Charmillion Gardens Aqua Park

Hotel and Grounds The hotel and the grounds are absolutely immaculate. It is so clean and the gardens and flowers are all so well maintained. The groundskeepers work tirelessly all day and night to upkeep it all. We were really impressed with how beautiful it all looks.

Rooms/Cleaners The rooms are absolutely massive, plenty of space to lay 2 cases out and still be able to walk around without having to step over anything. The balcony has a handy wall mounted clotheshorse for hanging towels/swimwear at the end of the day to dry overnight. The cleaners are amazing, our bed was always made fresh and new towels supplied everyday. They would tidy our toiletries in the shower and all surfaces wiped down, it was lovely to come back to after spending a whole day at the pool.

Food and Drink/Staff The wait staff in the restaurants are so attentive, they will always help you find a table or lay out a new one if it is during a busier meal time. Bar staff are really friendly and always upbeat considering how busy they are. Food, lots of choice on offer and a different themed night every night. Some things are the same (chips, rice, pizza/pasta) but on the whole I didn’t eat the same thing 2 days in a row. Would highly recommend the chicken wraps and kofte from the barbecue when it is on outside. Our tip: With access to all three hotels you might consider using Sea Club or Sea Life if you want a more peaceful meal time. Gardens Aqua Park can be slightly chaotic during lunch and dinner time whereas the former are quieter and more relaxed, no one shoving in to get the last slice of something or having to wait for the freshly cooked food on mass.

Pool/Lifeguards The pool is a lovely temperature, cooling for when you want a dip but not ice cold. The shallow end is 1.35m and the deep end 1.7m. There are bridges that define where it changes from shallow to deep. The lifeguards are some of the best we’ve experienced on a holiday resort, they are so observant and will always make sure children are safe. There is a rule about no jumping/bombing into the pool, this is due to keeping the poolsides relatively dry so people don’t slip on the tiles and they will always mop the edges when it gets too wet. They’re really friendly to talk to and make good conversation. A special thanks to Mohamed for keeping us entertained with light conversation throughout the our stay by the poolside.

Water slides Really good fun. Lots of different slides for adults and children. The red drop slide and the whirl pool (2 persons required) were personal favourites. The lifeguards managing them are really good with making sure it’s safe to go and giving you a good push if you ask. We didn’t travel with children but there is a separate pool with mini slides for smaller children and a wave machine that comes on twice a day and they both looked really good.

Entertainment/Animation Shoutout the James from animation who in our opinion is carrying that team. He was polite and funny, not overbearing and nice to talk to. Sadly the same cannot be said for the rest of the team, they would introduce themselves repeatedly and forget who you were. We got greeted in Russian by Nora on multiple occasions despite her having a conversation with us on multiple occasions in English which showed us her level of disinterest. The poolside dance to open the day would start James would be there ready to go and most of the team would saunter over after the song had begun and join in with such a lack of enthusiasm it made it seem like they didn’t want to be there. There was no structure with the evening entertainment, sometimes there was a scheduled program and sometimes there was nothing on. No notice board to tell guests what was on. We often found ourselves sitting at the terrace bar not sure if anything was happening. If there was entertainment it started sporadically, sometimes at 9:30pm sometimes after 10pm. It would last for half an hour.

Traveller tips: Taxis: We booked taxis for all our trips through Booking.com in the end as we tried to use InDrive and had the police stop our taxi leaving the hotel and were told they’re illegally operating in Sharm. Farsha Cafe: Over subscribed viral rubbish. We arrived at 5:30pm to make sure we were there early to wait for a table for 2. It took 2.5 hours to get a seat in a cramped area sat on the floor like sardines with everyone else there. The cocktails were just a syrup overload (I ordered a pineapple margarita and it arrived in a tall glass brimming with blue curacao?) The ticketing process when you walk in is mayhem. Once we were seated with a view of the cliffside we felt so stressed and dishevelled we left after 30 minutes. I would save your time and venture into Old Town instead.

Enjoyable accommodation, respectful staff, clean, organized and enjoyable place, everything was excellent

Very nice luxurious hotel with lovely and friendly staff. Very helpful people. Very well secured even a lost iPhone was found and returned back to us.