DoubleTree by Hilton Sharm El Sheikh - Sharks Bay Resort — Hotel in South Sinai

As a family of 3, this was our 2nd visit to this hotel. We last visited in July 2023. This year we came to celebrate our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary.

We landed at Sharm El Sheikh at around 9pm, reaching the hotel does not take very long at all as it is in good locality from the airport. From the moment we stepped foot back inside, we were greeted at reception with 3 Cookies, my son quickly ate his while we checked in. My wife had made a request pre travelling that we would like a room closer to the front pool/lobby area, compared to being nearer the back of the resort. This was happily arranged for us along with an extra bed in the room. She had also informed the hotel that 2 of the members of our family were Vegetarian and that if we were to be given a food bag on arrival to not have meat/ham mixed with the other food. The Hotel informed us prior to travelling that due to it being Ramadan when we were travelling that the Main Food Restaurant would be open again for late night food service. This worked out well for us all.

When we booked our stay, we were warned that the Beach Side Hotel was closed but the Mountain side Hotel was operating as normal, this we did not mind as we preferred to stay Mountain Side as we did the previous year. Access to the beach is still open and there are frequent buses running to and from each side.

The employees who work here are fantastic. A lot of them remembered us from the previous years visit, so they always approached us every time they saw us. Attef would welcome us during every meal time, asking my son and wife on what they would like to eat, being vegetarian he would ask the chef to make something. Hamada would also ensure they were plenty of drinks on our table and also bring back the meals which have been freshly prepared. He also went above and beyond on the evening of our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary by very beautifully decorating our dinner table. We were also sent a lovely cake to our room to celebrate the Wedding Anniversary. Assem and Gamal were very friendly, Assem remembered us from July '23. Also a heartfelt special message goes out to Haitam who is the restaurant Manager. We got to know him on our first visit as he was introduced to us from another friend from a previous hotel in Sharm El Sheikh. As always he would send treats up to our room such as Fruit, nuts and drinks. Ensuring our stay was memorable once again! Mariam Mofdy was very kind and helpful, she did approach us whilst we were poolside to let us know if we ever need anything to approach her or colleagues and they would do their best to help.

Our room was always cleaned very thoroughly, daily. Mohamed A Alla created very fancy towel art which we all loved, my son would always look forward to going back to the room later in the day to see what surprise it was!

The Animation team did a great job entertaining us every day, during the day we participated in several activities such as Stretching, Darts and Aqua Gym. The team were different to the ones from our previous visit, my son did want to see 1 or 2 from the year before again, however he still had a great time none the less. Evening entertainment occurred in Sports Lounge for our first week of the trip, however once it was Eid, they moved this outside.

The hotel is in great proximity and walking distance of Soho Square. Spent a few evenings here having dinner at the Mandarin bar with a choice of several cuisines to order from.

We purchased a family buggy ride in the desert with sunset viewing from Mustafa, Sharm Mania. He often walks around the poolside advertising the different activities the company provide. Next time we will venture out on the glass boat!

Beach side hotel when at the beach/sea, you are not disturbed by the construction going on in the hotel renovation. Animation team are also around here to provide similar activities as mountain side, so you don't feel you have missed out!

We will definitely be coming back again, it feels like a home away from our Home!! Miss all the Hilton family friends we...

I had been considering heading off for some winter sunshine and called my travel agent on December 22nd to enquire about making a booking. I had already seen the Doubletree Hilton Sharks Bay, in Sharm el Sheikh (SES), on the internet, and had read reviews on both Google and Tripadvisor and based on these reviews, I was very keen to proceed with a booking at this property. I opted to go All Inclusive but I clearly asked if I would be able to access all four restaurants and the two bars in the hotel and I was advised me that I would have access to all bar and restaurant options. The day before departure I looked at Hilton’s website to see what amenities were in the room as I did not want to spend Dec 27th ironing and hoped that there might be an ironing board in the room. To my horror, there was a warning on Hilton’s homepage stating that the hotel was under major renovation works. I called my travel agent and they had no knowledge of this and that when making a hotel booking, a warning flashes up on screen if renovation works are ongoing. The travel agent advised me that she would call the property to find out more information and then she would call me back. A little later she called to confirm that I was correct and that the seaside wing of the hotel was under major renovation work but this shouldn’t impact me too much as I had chosen a pool room in the mountain side wing. I was advised me that the restaurants in the seaside wing had temporarily been moved to the mountainside wing and that I would still be able to access all four restaurants and two bars. However, when I checked into the hotel I was advised that under the All Inclusive package, I was only entitled to use the one restaurant, the international buffet. I was very disappointed about this but I thought I would try the restaurant and go from there. At the hotel bar I wanted a glass of wine and to my horror, was told that I had to pay for wine and that the All Inclusive package only included local beer, gin, vodka, rum, brandy or whiskey. I then went for dinner and the food was absolutely awful and I was very disappointed! All the pasta station could muster up was pre-cooked reheated pasta shells in either tomato sauce or white sauce – see attached pic. And one night, birds tongue soup appeared on the menu – see attached pic! After dinner I went to my hotel room shocked, upset and disappointed. Quite frankly, at that stage I just wanted to come home as I dreaded eating in that restaurant three times a day for the next nine days! The next morning I opted to call my travel agent to ask for advice. The travel agent was surprised by what I told him and suggested he try calling the hotel to intervene. He also suggested I speak to a Duty Manager to see if anything could be done. I headed to reception, spoke to a Duty Manager, and he was quite clear. All inclusive = International Buffet only! The travel agent called back and said that the hotel had informed him of the same. Hilton therefore had misinformed my travel agent who then unfortunately misinformed me at time of booking and the day before departure. Had I have known this, I would have cancelled the trip and not traveled. I noticed other guests in the hotel seemed to eat nothing but plates of French Fries. I spoke to English and Italian guests and they all complained about the food. On January 2nd I took unwell with very severe diarrhoea and struggled to reach the toilet in time. That evening, at dinner, all I could eat was a bowl of soup and a bread roll as I felt so unwell. Sadly my health deteriorated and I was persuaded to see a doctor in a private clinic. This I did on the afternoon of Jan 4th and after checking my blood pressure, temperature and abdomen for pain, the doctor advised me that I was seriously unwell with food poisoning and that I needed a course of medication including two injections, administered in the buttocks, no less! So much for my holiday! This was the worst holiday I have ever been on and I would not recommend this...

We booked in the Hilton of all the choices available to us due to being a world renowned hotel so we were extremely excited to get there.

We heard horror stories of tipping culture and somewhat ‘racist’ treatment of non arabs in Egypt so we decided an all inclusive would be our best bit to avoid this. This proved not to be the case..

after our arrival we were taken back by the beauty of the hotel. the pool was gorgeous and the rooms were lovely with an exceptional view. so far so good!

we arrived late from the airport but wanted to kick things off with a drink at the bar.. turns out the all inclusive deal only runs until 11pm at night (this is the very first i’ve ever heard of this. was not stated on their website upon booking either) but due to our good mood. we decided to grab a couple and just bill it to our room (this proved to be a bad move).

As the holiday went on, we were disappointed with the quality of the service. we found ourselves constantly waiting for service on all bars, yet any time it was an Egyptian local caught waiting, they are instantly served! I then spoke with some brits, they told me if you want good service you will need to tip, which answered the questions of why certain westerners were receiving such good treatment.

One night the air con and went out in the middle of the night. The front desk was no help at all with constantly just putting the phone down on us. with it being 40+ degrees daily during our stay we were absolutely suffering and after the aircon being off untill 3am we had an AWFUL nights rest which ruined the whole next day for us.

One night my Fiancée was feeling abit ill after having too much to drink. she was head over the toilet seat and once she had pulled up a big crash happened.. the entire toilet seat had collapsed and narrowly missed her! a second later and she would potentially be dealing with life threatening injury. After informing the front desk, they kept us waiting for 2 HOURS at midnight for someone to come and fix this. unacceptable and yet another day ruined by a bad nights rest.

We met some people in the hotel which we ended up bonding with. They had a night club on site which we were very excited for and we went with our new friends. One of the entertainment team nick named ‘happy’ ended up tagging along with us. We didn’t mind as he was quite fun at first. The club was empty but still fun regardless.. untill the entertainment employee ‘happy’ got into an altercation with one of our holiday friends and physically SPAT at her! Completely ruined the night to say the least.

After all this we are down to our last day. there was one waiter who was being overly forceful with his service nearly all week. i did tell him i wasn’t appreciative of it but he did not stop. i informed him it my last day and he then straight up just asked me for money since it was my last day. Yes i get it it’s tipping culture driven country but i thought that the hotel would be more of top of their staff behaving in such a way. If i didn’t know that hats the only reason he was being so forceful, i would have done it but it got too much.

Lastly at check out, it was time to settle the bill that we put to the room. this was £70 for 2 drinks and a shot for the night when we first got there (oh and 1 game of pool which you have to pay for) absolutely laughable.

safe to say we won’t be returning to Egypt ever again due to the experience of this hotel. which is a shame as the country itself...