I returned recently from a 17-day trip to Egypt and Jordan, and for those who are interested, here’s my take on the four properties where we stayed.

FS Nile Plaza
With over 300 rooms, there’s some truth to the complaints most commonly leveled against this hotel for being “impersonal,” “soulless,” and “lacking in local color/atmosphere.” But I found those complaints to be far outweighed by the typical pleasures of staying at a well-run FS property. DavidO had negotiated in advance for a confirmed upgrade to deluxe Nile-view rooms for our party of 4, and we also enjoyed the other Virtuoso amenities (spa credit, breakfast, etc.). The hotel interiors were consistently fresh and polished, not showing signs of age or wear and tear (the hotel’s been open since late 2004, according to their Website). No surprises in the room for those who have stayed at other FS city properties—rectangular in layout, spacious bathrooms, comfortable beds and linens. Very nice, although lacking in design or features that would contradict critics who say that you could just as well be in Dallas as Cairo.
The outdoor pool area is a significant disappointment, looking far more dated than the rest of the property. Given that the area is situated on the east side of the high rise, it’s completely in the shade for the afternoon, and is somewhat cramped and awkward in layout. The spa interior, though, was excellent, with relaxation rooms containing large daybeds situated in front of full-wall views out over the Nile, separate wet areas for men and women (sauna, Jacuzzi, cold plunge pool, steam room in each). Treatment rooms also have full wall views out over the Nile, so I’d recommend a treatment near sunset that doesn’t involve having your head down on massage table—perhaps reflexology or a pedicure—so that you can gaze out over the river and the competing calls to prayer during your treatment. Most of the therapists were from Asian FS resorts (in fact, virtually all therapists at all the properties we visited were Asian, brought in by the properties since, as one put it, “North Africa is not a culture of touch.” Each of us received a treatment (my traveling companions, in particular, are spa aficionados), and had universally positive feedback about them.
Food was underwhelming on site . . . numerous restaurants, but the ones we tried were expensive and just average in quality. The breakfast buffet is large and fine, if a bit boring after several days.
Superb concierge service. My friend forgot her pool flip-flops, and when the FS shop didn’t have any, one of the concierge staff went out and bought a pair for her once stores opened later at night post fast (we were there during Ramadan). We arranged full-day tours through the concierge. They have a list of typical itineraries that combine a variety of sites, and when none of them covered quite the array we wanted, they had no problem redesigning the itinerary to include the elements we wanted. (Perhaps more detail that you want, but rather than the pre-fab itinerary to Giza, Memphis, and Sakkara, we wanted to see all the great pyramids in one circuit– going from Giza to Dahshur to Sakkara, substituting Dahshur for Memphis, which I’d consistently read was less impressive than other sites.) The guide, driver, and vehicle were just as you’d expect from the Four Seasons, providing us with very good excursions.
All-in-all, a very nice stay, providing a comfortable and elegant escape from the frustrations and discomfort of Cairo.

Oberoi Zahra
A class act from start to finish, and easily one of the top “hotel” experiences I have ever had, almost entirely due to the impeccable service throughout. The Zahra has about 26 cabins; 11 were occupied during our week-long trip. (The trip before, only 2 had been occupied, so the family of 4 who occupied those cabins, in essence had their own private yacht for the week!)
Cabins were very comfortable, and while certainly smaller than most luxury hotel rooms, felt much more spacious than typical cruise accommodations. Floor to ceiling windows line the external wall of each cabin, including the shower, with electronic gadgetry for various degrees of screening.
Meals were consistently excellent and served with immense skill and professionalism. The servers noted preferences in the very first meal and from that point we were brought our drink preferences and other favorites without ever having to ask. When one of our party asked if the chocolate brownies she’d had earlier could be made available again, a fresh, warm batch was made for her immediately, and they became a regular “surprise” sidebar to many desserts she ordered thereafter. Breakfasts were a combination of buffet and hot choices from a menu, lunches were always a la carte, and 5 of the 7 dinners were a la carte, the other 2 dinners being themed “Middle Eastern” and “Indian” nights providing a 7-8 course fixed menu. There were typically 3-4 appetizers, 2 soups, 3-4 entrees, and 3-4 desserts on each menu, with significant variation in options from meal to meal. Breakfast and dinner are served in the restaurant, while lunch is an option in either the restaurant or up on the pool deck on tables arranged beneath jets of cool steam.
The guests are organized into small groups for the short excursions, with no group larger than 6 guests, and each group having its own guide and driver. The excursions were very effectively and efficiently planned, frequently timed so that large crowds and the heat of the day were avoided as much as possible. Especially magical were evening tours to the temples of Edfu and Dendarah (Oberoi has an arrangement for a private entrée to Dendarah at night, so it’s really possible to soak up the atmosphere without crowds. And because the Zahra spends seven days on a cruise that typically takes other boats 2-3 days, you see the sights at a very leisurely pace, with lots of time to relax on the sundeck in between excursions. And many of our favorite moments were spent on the deck, reading or watching/listening to life on the Nile banks.
Due, presumably, to cultural perspectives about women in the workplace, the entire crew of the boat is male, with the exception of four Thai massage therapists in the spa. Our package included four spa treatments per person, and they were consistently excellent.
No request seemed too much for the staff. For example, one of our party finished reading The English Patient during the cruise and was eager to see the film. When the on-board DVD library did not have it, we expressed an interest and the assistant manager arranged to have the DVD purchased in Cairo and delivered to the boat so that we could watch it one evening. At another point, one of the staff noticed a slight tear in the sleeve of my friend’s sundress, and when she returned later to her room, it had been sewn and repaired.
So the Zahra experience was easily the highlight of the trip for us, providing a wonderfully curated and luxurious way to experience many of the most incredible ancient monuments I’ve ever seen, far surpassing, in scale and condition, remains of the ancient world I’ve seen in Greece.

Four Seasons Sharm-El-Sheikh.
A disappointing experience overall, much of which was likely due to our staying during a very busy period, the days of celebration after Ramadan in which many families in the Near and Middle East vacation. As a result, the pool was simply a madhouse, with screaming children and babies everywhere, and no adults-only pool. We had quite a bit of difficulty even securing an order for drinks.
Rooms are dated and in response to that sharing my perspective on the rooms in the comment card, I received an email acknowledging the need to refurbish them and the goal of doing so in 2010.
The spa is very small and a bit chaotic, much less impressive than the one in the FS Nile Plaza. Excellent treatments, however, which is what’s most important.
Large breakfast buffet, of uneven quality. Their high-end Italian restaurant provided the worst meal of our time in Egypt (for example: almost inedible “green lasagna” that was basically a bowl of ground beef and tomato sauce).
All this said, the exteriors and grounds are achingly beautiful. It’s simply unbelievable how green and lush they are, with flowering tendrils and vines cascading from terraces and balconies everywhere you look, and courtyards and fountains galore. Unlike the FS Nile Plaza, anytime you are outdoors or in a public area you feel, undeniably, that you are somewhere different and distinct, somewhere that leverages the aesthetic of the Middle East to provide its guests with luxury contextualized within atmosphere. If only the private areas provided that same sense . . . and perhaps soon they will, although the very homogeneous, rectangular format of the rooms will always present a challenge to creating a private space as exciting as the public ones. (We were in the third category up from the standard room, I believe—once again, we received an upgrade and the other Virtuoso amenities thanks to David O).
So I imagine that when the resort is less crowded, it can be a very nice stay, and that will be especially true once the room renovation is enacted. But the lack of an adults-only pool is a fatal flaw, in my mind, and would prevent me from going back.

Evason Ma’In: A Six Senses resort/spa
Perhaps the worst experience I’ve ever had at a “luxury” hotel, despite an upgrade to the royal suite, the top room in the property.
I’d never stayed at a Six Senses property before, but after planning initially to stay at the Four Seasons Amman, with an overnight at the Movenpick in Petra to break up the long drive to/from Petra, I was seduced by the newness of the Evason Ma’In, and the reports I’ve heard about how unexciting and tired the Four Seasons Amman is. What a mistake—we would have been far better off in even the most standard of Four Seasons hotels, and the Movenpick in Petra would have enabled us to enjoy sunset and morning at Petra, as well as the candlelight tour provided on selected evenings.
So it’s clear to anyone who looks at Six Senses properties that they’re trying to create some sort of rustic idyll for their guests, but that shouldn’t mean that everything, and I mean everything, is falling apart and dirty, especially after having been open less than a year. Presumably due to the Virtuoso booking made by David O, our party of four was upgraded to the two best rooms: the 2-bedroom, 2-bath Royal Suite, and the Spa Suite, which had a gargantuan terrace looking out over the waterfall. But within seconds of entering the rooms, the problems began. Barely-functional air-conditioning made rest difficult. The soap dispenser in the shower had clumps of hair on it, raising concerns about using the re-filled pump. The bathroom sink’s hardware had come loose, and the bathtub had been poorly patched up after incurring some sort of damage. Visibly sloppy painting of the walls, with paint also spreading onto the window frames. No trash can, despite four calls to housekeeping requesting one. We requested a bucket of ice, but never received it.
The small swimming pool has only a dozen or so daybeds, so there’s probably some anger when the resort has larger numbers of guests, and the pool service was deeply inadequate, not having towels at several points of the day. Lots of flies. At one point, the steel handrail leading down into the pool was covered by wood to try to continue the rustic theme, but most of the wood has been broken off—and should either have been removed altogether or repaired, rather than being left to look so shabby.
The public areas have some interesting design elements, merging rusticity with a sense of Middle Eastern aesthetics. The dining areas are attractive. But the guestrooms themselves just look cheap and underfurnished, with nothing seeming to function as intended.
Upon checkout, they couldn’t get their credit card machine to work, and the bill they presented us had charges for six different dinners for four, when we’d only stayed for three nights! We tried to explain that it was simply impossible for us to have eaten 6 different dinners when we’d only been there 3 nights, and had to argue for about an hour about that with them. The on-site manager was incredibly unhelpful during our entire stay, constantly trying to coerce us into doing something different than we desired. For example, we prefer to have a spa treatment prior to a meal rather than right after one. So we requested our spa treatments at 6 pm, and availability was confirmed. But then the manager approached us and told us that it was a bad idea to have a spa treatment before a meal, and that we should have our spa treatment right after lunch instead. We told him that we really did not want to lay on a massage table right after a meal, and he continued to insist that it was a bad idea to have a massage before dinner. Every interaction with him felt like a battle in which, for no good reason, he attempted to dissuade us from doing what we wanted to do. Another example: on the last day of our trip, we wanted to relax without leaving the property. But he became insistent that we should leave the property to dine off-site that evening. We refused, and he was somewhat disgruntled about that.
The spa building is also underwhelming, and the pool there seemed unclean, with twigs and residue floating on the surface. Treatments, though, were excellent there from the Asian staff who came from Six Senses properties in SE Asia. Local staff who performed less extensive treatments, like the 30-minute foot recovery massage, were less proficient, however.
Altogether, a really unpleasant stay, full of battles with the management over what appeared to us to be very simple requests, and general discomfort with the state of disrepair and lack of cleanliness. I’ve learned my lesson, and will never stay at a Six Senses property again.
As I said, were I to visit Petra again, I’d definitely stay at the Movenpick. I’m sure the rooms aren’t much better than a standard 3-star hotel’s, but the lobby area is very, very beautiful and atmospheric, and the light on the Treasury in Petra is best in the early morning and the dusk, and it would be great to be able to come and go from Petra to the hotel, which is just 2 minutes from the entrance gate to Petra, rather than doing a long drive from Amman or Ma’In, spending the heat of the day trying to see as much of Petra as possible, and then driving 3-4 hours back. It made for an exhausting day—well worth it to see such a spectacular place as Petra, which I absolutely loved—but how nice it would have been to see it without the long drive home hanging over you all day, and to have been able to take advantage of the candlelight tour in the evening, in addition to seeing all that glorious colored stone changing appearance during morning and evening and noonday suns.
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One last recommendation. Despite staying at luxury hotels, and eating all meals of the trip (except one) therein, several of us had sustained bouts with gastro-intestinal infections, multiple times during the trip. So I’d strongly advise taking a prescription of antibiotic with you, just in case; the one I took worked wonders.