Jinnine R
Google
We have just come back from our 2 week Egypt holiday. We booked the usual places ie. Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Cairo. We had heard good things about Alexandria so thought we would book one night at the Steigneberger Cecil Hotel. Getting to the hotel from Cairo was quite a trip (took 4.5 hours due to traffic). Once we got into Alexandria, I could see in its former glory, it would have been a magnificent place to visit but overall we found it dirty, noisy and a lot of poverty to be seen ie. beggars knocking on the car window for money (due to constantly stopping in traffic).||On arrival at the hotel, it was difficult to park for long to unload bags and not necessarily anybody available from the hotel to assist. Check-in was smooth enough. When we got to the room, there were two twin beds, I had asked for a double when I booked (but as I see from other reviews - they don't have doubles but they don't tell you). Housekeeping came quick enough to put the two singles together and put the single duvet covers together. When I explained to the reception that I had requested in the booking for a double they just kept on saying well they didn't have that confirmation.||The room overall was clean and spacious. We had a partial sea view room. I could not believe the amount of traffic outside and the noise. It was still busy and noisy early the next morning. I was glad that I had ear plugs. Whilst the doors looked like they had been double glazing/tight seal to keep the noise out, the seal did not work properly now.||We had dinner that evening in the main restaurant (where breakfast was also served). Due to what we had experienced in the traffic ie. beggars and it was very busy outside, we did not feel comfortable to venture out and find some where else to eat. When I looked at the menu, it had very enticing pictures of the dishes, lol - what came out did not look like the pictures. The mushroom soup, which had a picture of chunks of mushrooms came out as a creamy soup (it was ok but not what I was expecting). The breads that were brought were nice and had hummus and tapenade dip. We also ordered steaks (medium rare) - quite disappointing when they did come out. The meat was really odd, was white in the middle, like it was old meat and was very tough - well done (not medium rare). We ordered one club sandwich - which once again was disappointing. Dinner overall was disappointing. The staff did apologise but I don't think they understood what we were saying about the toughness and condition of the meat. The next morning, I ordered one continental breakfast - breads/pastries were stale.||Like Alexandria, maybe the hotel was amazing at one point but not now.
