Sindbad Club

Sindbad Club Hurghada is a large all-inclusive resort for divers travelling with family, as a couple or simply looking for plenty to do between outings. There are 733 rooms, six pools, a private beach and an aqua park, so this is not the place for a tiny hideaway where everyone whispers over herbal tea. It is a resort with enough going on to keep different members of a group occupied.

You can move from a morning by the Red Sea to a proper lunch, a swim, the spa or an evening show without having to organise the day around leaving the property. Families have a supervised Kids Club, while couples can choose the quieter main-building pool, a massage or a drink in The Library. The useful part is the choice: you can join the activity, or simply find a lounger and let the bubbles in your ears settle.

The resort sits in Hurghada, Egypt, on the Red Sea at 1 Mohamed Said Street. Hurghada International Airport is about 15 minutes away by road, which keeps arrival and departure days relatively manageable. The hotel has a private golden-sand beach on site, 120 metres long, with loungers, towels, a beach bar and a snack café.

The beach is reached in around three minutes from the lobby. For a change of scene, Old Vic Beach is about 1 mile away on foot, while Hurghada Downtown and Saqqala Square are roughly 2.8 miles away. Heavens Bar is listed close by, and Zaza and Cafe Sofi are within the surrounding area, so the resort is not marooned beyond its own gates.

Hurghada Grand Aquarium is around 3.9 miles away, and Sand City Hurghada is about 6 miles from the hotel. That gives you a few straightforward options for a non-diving outing, although the resort itself already provides most of the day-to-day entertainment.

The rooms are set up for recovery rather than heroic interior design: air conditioning for the return from hot, salty water, satellite or cable television for an undemanding evening, free Wi-Fi and a balcony. A refrigerator is also useful in the practical, unglamorous way that matters on a diving holiday: cold water waiting when you come back tired is better than another grand promise about relaxation. Daily housekeeping, a shower, slippers, toiletries and a hairdryer cover the basics.

For two people, the double rooms all use an extra-large double bed, so the choice is mainly about the room category and the particular package rather than sleeping arrangements. The Wellness Room suits a couple who want the room to support a slower stay, while the Honeymoon Package at Deluxe Room is the obvious fit for a special trip. The family one-bedroom rooms accommodate three people, and the two-bedroom family suites give four guests separate sleeping space rather than asking everyone to negotiate the same room after a long day.

Families are welcome whatever the children's age, with children aged 12 and over treated as adults for the booking arrangements. Cots depend on the selected accommodation, and extra beds are not available, so check the sleeping layout carefully if you are travelling with children. The balconies give you somewhere to sit without turning the bed into an evening terrace; the air conditioning does the harder work when the Egyptian heat has followed you indoors.

All-inclusive dining is spread across five restaurants, with two buffet restaurants and three speciality restaurants. Gusto serves an international open buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast runs from 7:00 am to 10:00 am, lunch from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm and dinner from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, giving you a clear timetable for fitting meals around the day's plans.

Botanica also serves an international buffet for breakfast and dinner, with snacks from noon to 5:00 pm. That afternoon window is the useful one: it catches the gap between returning, showering and realising that lunch was several hours ago. For the evening, SAWATDI brings pan-Asian à la carte cooking, Fakhr El Din focuses on Mediterranean dishes and Pronto takes the Italian route. Reservations are required for the speciality restaurants and are made using self-service screens in the lobby.

Five beverage bars keep the resort supplied from different corners: The Library is the lobby bar and lounge, Oasis Bar serves the main pool, Zar Bar serves the wave pool, La Cabana is beside the aqua park and Alchemy is the theatre bar. There is also a snack bar, fruit and children's meals, with special-diet menus available on request. In other words, you can eat quietly, eat quickly or make dinner into an event without leaving the grounds.

The six pools divide the resort's energy rather neatly. The Aqua Hotel Pool, beside the main building, has no daytime activity programme and is the sensible choice when you want a book, a nap and no one asking you to join a tournament. The Aqua Park takes the opposite approach, with a wave pool, seven adult slides and four children's slides, plus a heated children's pool with climbing frames and slides.

The spa covers the post-dive maintenance plan in its own way, with aromatherapy, deep-tissue massage, hammam, sauna and traditional treatments from Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The spa also has a relaxation area, while the fitness centre offers cardio and strength equipment and step-aerobics classes. A gym session may not be the first thing on your mind after diving, but it is there for the days when lying horizontally stops feeling productive.

There is tennis, volleyball, grass football, billiards, darts, table tennis, trampoline activity and target shooting. On the water, kayaking, paddleboarding, parasailing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, water skiing, tow rides and glass-bottom boat trips on Sindbad Quest are available. Desert safaris and submarine excursions add options away from the pools, while evening entertainment, themed dinner nights and live sports broadcasts give you reasons to stay up after sunset.

Hurghada International Airport is about 15 minutes away by road. An airport shuttle is available, either privately or as a shared service, and should be arranged with the hotel. A shuttle service is also available for other journeys. The front desk operates around the clock, with express check-in and check-out, luggage storage, currency exchange, an on-site cash machine and concierge service.

Check-in takes place from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, and you need to tell the property your expected arrival time in advance. Check-out is from 11:30 am to noon. Cash is accepted as a payment method. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel, and room service is available when the walk to a restaurant feels unnecessarily ambitious.

Children of any age can stay, and there is no minimum age for check-in. Cots depend on the accommodation selected, while extra beds are not available. Pets are not allowed. Pool clothing rules are specific: loose cotton clothing and long swimming suits are not permitted in the pool areas.