Marek K
Contributor
On Mania's insistence, here's a report from our recent trip to Dahab, 16 July - 1 August 2007. I'll cover the dive operation (Sinai Divers) and dive sites here; and start with the hotel, the Dahab Hilton:
We were very happy with the hotel overall. It's apparently the poshest hotel in Dahab. The standard rooms are all in bungalows with two rooms on the ground floor (two twin beds), and two upstairs (queen bed). Wife and I had an upstairs room, and our kids had a downstairs room in the same bungalow. All the beds were extremely comfortable, with a choice of pillows. And of all things at the Red Sea, there were down comforters!!
There are also some deluxe-room bungalows, but we didn't see what they looked like.
Rooms were extremely clean overall, with daily housekeeping. We don't think the bed linens were changed every day, but not a problem. Towels were changed daily.
Each room has a covered patio or balcony, with a view at least onto the attractive saltwater lagoons.
Bathrooms have American-style (small and shallow) bathtubs with showers. The bathrooms were showing their age a bit -- grout was discolored a little (the air conditioning doesn't seem to include the bathrooms), but that wasn't a problem. But everything was perfectly functional. We didn't need any maintenance. Only minor thing was the occasional, um, odor seeping out of the floor drain, even though it was covered... that seems to be a common issue even in first-class hotels at the Red Sea. But again, not a significant problem.
Only some of the rooms have safe-deposit boxes -- ours didn't. But we locked up our passports at the safe-deposit boxes at the front desk.
The rooms do have wired "high-speed" Internet access -- but for a price (something like $10 per day). There's also wireless access in certain common areas -- also at a price. We didn't use any of it.
Because of the bungalow design -- and all the saltwater lagoons (no swimming in them!!) --the entire outside feeling of the hotel is extremely open and attractive -- particularly at dusk. Also because of the design, the average density of guests seemed very low.
The pool isn't huge, and it's a bit stark -- no landscaping or palm trees immediately around it for some reason. But there were always available lounges under shade (even at 11:00 AM for us sleeping in!!). The beach is rather small, but again shaded lounges were always available.
What we really appreciated was the quality of the food. We were on half-board, and took all our meals at the buffet restaurant. There are a few other specialty restaurants at the hotel (seafood, Italian), and HB folks can get a partial credit there... but we didn't feel the need to. Each night was a different theme (International, Mexican, Italian...), and one night per week it's al-fresco Egyptian specialties in the hotel courtyard. Restaurant service was extremely friendly and attentive; as soon as you set your knife and fork down on an empty plate, a waiter was there to clear it. Drinks were of course extra, and alcoholic beverages (particularly wine, even the excellent Egyptian Sphinx wine) were very expensive... of course.
Overall service at the hotel was also very good and extremely friendly. The first rooms they put us into were right next to the main reception/restaurant building, and there was quite a bit of noise from the air-conditioning unit on the main building's roof... and the view wasn't that great. We asked to be moved to a quieter building, and gave a $20... um... gratuity. It took them a day to get everything arranged, but it worked. We heard of someone else getting moved, with no mention of baksheesh. (Avoid at least Bungalows 1, 2, and 3 on the west side, right next to the main building... the bungalows on the east side appear to better isolated from the noise.)
By the way, none of the hotel employees ever, ever solicited baksheesh... though we gave gratuities occasionally as appropriate.
We took a walk along the beach and glimpsed the other adjacent "exclusive" hotels along the bay there. The Coralia Club just to the east looked very nice; but all the rooms looked to be "motel-style," in two-story linear buildings. It also looked pretty spread out, with a long walk to the nice-looking pool. The Swiss Inn, just to the west, also looked very nice; the pool was attractive, with more adjacent greenery than the Hilton's. But the whole compound was much less open and low-density-looking than the Hilton. We would have been happy at either of those, but didn't regret being at the Hilton.
Oh... there's of course no airport in Dahab; access is via Sharm el-Sheikh, just over an hour's bus/minibus ride away. Our charter company arranged for the transfers.
--Marek
We were very happy with the hotel overall. It's apparently the poshest hotel in Dahab. The standard rooms are all in bungalows with two rooms on the ground floor (two twin beds), and two upstairs (queen bed). Wife and I had an upstairs room, and our kids had a downstairs room in the same bungalow. All the beds were extremely comfortable, with a choice of pillows. And of all things at the Red Sea, there were down comforters!!
There are also some deluxe-room bungalows, but we didn't see what they looked like.
Rooms were extremely clean overall, with daily housekeeping. We don't think the bed linens were changed every day, but not a problem. Towels were changed daily.
Each room has a covered patio or balcony, with a view at least onto the attractive saltwater lagoons.
Bathrooms have American-style (small and shallow) bathtubs with showers. The bathrooms were showing their age a bit -- grout was discolored a little (the air conditioning doesn't seem to include the bathrooms), but that wasn't a problem. But everything was perfectly functional. We didn't need any maintenance. Only minor thing was the occasional, um, odor seeping out of the floor drain, even though it was covered... that seems to be a common issue even in first-class hotels at the Red Sea. But again, not a significant problem.
Only some of the rooms have safe-deposit boxes -- ours didn't. But we locked up our passports at the safe-deposit boxes at the front desk.
The rooms do have wired "high-speed" Internet access -- but for a price (something like $10 per day). There's also wireless access in certain common areas -- also at a price. We didn't use any of it.
Because of the bungalow design -- and all the saltwater lagoons (no swimming in them!!) --the entire outside feeling of the hotel is extremely open and attractive -- particularly at dusk. Also because of the design, the average density of guests seemed very low.
The pool isn't huge, and it's a bit stark -- no landscaping or palm trees immediately around it for some reason. But there were always available lounges under shade (even at 11:00 AM for us sleeping in!!). The beach is rather small, but again shaded lounges were always available.
What we really appreciated was the quality of the food. We were on half-board, and took all our meals at the buffet restaurant. There are a few other specialty restaurants at the hotel (seafood, Italian), and HB folks can get a partial credit there... but we didn't feel the need to. Each night was a different theme (International, Mexican, Italian...), and one night per week it's al-fresco Egyptian specialties in the hotel courtyard. Restaurant service was extremely friendly and attentive; as soon as you set your knife and fork down on an empty plate, a waiter was there to clear it. Drinks were of course extra, and alcoholic beverages (particularly wine, even the excellent Egyptian Sphinx wine) were very expensive... of course.
Overall service at the hotel was also very good and extremely friendly. The first rooms they put us into were right next to the main reception/restaurant building, and there was quite a bit of noise from the air-conditioning unit on the main building's roof... and the view wasn't that great. We asked to be moved to a quieter building, and gave a $20... um... gratuity. It took them a day to get everything arranged, but it worked. We heard of someone else getting moved, with no mention of baksheesh. (Avoid at least Bungalows 1, 2, and 3 on the west side, right next to the main building... the bungalows on the east side appear to better isolated from the noise.)
By the way, none of the hotel employees ever, ever solicited baksheesh... though we gave gratuities occasionally as appropriate.
We took a walk along the beach and glimpsed the other adjacent "exclusive" hotels along the bay there. The Coralia Club just to the east looked very nice; but all the rooms looked to be "motel-style," in two-story linear buildings. It also looked pretty spread out, with a long walk to the nice-looking pool. The Swiss Inn, just to the west, also looked very nice; the pool was attractive, with more adjacent greenery than the Hilton's. But the whole compound was much less open and low-density-looking than the Hilton. We would have been happy at either of those, but didn't regret being at the Hilton.
Oh... there's of course no airport in Dahab; access is via Sharm el-Sheikh, just over an hour's bus/minibus ride away. Our charter company arranged for the transfers.
--Marek
