Sharm El Sheikh is one of the most famous beach destinations on the Red Sea of Egypt and there are dozens of hotels that dot the shoreline. We booked a 4 night stay at the Steigenberger Alcazar for the tail end of our Egypt Nile adventure so read on to find out what you need to know before you book.

Location: 4/5

Steigenberger Alcazar is located a 10 minute drive from the airport in Sharm El Sheikh. The hotel sits in the Nabq Bay area, known for its beautiful beaches and coral reefs. It’s conveniently positioned between Naama Bay and Sharks Bay, offering easy access to both popular areas. The resort does have access to a large, white sand beach within the lagoon. During low tide, it’s worth noting that there is almost no water in the lagoon and there is no access from the jetty to get to the water. While the location is ideal for a relaxing beach holiday, you should note that it’s about a 25-minute drive to the main attractions of Naama Bay and Old Market. The proximity to the airport does make transfers quick and convenient so it’s a good option for a shorter stay where you plan to spend most of the time at the resort.

Lobby & Check in experience: 4/5

The lobby at Steigenberger is beautiful, with towering ceilings and beautiful warm tones. It features modern, yet traditional Middle Eastern design elements, with intricate geometric patterns along the art on the walls and floors. Natural light floods through large windows and a stunning chandelier serves as the centerpiece, while comfortable seating areas are arranged throughout the space.

The check in experience is seated and a gentleman with a bar cart comes to serve you champagne or water as you are seated on the couches. While that part of the process was pleasant, we had booked two Executives Suites that promise either direct swim up access or sea views. In pre-arrival emails, we had confirmed that sea view was preferable. Much to our disappointment, it turns out we would receive neither as we were placed in a completely different room type altogether. It turned into a three hour battle with the front desk, front office manager and rooms manager before they agreed to move us to the rooms we had actually booked. As a word of caution, we do NOT recommend booking on booking.com as we had very little recourse. Thankfully in our case, persistence paid off.

Rooms: 4/5

There are over 580 rooms at Steigenberger Alcazar across 6 groupings of buildings. Only the very closest ones to the water have a true sea view, though some of the buildings may have partial sea views with primary views over the pools or externally to other resorts.

We booked an Executive Suite as it was the only room listed as having sea views (other than a few deluxe rooms having partial views). There are only a few of these rooms on property and at the time they were not operational so we had the challenge in check in. When we finally did get the room, we loved the location as it is right on the beach with sweeping views over the beachfront.

The Executive Suites have an entry area that connects the living room, bedroom and bathroom together. There is a spacious living room with its own balcony with a sofa, chair, TV, minibar and an outdoor dinette. The bedroom features a king bed, TV, luggage area and its own balcony with a dinette. The bathroom has a standalone shower, tub, toilet and one vanity. There were ample individually packaged products (not available in standard rooms).

The Executive Suites are situated over the Royal Suites that are located on the ground floor with private plunge pools and full privacy hedging around them. It’s worth stating that the Royal Suites are not actually private due to the balcony of the Executive Suites overlooking the entire patio beneath.

We did prefer to be down in these buildings due to the proximity to the waterfront and adults pool. If you are situated in the center buildings, you are at least a 10-15 minute walk from the beach or the lobby. If you prefer to be located near the majority of the restaurants and bars, it’s best to request a building near the lobby. They do offer buggy rides around property so build in 10 minutes of commuting time.

Overall, the rooms were spacious and comfortable but I would not book here if you are hoping for a sea view due to the low number of rooms that actually face the sea. This property is much more popular with pool-vacationers looking to lounge at the many pools all day with a cocktail in hand.

Service: 3/5

Overall, the service was very inconsistent. From being put in the wrong rooms that we had not booked to disinterested bartenders and waitstaff, it was consistently inconsistent. There were of course some lovely staff members that tried to make up for the others but it generally felt that they were just very jaded. With over 580 rooms on property, it is not surprising that the staff are exhausted trying to keep up with travelers from all over the world.

Housekeeping did come to our Executive Suites twice per day and did a great job. Of all the staff, they really tried to make our experience as wonderful as they could, even putting flowers in the room or giving us seemingly limitless toiletries. They were so pleasant to talk to and generally made our less than stellar service experience better.

When it came to pool and beach service, you were much more likely to get service at the pools versus the beach. We saw multiple times bar staff came around with bar carts to make beverages for people at some of the pools, which is a fun touch. At the restaurants, the language barrier can be quite difficult with a lot of the staff but we did meet some excellent managers that tried very hard to improve the experience for all the guests, despite their staff sometimes being unwilling or unable to assist.

The property does offer rides around via buggy due to its large size. The service was generally very efficient and took about 10 minutes on average to get to you (up to 15 at meal times).

One of the challenges with service in general was you had to reserve a table at every restaurant other than the buffet. It’s almost impossible to get optimal dinner reservations even though the restaurants all sit empty every night. Every day we would get the same push back on reservations saying there were no tables available and when we pushed back, they were somehow always able to get the reservation and as always, the restaurant was empty. If you plan to stay here, be sure to consistently push back if you don’t get your desired time the first time you ask.

Dining: 2.5/5

Overall, dining was extremely inconsistent and usually very bland. While some outlets were ok and did have good dishes (Amoura), most of the outlets had very mediocre or inconsistent food and service.

Rihana is the main restaurant that features a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We ate here for breakfast and the selection is large and varied. They did have good made to order eggs and there are a lot of options from the bakery items to Middle Eastern options. They do have a Prosecco station for mimosas but we tried a few different times and the Prosecco was consistently flat.

Amoura is the Middle Eastern cuisine located on one of the central pools on property. This was by far our favorite restaurant and it featured delicious and fresh cuisine. The service was generally very good and the food was plentiful. We ended up coming back for lunch because we really enjoyed the food. Lunch service was much slower but the food was still good.

Sanafir is the beach restaurant and is open for lunch and dinner. We did try their dinner but the food was not good. The fish tasted overly fishy and not fresh versus some of the food was still frozen and inedible. Lunch was a bit better, particularly the salads and sandwiches. We ended up finding a few things we liked ok and stuck with them for lunch daily.

Limoni is the Italian restaurant and we did try this for dinner one evening. The service was horrendously slow and they missed my order, resulting in me eating alone after everyone had already finished. The food was not particularly good and the service was generally a mess. I would recommend skipping this one.

La Maison is the Mediterranean restaurant located on the floor above the lobby and it was hit or miss but they did have some good items. Their service was also good and efficient.

Overall, the food was disappointing in both quality and consistency. It is clear that this hotel operates primarily as an all-inclusive plan (though offering multiple packages depending on the season) that does not care to maintain high standards for high paying guests, on or off the all-inclusive.

Facilities: 4.5/5

Steigenberger does have a solid selection of facilities across its 37 acres of land. The property features 3 main pools (including an adults only pool) as well as 2 kids pools in the center of the property.

The hotel also has an expansive beachfront with ample sun loungers and shade structures. You can also grab a cabana free of charge. There is intermittent beach service to the chairs from the bar but I would rely on getting your own beverages. The beach is technically swimmable, though there is no water at low tide until about 3/4 out of the jetty. The neighboring property does have a fabulous jetty with multiple entry points as well as a tanning area at the end of the jetty for guests to spend the day. Unfortunately, this is not available to Steigenberger guests so it is very difficult to access swimmable or wade-able water, particularly at low tide. It’s also a necessity to have water shoes as the coral can be very sharp.

There is a great water sports center with paid activities like windsurfing, sailing and kitesurfing. They aren’t directly part of the hotel but they have great pricing and its easy to book. The center is located behind Sanafir.

The property also does have a spa and fitness center as well as a steam and sauna. They also offer some classes like aqua aerobics and beach volleyball daily.

Style: 4.5/5

Overall, the style is generally very beautiful between the beautiful artwork adorning the lobby, the plentiful archways between buildings and the generally warm tones across the property. The rooms are also very comfortable and spacious and every room has a balcony with two chairs and a small table. Only swim up rooms and suites have additional lounge furniture on the ground floor with pool access or a private pool. While the rooms themselves are absolutely stunning, the bathrooms seem like a missed opportunity in the style department. Where the room has warm lighting and beautiful decor, the bathrooms all feature green-white tinted lighting and grey walls. Many of the suites have difficult access to the shower due to the direction of the door and how you access the toilet room. That being said, they have excellent products in the suites. Standard rooms have access to only wall-mounted generic products, while the suites have access to small bottles of branded products.

Overall: 3.8/5

Overall, Steigenberger is a decent choice if you can book on a discounted rate. For the high nightly rate, we expected far more for our stay in this beautiful area of Sharm El Sheikh. While the all-inclusive may seem like a good deal, it was disappointing that the hotel does not concern itself with the quality or consistency of the food or the quality of the service. There are endless properties between Sharm and El Gouna and as tourism comes back to Egypt, we do hope they increase their quality levels and training to compete on a larger scale.