Sunrise Arabian Beach Resort

With our daughters having just gone off to university, the three of us decided that we deserved our own “Re-Freshers Week!” We were looking forward to sunshine, good food, cocktails, relaxation and plenty of time to catch up, and SUNRISE Arabian Beach Resort in Sharm El Sheikh turned out to be the perfect choice!

From the moment we arrived, we were impressed by the beautiful, manicured gardens. The grounds are kept immaculate, and everywhere is clean, tidy and clearly very well looked after.

There really is something for everyone here. The main pool has a swim-up bar, while there’s also a separate children’s pool with slides and a quieter relaxation pool for guests aged 16 and over. This was where we spent most of our time. Drinks service comes around frequently, and with a bar nearby too, you never have to venture far from your sun lounger! There’s also the more exclusive Posh Club if that’s your thing.

For anyone who wants to explore beyond the pool, the hotel has its own dive centre and access to a lovely coral reef, with snorkelling available straight from the jetty. It’s a great bonus for anyone wanting to experience the Red Sea without having to leave the resort.

There’s plenty going on during the day if you like to keep busy, and the evening entertainment is varied, with live musicians, dancing and shows. Although we were mainly there to relax and enjoy each other’s company, it was lovely to have so much choice whenever we fancied doing something different.

The food and the people working here really made our holiday. Between us, we had a few dietary requirements: I’m a meat eater with a coriander allergy, while my two friends are vegetarian.

The chefs were absolutely brilliant. My friends weren’t simply left with the usual limited vegetarian options; the kitchen teams made a real effort to provide plenty of variety and often prepared dishes especially for them. My coriander allergy was also taken seriously, which meant I felt very well looked after throughout our stay.

We particularly enjoyed the à la carte restaurants, Manohar, My Tai and Waterfall. The food was delicious, and Chef Parvinder and Chef Morsy, along with their teams, deserve a special mention for the care they took to ensure that we could all enjoy our meals. Nothing ever seemed too much trouble.

That same level of care extended throughout the hotel, where the service was excellent and always delivered with a smile. There are far too many lovely staff members to mention everyone, but a few deserve a particular thank you for looking after us so regularly and often going that extra mile.

Younis, the manager, and Maher, the Guest Experience Manager and their fantastic staff, helped ensure that our dietary requirements were clearly understood. Maher also checked in with us regularly to see how everything was going, which was a lovely personal touch.

Assem kept our room spotless and was always cheerful. In the restaurants, Mustafa made sure we had everything we needed, while Mahmoud became a familiar face during our evening drinks and desserts. He soon remembered our usual drinks and always made us feel welcome.

Although relaxation was our main priority, I did manage to get to the gym a couple of times too. It’s clean, well equipped and has a good selection of cardio machines, resistance equipment and free weights—everything you need for a decent workout while you’re away.

I also booked a package of three sports massages at the spa with Eman, who was excellent. She really knew what she was doing and focused on the areas that needed attention. I’d definitely recommend her if you prefer a proper sports massage rather than something gentle and purely relaxing.

All in all, we’ve had a fantastic week. The hotel has lovely surroundings, great facilities and excellent food, but it’s the friendly, hardworking staff who make it that little bit more special.

A big thank you to Younis, Maher, Assem, Chef Parvinder, Chef Morsy, Mustafa, Mahmoud, Eman and everyone else who helped make our stay so enjoyable.

We’ve come home feeling relaxed, thoroughly spoilt and very glad we chose SUNRISE Arabian Beach Resort.

Our daughters may have been enjoying Freshers Week at university, but I think we’ve proved that the mums can do a pretty good job of it too!

Re-Freshers Week was definitely a success! 🥂☀️

I honestly don't understand how this resort has such a good reputation. We stayed for a week, and unfortunately the experience was consistently disappointing. This wasn't one bad meal, one rude waiter or one unfortunate incident, the same problems kept happening across different restaurants, bars, the pool, reception and hotel transportation. The property itself looks nice, but the hospitality and service we experienced were nowhere near the standard you'd expect from a resort of this price and reputation.SERVICE — CONSISTENTLY TERRIBLEAt Manohar, the Indian restaurant, we waited around 20 minutes just to place our first order. We told the waiter twice that we were ready to order, yet we were still ignored. Meanwhile, other guests who had arrived after us were being served before us. Eventually, after around 34 minutes, a different waiter came over and asked whether we had ordered. After experiencing similar situations throughout the resort, we genuinely began to feel that we were being treated differently because we are British Indian. At Mai Thai, we experienced another ridiculous situation. Our booking was for 7pm. The waiter came around 7:10pm, took our drinks order and food order, including three Cokes. Another couple arrived around 7:30pm. They ordered their drinks and received them before we had received ours. They then received their starters and were already eating while we were still waiting. By around 7:45pm, they were eating their food while we were still sitting there waiting. Our starters eventually arrived around 8pm, almost an hour after our order was taken. And to make matters worse, they got the order wrong. We had specifically ordered a vegetarian starter, but were given shrimp spring rolls instead. When we ordered Coke, the waiter also said something in his own language that we could not understand. There was no explanation or attempt to communicate with us properly. Given the rest of our experience, we found this extremely disrespectful and unprofessional.BASILICO — ITALIAN RESTAURANTAt Basilico, we ordered bruschetta, pasta, pizza and Coke. Everything arrived except the bruschetta. We could literally see bruschetta being served to the table behind us while ours was still missing. When we raised the issue, the staff suddenly seemed to struggle to communicate properly in English, which made the whole situation even more frustrating. We also ate lunch at Basilico several times during the week, and the fries were repeatedly poorly cooked, with the potato inside practically raw.THE FOOD OVERALLThe food throughout the resort was below average. There was very little variety and it often felt like we were being served the same food repeatedly. We also experienced seriously undercooked rice at both Manohar and Basilico. So we're not talking about simply disliking the taste of the food. We're talking about basic food preparation issues — practically raw potatoes, undercooked rice and incorrect orders. For a resort of this standard, that is simply unacceptable.POOL SERVICEAround the pool, we ordered water and Coke and waited over an hour. In the scorching heat. Nothing arrived. We eventually had to walk to the bar ourselves to chase the order. We were told they would bring the drinks, and even then we waited another 20 minutes. Guests shouldn't have to spend their holiday chasing staff for drinks they've already ordered.CHURCHILL BARAt Churchill Bar, we repeatedly watched the waiter walk around to other tables asking guests whether they wanted drinks, while our table was ignored. After experiencing similar treatment at different restaurants and parts of the resort, it became very difficult not to feel that we were being treated differently. We are British Indian, and throughout the week there were several occasions where we genuinely felt that our treatment was different from that of other guests. I cannot claim to know what was going through individual staff members' minds, but I can absolutely say that the pattern of treatment made us feel uncomfortable, unwelcome and discriminated against.EVEN THE WATER FELT DIFFERENTAnother example was when I watched another guest ask for water and receive a cold bottle. I asked for the same thing shortly afterwards and received room-temperature water. On its own, this could obviously be coincidence. But when you combine it with everything else that happened throughout the week, you start noticing these things.HOTEL BUS — TERRIBLE COMMUNICATIONWe were located towards the back of the resort and therefore relied on the hotel bus. We were told the bus would come approximately every five minutes, but that certainly wasn't our experience. Even worse, we were not properly informed that the bus service stops at midnight. We ended up waiting for a bus without knowing that the service had already stopped. There were also no clear times displayed at the bus stop and no proper information board explaining the operating hours. This is basic information that should be clearly communicated to guests.ACCESSIBILITY AND SAFETYThe resort also doesn't feel particularly disabled-friendly. At around 5pm, staff were washing the steps, leaving the stairs and surrounding surfaces wet and slippery. Cleaning obviously needs to happen, but leaving busy walkways and steps slippery creates an unnecessary safety risk, particularly for elderly, disabled or mobility-impaired guests.CHECK-OUT — THE FINAL STRAWWhen we checked out, the receptionist asked how our stay was. I told him honestly that it had been terrible, explaining that the food was poor and the service was extremely slow. His response?"Okay."That's it.No apology.No concern.No attempt to find out what went wrong.No manager.Nothing.Just "Okay."The receptionist was M. Samir.If you're going to ask a guest how their stay was, the absolute minimum you can do when they tell you it was terrible is acknowledge the complaint and show some level of concern.Instead, the response perfectly summed up the attitude we experienced throughout the resort:The guest doesn't seem to matter.NOT EVERYONE WAS TERRIBLETo be fair, I don't want to paint every single person associated with the resort with the same brush.There were some genuinely lovely people who stood out because of how different their attitude was compared with many of the other staff.The photographer, the Indian head chef, the supermarket guy outside the hotel and the pharmacy guy outside the hotel were all extremely nice, friendly and helpful.We had absolutely no issues with them.In fact, they showed exactly what good customer service and basic human manners should look like.Unfortunately, many of the other staff members inside the hotel were the complete opposite.A lot of them came across as having very poor manners, no proper way of communicating with guests and very little understanding of what hospitality actually means.There seemed to be a complete lack of basic customer service skills — no warmth, no urgency, no apology when things went wrong and, in many cases, no sense that guests deserved to be treated with respect.FINAL VERDICTThe biggest problem is that these weren't isolated incidents.Throughout our entire week, we experienced:Extremely slow serviceOrders being ignoredOther guests being served before us despite arriving laterDrinks taking over an hour to arriveMissing foodIncorrect food ordersA vegetarian order being replaced with shrimpStaff making comments in a language we didn't understand instead of communicating properlyUndercooked ricePractically raw potatoes in the friesVery repetitive and below-average foodPoorly communicated hotel bus schedulesNo clear bus timetableSlippery steps being cleaned at busy timesPoor accessibilityAnd what felt like differential treatment towards us as British Indian guestsThe resort may look beautiful, but good-looking surroundings cannot compensate for terrible hospitality.We came to Egypt for a holiday and to relax. Instead, far too much of our time was spent waiting, chasing staff, correcting mistakes and complaining about basic service.The most frustrating part is that none of these things are complicated to fix.Take the order.Bring the drinks.Cook the food properly.Bring the food that was actually ordered.Communicate with guests respectfully.Tell guests when the bus stops.And when someone tells you their stay was terrible, at least have the basic professionalism to say sorry.For a resort of this price and reputation, the standard we experienced was nowhere near good enough.Sunrise Arabian Beach Resort — beautiful property, disappointing hospitality.I would not return and I would not recommend it.

We stayed for a week, the staff were great couldn’t wish for a better service. Food in the buffet was fantastic! The other restaurants weren’t up to the same standards unfortunately. Hotel was very clean and tidy. Staff were always working to make it 5*. Rooms were very nice and bathrooms. Could do with more pillows on the beds. Very welcoming atmosphere and fun resort. Great location from the air port only a 10minute drive. The lifts were out of order while we stayed which was a little tricky with a push chair and a 2yr old child. But over all we were happy with our holiday and would come back. Our waiter was next level (Matemed) definitely made the holiday extra special. Was definitely good value for money.