I visited the Red Sea resort of Taba, in Egypt, with my partner, in February 2004. We went with Longwood travel, and booked through Ezy Travel which was the cheapest travel agent by far, run by two Egyptian brothers who really know their stuff (you can find them on teletext). We paid £585 each for two weeks at the Radisson, a 5 starhotel, on an all-inclusive basis, which is a bargain in anyone's money!
We flew to the new airport at Taba Heights. From there it is about 45 mins transfer by coach to the hotel. Taba is very close to the Israeli border and some airlines
fly into Ovda, but I wouldn't recommend it. Not only is there a 2 hour transfer, but it involves a border crossing which can take between one and two hours - longer on a bad day. Suffice to say that there is not much co-operation between the Israeli side and the Egyptian side.
If, like me, all you want is a relaxing holiday with nothing to do but laze in the sun, snorkel along the coral reef watching a myriad of multi-coloured fishes and the occasional turtle, and enjoy long leisurely meal times with good food and pleasant ambience, this is place is heaven on earth.
I am disabled. We had notified Longwood of this, but the hotel hadn't been informed and we had been allocated a room on the second floor with no lift. But the hotel was fantastic, they moved us to a ground floor room with a seaview straightaway, with no fuss. The room was huge - with two kingsized beds - and very comfortable.
The service was fantastic. The young man who cleaned our room was polite and efficient. Towels and bedlinen were changed daily. Clothes left lying around (okay, I admit I'm not the tidiest person in the world) were folded and placed on a chair. If we had a shower in the daytime, the towels were changed again before he went off-duty.
The bar staff and the waiters were friendly and helpful. The restaurant is buffet service. The food was very good quality and always hot. There was always a good selection, and vegetarians are well catered for. If I have a criticism it would be that over the two weeks the menu did get a bit repetitive.
There is an Italian restaurant with waiter service, for which there is an additional charge, but there was hardly ever anyone in there. We never ate there, as the buffet restaurant was so good, so I can't comment on the food or service, but it looked nice enough.
The beach is a short (2 mins) walk from the pool. Looking back from the beach, all you can see is the hotel rounds with a backdrop of the mountains behind. Not pretty in a conventional sense, but breathtaking in its own way.
Drinks (included in the cost of the holiday) are served from 11am at the pool bar and 12 noon at the mirage cafe (close to the beach). Before 11am you have to go to the restaurant to get drinks which is a bit of a pain, but large bottles of cold mineral water are freely available from the restaurant and any of the bars.
The place is in the middle of nowhere. There is literally nothing for miles around. Even the next hotel is a couple of miles away. There are no shops, no locals, nothing in the area at all.
There are trips to various places, but to be honest, they are mainly too far to make it worth while (though the reps do tend to play this aspect down). I did not go on any trips, but my partner went to the Dead Sea. The border crossings took over 3 hours in total. He left at 4.10 am and got back at 8.30pm. He actually only had just over 3 hours at the destination, much of which was spent in long queues waiting to get into places.
There is a scuba school, so if you feel like doing something a bit more energetic than eating and sunbathing, you can learn to scuba dive.
There is also a courtesy bus to another beach where there are banana boat rides, paragliding, donut rides, wind surfing and so on. The best thing about this, in my view, was that it kept those sort of activities away from our quiet little beach!
The all-inclusive price also includes local alcoholic drinks, but to be honest apart from the wine, they were undrinkable. Wine is only served in the restaurant for some reason, so we tended to linger over meals and consumed enough wine that we didn't want or need any more alcohol anyway.
If you are looking for an exciting nightlife, don't go to Taba. The 'entertainment' really wasn't up to much. There was a male vocalist with a limited repertoire and a duo who didn't have a lot going for them apart from enthusiasm. But the entertainment generally didn't start till about 10pm by which time we were ready to turn in anyway. The all-inclusive drinks finished at 11pm (after that they were charged for and could be booked to the room).
In conclusion, this is a fantastic place to go for a relaxing sunshine holiday at bargain prices, but probably not the place for people looking for adventure, excitement, or an energetic nightlife.
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Advantages: Guaranteed sunshine. The private beach is safe, clean and half empty and the staff are lovely. Disadvantages: The dreaded Pharoah's curse! I didn't meet anyone who had not suffered from a stomach upset.
VanillaSpy 18.08.2004 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Taba, Egypt
Advantages: Guaranteed sunshine. The private beach is safe, clean and half empty and the staff are lovely. Disadvantages: The dreaded Pharoah's curse! I didn't meet anyone who had not suffered from a stomach upset.
VanillaSpy 18.08.2004 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Taba, Egypt
Apr 26th, 2004
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