day, and you will need to wait until 7:30PM for dinner. I know its an all inclusive hotel but either allow at least light sandwiches as dining service, or extend the lunch times.

Finally, all rooms are a bit far from the beach. Which I don't mind at all, but can be a bit of a problem for older people. a cart service would be nice :)

Other than that, I'd definitely give it 5 stars and strongly recommend it to anyone who never visited Marsa Alam. All the activities in Marsa are near this hotel. The location is perfect. Even if there are 5-star international resorts in Port Ghalib, all the trips will be between 1-2 hours, where as in the hotel, 20 minutes maximum :).

Btw, all staff are vaccinated...

I could write a whole novel about our great vacation because staying at Gemma was great, but I'll try to keep it short.

We arrived at the hotel in the evening, we were immediately given a welcome drink. The bracelets were given to us in a moment, the bus then took us to the room and after a while they brought our suitcases to us. You don't have to worry about anything.

The hotel is large, there are several pools and even though the hotel was fully booked, we always found free sun loungers both by the pools and on the beach at any hour.

The hotel staff always take great care of you, they are meticulous, and the cleaning was top notch.

As for the food, we had no problem. Some might say that there is more choice somewhere, but we always chose, even when we had our three-year-old daughter with us. There was plenty of meat, fish, vegetables, fresh pasta, pizza, sweets, fruit, just about everything you can think of.

The beach here is large, sandy, but the entrance to the water is over pebbles and it is better to have water shoes. After a few meters, however, there is sand again. The depth here is fine, you can swim here easily. The corals are rather dead, but there were still enough fish, so it is fine for undemanding people.

I also have to mention the great animation program. There are two groups, one directly from the hotel, the other belonging to Bravo. We don't have much experience with Bravo, we only met them occasionally and they were all always nice. However, we had a lot of experiences with the animators belonging to the hotel. It was an international team of great people who were interested in entertainment for guests of all ages. We had a lot of fun with them and my daughter was thrilled with them. So I would like to thank Kristina, Karolina, Sosta, Amir and Zika.

Gemma is a hotel for those who want to enjoy peace and quiet. There is only desert all around, so you can make the most of the varied offer of excursions, or enjoy a great rest in the hotel. However, if someone wants to go to Egypt for amazing snorkeling or wants fun in an aquapark, they have to find another place.

To sum it all up, it was a great holiday and we have visited countless different countries and hotels. Gemma won us over with its great environment and wonderful people. We will...