Royal Lagoons Resort & Aqua Park Families and Couples ONLY — Hotel in Red Sea

Do not waste your money staying at this hotel. The rooms are very basic and much in need of a bit of refurbishment. You get one free bottle of water each per day from the staff who clean the rooms and have to keep asking to have the same bottle refilled from a water tank by the staff if you want any more throughout the day. The wardrobe door was hanging off and the safe broken in the room with loose wires hanging out.

The alcohol is completely un-drinkable and could barely call themselves all inclusive. They have a cocktail menu but then you find out you can only have these if you pay. There is a bar above the main lobby, but again you have to pay for drinks here. Otherwise the only option is to sit in the main lobby if you would like a drink in the evening, often having to share tables with other people as there isn’t much room with people arriving for their stay or sitting with luggage waiting to leave. The lobby is also the only place you can get Wi-Fi (which barely works), there is no Wi-Fi by the pool or in the rooms.

It is a mission getting beds by the pool and when you eventually manage to find something you are continuously pestered by staff trying to sell excursions, spa treatments etc. this would be fine if it were only on the first day but it is every single day, multiple times a day and they are very rude, not taking no as an answer. The drinks by the pool are given in flimsy plastic cups, usually half filled but you can notice that people who tip a lot are given bigger, stronger cups and get service to the sun beds. The beach is no better. There is a shuttle bus from the hotel to the beach which resembles more of a building site. It is clear they are doing some work to refurbish but this isn’t stated anywhere when booking. When on the bus there were often work men on with us with tools etc shuttling to and from the hotel. The sun beds here are of very bad quality and the beach is overall quite disgusting with litter and remnants of the ongoing building work taking place.

The food is barely passable and no thought given to good hygiene whatsoever. There is an on-site “restaurant” you can book for free for one of your evenings but the food here is a joke which you would refuse to pay for (hair in the food etc). In this restaurant they walk around offering you wine but then tell you that you have to pay for it. I was violently unwell for the entire week I was there and this was undoubtedly down to the food. Speaking to other guests during the week there were lots of people who were also very unwell and had to leave the hotel in search of food that was edible. At breakfast there is no fresh orange, apple juice etc and instead only very watered down diluted juice. A few days they filled what must have been the diluted orange machine with water which gave the water you had to refill your bottles with a horrible after taste.

I would recommend against going as a solo female or group of females as the male staff here are very pushy and bordering on rude. They consistently pester you when you are on a sunbed or eating a meal asking for your number or to take you out which is highly unprofessional. There is a back exit which takes you onto a Main Street of shops which isn’t much better, getting shouted at and approached by the men from the shops and taxis beeping their horns and stopping. Made us feel very uncomfortable.

On a positive, the cleaning staff are very friendly and happy to help. Staff at reception were also quick to help when the hot water wasn’t working (most days) and let us have the room for later check out free of charge given all the...

From the moment we got to this hotel it went wrong. I had booked for 4 rooms to suit the needs of what people i had with me, when turned up they told us we only at 2 rooms, so we had to wait ages for them to sort more rooms to allocate us the right places. They sorted some rooms out after about a hour, bearing in mind we got to the hotel at 10.30pm, My friend and his wife ended up with 2 single beds in there room. They told us to come back in the morning amd they we adjust rooms. So being late they said there was a late night services of food at 11pm. So we all went to eat the food was absolutely disgusting, we just throught maybe its the leftover from dinner time so things didn't get wasted. So in the morning we went to breakfast the only edible thing was a omelette or pancakes, we went to reception to question about the rooms which they got angry and told us they are the rooms nothing can be changed. The rooms was very out dated, they bathroom and toilets smelt so bad you didn't want to be in there. The bar tended at the pool bar was very rude and arrongate, same as the bar stuff in the lobby. The drinks all-inclusive drinks was vile... we went to lunch and the again the food was disgusting, the chicken wasnt cooked properly so at this point me and family had given up on the hotel food and drinks, this was all day 1... for the rest of the holiday we ate out the local marina when the food was lovely the service was great. In the hotel the waiters are very pushy to try sale you things all day every day, I understand they try sale you tickets to events to earn I little bit of extra cash which is fine, but every 20 minutes the same men kept coming up the sale things after repeatedly telling them no.. they just wouldn't take no as a answer. The pool area was ok the kids enjoyed the slides. They had 3 other restaurants ( la carte - next joke ) are friends went to one and they got food poisoning.. we throught we take a trip to the private luxurious beach that royal lagoon told us about, we got there and it was like it was man made with no sand but made up of grit, the waiter services was okay there. The hotel put on night entertainment with then the wanted you to pay extra for the tickets which to me is crazy..on the last day when we checked out the reception stuff got very angry amd hands on with some off the people in are group, when you check out you have to hand in your rooms keys and towle cards otherwise you get chagerd, they made my friends cry and intimidated her tell her she had to pay 40$. My friends trid telling reception that i had the cards. They would let them leave the hotel, i came down gave them all the cards plus a couple spare towle cards i had. please please do not go to this run down, hotel save a little more money to enjoy somewhere else.. have watch your young daughters around the man as they will be touchy feely with them think it's funny, when it is just dam creepy.. the taxi people was the best part of this hotel they was very friendly and done the best to help you,, taxi service was 10/10 shame about the rest of the hotel. Royal lagoon should be shamed...

It is a very nice resort, considering the price-quality ratio. PROS:

• Exceptional food, very good and diverse, catering to all tastes. From stews to various side dishes, grills, soups, salads, numerous pasta dishes, and lasagna. The meat, whether beef, chicken, or fish, was always cooked extraordinarily. For dessert, there were various fruits and pastries, also quite good. • There is fast food available outside meal hours, both at the resort bars and on the beach. • Non-alcoholic beverages are international brands: Pepsi, 7UP, Mirinda, Coca-Cola, Fanta, etc., while alcohol is locally sourced. We mainly consumed beer and whiskey, which were decent. The beer was quite good (according to the men). There were also natural juices from dispensers, quite diverse, and some were quite good. Also, for certain smoothies, international alcohol, or beer (Heineken, I think), you had to pay separately. • The staff is very friendly and helps with anything you need. They do their job well even without tips. At least on our part, they treated us equally well before and after we left tips. Some employees are very humble, and if they have time, they’ll even chat with you, showing what good people they are. • The cleanliness is okay; the rooms were cleaned every day, and the linens and towels were changed. The pool was cleaned every evening, and in the restaurant after each meal. • There are various activities in the resort, both during the day and in the evening, for both children and adults. • The pools are large, with varying depths, one of them even having five water slides, and there’s even a mini bar there, so you didn’t have to leave the pool to get a drink. • Even though the resort is not on the beach, there is a bus every 15 minutes, both from the hotel to the beach and from the beach to the hotel. • You can request a packed breakfast or a late dinner if you go on excursions.

CONS:

• The furniture in the room is old, and some things could be refurbished, especially the windows that don’t provide much sound insulation. • The internet, which was only available in the lobby, was quite weak. • The outdoor bar closed at 5 PM, which is understandable considering it gets dark by 5:30 PM, at least at the end of October when we visited. • No alcohol was served after 11 PM. • Even though most of the glasses were either glass or disposable (on the terrace or by the pool), there were some plastic cups, especially on the beach, which didn’t look very appealing. They were very scratched and gave a poor appearance to the drink, even if they were freshly washed. • The beach was not very clean; there were discarded cigarettes and some various packaging, and the sunbeds and umbrellas needed some refurbishment.

Overall, I recommend this resort, even though in reality, it’s more like a 3-4-star place, not a 5-star one. Part of the resort, including one pool, was under renovation during our stay, so it will probably look even better in the future. It’s a welcoming and perfect place to have a vacation with...