Sunny Days El Palacio Resort & Spa in Hurghada

I rarely leave negative reviews, and overall, we truly enjoyed our stay. The food was delightful, the beach area was beautiful, and my partner and I had a relaxing time.

However, our experience with the reception was disappointing. We arrived early and appreciated being allowed to check in 30 minutes before the official time, but the room we received was not what we had requested. We were given two separate beds instead of one large bed, the phone was broken, and the fridge was both dirty and not working.

We informed reception, and they promised to bring a new phone, but that never happened. We pushed the beds together ourselves, but it was uncomfortable to sleep. When we asked to change rooms, we were told we could do so the following evening. The next day, we received the same answer
“tomorrow.” It became stressful and tiring.

When we finally were able to change rooms, the receptionist we dealt with was quite arrogant and unhelpful. The entire process took about an hour and a half because our old room key was deactivated before we could retrieve all of our belongings, forcing us to go back and forth several times. The staff made us feel as if the situation was our fault, which was disappointing.

Once we settled into the new room, everything went smoothly until check-out. At that point, we were told we could have lunch and dinner included since we had a late flight, but once again, the reception’s attitude was unpleasant and unprofessional.

It’s unfortunate, because the resort itself is lovely the food, beach, and overall atmosphere are wonderful. However, the lack of professionalism and courtesy from some reception staff left a negative impression on what could have been a perfect stay.

We stayed here for 11 nights from 10.10 till 21.10.2025 at room 2260. First I'll share my general expression and then I'll tell about all pros and cons.
The hotel is simply huge. The territory locates 4 other hotels with restaurants, spa, shops, pharmacy, water park and many many other commodities. All rooms have either sea or lagoon view so there's no need to book a sea view room. The staff is very friendly, the animation team are fantastic both for kids and adults, food was delicious and diverse, vegan and vegetarian friendly, too. This hotel was a high-end one 20 years ago I suppose but not it's falling into decay and needs renovation. I have mixed emotions about this place. Rooms are old and very dirty. The cleaning was just horrible. The cleaning guy did very job: he hasn't prepared our room properly before our arrival, we didn't have fresh towels, extra bed as ordered, there was sand on the floor, the mirrors had fingerprints and spatters everywhere. Later the only thing he did was just making our beds in a very awkward way. He never swept the floor and we had to take care of sand in the room by ourselves. We had to beg for water and shampoo, fresh towels and extra pillows. We left tips the first three days and didn't even make a freaking swan out of a towel. My mother lived in the room next door, she stayed there 11 days, too. And the cleaner came only once! I hope he will get fired because this approach to the only work is unacceptable. The room itself had a beautiful lagoon view but everything in it was old and broken. There was also a door connecting it with another room and we could hear everything our neighbors were talking about as if we lived together. The hotel has 5 a la carte restaurants (besides the main buffet restaurant) with prebooking. Don't go there, it's a waste of time. Spa and other services we haven't tried, they were too expensive. Animation for kids was fantastic, also there's boats and cars for 5 dollars every evening. Two kids clubs on the premises. The pools are good, nobody got sick with Coxackie or Legionella = success! The hotel is safe and is also located in a safe neighborhood. We went to Hurgada Marina a couple of times. It's not a very pleasant walk: 2 km along the dusty and smelly road. It took us 35 minutes one way. Food and drinks: they serve local alcohol for free and imported for extra fee. Hookahs for extra fee. Soft ice cream, cocktail and slushes at all of the 3 bars outside for free. Food was good and fresh. The menu was updated daily. Nobody got food poisoning. I would come here again if they change the cleaner and renovate the rooms. Otherwise it's a good hotel.