“ I’ll write an honest review because I feel like that is needed.
We stayed at the Jaz Makadi Saraya resort for 6 days and it’s far from a 5 star resort. Some quick things that are not in line with a real 5 star resort are:
Cheap drinks out of paper cups. No glass anywhere. No real juices or coffee, No towels by the beach or pool, no robe and slippers or bathroom goodies, no conditioner, no room service, only a few different items at the pool restaurants so no actual menu.
This hotel is part of a complex with 5 or so other hotels in Makadi. You get different wrist bands depending on what Hotel “price class” you stay in so there are a lot of things you can’t use or you won’t have access too like some of the nicer pools and and beach cafe’s. There is a buffet restaurant for breakfast lunch and dinner and you can also go to one of the a la carte restaurants per stay. It’s incredibly difficult to get a reservation at one of the nicer ones because they will say there is no availability, but when you pay cash they will suddenly have availability ;) count on $150 per dinner for a family of four.
The buffet it ok when you stick to some local foods like beans, rice, and plain meat but it’s lacking feest fruit and veggies. A lot has food dyes and strange substitutes.
The resort lands are nicely landscaped but the hotel itself is very outdated. Think of telephones out of the 70’s, old airconditioning unites, old blinds, old sheets and golden sprayed lamps and a “ Mercedes” shower head.
When booking it states that tennis and a fitness center are included but Saraya actually doesn’t even have a gym. You have to pay an extra fee to use the gym at the hotel next door, same for tennis and golf, jacuzzi etc.
Only a small part of the pool is heated and for slides you would have to get on a shuttle and go to the Waterpark.
Don’t get me started on the “health center” not included either and i wouldn’t even want to go there if it was free.
We do have some positives as well.
The beach area is very nice. They sell great real fruit juices that were a big hit with our kids.
We booked a horseback riding excursion and that was great.
We had a pretty nice meal at the Beach restaurant. (Paid separately and EU pricing)
We still had a good time and it was nice to be in the sunshine, but I wish the hotel had not been marketed as a 5* hotel so that we would have different expectations. “