Novotel Marsa Alam Beach Resort in El Quseir

We stayed at this hotel for 11 days. Although the holiday itself was great and we had a wonderful time, unfortunately we cannot recommend the hotel.

The main reason we wouldn’t return is the lack of designated smoking areas. We’ve never experienced anything like this before. Ashtrays are placed everywhere — in restaurants, bars, and around the pools — and guests are essentially encouraged to smoke without considering or asking whether it bothers the people sitting next to them. Many times we would get up early to save good sunbeds, only to have smokers settle on both sides of us, filling the air with smoke. This also happened in the à la carte restaurant, where you can book one dinner during your stay. A man sitting one meter from us asked the waiter for an ashtray, and instead of asking him to step away from the table to smoke, the waiter handed him an ashtray with a smile…

Even worse, we witnessed a man light a cigarette inside the air-conditioned restaurant and no one from the staff said anything! The hotel clearly favors smokers and even encourages smoking. We didn’t like this, as we value our health and came to breathe fresh air. In the end, the main criterion for choosing a sunbed or restaurant table became whether the neighboring tables had cigarettes or ashtrays out — because that gave us hope for a meal or some rest without the smell of smoke. In our opinion, this issue could easily be solved, just like in other hotels, by designating smoking areas, and the staff should ask smokers to step away when handing out ashtrays at the sunbeds.

Other downsides: very weak Wi-Fi. This hotel is not suitable if you plan to combine work with relaxation. We were also surprised that there was no non-alcoholic beer available in any of the hotel bars (not even in the à la carte restaurant, and it couldn’t be ordered for an extra charge either).

As for the positives: the hotel is large with a beautiful garden, and there’s plenty of space for evening walks. The food is tasty and everyone will find something they like. The gym has a very friendly personal trainer who is happy to demonstrate exercises and help with the equipment. It’s definitely worth visiting, especially for beginners who haven’t tried gym training before. He is very dedicated to his work and it’s pleasant to come back there. The staff is kind and helpful. The rooms are comfortable and cleaned daily. The hotel is clean overall. We recommend the sunset camel ride excursion and the sunset quad trip. The animations are very good, especially water polo and volleyball. Aqua aerobics is fun too, although some of the “exercises” were a bit odd — for example, massaging the backs and heads of the people standing in front of you 😅😅 In my opinion many guests felt uncomfortable, as not everyone likes touching or being touched by strangers.

In summary — if you are a smoker, this hotel will be a paradise for you. But if you don’t smoke and enjoy the comfort of clean, fresh air with designated smoking areas, we would not recommend this hotel.