We’ve just returned from Taba, Egypt’s newest resort. We stayed at the self-proclaimed, 5 star Sonesta Beach Resort, booked through Thomson Holidays. Most of the reviews I read prior to my vacation stated clean rooms, over attentive and extremely friendly staff, fantastic weather, fantastic origami towel creations, and spectacular poolside views of the mountain scape ……….I totally agree with all of these points!
We’d mentioned on booking that this was our honeymoon (don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t looking for freebees, they just asked me the reason for our trip) and on arrival an unexpected gift of a plate of fruit was presented in our room. Two bruised apples and a few apricots covered in Clingfilm….how nice!
On arrival, you’ll be given a tag to wear on your wrist at all times, this not only shows that you’re full board but also indicates to the staff the ability of each tourist to communicate; pink is full English speaking, light blue is some English and dark blue is none. I have no problems with this system but I do think that the staff should also wear the light blue and dark blue tags, especially on the front desk.
It was very frustrating that any simple request resulted in misunderstanding; most exchanges had to be repeated to at least 2 additional members of staff before a manager was called out to be just as confused.
The beach is approximately 200 meters long and has plenty of sun beds and parasols, however, high season you will definitely have to play the “reserve the bed with the towel game”. The texture and color of the sand isn’t in the same quality as say the idyllic soft golden sands of the Bahamas or the Maldives but to make this a point of complaint would be silly. This beach area is sandwiched between what looks like the local fly tipping areas. So as long as you keep your head pointing north towards the sea, you’ll be all right. Both these dumping areas have rudimentary huge unfinished concrete eye saw structures on them. You won’t have to worry about the noise of heavy equipment completing these neighboring resorts because like approximately 200 other Taba construction sites dotted along the coast, they have been abandoned for many years and left to spoil the scenery.
The snorkelling at the beach is okay, I concur with other reviewers that there are adequate amounts of small fish to see, however, my stay at the Hilton Sharks Bay in Sharm El Sheik, the previous year was stunning in comparison. The waters there were calmer due to the amount of coral and the size and colours of the fish were out of this world so I was a little disappointed.
Because of the low cost for staying at this resort and the bemusing 5 star rating, approximately 60% of the guests were the tattoo and tracksuit brigade, the average restaurant attire was football shorts and t-shirt (they would be topless if they could). The entertainment round the pool seemed to cater for this crowd. If you don’t like the Butlins type entertainment and dislike cheesy loud music then I suggest the beach or the quieter pool at the front of the resort.
If you do decide to spend the days down at the beach to relax, then you may get frustrated with the sporadic interruptions of staff trying to sell you things such as; excursions, massages, henna tattoo, pool activities, diving, etc. And if you’re not being sold to then you may encounter the mischievous pool boys who like to wake you up and get your attention especially if you are female.
The location of the resort as with all of the resorts in Taba is fantastic if you are planning to visit Jordan or other areas of Egypt. The excursions were mostly what I had expected. You will be able to book any of these trips through the hotel, saving you a lot of money and providing you exactly the same trip. Or you can book them on-line before you go and save even more money going directly to the companies that do the actual trips and cut the pointless middleman out. The quad bikes were great fun. Don’t look forward too much to the authentic Bedouin drinks and snacks during the quad biking; some tea and at the most 3 wagon wheel size, very thin, very hard, plain pitta bread…..that’s it. Lucky I wasn’t hungry or that my taste buds needed any stimulation! The Red sea Cruise was also a great trip with good hosts and good food with freshly made warm pitta bread (you will find pitta bread and fresh bread almost everywhere except at Sonesta Beach resort) and I truly recommend this trip. Petra was fantastic and if you wish to see what an authentic 4/5 star hotel is like, included was lunch at the Movenpick. The Movenpick will serve fantastic, authentic Egyptian cuisine, exactly what you are probably expecting throughout your entire stay. But I advise you not to eat there, this will only highlight the rubbish that they serve up at The Sonesta Beach Resort.
And finally the worst part of our holiday, the food! We paid the all-inclusive package; this included the local beer, wine, soft drinks and local spirits. There were no cocktails available and ice cream was limited to a choice of two flavors, no ice lollys either(at other resorts these are on offer). You were given one bottle of water when you arrived and had to keep filling it up from one of the three water dispensers on site (one of which was always at room temperature). The spirits are pretty foul, medicinal and chemical tasting as well as the local wines tasting of vinegar, beer, Stella (not Artois) was probably the safest option, it’s a lager and not bad and in case you just want to slurp on one of their many juices, you’ll only be disappointed that they are really only the equivalent to our squash. The inclusive breakfast, lunch and dinner was of a really poor quality. Under cooked omelettes, tasteless salads, gristly chicken, over cooked tough dry meats, at least we think it was meat, what kind though we couldn’t tell you, soggy vegetables, yuck! My wife is a vegetarian and ate a diet of chips, stale bread roles and rice for the entire stay. After the second day we decided to try out one of the three al a carte restaurants, which you have to pay for. The Scalini, Italian, was ok, but don’t try the pizza as the dough is sweet and undercooked. Next we tried the fish restaurant, Blue Fish, we couldn’t eat our starters or our main course, under cooked fish that smelt like it had been caught months ago, and gritty soup. I was ill for 3 days of the trip with the worst stomach I’ve ever experienced in my life. As a result I had to cancel a diving trip I’d booked through the Thompson rep. I was told by the rep that I wouldn’t get any of my £60 back because I cancelled on the day (they didn’t take into consideration that I had already handed them over £700. for excursions and also the total amount that I paid them for my holiday) , the only way I would get refunded was if I saw the local doctor and got him to give me a doctors note, the doctor by the way charges £30-£40 for call out charge plus the price of medication on top!! I was extremely upset with Thompson and wanted to cancel all the trips as I was unsure weather I would be able to go on any of them being ill and didn’t want to loose all my money. I was told that if I cancelled all the trips I would only receive some of the money back. If you are going to book any trips through your rep, make sure you get to see a copy of the cancellation terms and conditions before hand, as this was only produced to us once we cancelled.
I would definitely recommend Taba to anyone as it has the most amazing views, but would avoid this particular resort. Many guests that we came in contact with said that they had had very bad stomach problems that they thought was due to the poor standard of food. I must add, that the men’s toilets absolutely stank all the time. If you are going to stay in Taba, make sure you stay in Taba Heights as there is a supermarket, chemist and lots of different restaurants to choose from. I would also recommend you stay with a well known chain such as The Marriott or The Radisson, as we heard some good reviews from people that were staying there. Good luck!
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