St. Catherines Monastery Hotel St. Catherines Monastery Guesthouse Beware of Dirt and Filth at the HOTEL ONLY - Unacceptable dirty Bathrooms, just filthy Saint Catherine, Other

This Monastery hotel/guest house from the outside fits in with the very special and beautiful St. Catherine's Monastery.  The room was quaint, and simple, which fit in and made it feel as an authentic monastery.  But do not open the bathroom door.  We were staying in one of the nicer rooms, and the bathroom was a living hell.  Dirty black, greasy hairs all over the shower, around the toilet and all over the filthy tile floor.  The shower pan had mold, mildew and filth in the grout.  Dirt was on the floor.  It was absolutely filthy. 

The shower is a crummy little hand held shower that pumps out ice cold and then scalding hot water, with no shower curtain floods the entire bathroom, creating floating mats of scum.  I have never in all my years traveling experienced such disgusting bathrooms.  BEWARE!  I also checked other rooms and other guests were just as horrified and were the same. 

The Egyptians, while nice, run the guest house, need serious training in what is considered clean in a bathroom and presented with a 50 gallon drum of bleach, complimentary.  

The outdoor corridor and eating establishment, filled with smoking workers, had thousands of flies that would crawl all over you.  Reason is because they are dumping rotting garbage behind the wall of the restaurant and not covering it or disposing of it promptly.  The flies were just awful.  Thousands of them.  A $300 commercial fly light would remedy the problem and covering of garbage (Note: use cans!).

Not recommended and would stay in town at a couple of newer looking hotels I noticed at the base of St Catherine's.

The Monastery itself, the experience of Mt Sinai, the Orthodox Priests were wonderful and very special.