Brayka Bay Hotel Reviews

This hotel is advertised as a 5* accomodation, but 3* is more appropriate.
The resort itself, being situated in the middle of the desert is self contained.
A taxi to the nearest destination will cost about £40-£50 so beware.
The grounds are well maintained and the beach clean. The sea is warm and the snorkelling great fun. The staff are polite and friendly and there is the usual mix of Germans, Russians and Spanish.
The rooms are spacious and cleaned every day. However the mini fridge is useless and only two bottles of water are provided on arrival and nothing else.

The food is quite bland and there are queues every day to obtain drinks (a 5* resort would provide table service). Our party of four all suffered from stomach problems, diagnosed as food poisonong back in the UK. Not something anyone wants to bring back from a holiday looked forward to and saved for.

Do not go! This is advertised as a 5 star, but is not. Here is a bit from the complaint letter Thomson could not be bothered to respond to...

…you crammed us on a flight with Astraeus. Almost six hours on a stinking wreck of a plane without any inflight entertainment whatsoever!!

You obviously do not care much about guests because of the appalling lack of water on this ‘all inclusive’ site. We got a bottle each on our first night. After that we were expected to fill up our bottles at water fountains. What kind of all inclusive service do you call that from a ‘five star’ hotel? On top of that, you advertise the room as having a minibar. An all-inclusive hotel with a minibar should mean that it is stocked. This one had water in it for one night and that was it!!!! Therefore it is called a ‘fridge’ and not a minibar.

The air conditioning made everybody ill. After flu-like symptoms for 2 nights we found that turning off the aircon cured it after a couple of days! Legionnaires disease, here we come!

My wife and I are lucky enough to have been to several officially rated five star hotels. For the all-important food and service, this place should get a 3T because it is ever so slightly rubbish. Here are a couple of examples:

Every meal time we had to clear our own plates from the table and put them onto a neighbouring table. Otherwise they would not get cleared.

We all decided to stick to vodka and cola and ordering that was a challenge. None of the fancy cocktails here…not even a cocktail list! The bar tenders did not have a clue and the service was invariably slow with no ‘to the table’ drinks.

There is plenty of staff to ensure a good level service…but half of them do not work. The blue shirts just sit by the bar and do nothing and the white shirts supervise the blue shirts…and do nothing! n.b. they do not like it if somebody asks them to get a drink!!

The food was a choice of either bbq, bbq or bbq in various guises. And it was all pretty much rank. Oh, you also had to queue up for water for the table!! Classy place this one.

Our rep, Mr personality of the year 2007, tried to mitigate. He almost made me feel guilty for complaining!

Naturally we could not wait to get home. As we boarded the transfer coach we were comparing notes with other disappointed guests. The Atrocious plane had broken down (wonder it managed to fly in the first place) and we were delayed for a day!

The Brayka Bay Hotel is very well laid out and the gardens are lovely. The diving facilities there are excellent, with boats going out every day to an array of dive sites and the diving in the bay off the beach is very good. The snorkelling is also very good. The staff are friendly. We had a superior room with a sea view and terrace and it was spotless, cleaned every day.

However the food was Terrible, both myself and my partner were unwell for a good deal of the holiday with upset stomachs (we only went for a week).
When we were able to, we went diving which as Ive said was great but didnt dare do anything that meant travelling for a distance.
I believe on speaking to a rep that there were many other guests that had these troubles too.
We went to Marsa Alam last year as well and stayed at the Coraya Beach hotel which was fantastic in all areas so there is no excuse for poor food, it can be done the Coraya proves that.

We would definately go back to Marsa Alam but not to Brayka Bay.

As with all Marsa resorts,nothing beyond the hotel. Rooms were kept clean. Food was very bland and repetative.According to a couple who had visited when it first opened there was a marked deterioration. Snorkelling was marvellous. Dive club excellent. Sadly, the Russians have discovered the place. Overall, a relaxing place to stay, don't expect too much of the food though to be fair, no-one had any stomach problems.

Would we go back? Only for the diving.

We had a fantastic time at the Brayka Bay Resort in Marsa Alam. We stayed in a superior room with a sea view, it was a very large room with all the mod cons. The room was cleaned every day.

The staff were very helpful and extremely friendly, the service was excellent.

We stayed AI and found this to be of good value. There was plenty of food available at the three meal times and you could get snacks in between.

The gardens were beautiful and looked after very well. Horse back rides and camel rides are avilable on the beach or off into the desert.

The hotel mainly caters for Italians but their animation team always asked us to join in with their daily activities. In the evenings they would put on a show in the ampitheatre.

The snorkelling was very good with visbility varying daily. Be very careful around the coral as I managed to scrape my knee on it, it's extremely sharp.

There are around 8 small shops in the complex, you didn't get any hassle to go into the shops and once you were in there the shopkeepers were very friendly, gave you no pressure and were highly amusing.

The beach is lovely with plenty of sunbeds around the pool and on the beach -
no need to pack beach towels as these are available.

The hotel is like a little oasis in the middle of the desert, there is absolutely nothing outside of the hotel grounds. I would say take everything you think you may need as there are no shops outside of the complex. There is a doctor on site, but the nearest hospital is 3 hours away in Hughada.

We didn't go on any of the trips but you could take some snorkelling or diving, out into the desert or to Cairo or Luxor.

Our Rep Pete was very friendly and helpful.

All in all I would recommend this hotel if you want peace and quiet and nothing to do for a week, and we can't wait to return.