Jaz Makadi Saraya Resort

Great resort for everyone.beatifull locacion,and geat employes for resort.super food,great rooms and everything was great

This hotel has excellent reviews, and because of that, I arrived with very high expectations. However, after staying here for 10 nights, I do wonder whether some of the reviews are influenced by the animation team asking guests to leave reviews while they are standing over you. They give you a QR code to scan and then take a photo of the screen once you've completed the review. I'm not saying the hotel is bad because it isn't, but I do feel this could play a part in why there are so many positive reviews and relatively few negatives. In my opinion, the hotel is good, but it is far from perfect.

Arrival & Reception

Arrival was great. Check-in was quick and hassle-free, and someone took our bags to the room and showed us where everything was. The only slight negative was that, as I'd literally just arrived and had bags everywhere, the member of staff carrying our luggage was expecting a tip. I couldn't get to my money at the time, so he laughed and walked away. I also had to visit reception a couple of times during our stay, and Omar, I believe he was a trainee, provided excellent customer service. He was very friendly and helpful.

Rooms

Unfortunately, the room was probably the biggest disappointment for us when it came to getting a good night's sleep. I honestly can't remember the last time I had such bad sleep on holiday. The air conditioning was a nightmare. It was extremely loud and noisy, and the temperature seemed to constantly change — one minute it was freezing and the next it was too hot. We spoke to reception about it, and someone came to the room and sorted it, but unfortunately the same problem would happen again afterwards. The pillows were also extremely high, especially for the children. They found them uncomfortable and complained that they were hurting their necks, so they ended up sleeping without pillows. On the positive side, the rooms were cleaned every day and cleaned well. We were also always provided with clean towels for the room, pool and beach.

Food

The buffet food was very much the same throughout the stay — your standard all-inclusive buffet. On several evenings, there were long waits for certain foods because they had run out and were waiting for more to be brought out. You get one complimentary visit to an à la carte restaurant. We chose The Grill, and it was fantastic. The food was really good, and you could definitely notice the difference in quality compared with the buffet. Other members of my family chose the Asian restaurant and also said the food was amazing. The pool bar snacks were nice, but they were the same every day, so it was nice to have a change and eat at the restaurant sometimes.

Entertainment

We stayed for 10 nights, and I'd say only three of those nights really stood out for us. One was the pool party, another was the Michael Jackson tribute followed by Mr Saraya, which was a lot of fun, and the third was the street party. We enjoyed the entertainment much more when the team actually interacted with the guests rather than simply performing on stage. The animation team were okay overall. I found the male members of the team to be much more enthusiastic and interactive than the ladies. The daytime pool parties were definitely a highlight, especially for the children, who really enjoyed them.

Waterpark

The waterpark itself is brilliant, and the slides are great fun. The biggest downside is having to carry the huge rubber rings all the way back up the stairs yourself. In that heat, it is absolutely exhausting. They really need some sort of system to get the rings back to the top because this put us off using the waterpark more often. We only went twice during our 10-night stay mainly because of this. I'd also strongly recommend taking pool/water shoes. The floor gets incredibly hot, but you aren't allowed to wear sandals or flip-flops around the slides, so your feet can really suffer.

Sales & Shops

There are quite a few people around the pool selling excursions, spa treatments, salon appointments, safaris, camel rides etc. To be fair, if you simply say "no thank you", they generally accept it and move on. However, if you make the slightest bit of conversation or ask how much something costs, they can become very persistent. After a while, I learnt to avoid eye contact and just say "no thank you" because otherwise you could be there for ages. The shops around the hotel were more frustrating for me. It was difficult to look at anything without someone coming outside and trying to show you things or persuade you to buy something. One shopkeeper said there was "no pressure, just look", but then closed the door while me and my daughters were inside. That completely put me off going into the shops after that.

Overall

Overall, Jaz Makadi Saraya is a good hotel, but it simply didn't live up to the very high expectations I had after reading so many fantastic reviews. There are definitely plenty of positives — the staff can be lovely, the rooms are cleaned well, the à la carte restaurants are excellent, the waterpark is great and the children really enjoyed the daytime activities and pool parties. However, there were also enough negatives for me that I wouldn't personally return. Would I recommend it? Yes. Would I go again? No. It's not a bad hotel at all — I just don't think it's quite as amazing as the reviews make it sound.

Oh and the grounds are beautiful. They keep the hotel so clean and it's well looked after.

1st but not last stay at the Saraya We are already booking for next year We had a fantastic time everyone one was so friendly and helpful we could not fault anyone for there manners and they all made us feel so welcome Food and drinks were varied and even fussy eaters did not go hungry 2 of our group went diving regularly they loved it being so close and could not recommend the team there enough Sayied was there favourite 🤩 we were able to book a snorkel trip with the divers we were given 2 snorkels to look after 3 of us we felt like royalty We had a 14 year old with us she had a ball There is so much to do if you want it and the added bonus of the Makadi water park with unlimited entry food and drinks ,free shuttle bus for a short ride was perfect Our rooms were 1354 and 1358 so we were all in the same block Our cleaner was brilliant and we looked forward to our towel art daily The entertainment team are a brilliant asset to the hotel full of fun and had time for all age groups (Max was a sweetheart) Pool guys all great and service around the pool was fantastic I was ill while I was there the staff were so good with me and the local pharmacist was so knowledgeable and helpful We also had a meal at the Grill it was delicious and served beautifully All in all we highly recommend this family hotel