Pickalbatros Royal Grand Resort Sharm El Sheikh

This hotel is the best hotel ever. All the staff were so friendly and lovely. The hotel was so clean and organized from all aspects. And what made it so fun and perfect was the animation team, they were great and made it so fun. Especially Ipoo, he was the most friendly guy in the crew and made us enjoy our trip as he was making us laugh and participate in all the activities.

We recently stayed at this hotel for a week and overall had a really lovely holiday, with some incredibly special memories made during our stay.

One of the biggest things that stood out to us was the attention to detail throughout the whole resort. Everything was so well presented and constantly looked after. The entire complex was spotlessly clean and tidy, from the pools and communal areas to the restaurants, bars and grounds. There always seemed to be members of staff cleaning, maintaining the gardens or making sure everything looked its best. You could really see the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep such a large resort to such a high standard.

The staff were another huge positive. The waiters and bar staff were incredibly friendly and welcoming throughout our stay, but we especially want to mention the Lobby Bar staff and the staff at Soprano Restaurant. They were absolutely lovely, always greeted us warmly and couldn’t do enough for us. It’s those little interactions every day that make such a difference on holiday, and they genuinely made us feel welcome and looked after.

Our room was also incredible. We had a huge balcony and our own little pool just outside our apartment block, which we made plenty of use of. Again, the room and surrounding areas were kept beautifully clean throughout our stay.

The hotel’s attention to detail really showed when it came to special occasions too. It was my partner’s 30th birthday on the day we arrived, and when we walked into our room we were greeted with balloons and a big birthday cake. It was such a thoughtful surprise after travelling and immediately made the start of our holiday feel special.

Then our holiday became even more memorable when my partner proposed to me on the hotel’s little private beach. Afterwards, the hotel arranged for our room to be decorated with rose petals and balloons. It looked beautiful and was such a lovely surprise to come back to. Between his birthday and our engagement, the hotel went above and beyond with the little touches, and we’ll always associate this resort with some very special memories.

Unfortunately, there were a few things that did let our experience down.

When we booked, we specifically requested a quiet room, as this was an option given at the time of booking. However, on a couple of nights we were woken at around 4am, 5am and 6am by doors slamming and people shouting in our apartment block.

We completely understand that people are on holiday, enjoying themselves and may return to their rooms late at night, so general noise is something we can deal with. However, on one occasion somebody was repeatedly trying our door handle and appeared to be trying to get into our room for around 10–15 minutes. This was extremely unsettling and, for the remainder of our holiday, I unfortunately didn’t feel completely comfortable or relaxed when we were in our room.

I reported the incident to Guest Relations and was told that it would be investigated. However, we never received any follow-up or reassurance afterwards. Even a quick update to let us know that the situation had been looked into would have made a huge difference and helped us to feel safer. When travelling abroad, feeling safe and secure in your hotel room is extremely important, so this was probably the most disappointing part of our stay.

Another issue we experienced was around the main pool and pool bar. Unfortunately, multiple times throughout the day, workers would approach us trying to sell boat trips, massages and other activities. We politely declined, but they could be very persistent and would return several times — sometimes around 4 or 5 times in the same day.

We completely appreciate that they are doing their jobs and trying to promote the activities available, and we don’t have an issue with being asked once. However, once you’ve politely said no, we feel that should be respected. Being approached repeatedly throughout the day made it difficult to properly switch off and relax.

Eventually, we actually stopped sitting around the main pool and moved to the quieter pool for the remainder of our holiday because we found the constant sales pitches unpleasant. This was a shame because the main pool and pool bar area itself was lovely.

Despite these issues, there is so much that this hotel gets right. The cleanliness and presentation of the resort really are exceptional, the attention to detail is fantastic, our room was beautiful and the majority of the staff were some of the friendliest we have experienced on holiday. A special thank you again to the Lobby Bar and Soprano Restaurant teams, who were brilliant throughout our stay.

The effort that went into celebrating my partner’s 30th and then helping make our engagement even more special meant a lot to us. Those personal touches are something we’ll genuinely remember for years to come.

We would still recommend Pickalbatros Grand Resort and we came home with some amazing memories. It’s a beautiful, exceptionally well-maintained resort with some wonderful staff. We just feel there are a couple of areas that could be improved — particularly following up with guests when a safety concern is raised.

With those improvements, our stay really would have been very close to perfect.