Hotel Review: Sunrise Arabian Beach Resort - Grand Select (Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt)

We stayed at the Sunrise Arabian Beach Resort - Grand Select in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for six days, from the 30th of December 2024 to the 5th of January 2025. This meant we celebrated New Year’s Eve there. In this post, I will review the hotel.

In a previous post, published on the 4th of January, I wrote about celebrating New Year’s Eve at the resort, which included a gala. If you’re interested in reading that post, please click here.

Would I recommend this hotel? No, I probably wouldn’t—and I’ll explain why in this post.

But before diving into my experiences and opinions, let’s look at the information provided about this hotel.

Location

The Sunrise Arabian Beach Resort - Grand Select is situated in the Sharks Bay area of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. It is approximately 8 kilometres from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport and around 12 kilometres from the city centre. The resort overlooks the Red Sea and offers views of Tiran Island.

Accommodation

The resort has 421 rooms and suites. All rooms include air conditioning, a flat-screen TV, and a minibar with soft drinks. Complimentary Wi-Fi is available in the rooms. Some rooms also have private balconies or terraces with views of the sea, gardens, or pools.

Dining

The resort provides two buffet restaurants and seven à la carte restaurants. These restaurants serve a variety of international cuisines, including Indian, Thai, Italian, Greek, Mongolian, French, and seafood.

Facilities

The resort includes six swimming pools and two Jacuzzis. There is a private beach with direct access to a coral reef, which is suitable for snorkelling and diving. Additional facilities include a gym, a spa, and a beauty salon.

Activities and Entertainment

Available activities include tennis, mini-golf, and various water sports. The resort also offers evening entertainment programs.

Other Features

 There are family-friendly amenities, including play areas and activities for children. The design of the resort incorporates Arabian architectural elements and landscaped gardens.

Service

The resort offers various guest services, including housekeeping, room service, and concierge assistance. The staff are available to assist with bookings and other requests during a guest's stay.

My experience

Now that we have that settled, lets get into my experience and opinions.

How we booked (flights, hotel and transfer)

Hotel Emils’ parents were the ones who shared the name of the hotel with us, as they and some of his family from Latvia were also coming on this holiday. Emils’ parents booked it through TUI, however, we decided to book it a different way. Since I’ve booked through Booking.com many times, I’ve reached Genius Level 3, which gives you up to a 20% discount on hotels, depending on the hotel and travel dates. Thanks to this, we managed to get a cheaper rate and upgraded to a swim-up room. Flights

To find the best flights, I checked Momondo and Skyscanner. While I don’t book directly through these websites, I use them to identify the airlines offering the best prices. I prefer booking directly with the airline due to past issues with refunds when using third-party companies. Wizz Air turned out to be the cheapest option, so we booked our flights directly with them. I’m not a fan of budget airlines that charge extra for every little thing, but sometimes you don’t have much choice. We needed at least a small suitcase each, which meant we had to pay for priority boarding to include a carry-on. While a checked-in bag would have been ideal, the airline wanted to charge around £83 each way for a 20-kilo bag.

Taxi transfer

We booked our transfer from the airport to the hotel through a website called Airportstaxitransfers.com, which cost approximately £14 for a round trip. It was a private car. When we walked out of the airport, someone was standing outside with a sign that had my name on it. We showed him the email voucher, and he called the driver to come to the airport. We waited maybe 10 minutes before the driver arrived. It wasn’t a fancy car or anything, but it was nice not having to take a bus and wait for all the other passengers to get on board.

Room

Our room was probably the best part of the holiday for me. When we made the booking, we upgraded to a swim-up room. The name of the room we stayed in was the Deluxe Swim-Up Room. Inside, there was a large sliding door that opened to a private area with two sunbeds and a table. Just beyond that, there was a ladder leading into a pool, which was shared with the other eight rooms in the same building that also had swim-up rooms.

Initially, we were given a room in the building called Mangolia, which unfortunately faced north. This meant we didn’t get any sun throughout the day. Upon arrival, we were provided with a WhatsApp number to contact someone at the hotel if we had any issues. I messaged them, explaining that we were disappointed to have paid extra for a swim-up room, only to have no sun on our sunbeds all day. Since our holiday was at the end of December and early January, it was only warm when you were in direct sunlight.

We had noticed another building with similar rooms, called Orchid, which faced south and received plenty of sun. I asked through WhatsApp if there was any possibility of moving to that building. The hotel staff replied, saying it was fully booked at the time but that someone was checking out the next day. They assured us that once the room was cleaned and prepared, we could move there.

After lunch the following day, we moved to the new room and were finally able to enjoy the private sunbeds and pool in the sun.

Cleanliness

In general, the rooms were clean and well-maintained. The staff was friendly, and the mini fridge in the room (which is included) was stocked daily with beers, juice, water, Coke, Fanta, and Sprite.

However, there was one incident I need to mention. When we moved rooms on our second day, I found a lot of short, dark hair in my bed. My hair is long and blonde, and my husband, who has short brown hair, had not been in or near my bed (we had separate beds), so it was clear this hair belonged to someone else. I felt disgusted. Unfortunately, I noticed it late in the evening, so there wasn’t much I could do about it. Most of the hair was on the pillows, so I threw them on the floor and took one from my husband’s bed, as it appeared clean. I only used the duvet on my legs, as I felt uncomfortable having it on me, knowing it might not be clean. I did not sleep well that night.

The following day, when we left the room, I didn’t see the person cleaning it, so I left a note on the bed explaining that I had found the hair and asked for the bedsheets to be changed. When we returned to the room, it was clean. We did not have any further issues with this.

Restaurants

The restaurants were something we were all excited about, but unfortunately, they ended up being the part of the holiday I enjoyed the least. On their website, the hotel advertised nine restaurants, and I had imagined we would try a different one each evening to experience as much variety as possible. However, we only ended up eating at four.

Booking system The day we arrived, it was late, so we went to the restaurant called Nora. This restaurant doesn’t require a booking and stays open late. It’s a buffet-style restaurant serving Arabian cuisine.

The next day, we tried to figure out their booking system since most of the restaurants require reservations for dinner. We learned that bookings must be made at least one day in advance, and you can only book a maximum of three days ahead. We didn’t need a booking that night as it was December 31st, and the hotel was hosting a New Year’s Gala with dinner included. However, when we tried to book for the following day, everything was already fully booked. This meant we had to eat at Nora again on January 1st.

On January 2nd, we finally managed to book a table at Manohar, an Indian cuisine restaurant. We ended up eating there again on January 3rd because other restaurants were fully booked. On January 4th, we managed to get a reservation at Poseidon, which offers Greek cuisine.

The booking system was extremely frustrating for several reasons. The website kept logging us out, forcing us to log in repeatedly. Additionally, since you could only book three days in advance, everyone rushed to secure reservations early in the morning, and the slots filled up quickly.

For instance, I checked the booking website at 8:35 AM one day, and there were already very few seats left. Poseidon had only seven seats left for 6:30 PM, four seats for 7:30 PM, and four seats for 8 PM. Mai Thai had just two seats left for 8 PM. I never even saw an option to book for Waterfall Grill or Côte D’Azur, as they must have filled up almost immediately.

Unfortunately, there are no consequences for failing to cancel reservations or for not showing up. Before we managed to secure a booking at Poseidon, we asked the reception if there was anything they could do to help us get a reservation. They told us we had to book through the app or speak to the restaurant manager to check if there had been any cancellations. We tried this, but we were told the restaurant was always fully booked and busy. However, when we were at the restaurant asking about availability, it was nearly empty.

On the day we finally had a reservation, the restaurant was also almost empty. It isn’t a very large restaurant, but even at the busiest time, there were eight tables left unoccupied.

It seems that because there are no penalties for no-shows and nothing preventing people from booking multiple reservations on the same day, guests reserve whatever is available and decide later where they actually want to eat. This leaves little to no availability for others who didn’t manage to book early.

This poorly managed system left our group of 10 people feeling disappointed, as it was difficult to enjoy the dining experiences we were looking forward to.

Extra charge

I have been on multiple all-inclusive holidays over the years, but I have never experienced one where you had to pay extra for some of the restaurants. When we accessed the booking website, most of the restaurant names had the word "chargeable" in brackets next to them. When clicking on a restaurant to book, a pop-up message appeared, stating that à la carte items could incur an extra cost and asking you to confirm that you were okay with this.

Since seven of the restaurants are à la carte, this was confusing. We sent a message to the WhatsApp number provided for assistance during our stay, asking for clarification. However, the response we received was vague and not helpful at all.

I later learned that while most of the restaurants are included in the all-inclusive package, some items on the menu—mainly certain drinks—come at an extra cost. The menus indicate prices for each item and include a brown box next to each one, labelled either "All Inclusive" or "Extra Cost."

That said, there is one restaurant that is entirely excluded from the all-inclusive package: Felucca, the seafood restaurant.

More information on their restaurants

Below, I have included a table summarising what I learned about the restaurants during my stay.

Restaurant	Cuisine	Tried	Booking required	Extra cost	Comment
Nora	Arabian	Yes	No	No	This is the main restaurant, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Sunrise	International	Yes	No	No	This restaurant is listed separately, but it's next to Nora and serves the same food, with fewer options.
Poseidon	Greek	Yes	Yes	No	We tried this one for dinner; it required booking.
Manohar	Indian	Yes	Yes	No	We booked this twice for dinner as it was available at the time.
Mai Thai	Thai	No	Yes	No	I only saw the option to book this once, but it was for 8 PM, which was too late for me.
Waterfall Grill	Mongolian	No	Yes	No	I've seen this restaurant open but never saw the option to book it, so it must have booked quickly.
Basilico	Italian	Yes	Yes/No	No	We tried this for lunch. No booking is needed for lunch, but breakfast and dinner require booking.
Felucca	Seafood	No	Yes	Yes	This restaurant isn’t included in the all-inclusive package and comes at an extra cost.
Cote D'Azur	French	No	Yes	No	We couldn’t book this as it was always shown as fully booked.

Each restaurant, or at least the ones I visited, has a barcode menu. When you sit at your table, there’s a barcode to scan with your phone, which opens the food and drinks menu.

Restaurant reviews

So, I will only review the food places I visited.

• Nora/Sunrise

I’ve grouped these two together as, although they’re listed separately, they’re right next to each other, both buffets, and serve similar food. Nora offers a bigger selection, but you can go sit in Sunrise and get food from Nora. Sunrise was less busy most evenings. The food was average, and we ate here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since it’s where you go if you don’t have a booking. Unfortunately, the food remained mostly the same each time, which got a bit repetitive.

• Basilico

We only visited this restaurant for lunch, and it offers Italian cuisine, which is one of my favourites. It's an à la carte restaurant, and overall, I liked it. The food was decent, and I had a few enjoyable meals here. However, there are a few things worth mentioning.

The general staff at the hotel were friendly and seemed happy to serve, but unfortunately, the staff at Basilico seemed a bit miserable and not as welcoming. It took us a while to figure out that the person serving drinks couldn’t also take our food orders. They have different staff for each role, and I feel they could use more people taking orders to speed up the process. During busy times, especially since you don’t need a reservation for lunch, there’s sometimes a queue for tables. If there were more staff handling orders, they’d clear tables quicker and reduce the wait times. However, once they took our order, the food arrived fairly quickly—though the pizzas took a little longer.

I didn’t have the pizza myself, but others in our group said it was good. On my first visit, I had the Penne Mushroom, which was penne pasta in a creamy sauce. Unfortunately, it was very bland and had very few mushrooms in it, which was disappointing. However, I did enjoy the Chicken Caesar Salad, which I had most days. It’s my favourite salad, although it was missing the parmesan that was listed on the menu. Despite that, I still enjoyed it.

One thing I noticed was that the food wasn’t always served the same way. Some days it was different from others. I also saw the seabass ordered by others, and since they said it was good, I decided to try it. Unfortunately, my portion was much smaller than what others received.

I also ordered the Shrimps & Avocado dish, as it looked good when Emils had it earlier. However, when I got it, it came with other vegetables and fruits, and only a tiny piece of avocado. It was still good, but not what I had expected based on how it was described.

• Manohar

This is another à la carte restaurant, specialising in Indian cuisine. Both my husband and I really enjoyed the food here, and we ended up booking this restaurant for two dinners during our stay. The second booking wasn’t intentional—we had forgotten which restaurant we had reserved the day before, so we mistakenly booked Manohar again for the next day. However, we’re glad we did because the food was excellent.

We started with a variety of starters to share, which was a great way to try multiple dishes. Then we had some curry and garlic naan. Emils had tikka masala both days, as it’s one of his favourites. I tried dal makhani and beef korma, and both dishes were delicious. My personal favourite was the dal makhani.

The service, however, needs improvement. It was quite slow, and Emils got really upset with them on the first day. We asked for more garlic naan bread and wine, but it took three requests before we finally received it. Each time we asked, they said yes and left, but they never brought it. Eventually, the restaurant manager came over to apologise for the delay.

• Poseidon

This à la carte restaurant serves Greek cuisine. The food was decent, although we didn’t think it was as good as Manohar. I had a lamb dish, which was nice, and the lamb was really tender.

We ended up celebrating my birthday here. Since I would be jetlagged on my actual birthday (the day after we landed in Japan), we decided to celebrate in Egypt. Before we went out, Emils gave me a sash and a tiara that said "30." We then headed to the restaurant. Emils had also brought along candles that said "30," and when we arrived, he had spoken to the staff, given them the candles, and arranged the surprise. We had our dinner, and when it was time for dessert, Emils gave a nod to the waiter. Shortly after, they came over with a birthday cake with lit candles, and sang happy birthday. I asked Emils if he had arranged this with the restaurant beforehand, and he said no. I was genuinely impressed by the cake, especially as they had prepared it with no prior notice. It was probably the best dessert I had at the hotel, and it was beautifully presented.

Overall, the food and service at this restaurant were good.

• Island Pool Bar

I am including this under restaurants as they serve food during lunch. They offer items like burgers, fries, and hotdogs. The bar has longer opening hours for lunch, and no reservation is needed. Were the burgers amazing? No, but they were decent. We had lunch here towards the end of our holiday when we had grown tired of the other two lunch options (Nora and Basilico).

Bars

On their website, they claimed to have 10 bars, 7 of which are included, and there should be 1 adults-only bar. I’m not sure which bar is supposed to be the 10th, as their own list only includes 9. Just to clarify, when they mention "bars," this includes both bars and cafés.

• Churchill Lobby Bar

This was the bar we visited the most. It was open 24 hours, and there was always someone available to serve. You had the option to either go to the bar and order, or you could wait for someone to come around and take your order.

• MayFair Lounge

I believe this is their adults-only bar, as there is a sign outside stating that it’s 16+ only. However, this is not actually a bar. On their website, it mentions that they serve traditional afternoon tea and offer the finest coffee selection, but I never saw any staff in here, even during its opening hours. As a result, this bar was pretty much always empty.

• Chiringuito Beach Bar

There isn’t much to say about this bar, as I only visited it once. It is a small bar located by the beach, allowing you to order drinks while sunbathing.

• Basilico Beach Bar

This bar is located at the Basilico restaurant. I only went here for food, but I suspect it stays open outside of the food service hours and operates as a bar during that time.

• Island Pool Bar

This bar is located by their largest pool and tends to be quite busy during the day. You can order from the pool as they have bar seating in the water, or you can go around and order from the other side. They also serve food such as burgers, fries, and hotdogs during lunch.

• Waterfall Grill Bar

This is another restaurant, open only in the evening, but during the day, it operates as a bar. This bar is not very busy, and the person who looks after it also goes around the nearby pools, taking drink orders and delivering them.

• Latitude Pub

I didn’t spend much time here as it opened quite late. The website says it opens at 11 PM, but the staff told us it opened at 10 PM. We tried to go here a few times for their evening entertainment, but once I think we got the timing wrong, and the other time, we didn’t enjoy the entertainment.

• Abo Ali Shisha Café

This café is not included. We went here twice, paying 12 euros for one shisha to share, and an additional 3 euros for tea for two people.

• Posh Club Lounge

This bar is exclusive to guests with certain room types. It was not included with our room.

Entertainment

Evening entertainment

We tried to go to Latitude Pub twice for their entertainment. The first time, we saw a sign saying the entertainment would start at 9 PM, but this seemed odd, as we had previously been told that Latitude Pub doesn’t open until 10 PM. We went there, and someone in our group asked a member of staff, who said the entertainment was at 10 PM. To be sure, since the sign had stated something different, I went to reception and asked them. I was told 9.45 PM. It was very confusing. We ended up leaving and returning at 9.45 PM to be certain, but the show had already started, and all the good seats were taken. The music was loud, and when we arrived, there was just a man juggling with bowling pins, so we decided not to stay.

The second time we wanted to try the evening entertainment, a woman walked around and announced when it would start. So, we went there, and when we arrived, the kids’ entertainment was still on. We sat at the back, and once the kids’ entertainment finished and some seating became available up front, we moved. However, we had been told it would be some sort of dance party and then they turned on loud music and changed the lights to something more club-like. The problem was, all the kids were still there, so it was just kids dancing around. Once again, we decided not to stay.

Things to do during the day

There are plenty of things you can do during the day. We didn’t really do any of them, as we came purely to relax, which was one of the reasons we chose a swim-up room. We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool.

However, for those interested in doing more, there are plenty of options available. I saw the tennis court at the front of the hotel and spotted the mini-golf course on one of the rooftops. Down by the beach, there’s an area with beach volleyball, table tennis, and darts. Additionally, there is the option to snorkel right off the pier by the beach. The hotel also has a spa offering massages, a sauna, and a jacuzzi.

There are a few shops on the hotel grounds, with even more located not far from the hotel. I didn’t visit any of the shops myself, as I didn’t have space in my suitcase for anything more than what I had packed, but others in our group went and bought items like sunglasses and bags.

Snorkelling

Down by the beach to the right, there is a pier where you have the option to snorkel. I believe you can rent snorkelling gear if you don’t have your own. There are stairs leading down to the deeper water, allowing you to swim around and see the fish up close.

We didn’t snorkel ourselves, but we did enjoy watching the fish from the pier, as they are visible in the shallow water.

Spa

We went to the spa once during our stay. While we were at the beach, someone approached us and sold us a package deal. When we got to the spa, we started in the sauna, then moved to the jacuzzi and had some tea. After that, we had a Turkish bath, which, in my opinion, is by no means pleasant, but it does leave you feeling really clean. We then showered and finished with a massage. The massage was quite painful but gave much-needed relief to my muscles.

I think the experience was generally very enjoyable. Downstairs, all the staff were male, but once we were led upstairs, it was just the two of us (Emils and me) and two female staff members, who were very friendly.

However, there was one part of the experience I didn’t enjoy. I had brought my own bikini, which I, of course, wanted to wear. They mentioned they had single-use bikinis available, but I declined. After we showered and were about to have the massage, one of the ladies told me I had to wear only bikini bottoms, specifically the disposable ones they provided. These were tiny and fragile. I am a UK size 12, and the first pair broke on me. They gave me a second pair, but that broke as well. Frustrated, I eventually came out of the shower wearing my own bikini bottoms, and the staff member gave me a disapproving look. I simply said, “Sorry, they’re too small,” and she replied, “Okay.”

This was quite embarrassing for me and felt completely unnecessary. There were plenty of guests at the hotel who were larger than me, so I can’t imagine this was the first time they’d encountered this issue. They should either have larger sizes available or not insist that guests wear their disposable bikinis at all.

Staff

There were a lot of staff at the hotel, most of them men. We only saw a few female staff members, mostly in the evenings and at the spa. The staff were generally helpful and polite.

We were a group of 10 people, staying in 5 rooms spread across the resort. Because of this, we encountered different members of staff for room service and shared our experiences with each other. Some in our group tipped the staff in euros and said they had a better experience as a result. However, we didn’t tip straight away and still received decent service, including a fully stocked fridge every day. Interestingly, Emils’ parents tipped a little but still found their fridge wasn’t refilled until they specifically told the staff to do it. So, while tipping seems to improve your level of service, it’s not a guarantee.

We did tip the staff on the day we celebrated my 30th birthday. They noticed my birthday sash in the room and asked if it was my birthday. One staff member then called for someone else to help, and together they created a birthday display on the beds and hung balloons, which was a really nice touch.

However, I do have one negative point to mention about the staff. As a woman, I often felt ignored. They would greet my husband but wouldn’t say anything to me. This may be a cultural thing, but for a hotel catering to guests from around the world, it’s an issue that should be addressed.

Two specific instances stood out to me. The first was when I was walking alone to retrieve something I had forgotten at the spa. A man was walking a few meters behind me, and a staff member greeted him loudly and warmly, even though I was closer and had walked past first. The staff member didn’t acknowledge me at all, which left me feeling overlooked.

The second instance was when they completed my birthday display in the room. When we came in to see it, they only asked my husband if he liked it—even though they knew it was my birthday.

Location

This hotel is situated in a holiday area, so there are many other hotels and small shops nearby. The hotel is conveniently located about a 15-minute drive from the airport, which made the transfer both quick and inexpensive.

There are also plenty of excursions to choose from in the area. I didn’t go on any myself, as I wanted a relaxing holiday at the hotel, but Emils went on one where they drove buggies through the desert. He really enjoyed the experience, and it sounded like a lot of fun for those looking for some adventure.