Citadel Azur Hotel and Spa

“ My wife and I (aged 60) have just returned from a week's AI stay at this hotel.
During our stay we found no need to leave the hotal grounds. Citadel Azur is situated on the coast, about 10km south of Hurghada. It has it's own stretch of beach, coral reef and even it's own marina. Every guest room of this sprawling 4/5 star hotel complex has an excellent sea view. I believe we may well have been the only UK holidaymakers staying at the hotel at the time. We certainly didn't meet or hear of any other Brits staying at the hotel. The majority of the guests were from Russia or former Soviet countries although there was a fair proportion of Egyptian guests too.
The vast majority of hotel staff spoke fair to good or excellent English and they seemed genuinely pleased to meet up with English speaking guests.

Being an All inclusive resort only, guests were not required to wear any identification in the form of arm bands, nor were they required to carry any cards or suchlike to identify their status. Also there was no need to carry money whilst in the hotel as all food and drink is included. If you insist on spending money there, opportunities are available: Down on the marina there are several souvenir shops, a fully operational marina with docking facilities for private yachts and launches, it's own diving school, and a private dining restaurant to name a few. Pedalos, canoes and wind surfing was also available there and included as part of the AI package.

Our room was spacious, and well appointed with a separate bathroom, built in wardrobe and satellite TV. Free unrestricted Internet was included in the AI deal which is available via the IP phone in your room - just bring a laptop and a length of ethernet cable to connect - or via wireless in the reception building. The balcony - which was also massive and almost as big as the room was not overlooked from either side or from above and had a 180 degree panorama of the coast.

The east facing floor to cieling window had curtains which were well lined so the morning sun which shines directly into every room could be blocked almost completely for those who wish to have a lie in.

On the food front - The main restaurant was open for breakfast and dinner and is essentially a good quality buffet / self service affair. Plenty of choice - but after a week maybe it begins to look just a little "samey!" There are also several themed restaurants dotted around the hotel complex such as an Italian, a Seafood and Gaucho etc, It was possible to eat in these in the evenings but in order to do so bookings had to be made in person the day before you wished to eat and the booking "window" was just a couple of hours each day. We ate "out" only twice as a result of the unduly complicated booking system.

Reef - some fantastic reefs for snorkelling with the reef being just a few paces away from the beach. Breathtaking coral, clear waters and hundreds of fish varieties can be seen just a few yards out. A turtle was spotted and followed by snorkellers on the day we left. Brilliant.

All in all it is a lovely venue on a very large site. I did not review any of the animation or entertainment activites (thankfully, they were both easy to avoid!)
be prepared for some lengthy walks if you want to explore the entire hotel complex.

At the end of the holiday we had a pick up time of 17:25. The hotel checkout time was noon. A late checkout - which could not be arranged until the day before departure - worked out to be $76 or 50 quid for the two of us. This extended our room checkout time to 1700 which effectively gave us an extra AI day at the resort. Excellent.

Suggestions for improvement: There's a need to serve savory snacks / peanuts etc with drinks (although I can understand why they dont do it, it will only increase drink consumption!).

Would definitely recommend this hotel for a quiet relaxing holiday and definitely would go back.

“ Top Tip: take beach shoes, snorkel and mask.

“ This hotel was fabulous, the staff were first class and couldnt do enough to help you, there were 3 pools all with bars and lifeguards on duty, food was excellent throughout our stay, and the waiters were brilliant, always looking after you.
We were the only english people there but this wasnt a problem as staff were very willing to speak in english.
the only down side was that we booked a room for 2 adults and one child aged 14, when we gor to our room there were only 2 single beds!! we returned to reception to let them know that there wasnt suffient beds for us, after about 2 hours of heated discussion and eventually calling the manager we were given a delux room, this had a double bed and a sofa made up into a bed which was fine, but dont know why when we booked for 3 people the rooms clearly were not big enough. to sleep the 3 of us, this could be a bit misleading.
anyway other than that they were clean and comfortable with the added bonus of having tea/coffee making facilities, which was a real bonus to us.
on the whole we couldnt fault the hotel and would recommend it to others, the weather was fab and we had agreat time.

“ Top Tip: The hotel is on its own on a pennisular so there is no where to go outside the hotel a cab into Hurgada was about 30 euros.and took about 30 minutes so we stayed in the hotel.

“ Excellent hotel.Staff were obviously well trained and very helpful.Food choice was well above our expectations.The only little flaw was that according to the literature no jeans or shorts could be worn in the Citadel Restaurant in the evenings.This was not adherred to,resulting in a slight drop in standards,this stopped us giving a 10,but everything else was "Tip Top" hence a 9.

“ Top Tip: Get on a trip to Luxor,an excellent day.

“ i have been to egypt fourteen times and this is the best hotel i have been in .this hotel is stunning

“ Top Tip: the beach is great and the sea is spectacular first time we have seen dolphins just off thh beach