- Egypt Holidays
- Hurghada
- Desert Rose Resort
Just a fifteen-minute drive from Hurghada Airport and 16 km from Hurghada city center, Desert Rose's 1km pristine beach and its idyllic 40,000 square meter natural lagoon with golden sands is a choice location for enjoying a unique stretch of private beachfront, providing a wonderful environment for fun-packed activities or simply relishing the stunning year-round unbeatable Red Sea climate.
Pamper yourself with a visit to the spa, which offers massages. After dipping into one of the 3 outdoor swimming pools, you can spend some time at the private beach. Additional amenities at this hotel include concierge services, babysitting (surcharge) and gift shops/newsstands.
We had a fantastic stay at Desert Rose and are already looking at returning next August.
The hotel grounds are beautiful, immaculately clean, and much bigger than we expected. I tracked a run around the grounds using the service roads and two laps plus a bit worked out at around 5km, so there's plenty of space to explore.
We stayed in a Beach Suite in Block 8, which had an amazing view over the lagoon. The room was clean and the minibar was restocked daily with Coke, Fanta, water and juice. The room itself is a little dated, but it didn't take away from our stay.
The lagoon was one of our favourite areas as it was much easier to find sun loungers there. Around the main pools, though, you needed to be out before 8am to secure loungers, and it was frustrating seeing some reserved all day without anyone using them.
The staff throughout the resort were incredibly friendly and always happy to help. A special mention to the Sunset Bar team, who were brilliant all week. The drinks were excellent, and the lunchtime snacks became our son's favourite – hot dogs, burgers, pizza and chips went down a treat.
There are plenty of bars around the resort, so you're never far from food or a drink. We also thought the overall food and drink selection was very good.
The only other downside was the Wi-Fi, which was a bit hit and miss depending on where you were.
You'll find people selling excursions mainly around the beach. You can ask for an orange ribbon for your umbrella to reduce the sales approaches. It doesn't completely stop them, but a polite "no thank you" was always respected.
A bonus is that Senzo Mall is only around a 15-minute walk away, which is worth visiting.
For anyone booking excursions, we used Sunshade Tours for a private Luxor trip, a speedboat trip and a safari tour. They were much cheaper than the hotel prices and we had no problems at all.
Overall, this is a lovely resort with beautiful surroundings, great staff and plenty to do. We had an amazing family holiday and can't wait to come back.
We had the absolute best time here, it really is beautiful. We were upgraded upon arrival and our room was absolutely gorgeous, really expensive feel to it, the room was cleaned to a really high standard daily, with our mini fridge topped up daily too. The location is perfect, about 20 minutes from the airport. The food in the main restaurant is only thing that I could possibly moan about, there was something to eat every day but I could see fussy eaters struggling. We upgraded to the ultra all incusive and ate breakfast at del mar each day, which was amazing. We visited all Al a cartes and really enjoyed the food at them.
I think it might be our favourite holiday yet, really is a lovely hotel with a very luxurious feel.
We’ve just returned from our first stay at Desert Rose Resort after an amazing 14-night holiday, and we wanted to leave a little review as we’ve had such a lovely time.
Check-in & Room 🏨
Check-in was really smooth, with welcome drinks waiting for us on arrival, and the lobby is absolutely beautiful.
We stayed in Block 4000, which we thought was in a great location for getting around the resort. Our room was lovely and spacious, and a big thank you to our housekeeper Sayed, who looked after us so well throughout our stay. A special mention also to Alaa from security, who was always so friendly, polite and welcoming.
The Pools & Pool Bar 🍹
We spent most of our days around the 1st pool by the Tropicana Bar. We were a group of 8 and never struggled to get sunbeds, which was great.
The bar staff were brilliant, especially Mina and Anton (Mini Bellingham 😂), who were always friendly, happy and welcoming. They really added to our holiday and always made us feel looked after.
The lifeguard with the white glasses was also always so friendly, and the men at the towel station were great too, especially when helping Grandma with a chair. Little touches like this really make a difference.
Fancy Flamingo 🦩🍸
We absolutely loved the Fancy Flamingo Bar. The atmosphere, music and entertainment were fantastic, and the service was always brilliant.
Hamad Ibrahim deserves a special mention. He was fantastic every evening, always had a smile on his face and nothing was ever too much trouble. We spent most of our evenings here and really enjoyed the atmosphere.
Ultra All Inclusive ⭐
We upgraded to Ultra AI and, for us, it was definitely worth it.
The laundry service was incredible and such a great bonus. Having the fridge restocked with soft drinks, crisps and snacks each day was also lovely.
The à la carte restaurants were excellent, and we managed to eat at a different one every night during our 14-day stay. Le Bistro was our favourite – the food was delicious and the service was excellent.
We also had breakfast at Del Mar every morning, which was another highlight and definitely helped make the upgrade worthwhile for us.
Entertainment 💃
The entertainment team and dancers were fantastic. The shows are genuinely really good and definitely worth watching. The dancers are all incredibly talented.
A special mention to Charlie, who took the time to speak to us after one of the shows about her career. She was really lovely, and it was so nice to have a chat with her.
Bella Vista 🌅🍹
We also enjoyed heading to Bella Vista for a cocktail around lunchtime. The staff were all really friendly, and of course the views are amazing!
Snack Bar 🍕
The snack bar was another favourite for lunch. The food was really nice every day, although it can be quite a walk from the 1st pool and it was often very busy.
We think an additional snack bar closer to that side of the resort would be a great addition, especially during busy periods.
Golf Cart Service 🛺
We made use of the golf cart service most days as one member of our family has limited mobility. It was always really reliable and made getting around the resort so much easier.
Just ring 0 and they’ll take you wherever you need to go, which was incredibly helpful for us.
Overall ❤️
Overall, we’ve had a brilliant first stay at Desert Rose and we definitely won’t be making it our last!
The grounds are amazing, everything is so clean and there is always something going on. There really is something for everyone, and the staff are what make the resort so special.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our 14 nights and are already looking forward to rebooking. It will also be great to come back in the future and see all of the renovations once they’re underway and completed.
A huge thank you to everyone at Desert Rose Resort for making our first stay such a memorable one.
We’ll definitely be back – see you again! ☀️🌴❤️
So on arriving at the hotel it is absolutely stunning, clean, attention to detail is beautiful and is very aesthetically pleasing with very calming & relaxing decor. The staff were all very friendly & polite. I am a slightly fussy eater but the food is very good and a lot of variety. We also used the inclusive à la carte restaurants and the food was unreal!! My biggest gripe was that there are two main areas that children under 12 are not allowed. Usually when I have been to hotels that are adult only areas in them it is not smack bang in the middle. The pool that we had seen photographs of with the cabanas & loungers in the pool is for over 12 only and it is right in the middle of the resort which I didn’t think was fair atall. The hotel boast about this pool all over social media but never mention it is adult only. Secondly we are not drinkers and the rest can be very boring at night. There is a show in at 9 for approx 45 minutes and then the main bar again is for over 12 only, it’s absolutely stunning and it’s the main feature of evening entertainment but kids can’t go in which I don’t really understand so after 9:45 unless you want to sit in a bar that makes you feel as though you are a second class citizen whilst you hear the music and the atmosphere coming from the main bar then I wouldn’t recommend this hotel if you have children under 12. I don’t feel it was well advertised that a lot of the areas are for over 12 only and we paid a lot of money for the holiday only to be secluded from areas for having children with us, children who paid full price might j add
On arrival, check in was very slow, we were unsure what took so long but we arrived at 10pm and didnt get to our rooms until gone midnight and there was no food anywhere! If check in hadn't taken so long we might have been able to get something at the buffet. We did manage to get some drinks at Harry’s pub.
Our rooms received were incorrect to what we had booked/discussed via email and had confirmed before arrival to save hassle with kids at a late hour. (We needed a room for 4 & the other for 2x people not 3 & 3 due to children needing to be with parents) This already put a rubbish start to the holiday as we had to go back and fourth to reception to sort out beds and receive a suitable mattress.
We woke up the next morning and could not get any wifi at all in the room. It is very limited around the entire hotel. Definitely worth getting a local Sim, especially if you are travelling for work purposes.
The a la carte restaurants were lovely! our favourite being le bistro. We upgraded to Ultra and ate here multiple times as we found the buffet awful, no pizzas at dinner time and a lot of ‘slop’ really. We are not picky eaters and found it quite hard, with a lot of food we wouldn’t feed to our dog.
We have been to egypt many times before, but on this occasion when eating salad a few of us had bad vomiting/ diarrhoea, and so avoided salad for the rest of our stay thinking it may have been contaminated from the tap water.
Upgrading to Ultra was also a bonus for us for the amazing smoothies & breakfasts daily at Del mar as well as the unlimited restaurants for lunch/ dinner. The buffet is awful like sitting in a school diner, it was also full on several occasions, the staff could not cope with demand. However they are currently building a new one to suit the resort’s upgraded theme elsewhere, which was our main negative and this will be a far better experience once completed.
Do not be fooled with the Ultra, it states you receive fresh juices which we did not find anywhere other than melon juice in the del mar. And the ‘premium’ spirits are still not the english spirits we are used to, these are a extra charge still, instead they are better local spirit which still aren’t great, the cocktails were too strong or too sweet.
Children are also required to upgrade which seems pointless when they are only taking advantage of the restaurants along with the adults already paying, they're not using any of the free shisha, spa facilities or alcohol and our child hates juice etc and only consumes water which was a bit pointless having to pay for him.
The laundry service offered with Ultra was amazing! Definitely worth upgrading just for this, clothes come back fresh, ironed and folded. You can pay for items individually but it would work out more beneficial to upgrade to Ultra all inclusive so you can wash as much as needed.
The highlight of our stay was the lovely staff, everyone was super helpful, especially, Omar (flex), Amy & Yousef part of the entertainment team. They had a great laugh with us daily and really made our whole holiday! Great assets to Desert rose 🫶🏼
With there being six of us, we found we had to get to the adult pool just before 8am when it opened to get a sun lounger, as they are all gone by 7am at the other pools, leaving you with just the beach if you were to get up later.
Lastly, checking out was abismal,
we wanted to pay for late check out as we werent flying home until 11pm and they couldnt give us the option as the hotel was full. We then asked reception multiple times throughout the day for a shower room to wash and get dressed in, we were told to come back at 4pm and ask again and they didnt have this available either.
We were then told to wash outside in our swimwear. So you could not even have a proper shower and as a woman with hair that becomes tangled if i let it air-dry, i was not able to blowdry my hair or get ready anywhere private, which was extremely frustrating. With the amount of money we had paid for the holiday and the extra’s of Ultra inclusive costing us another near enough £1000 on top, we left feeling annoyed. If you cannot allow someone their room for the day if they have a late flight, and especially if they are happy to pay for late check out- then the bare minimum should be giving them somewhere to wash and get ready in private, not leaving them basically homeless/ to wash outside for the day.
