The hotel is really situated in the middle of the dessert (so you need a taxi or bus to go to the closest village or to start an excursion). Luxor it at a 6 hour drive from the hotel and to make a boattrip, you need a 2h transfer to the next port (as port Ghalib only had limited excursion).
View from our room/ terrace
Main course buffet
Desert buffet
This hotel complex is spread over a wide area close to the beach and exists of different 1 or 2-floor buildings. You have the chose between rooms with garden/pool or sea view.
HINT: as the resort is not directly at the beach (there is a big pile of sand/stones between the complex & the sea), i'd advice to take a room with poolview (as seaview is not what you expect from it).
The garden of this complex is well maintained with flowers & green (which is not evident with this sandy underground)
The lighting of the resort is really nice
Rooms:
The standard rooms are very large and wel equiped. There is a double bed of 180cm*200cm with a very good mattress and 2 good pillows per person. There is a lot of lights to create your own atmosphere. A free safe & iron are provided in the room.
The minibar is empty but can be filled puin request (not included in the normal all inclusive)
We booked a standard room with pool view
Bathroom:
We had a bathroom with walk-in shower (there is also with bath). The toilet is in the bathroom. As always in all Hilton hotels there is liquid soap/ shampoo/ hair conditioner/ body lotion/ soap bar.
2 big/ 2 small & 1 floor towel is provided.
They're not very soft, but we're in egypt 😃.
Restaurant:
This was into my opinion the biggest disappointment in this hotel (next to the attitude of the staff in general).
The restaurant is a big area with a lot of noise, so therefor we preferred to have diner on the terrace.
As we're 'only' going for diner at 7.30pm, we were like always the 2nd shift. So tables have been occupied already and not cleaned nor prepared for the next guests. So every single day we had to find a waiter to bring us cutlery & glasses (as there was no dedicated waiter for the terrace 😔). After that we asked for drinks, which takes about 15min to get a glass of wine (which mostly has the lips on it from a former guest) and a soda... every time again (except for the last 2 days when we found a waiter which we tipped to get our drinks..).
If you asked for a second drink, they take your glass & refil it... remember you're in a 5* resort...
Same story during breakfast (till the last day) when we got or coffee when the breakfast was already eaten. And we were always going for bkf at 10am (only 20 other guests did the same, so it was really calm).
In the morning there are plenty of birds on the terrace waiting for you to leave and eat the rest of your plate. This can't be avoided from the hotel, but they can make sure seats are cleaned from the bird shit. You can not lean on your chair or you're covered with it. I reported this, but nothing was done about it...
General info: do not go to the buffet about 15 min before closing hour (we did once during lunch at 1.45, and when we arrived the head waiter told us: 'you have 5 min.'... and exactly at 2.02pm they started to close down the whole buffet (this was faster taken away then if they serve you a drink ).
We complained about this on the 2nd day to the guest relations (which is a very friendly dutch girl) and she felt really sorry and would report this. The only thing that changed for me was the fact they did no longer ignore us and wanted to help. But they all knew those were the guys that complained. 2 waiters even came to us to tell us if we had complains, we should tell them directly and not to their chef...
but service was as slow/ seats & tables were not clean...
Buffet - can't really be evaluated as a buffet:
The starters buffet exists of 1 fish dish/ 1 meat dish & 90% vegatables. The main course is in fact 2 different dishes spread over a buffet, so can not really be called a buffet. The dessert buffet is different kind of cakes & pies (which was the widest of all).
I have to say the variety of the food was disappointing, as it was every day chicken in a different preparation and only every 3 days some fish. There is every day rice/potatoes en mostly french fries or pasta.
Except on Saturday evening! Should the variety of the buffets and the different kind of fish preperarions be like Saturday evening, this would have been a dream.
This was really good! Lot's of choise with fish on the bbq/... so we know they can offer the quality & variety which we expect from a 5* Hilton Resort.
Starters buffet
Animation:
This resort has it's own animation time with 5 very friendly & professional people. The kids club has it's own playground and the team is trying really hard during the day to make it a real holiday with several activities in the different areas (beach/ swimming pool). Als the eveningactivities are nice when they make it (sometimes an external group comes to dance or sing). Lord of the dance is really a very nice show where they have created a nice choreographie).
So nothing but Positive about the animation team!
Positive:
- very nice hotelcomplex when it comes to facilities (except for the restaurant)
- Nice/big & clean rooms equiped with all facilities
- very friendly & professional animation team
- very good sunbeds with comfortable matrasses/ windscreens provided/ 2 heated pools
- 1 poolbar provided drinks in bottles (not the tabs as in the rest of the hotels). There real coca-cola/ Fanta/ Sprite & Pepsi max are served.
Negative:
- the attitude of the staff members in general. You need to tip them first every time again if you want something from them.
- variety of the buffet is disappointing. .
- cleanliness in restaurant (cutlery not always clean/ seats on the terrace never cleaned (bird shit everywhere)/ tables not cleaned after first shift)
- all inclusive formule is into my opinion not all inclusive, as you only have a selection of 6 cocktails. If you want f.ex a mojito, you need to pay extra (even with local alcohol). Bottles of water & wine only provided during lunch & diner (not included in bars). No sparkling water available in the whole resort.
General conclusion:
I'd rate this 5* Hilton Nubian Resort a 6/10 based on the Negative experience we had. There is so much more to make from this resort of the staff would be more friendly & the cleanliness is taken on a higher level. Also the food is something that needs improvement.
We've been in an other 5* hotel in Egupt last year & the food quality/ food variety/ service was of a real 5* level!
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