Live and work in central London for a law firm which keeps me insanely busy; mum of lovely teenage b...
Live and work in central London for a law firm which keeps me insanely busy; mum of lovely teenage boy; my means of escape is reading - absolutely everything! Currently studying for ITEC Holistic Massage diploma ...
Member since:20.01.2003
Reviews:5
A truly lovely and fantastically friendly resort, you can't get much better than this in South Sinai. My son and I travelled there in July 2004 for two weeks and had a wonderful time.
You could not wish to meet more friendly staff and they just adore children. They don't hover around expecting tips and the grounds are kept immaculate; beautiful date trees drooping with heavy fruit, beautiful flowers and grass - yes, in the Sinai desert.
There are three restaurants - the main restaurant, an "Italian" restaurant - which we always found too hot even in the evening - and an a la carte restaurant. The food was always exceptional and they had varied menus, taking a different theme each night. My favourite was "Egyptian night!"
The service was 5*++ at the restaurants and bars (three bars - beach, pool and main reception area) and at the pool bar you were waited on hand and foot. Service was discreet but highly attentive.
You will be will looked after by your housekeeper - ours bought me flowers one afternoon when he found out that I had been in the room all day, unwell. Very thoughtful. The rooms are in need of a lick of paint but they are always clean and we never saw any creatures in our room at any time - and only saw two lizards throughout the whole of our stay, out in the grounds.
The watersports were a mixed bag, I thought. They really upped the prices once school holidays kicked in (by almost 40% on the snorkelling trip) but even then prices were reasonable.
There are also a few shops in the resort which are well worth looking in for a few holiday mementos - I bought a beautiful Egyptian pottery horse-head and it has pride of my place in my front room, a bargain at £25.
However, where this resort really comes into its own is the quality of coral so close to the shore. You definitely need to wear jelly shoes (or the like) in the water due to all manner of spiky fish lurking on the sand but in certain parts of the beach you only had to wade out 2m to find some stunning fish on the coral. Snorkelling out there is fantastic (with a couple of good locations known only to some of the staff there so do get to know them well!) with the opportunity to swim with huge angelfish. Later in the afternoon, there were always shoals of fish leaping into the air as eels chased them - don't worry, the eels aren't concerned about you, they are just chasing their dinner.
At night you will be captivated by walking onto the pier and seeing all the lionfish spread out under the walkways - we also saw cuttlefish.
There are a good variety of day - or longer - trips to Cairo, Petra, Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, as well as St Catherine's Monastery, at very reasonable prices.
For female travellers who are travelling without male company do beware when out of the resort 'tho - my son and I travelled from Nuweiba Port to Aqaba to visit a friend and we had the most unbelievable nightmarish journey there and back.
In short, if you are looking for a relaxing time away with family or a group of friends, then you couldn't find better in my opinion. Fantastic value for money and an experience not to be missed.
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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
Apr 15th, 2005
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