Great for families with kids (friendly staff and coral reef included)
Mar 2023
| Elīna S
It was great experience staying at Serenity Fun City for a week with kids!
Friendly staff is the treasure of this hotel. Everyone was nice and polite and english speaking. The hotel customers were also pleasant - mostly British, Poles, Germans.
And there is coral reef in 5 minute walk to the beach by the sister hotel! Don’t miss chance to snorkel or even dive (diving center is located at the beach, you can rent there mask for snorkelling as well). If you come by the morning (boardwalk is open 8am-5pm), you will see fishes swim slowly in shoals. At the noon, they will be more active (but more snorkelers).
Hotel rooms need renovation, but since most of the time we spent outdoors, for sleeping it was ok.
Food is good and wide variety, most repetetive for breakfast. Egyptian evening menu we enjoyed the most! And pay attention that on the terrace every evening there is grilled meat / fish and fresh baked bread.
As for taste we would give 7 from 10 points.
The biggest dissapointement was having no pizza for italian evening :( And hamburger, hotdog, fries at the snack bar - avoid them, there is just piece of bread with meat and fries fried in bad oil. Choose asian un italian food courts instead. Soft drinks at the bars were good.
If being vegan or vegetarian, don’t trust the V signs by the hot dishes (I found it few times by the meat dishes as well), better ask directly to the chief. As on March 2023 there was no V markings at all for salads (and they are often very finely cut) and stuffed vegetables, desserts. If you have time, check it with chief, they are always walking around food courts in the restaurant. They will kindly answer your questions, also if having any food alergies.
Aquapark was great, all of us enjoyed it, especially in the days when wind went down. On windy days you get cold soon walking upwards to the tubes and even in heated pools. Almost all the aquapark pools were heated, wave pool was extra fun! And part of the main pool is heated as well. Not sure about kids pool - on the windy days it seemed cold.
Lunapark is great extra for the families with kids, opened every night. All the attractions are in a good quality and are beeing tested every day during daytime. Price for 16 rides is around 6 eur, not a lot.
Wifi. There is free wifi on lobby. Upon arrival we got 8GB wifi card (for 4 devices). We payed 3 eur for extra 8Gb. Payed wifi worked very well. Since we were living next to the main building, free wifi was available also in rooms, but free wifi in the room was enough just to use whatsapp or do quick google search.
Shops and other facilities within territory are really expensive. If you are able to bargain the price down to city prices, good for you. But remember, hotel is 30 min drive away from Hurghada, so, not a lot of choice. For example, they asked 45 eur for 3 national sweet packs, on the way to the airport at the sweets shop we saw them at least 3 times cheaper. Another example, after long bargaining by the pool, we got 10 spa massages for approx. 45 eur each (50 min massage). We did enjoyed massages at Grand Spa, especially comparing the price we got with the first one offered. :) Meanwhile, similar trip we bought from our tour operator with huge discount for 45 eur, by the pool was offered by 40 eur before discount.
As well we can suggest to take private quad tour in the desert. Especially with “Crazy Roma” as a guide :) We payed 100 eur for 2 persons for 2 hour trip and we don't regret a penny. Just be sure to wear long sleeve shirt and long trousers which you will not need during the stay any more - a lot of dust even in no wind days. 30 min break by the cliffs near the sea thanks to “Crazy Roma” became a great adventure. And Roma did a lot of great pictures and videos of us with our phone camera. Special thanks about it!
As for weak European stomach, take some medicine with you and use it whenever feel need. We used probiotics at the beggining of the stay and medicine whenever felt any stomach disorders. Of course, as everyone says, don’t drink tap water!
Tips for travellers:
- you can pay by card everywhere in hotel complex, even for a quad rides; so take some cash just for tips. If you pay by cash, sellers will round the price up. Therefore pay attention to have amount in in Egyptian pounds before you pay by card, if you want to save.
- before you choose any excursions, check not just the weather, but also wind speed and direction; don’t choose boat travels to Paradise Island, Orange beach etc. or snorkelling tours on cold and windy days at least during spring time - it woun’t be pleasant experience; instead, stay by the kids pool where is tailwind and warm even on windy days :)
- if you don’t want sellers to disturb you by the pool, ask the pool guard “Do not disturb” sign and hang it on your sunshade.
- if travelling without kids and are not interested in aquapark / lunapark, choose Serenity Makadi Beach hotel instead - it’s sister hotel by the beach, a greener and more peaceful environment.
- at noon by the sea is ebb tide and you can see brittle stars, little crabs and Red sea plants right next to the shore and due to low water level there is a good view of corals and fishes from the boardwalk (for non-snorkelers).
- go snorkeling from the end of the boardwalk - amazing experience! If you have your own mask, it’s for free. If don’t have mask, rent it at the diving center at the beach corner.
- Water shoes can be useful if walking into the water from the shore. Swimming is possible just from the boardwalk, otherwise water level is too low, since the corals start not far from the shore (and it’s prohibited to walk onto the corals, of course).
Things to improve (for the hotel):
- drying rack for towels/swimsuits on the balcony (at least in the spring nothing dries on the drying rack in the shower)
- refurb for the rooms (as far as we heard from hotel administration, it is already planned)
- vegetarian and vegan signs for all of the food
- some more variety for breakfast food
- live music outside till 10.30pm seems to late, if mainly guests are families with kids (even I as an adult after active day wanted to sleep around 10pm).
- disposable glasses / mugs in the rooms should be changed for glass / earthenware
