{"id":19604,"date":"2024-06-17T18:41:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T17:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/?p=19604"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:41:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T17:41:13","slug":"my-review-of-hilton-plaza-hurghada-and-the-pearl-lounge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/2024\/06\/17\/my-review-of-hilton-plaza-hurghada-and-the-pearl-lounge\/","title":{"rendered":"My review of Hilton Plaza Hurghada and the Pearl Lounge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m hoping for a most relaxing time in Egypt, which is why I’m skipping Luxor and Aswan in my plan. After three nights in Cairo, I’m heading straight to Hurghada, a major resort destination along the Red Sea coastline. My friend stayed at the Hilton Plaza<\/a> recently, and although he wasn’t very happy, I was too lazy to look for other options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurghada is… quite something. Our experience in Cairo was generally good, and Hughada taught me a lesson immediately! I tried two Uber drivers, and they both wanted much more money than what Uber quoted. I heard such scam happens almost all the time when you request a ride to Huaghada downtown, less often in the reverse direction – our ride to Hughada airport in the end was indeed fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location of the Hilton Plaza hotel is excellent, which I’ll explain in more details later. One important tip: remember Hilton Honors’s second guest stays free<\/em> benefit<\/a>, book only one guest even if two are staying (room only rates), as it is cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I received a welcome email a couple of days in advance, replied but didn’t hear anything back. Judging from the check-in process they didn’t see my reply. After completing our check-in the receptionist said the concierge would bring us to our room – except that no one was at the concierge desk at all.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There’s a throne chair of King Tutankhamun on display in the lobby, which I assume is a replica.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The hotel lobby is at level 4, and my room is at level 3. The main building has 8 storeys – I took the elevator up to have a look.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The hotel is a massive resort with countless rooms, and they are usually generous with upgrades. I received one to the Blue Bay Suite, and I think my friend got something similar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The room however is extremely tired and I don’t remember when’s the last time I saw this dire colour in a hotel room. What I really appreciate though is the separate living room with a sofa bed – I’m working remotely for two days so it makes my life a lot easier.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The sofa bed was made when we came back in the evening, but no duvet was provided. My phone call went through after four or five attempts finally, and although they received my request nothing arrived after fifteen minutes. I made another call and this time they sent the duvet thankfully. I will talk more about their (lack of) service later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suite has two bathrooms:<\/p>\n\n\n

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The balcony is quite big, but due to being at a lower level there isn’t so much of a sea view.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Let’s talk about food. When you check in they will hand over a wristband, the colour of which corresponds to your board status. From my observation, almost everyone else has opted for the full board option, and in that sense we are quite unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakfast is provided to all staying guests and served at the Rostrata restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The food spread is quite good, with some international \/ Asian options.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Diamond members have access to the lobby bar’s happy hour every evening, which comes with free drinks. I asked the bartender what’s available and his (impatient) answer was “What do you want?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It kind of reflects the service you can expect at this hotel – non-existent. Most staff simply ignores you when they pass by, and only one person proactively said hi to us throughout the three-night stay.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Performances, such as singing and dancing, are on every night by the beach and next to the lobby bar, which lasts till 10pm or 11pm.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The all-inclusive supplement, as I saw in Hilton’s app, is $30 per person per day. If I understand correctly it only includes the buffet at Rostrata. I don’t think it’s worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the first day we had dinner at Lophelia, the seafood restaurant. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The dinner came out as a nightmare. We weren’t given the menu until half an hour after sitting down, then it’s another 20 minutes before any food was served, and it’s after I was enraged and told them we were going to leave. Their excuse was “being super busy” but there were like a total of seven or eight tables of guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two more restaurants – a Turkish by the beach and an Asian by Rostrata. Obviously we didn’t try them given what happened at Lophelia.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Despite being a distance away from the old town, this area is somewhat developed and not short of dining options. There’s a big shopping mall right in front of Hilton’s side entrance, which seems to be built for foreign tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few nice cafes and restaurants in the mall. We ate twice at the Solo<\/em> restaurant, as they’ve got a pretty diversified menu and pricing is reasonable – \u00a32 to \u00a35 for a pasta and \u00a310 for a steak.<\/p>\n\n\n

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If you want to save money, go to a local restaurant. There’s one called Family Fish<\/em> which is a short walk from Hilton that’s rated very highly on Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I wouldn’t say the food is great, but it’s really cheap and more importantly the owner is super friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the room is a big disappointment, the hotel has maintained their communal space and facilities rather well. One thing I’m very impressed by is their tennis, squash and padel courts, which you can reserve for free. You can pay for racket rentals as well, and I paid $7 for a squash racket.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Gym and pool (not the pool you are thinking \ud83d\ude09): <\/p>\n\n\n

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The main swimming pool, named Bluefin, is just outside the Rostrata restaurant and get busy quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The other pool, Delphine, is in the shade and much quieter.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I’m more of a beach person though, and can’t wait to see the Red Sea. The garden leading to the beach is very well taken care of.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There is a row of garden rooms. The lawn and kids’ playground are right in front so they are ideal for families with young children.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And finally, the beautiful beach.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Whilst we are in Hurghada the temperature stays very nicely at around 30 degrees, making it slightly cold to swim in the morning. The water however is awesome: no seaweed, tiny waves and extending quite far without being very deep. I had a peek at the public beach outside the hotel and it looked bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walked past the harbour when going to the seafood restaurant and I was wondering why there were so many boats. It turns out that the Hilton is major hub for offshore activities, making it very convenient for excursions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We signed up for the dolphin watching and snorkelling tour, which I highly recommend.<\/p>\n\n\n

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We asked for 4pm checkout and it was granted rather smoothly, no question asked. It is one of the few times I felt any treatment or service at the hotel. I expressed my disappointment at checkout and the front desk lady said she would send feedback to the management team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line is, Hilton Plaza Hurghada<\/a> has an excellent location, a high-quality beach and great facilities. However, you must manage your expectations on the very poor service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now follow me to the Hurghada airport. Note that the airport has two terminals which are not close, so make sure to navigate to the right one before calling an Uber. You will have to suffer lengthy security checks, and check-in closes one hour before departure, so make your plan wisely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m leaving from Terminal 1, where they have a very new Pearl Lounge in the International Departure zone. The lounge accepts Priority Pass and Dragonpass.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I didn’t stay long at the lounge, but was impressed by how neat it looks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The buffet looks quite good too. I’m travelling with easyJet so it’s nice to be able to fill my stomach with some free food first.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I checked the price tag of some souvenirs in the shop and it was eyewatering, and I also heard people complaining about how limited and expensive the food options were. And even worse, I got scammed at the jewelry shop. Well, you should probably just stay in the lounge until your flight is calling I suppose!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m hoping for a most relaxing time in Egypt, which is why I’m skipping Luxor and Aswan in my plan. After three nights in Cairo, I’m...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,43],"tags":[128,113],"class_list":["post-19604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hilton-honors","category-middle-east","tag-hotel-review","tag-lounge-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19604"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19785,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19604\/revisions\/19785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}