JAZ Makadi Aquaviva

First time in Hurghada, and we absolutely loved this hotel. We travelled with children aged 9 and 5 and would love to return. We had no issues with illness, despite some reports—just use bottled water for everything. **Room** We had a spacious family room with a pool view in Block 3, overlooking the main pool. It had a huge balcony, two sofas in the front room that converted into beds, and one large, very comfortable queen bed. The air conditioning worked brilliantly; we left it on 24°C auto and the room stayed perfect. Fresh towels were provided and changed daily if needed. **Pools** There are plenty of pools, so it was always possible to find sunbeds somewhere, whatever time of day. You needed to be up early for the main pool, but we could stroll to the quieter pools at 9–10am and still get beds. The waterpark always had sunbeds available too. **Staff** Amazing. Tips go a long way—they really appreciate them and remember you. The waiters, bar staff, cleaners and lifeguards were all fantastic, helpful, and great with the children. **Entertainment** Great for younger children: the mini disco starts at 8pm, followed by either an animation-team show or a larger external performance. The white party and pink party were both fantastic. The animation team work incredibly hard and involve people without being pushy. My daughter also loved the kids’ club. **Food** We really enjoyed the food in the main restaurant; it was good quality, and the desserts were amazing—rare for an all-inclusive resort. It gets chaotic after 7pm, but that is to be expected. The Viva and main-pool snack bars were great, never too busy, and served freshly cooked burgers, pizza, paninis, pasta, waffles, pancakes and ice cream. **Drinks** Soft drinks were fine; we took Stanley cups and filled them at the start of the day. The beer was okay, although it was occasionally warm or flat at the bar by the kids’ disco. The cocktails were disappointing, so we avoided them after trying a couple. The caramel and vanilla iced coffees from the Liquid Bar were excellent. You can also have drinks brought to your sunbed by a waiter. **Waterpark** It was great having the waterpark so close to wander over to. It closes from 1–2pm, but queues were never huge. **Beach** The beach is all-inclusive too, with a bus every 30 minutes. The sea has beautiful coral and fish to look at. Overall, this is a brilliant hotel and I would highly recommend it to anybody.

My personal honest review. We stayed here as a family of four, 2 boys aged 9 and 12. Hotel is beautiful and very clean. Our cleaner Mohammed was lovely and really made a effort with the boys when he seen them and always asked if we was happy with the room after it was cleaned. My only gripe with the room is the mini bar and the AC. This is the first five star hotel in Egypt we have experienced that the mini bar is at an extra cost. The AC felt at night like it went low and wasn't as powerful but then would be ok in the day and you can tell the difference waking up with sweats, the kids complained in the other room and had to use their own handheld fans bought from home, but we managed. We asked for a room on the top floor - they only go up 2 floors but be mindful climbing them stairs in 39 degree heat is not for the weak lol. Also the water slides and carrying them dingys to the top in the heat - please be mindful and take swimming shoes the floor is HOT and its a killer getting to the top. The kids done them on day one and never again as they struggled climbing up in the heat carrying the dingys. I have to say the food was lovely and we always found something nice to eat and was never hungry, the snack bar was good to and kids loved the pizzas and burgers. We did have an incident in the restaurant one evening when a waiter sat us at our dinner table, i sent the kids off to get their food first and then out of no where this man appeared and kicked off that this was his favorite table and he wanted to sit there, I was then asked to move to a different table. I refused to move first out of principle but in the end I didn't want to cause a seen as he was shouting at the staff and everyone was staring. I was really upset and even other guests said to me how bad that was and the staff shouldn't have asked me to move. Later however the staff couldn't have been more apologetic and apologized many times and Ayman Director of food came to see me and my husband and apologised and offered us a meal in another al carte as apology (NORMALLY GET 1 AL A CARTE PER WEEK) - we accepted and we moved on and every time i seen the staff member who asked me to move originally he couldn't of been more apologetic. I did explain that nurturing that behavior does not help the situation and everyone has paid alot of money to come and stay at their hotel so it should be who shouts the loudest gets what they want. Besides this i cannot fault the food or staff during meal times. Strongly recommend the Burger Bay Al a carte - The American burger was so delicious, my 9 year old still dreams about it and said he would go back to the hotel just for this burger lol. Pool Bar - I was not impressed, no cocktails just spirits and beers. You have to walk to the Liquid Bar to get a cocktail/wine/Mocktails. Three days running the pool bar ran out of ice - one day they didn't bother to replace the ice. When i complained the man was quite rude and said the drinks are cold anyway coming out the machine. Let me tell you, yes they are but when its 39 degrees and unless you neck the drink.. by the time your back at your sun lounger its warm and not drinkable. I did take my own insulated cups to keep drinks cold but still its principle. Water bottles - non existent around the hotel besides the water machines - also not cold enough and felt like you was drinking warm water and then when the bar ran out of ice it was even worse. In your room they refill two large glass bottles with filtered water daily which is free. I would really suggest this hotel considers changing this as the heat is unbearable at times and i felt like we were becoming dehydrated especially when you just needed cold water during the day around the pool. I had to result in walking my 2 flights of stairs to my room to cool down and get cold water from my fridge. Overall we had a nice break for the week, we went for my husbands 40th and when i approached Guest relations they were helpful with arranging housekeeping to decorate the room with decor i took from the UK for us however i have recently seen tik toks of people whose birthday it was and they had balloons round the cabana sun beds etc which had been reserved for them and this was not offered to us as i definitely would of taken this option - in fact on his bday he wanted a lie in and we couldn't even get a sun bed as they were all gone. We never sat by the main pool at all as the kids found it to be too overcrowded and we couldn't never get a bed there. It was disappointing as this is the only pool where the entertainment happens and they play music and had all the fun. All the other pools have no music and felt like a really dead atmosphere. I personally wouldn't return to this hotel or Makady Bay overall as its out the way not a lot happening unless you drive out to the marina etc which is like 45 mins one way. We did this and paid 40 Euro return. I've paid less money to stay at other five star hotels in Hurghada and got more value for my money and was never ready to go home. But by the end of this week we was all ready for home. I'm not saying its a bad hotel because it wasn't but i dont think its fantastic and can make a lot of improvements to be better.

Great staff and facilities, but serious issues need addressing We stayed at Jaz Aquaviva for 14 days and, unfortunately, our holiday was very mixed. There are definitely positives. The hotel has a huge range of facilities, the staff work incredibly hard and many of them were genuinely fantastic. However, our holiday was significantly affected by illness, and we also had concerns around food hygiene, restaurant capacity, cleaning, maintenance, transport and noise. Illness during our stay During the holiday, all three of us became unwell with stomach problems. We visited the hotel doctor, as did many other families we spoke to who appeared to be experiencing similar issues. We cannot say what caused the illness. It could have been food, water, a change in water, heat or something else entirely. However, what was disappointing was that no stool samples or blood cultures were taken, so there was no way to establish the actual cause. We were effectively confined to our room for around six of our 14 days, and stomach problems continued to affect us for much of the remainder of the holiday. This had a huge impact on what should have been a relaxing family holiday. We appreciate that stomach illnesses can happen when travelling and that it isn’t necessarily possible to identify a cause in every individual case. However, when so many guests appear to be affected, we feel this is something the hotel should take seriously and investigate thoroughly. Food hygiene concerns Our biggest concern was food hygiene and food handling. We saw chicken shawarma left hanging in the kitchen/quiet pool area in a position where birds could land on it and access it. On one occasion, a bird was actually sitting on the chicken. Whatever the cause of our illness, seeing food in this condition at a hotel of this standard was extremely concerning and understandably made us question the food-handling procedures. This is something we feel needs urgent attention. The restaurant situation Although there are nine restaurants across the whole complex, guests are only permitted to book one visit to an à la carte restaurant for their entire stay, regardless of whether they are staying for 7, 10 or 14 days. This means that for the majority of the stay, most of the approximately 2,000 guests at our hotel are eating in the main dining room every night. As you can imagine, this makes the main restaurant extremely busy, particularly at peak times, and takes away much of the benefit of having so many restaurants across the complex. What makes this even more frustrating is that when walking around the village, we often noticed that some of the other restaurants were not particularly busy. It was therefore difficult to understand why guests staying at Jaz Aquaviva were restricted to just one à la carte booking for their entire holiday when there appeared to be capacity elsewhere across the complex. We have stayed at many all-inclusive hotels, and we have never experienced one that was this restrictive with its à la carte restaurants. If you are staying for 14 days, being limited to one à la carte booking for the entire holiday feels particularly disappointing. We would strongly suggest reviewing this policy and allowing guests to make better use of the nine restaurants available across the complex. It could also help reduce the pressure on the main dining room and provide guests with a much better overall dining experience. Cleaning and maintenance The hotel was generally clean, but there were some areas that could be improved. Staff sometimes mopped directly around guests’ feet while people were walking through areas. Apart from being inconvenient, this could potentially create a slipping hazard. Windows also appeared to receive inconsistent attention. Door windows were cleaned, but other windows around the resort didn’t appear to be cleaned as regularly. The pools are also beginning to look tired. We noticed areas of mould, parts that appeared to be coming away and visibly wrinkled pool liners. These things may seem relatively minor individually, but together they make the facilities look less well maintained than we would expect from a hotel of this standard. The shuttle bus The shuttle service also needs improvement. There is only one bus serving the different areas, and it fills very quickly. Guests can be left waiting for the next bus in extremely hot conditions. There is some shade available, which helps, but it is still uncomfortable. The bus also has to travel slowly because of the number of speed bumps, making journeys take longer. With so many guests wanting to visit the different areas, we think separate shuttle services would make much more sense — perhaps one for the town, one for the beach and one dedicated to the water park. At busy times, the current arrangement simply doesn’t seem to cope with demand. The door alarms Another surprisingly frustrating issue was the room-door alarms. If a door is left open, an alarm sounds, and unfortunately the sound carries extremely well. You can hear alarms from inside your room even when it isn’t your own door. Doors are frequently left open, and housekeeping sometimes leave doors open while working, so you can suddenly hear what sounds like an alarm clock going off nearby. The strange thing is that some guests appear completely immune to the alarm going off on their own door! 😂 Reducing the volume or duration of the alarms, and reminding both guests and housekeeping to close doors properly, would make a noticeable difference. But the staff deserve huge recognition ❤️ Despite all of the above, the staff were one of the absolute highlights of our stay. They work incredibly hard and were generally friendly, welcoming and helpful. Several members of staff genuinely went above and beyond to make our holiday more enjoyable. 👑 Amer – Room-Cleaning King Amer was brilliant. Our room was always cleaned beautifully and he consistently worked hard to make sure everything was right. 👑 Khalid – Bar-Server King Always friendly, helpful and attentive. A real credit to the hotel and someone who made our days more enjoyable. 👑 Ramadan – Lifeguard King Ramadan deserves a particularly special mention. He is young, but despite that he was incredibly professional, friendly and attentive. Every time we saw him, he was watching the pool carefully, looking out for guests and making sure people were safe. What impressed us most was that he genuinely seemed to care about everyone around the pool. He consistently went above and beyond and was always a delight to see. Ramadan is a real credit to Jaz Aquaviva and deserves recognition for the way he looks after the guests. 👑❤️ 👑 Mohammad – Bar King Another member of staff who deserves a huge thank you. Friendly, helpful and someone who contributed to making our stay more enjoyable. Overall There is a lot to like about Jaz Aquaviva. The facilities are extensive, the staff are hardworking and some individuals are absolutely exceptional. However, our holiday was seriously affected by illness. Spending approximately six days of a 14-day holiday largely confined to our room was incredibly disappointing, particularly as we appeared to be far from the only family experiencing stomach problems. We cannot say what caused the illness, and we don’t think it would be fair to claim that the hotel was definitely responsible. What we can say is that the lack of proper investigation left us without answers, and the food-handling issue we personally witnessed was concerning. The main areas we believe need attention are: * Food hygiene and food handling * Investigation of illness when multiple guests are affected * The restrictive à la carte restaurant booking policy * Cleaning standards * Pool maintenance * Shuttle bus capacity * The intrusive room-door alarms We really hope the hotel takes this feedback constructively. There is clearly a lot of potential here, and the staff deserve to work in a resort where the facilities and systems match the effort they put in every day. A special thank you to Amer, Khalid, Ramadan and Mohammad. You were our four kings and genuinely helped make a difficult holiday better. 👑❤️ Jaz Aquaviva has some wonderful people and some great facilities, but the health, hygiene and maintenance concerns had too big an impact on our holiday to overlook.

Second stay at Jaz Aquaviva with my family. Food is great, my child with ARFID always managed to find her safe foods, never went hungry. Rooms are spacious and kept clean to a high standard. Hotel grounds are maintained impeccably. Animation is amazing, evening entertainment is much better this year. All work hard amongst their team and have great team spirit. Service both around the pool, restaurants and bars is good considering the amount of guests.

We had a really lovely stay at Jaz Aquaviva. The hotel was comfortable, the staff were friendly and helpful, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere and facilities. Everything was well organized and made our holiday very relaxing. One of the highlights of our trip was our Luxor excursion. We booked it through **Canary Tours Egypt**, and honestly, we were very impressed with how everything was organized. The transportation, guide and whole day were handled very professionally, and visiting Luxor was definitely one of the best experiences of our holiday. If you are staying at Jaz Aquaviva and are thinking about visiting Luxor, I would definitely recommend doing it — it was an unforgettable day and very well worth it. Overall, a fantastic holiday and we would happily come back to Jaz Aquaviva again!