Just came back yesterday and cannot wait to write about our time spent at Holiday beach resort. This was not our first vacation in egypt, we went to Hurgada, Safaga and Sharm el sheik, so we know what to expect from holiday in egypt. We can tell you thet this was worst ever. Management of the hotel is counting on the beatifull red sea and their coral reef. But other then that there is nothing to be happy about. Staff there is very unplesant and i woud even say rude, Manager of the bar as his badge proudly says is one bitter old men. you get your drinks into a plastic cup, and if you ask for beer, cup is half empty. We have had a bad weather,water in the swimming pools was wery cold, they even have turned off heating of the small pool and there is nothing else around the hotel, so we were spending our time and the bar talking to our friends. That we should not do, beacause staff with manager of the bar, started saying, that we drink to much and that they wont serve us anymore. We know for sure, that other hotels in case of a weather like this, would make arragements with a hotel were swimming is possible and would send their guests there by hotel bus. They even shut down the animation program, there was none at all. So imagine this - bas weather, no swimming at the sea or swimming pool, horrible staff and no program for guests. And at the bar they would look at you like some kind of alkoholic if you wanted to drink more beer then one. oh, and of course you had to be the right nationality. By that i mean italian, french nad englich. Other then that do not count. even if you give them a tip they do not see you as a person. not pleasent vacation at all. We took two trips, one to Dolphin hou and other to Abu dabbab. we have felt as we have come to the other planet. Verz nice people and great instructors. And people at the boat, that took us to Doplhin house were great as well. All smiles and jokes. you could even be orange or blue or pink, nationality did not matter.
If the weather have been fine one would overlook these things, but why should you?
So no, I would not recomend this hotel to anyone, I would send them to Sharm, there treet you right and have good serviece.

If you wish to be asked " How's your meal, Bon apetite, are you from Germany, enjoy your meal, would you like coffee " all within moments of either seating at your table, or just beginning to take a tentative mouthfull of nice looking but disappointing food, then this is the place for you ! I counted the number of staff who were working in the self service buffet, and they generally outnumbered the guests by about 3 to 1. The place was stuffed with smartly dressed chefs ( ? ) who stood behind pans of tempting but disappointing food ( I waited 4 days before I ate anything that was other than warm ! ) and did nothing. Waiters had set tasks, and wobetide anyone of them who accidentally did a colleagues task in error. A rotund and impressively officious man who was obviously the boss in there chastised them for their errors. One young waiter ( ? ) spent the first few days of my stay there pushing a trolley ( " we're exporting there to Thailand did you know ? " ) loaded with Sangria, pestering the diners with " would you like a cocktail as they began to tuck into their meal. For the 2nd half of the week he was relegated to the same task, but with sachets of instant coffee this time, just as everyone again began tucking in, ( "would you like a coffee ?" ) . The slightly more important waiter staff gathered in groups, blocking the doorway into the outside buffett area, and the staff has developed the technique of suddenly walking backwards at you as you pass by, so causing some swift evasion necessary if you were to avoid wearing the meal you were carrying. This was inevitable anyway, as the soup ( White soup or pinkish soup were 2 of the options, tepid was mandatory ! ) was spooned out by ourselves into soup dishes which like the coffee cups, didn't fit properly onto the saucers, and wobbled away as you walked spilling the contents onto the floor or your sandles. The sensible option was to put a paper napkin on the saucer, make your way back to your table if you could remember where it was in the early days following your arrival, and wring out the spillage back into the bowl or cup, fortunately this didn't alter the taste ! Everyday was a challenge, the layout of the food selection in the diningroom changed, and nothing was in any logical sequence. Bread was available, sometimes with pats of butter actually on the same table, other days required some detective work if this was your optional starter. After having walked a good kilometyer around the vast diningroom to gather your food, you then needed to negotiate once more the chatty and repetative waiters questioning," Is this your 1st day here ? Are you from Germany ? " Once at your table, food was consumed swiftly, not because it was wholesome, but because it was now going cold ! On my last morning there, I was almost finished with my breakfast, but wished for a coffee to help wash down the remains of the omelette ( only hot food I ate as it was made by a chef who had never heard of the word 'smile '.) After leaving my table for 30 seconds to sprint the half kilometyer to the coffee urn, I returned wrists awash with coffee, only to find some enterprising person ( not my actual description ! ) had cleared the table of my breakfast, replaced the tablecloth and all the cutlery and serviettes, it's as if I had not existed that morning, all traces of me were gone ! I was there halfboard, yet if I wanted coffee with my evening meal, I had to pay for it. It was irrelevant that I could have drunk enough to float an oil tanker at breakfast, but " no " " you must sign here for it " GET REAL ! ! ! I was lucky in that I was on a diving holiday, so I didn't have to try to kill time all the rest of the day whilst there, I would have died of boredom ! There are some entertainments for the kiddies, but adults ? Forget it ! The hotel is in the Eastern Desert, so traveller beware ! if you have to rely on taxis, take loads of money with you. They will rob you blind ! Due to an error on my behalf, I failed to arrange transfere from the airport to the hotel. On arrival at Marsa airport, I finally sorted things out, and a helpfull private hire minibus took me and 4 other hapless travellers to our destination. This cost me £30 return, which angered me as the hotel is about 4 kms from the airport, so close I could have walked it ! Have pity on two English girls I met at the airport on our return leg, They had holidayed down near the Suadanese border, no transferes ? A taxi ride costing £40 each way from Marsa airport. They afforded themselves a trip to a nearby ' shopping area ' ( read ' dustbowl ' ) and decided to stop for a cuppa, after waiting 30 minutes to be served, they questioned the delay to be informed that as they were women they cannot be served, only men !
To sum the experience up, the hotel ( apartment complex ) is not bad, clean, rooms basic, but good, The staff ? ? ? Inexperienced with western culture in the dining room, wouldn't mind if the food was Egyptian in style ! The staff intefere too much, and don't leave the diner in peace to eat Nobody there has the remotest idea how to run a restaurant / dining room. I was the only Brit there, mostly middle aged Germans who looked like they were at death's door, some French people, and a young Russian couple, the boy of whom gave his girlfriend overt molestation in the diningroom, oblivious to the stares of the other diners ! The final delights making my holiday one to forget, was that about 100 m from the hotel is a 3 story diesel powered generating plant which ran noisily for about 22 hours each day. If the prevailing wind blew away from us, all was peace and light, if the wind died, or blew towards us NOISE IN ABUNDANCE THROUGH THE NIGHT ! To add insult to injury, on my 3rd night there I had retired to bed early for a good read, when at 10 past 10 I was treated to the litling tones of an electric powered circular saw about 30 yards away with the user happily hacking into the paving stones he was laying on a new path, " Right !" I went out and had words, it was as if this was the norm, so is the attitude in this place, customers needs don't come into the equation at all ! I'm not biased, I've been to Sharm 4 times in 3 years, and loved it, The attitude of the locals there, both in the accomodation and around the local area is a world away from Marsa Alam. Traveller beware, you have been warned !

Went for a week mid November 2008. For most of the week week, we were the only British tourists, hotel mainly catering for Russian and Italian guests. Food was plentiful and the freshly made pasta which was avaiable every day was superb. Being veggie meant the choice was limited but managed to find enough to eat for each meal. Huge choice of desserts every day and good selection of breakfast food. The staff were always polite and helpful and available. The weather was warm but most days there was a strong wind so wind breakers were needed on the beach and they were in short supply but still managed to get one each day without having to get up too early. I don't like deep water and I am nervous in the sea but I snorkelled every day, you do need protective footwear, I wore my beach sandals but would advise buying the special shoes you can get as the coral and rocks are sharp. The fish were amazing, I choose this location having done some research and this offered me the chance to snorkel in water I couldf easily stand up in. There was a deep fall off bit but you could easily identify this and could snorkel in the shallow water close to this 'edge' and see the huge array of other fish. There was also a pier that you could climb down into the sea from via some steps, this led to the 'edge' and some very colourful coral which is protected. My husband is a more confident swimmer and often went over the 'edge' and saw a huge array of fish, he also saw a large ray.

I would go to this location again and probablt this hotel due to it's location, the fish were worth the limited menu and limited drinks available on the all inclusive basis. I liked that there were only a few shops in the hotel which were expensive so I had a week of snorkelling, reading on the beach and unwinding. The rooms were good, loved the brick dome shaped ceiling, the rooms were cleaned daily and fresh bedding etc.

I would recommend buying a book on the fish in the Red Sea beforehand as there are so many to see and I wanted to know what they were. I did swim in the pool, one day there was no wind and it was very hot so the cooler pool was pleasant. The pool is impressive, I like the fact there is no deep end. We are thinking about returning in the summer , as the day when there was no wind made snorkelling much easier and going to the 'edge' was much easier to do as there were very few waves on this day.

We recently stayed at the Holiday Beach Resort, Marsa Alam on an "All Inclusive basis" but unfortunately this turned out to be one of our most disappointing vacations ever!

Although the hotel carries a 4 star rating there are many aspects at this resort which places a question against this rating.

Drinks under the “All Inclusive” offering equated to soft and local alcoholic drinks being served at very restricted locations in white plastic disposable cups. Indeed, if you wanted a coffee at lunch you could not get this all inclusive in the dinning restaurant but you needed to go to the pool bar and make it yourself with instant coffee powder. If you wanted a pre-dinner drink in the evening you could only get this at the pool bar until 7pm which then closed, even for a cup drinking water. One must transfer to another part of the hotel (billiards room) if you wanted a drink. Upshot is to restrict the “All inclusive” offering. Any locations outside of the restricted serving times had their soft drinks dispensers switched off! Drinking water was available from water dispensers at these locations within the stated times but filling of water bottle was banned! Naturally the hotel was very happy to charge for drinking water by the bottle. Any drinking water during the night was simply not available unless you had purchased bottle water yourself and stocked the empty mini fridge in your room. The very old soft drinks dispenser at the beach bar was broken and soft drinks (often flat) were served in the plastic cups from bottles until they ran out of stock from the one or two bottles they had available.

The food was generally repetitive and uninspiring but was edible. There was no table service for drinks in the restaurant which was ok, but its not so nice having your table cleared by waiters wearing dirty trousers! We also noticed that dirty plates and cups with food left around the corridors of the hotel were not removed for days!

The animation team at the hotel was by an Italian group which really only focused on the Italian guests. The general level of evening entertainment at this hotel was very poor and was severely lacking with no live music. As the hotel is rather isolated next to the desert this left us will little to do in the evening after dinner. Once per week an external oriental show was organised by the hotel and this was good but two other professional shows were charged at extra cost by the hotel.

The large swimming pool complex at the hotel looks very nice but in reality the master swimming pool is unheated and was so cold we did not use it. In fact most guests did not venture into the cold waters of this pool. There was a very, very small heated round pool which we used once or twice along with a few other guests.

One needed to be up very early in the morning to be able to get a sun-bed on the beach as there were not enough to go round. The beach above the water line was made of very nice sand but immediately upon entering the water the bottom is composed of a bed of very sharp coral stone covered by knee deep water, leading out to a reef wall dropping to some 15 metes in depth. On most days at the reef edge there were large breakers making this beach not ideal for children. There was a jetty leading out above the coral stone with was very good as it was manned by a life guard. If the white flag was showing one had excellent snorkelling over a superb house reef but his was over deep water with generally strong waves. My wife only swam in the sea once in two weeks!

The room in the hotel was generally good but the overall experience of this hotel was extremely disappointing!