Pickalbatros Citadel Resort — Hotel in Red Sea

I stayed at Pickalbatros Citadel in the first half of July 2025 and overall, I had a very good experience. The hotel has a great location – it took about 20 minutes by taxi from the airport, and around 25 minutes to get to the center of Hurghada (Sheraton Road). I highly recommend booking a deluxe room, ideally in building 6. This part of the resort is quieter and further from the main shuttle bus route. You can still hear it occasionally, but the noise is minimal and didn’t bother my sleep. The room was spacious, clean, had a balcony with a sea view. The bed was medium-firm and comfortable. The room was cleaned daily, with fresh towels, toiletries, and bottled water always restocked. The resort area is large and beautifully laid out. There are many paths throughout the property, and just walking around between the room, beach, restaurants, and pools was enjoyable and gave me a lot of light exercise every day. If you don’t feel like walking, there’s a hotel shuttle that runs a loop between the marina, reception, and the accommodation blocks. It worked fine, though sometimes there was a short wait. The food was honestly one of the highlights. The main restaurant, Culina, had excellent breakfast options – fresh orange juice, omelets, pancakes, vegetables, fruits, sweet and savory choices. Lunch and dinner were flavorful and varied. You could also eat at Alfredo (the food court) or in the evening at L’Asiatique, which had themed cuisine nights. Once per stay, you can reserve a dinner at Rocks Lounge, which serves Italian-style food. One thing I really appreciated was the ability to grab a pizza late at night, even past midnight – great when returning from a trip. Service in restaurants was friendly and fast, though sometimes it took a bit longer to find clean cutlery on your own. WiFi worked surprisingly well – even on the beach. The beach itself is narrow but long, with two bars on the left side offering snacks and drinks throughout the day. Swimming is only possible in one lagoon, as the rest of the shore is coral and cannot be entered. The lagoon sometimes gets crowded, especially during peak hours, so I recommend arriving earlier to get a good spot. Water shoes are a must – entering the sea barefoot is not pleasant. The beach was clean, the loungers in good condition, and towels always available. I was also impressed that the resort separates waste – not a standard in Egypt. Entertainment during the day and evening was fairly low-key. Most activities were near the marina and pools. There was a foam party closer to Alfredo, but otherwise, the program was limited. The amphitheater was not used at all, which felt like a missed opportunity. If you’re looking for lively night shows, you might be disappointed – but if you prefer a calm evening drink with a view of the color-lit marina waters, this place won’t let you down. The drink selection was a bit of a letdown – the only cocktails available were Mojito and Piña Colada. They tasted fine, but I would have appreciated a wider variety. The bar service was generally quick and pleasant. I noticed that guests who tipped more often received slightly enhanced service – like having full bottles of cola brought directly to their loungers – but it didn’t feel unfair or disruptive. There was also some renovation work happening in building 5 during my stay, and you could occasionally hear construction noise from the beach. It wasn’t overwhelming, but definitely noticeable. Other than that, the hotel staff were very friendly and helpful – especially housekeeping and the Culina restaurant staff. Reception was responsive and handled everything with a smile. If you’re looking for a resort with good food, a large and scenic area, calm atmosphere, and well-kept facilities, Pickalbatros Citadel is a solid choice. It’s ideal for families, couples, or solo travelers wanting a mix of relaxation, walking, and decent meals. While there’s room for improvement in a few details, nothing spoiled my experience. I’d be happy to return again...

Stayed at Pickalbatros Citadel for two nights and had a very poor experience

The check-in process at the front desk is slow We arrived at the hotel and checked in at 9:50 pm on August 29th. While the front desk staff was helping us handle the formalities, they helped at least 3 groups of guests who came after us handle other matters, resulting in almost 10 minutes of processing time.

The front desk did not provide necessary information when checking in. When checking in we were not told how to make restaurant reservations (it was an all inclusive hotel) but we were given a piece of paper saying everything was on paper. When we made a reservation for the restaurant the next day, we read the paper carefully and found that there were some QRCODEs that required reservation. We didn't understand. We called the front desk and asked how to make a reservation. The front desk told us that we needed to download an app to make a reservation. This download cannot be done directly from the app store. Downloading requires a QRcode, which needs to be obtained at the front desk. I am very confused about this matter. If we need to go to the front desk to get it in person, why was it not given to us when we checked in? The room we were in was very far from the front desk. The weather in Egypt was hot and the shuttle bus only ran every 15 minutes! In addition, everything is on paper. Why does it only say which restaurants require QR codes on the paper, but not the need to get a note at the front desk and download the app?

Unfriendly staff attitude At 20:30 on the evening of August 30, when we were walking to the restaurant, we encountered a shuttle bus. The path was very narrow, so we stayed to the right to avoid it. The shuttlebus driver stopped the bus and yelled at us to get out of the way. In real time, we were already very close to the side of the road, almost standing next to the flower bed, and there was no way to continue to avoid it! The driver still had a bad attitude and continued to shout at us. We had no choice but to stand on the left side of the road, under the eaves outside the room. If you have monitoring, please check it!

The front desk manager handles issues unprofessionally At around 21:30 on August 30, we went to the front desk to report what we had encountered and hoped to make a complaint. The staff at the front desk had a very good attitude. In the middle of the exchange, the manager named Mostafa came over with a tough and cold attitude. First of all, he said that all the information at the front desk could be found on paper. Secondly, he thought the driver just told us to be careful of the wall. I'm very unhappy about this. If the information can be found on paper, where is it written on the paper? How to download the app? How to make a restaurant reservation? Secondly, if the driver is very friendly, why do I need to complain when I am happily on vacation? The most important thing is that if you handle a customer complaint, what you should do is reflect on the process, not question or defend the feedback! When I expressed my strong dissatisfaction, the manager adjusted his attitude. And asked me to wait in the lobby while they called the driver to come and confront me. I deeply don't understand this! How to deal with the incident, clarify the facts, and find solutions after customer complaints are reported is what your management has to do, not what my customers need to participate in. What I want from my vacation in your hotel is happiness and comfort, not endless entanglements!

At the end of writing, I want to say that Egypt’s tourism industry accounts for 15% of GDP and is the backbone of the country’s economy. Egypt aims to receive 300,000 Chinese tourists in 2024. I don't know if the above treatment I encountered is directed at Chinese people, I hope not, but I hope hotel managers think about this issue from a deeper...

First of all, the staff were friendly (although its mainly men working here, it would be much nicer with more women around the resort....) and the location absolutely beautiful, right by the sea. However, there are definitely things to improve at this hotel, especially since I booked it for the good reputation it has.....

SICKNESS We were 2/3 that happened to get VERY sick during an excursion booked with the hotel's travel company and I don't feel like we were compensated enough. We left to Cairo in the early morning and we got a breakfast bag from the hotel, which contained bread, butter and salad and some bananas. By the time we returned to Hurghada for our hours long drive back, I had to suffer through hours of illness on this bus without neither paper or soap and it probably hadn't been cleaned in a good while either. I believe we got sick from the breakfast that we got from the hotel, however, this was put on the travel agency which payed me an ironic sum of 20 Euro (It didn't cover the loss of 25€ to the snorkel and diving co for cancelling of excursion and 45€ to laundry services, both costs wouldn't have been necessary if we didn't get sick. As you see 20€ is not a compensation, nor money wise or what we had to suffer through on a bus ride from hell, but the hotel manager thought it was great...........

FOOD We mentioned our dissatisfaction with the food to the hotel manager earlier in the week and we gave it an honest chance. But the hotel couldn't simply live up to the standard of excellence and we were all very unsatisfied with the food: it was completely tasteless, full of sugar and fat. The kitchen didn't make an effort in getting either halloumi nor any other source of protein, although we're vegetarians. We got tired of the food (and we tried all the restaurants, in which the Asian one had the better food) and we lost appetite completely.

SAFETY? We were also woken up in the late evening from other guests that somehow succeeded in opening our door after 40 minutes of trying to get in. This didn't make us feel safe at all, which we reported already the next day without any explanation of how it was possible nor the promise it wouldn't happen again. It had us questioning the safety in our room since it was quite a frightening experience, although it turned out the confused guests were kind and apologized for the inconvenience.

On our departing day things really got messy. The hotel manager wanted us to give the hotel good reviews and insisted on letting us go to the airport free of charge. However, we'd already booked a cab for a good price. We naively enough decided to go with the hotel's cab choice instead, which we came to regret. The driver took us to the wrong terminal in which we went through the whole security procedure only to realize we were in the wrong place. We'd asked the driver if he was 100% sure this was the right terminal before leaving the car. We ended up paying a new cab 10Euro to take us 2 km to the right terminal, which had us left with a compensation of 10 euro.

Lastly, on the flight back home the third person we were accompanied with, got sick and while being locked into the restroom on the flight I met 2 other guests from the hotel, of which one of them were locked into the other restroom, vomiting for 4-5 hours. We all had only been eating in the hotel before leaving Egypt.

I wrote to the hotel manager but all of the sudden there were no longer any responses. It seems to be the food from the hotel that got us all sick and this is anyones biggest nightmare, especially from an all inclusive resort where you want to enjoy your well deserved holiday. Unfortunately I'll never book this hotel again and I can't recommend it to anyone else. Book somewhere where the food is...