Latest Reviews for Soma Bay

We have been on a number of Thompson, Air Tours, Cosmos type holidays, Mark Waner always being a little expensive but we decided as a family to all go away for Xmas and as there were 6 kids who wanted a kids club and 20 adults some of whom wanted water sports, all of whom wanted a tan, this seemed the best bet.
Downsides - compared to the standard holiday prices, it is expensive, not just to get there but while you are there. The prices are English not Egyptian, £2.5 for a beer, £20 per person for a boat trip. The resort is windy (as you would want if you are sailing) so sitting on the beach outside a wind break, you feel cold. The local staff are still learning (the hotel only opened Easter 2005) so English isn't a strong point for some of them yet. The hotel is probably five miles from the next building so there is nothing to do ouside the complex.

Upsides - wow, what a holiday. The kids club was in a different league to the usual. Within 30 min of arrving the 6 year olds were all togged up in helmets and floats and out with a 1:4 ratio on sailing boats while the older ones were taught windsurfing. The childcare was summed up for me the day that my four year old didn't want to go. Her group leader walked part me mid morning and said, just in case she wants to turn up later, I've bought a helmet and float for her. I've never been to another kids club where they've thought about bringing kit for a specific child who wasn't there. The adults went out in the canoes to go snorkeling and the week continued in the same vein. The Mark Warner staff were always happy to help with questions, kit, training etc and even when faced with the plain incompetence shown by most of my party when faced with a windsurf stayed happy and enthusiastic.
The hotel is an Intercontinental 5* it has an international name to protect, it was new, very nice, big rooms, food was good, wide choice of food at the mealtime buffet (although there were local options, there were no themed evenings which might have been nice). No one in the party was ill at the hotel, a couple of people went to Luxor for a couple of days and came back with stomach 'issues'.

The hotel has 700 rooms. Roughly 50 were occupied by the hotel and the Mark Warner block (a seperate 100 room block next to the main hotel block) was only about 2/3'rds full, so the hotel was basically empty which meant that the hot tub/sauna etc were always available, waiters etc were always attentive and rooms were spotless every day. We hired a boat to take us snorkelling which was excellent, easily as good as the scuba diving. The cost of the boat was high but there is little competition in the hotel so haggling is difficult. We also took a half day desert tour, quad biking in the desert at sunset is spectacular, camel riding, not quite so. The hotel has 1km of private beach, the largest swimming pool in Egypt (unheated, it also has a smaller - but still probably 25m * 20m - outdoor, enclosed heated pool - I make the point because they advertise it as indoor. So everyone's needs were met.

Everyone in the party came back saying what a great holiday. The combination of the Mark Warner child care and watersports, the hotel living up to expectation and going away with 23 other people at Xmas meant that there is a possibility that every future holiday will have something lacking.

We have literally just returned from this resort (early hours of Saturday 28th May). This was our 6th visit to the Egyptian Red Sea and the first to Soma Bay. The last 3 visits have been to the Movenpick in El Gouna which we really rated. We wanted to visit Soma Bay in the hope that the swimming and snorkelling would be better - we were not disappointed - but more on this later.

Soma Bay itself is very much a work in progress. So far there is the Sheraton, La Residence des Cascades (which has a fantastic Thalasso Centre, and a Robinsons which is an all inclusive German Hotel. There's a dive hotel under construction, a Hyatt Regency well on it's way to completion and a Movenpick and Four Seasons are apparently also planned as are villas and apartments. There is a Marina with shells of shops and restaurants. There is nowhere within walking distance to eat or buy anything - you are pretty much a prisoner of the hotels.

The nearest town is Safaga which is very much an Egyptian town - nothing really for tourists but this is changing. You can get there by shuttle from the Sheraton (about 6 euros return - does not run every day), by taxi from the hotel (about 25 euros return) or by classifed taxi from Safaga (about 100 Egyptian Pounds return). There's also a hotel shuttle to Hurghada about 3 times a day (9 euros return).

The Sheraton hotel itself is very nice.
There is a large outdoor pool,a health club, an animation team who organise plenty of daily activities, good snorkelling trips (e.g. Tobia Island 2.5 hours 29 euros per person plus equipment hire) and glass bottom boat trips (excellent value at 11 euros per person for about an hour), occasional evening entertainment.
The rooms are well furnished and comfortable - nice bathrooms all done out in limestone, bedrooms with plenty of wardrobe and drawer space, table and 2 comfortable armchairs, balcony with table and chairs. There is a hairdryer in the bathroom but no tea/coffee facilities in the room. The hotel is laid out roughly like a capital letter E with rooms in either wing and the restaurants lobby and pool in the centre. Rooms in the courtyards can be a bit claustrophobic if you are facing across to other rooms but some have good sea views. Potentially though these are going to be quieter than the rooms which look out from each wing.

On the west wing they are building a dive hotel and some of the east wing rooms (e.g. 2238) look out onto a chunk of desert where the Movenpick is going to be built. There's also a generator house thing which pretty much runs day and night. The best rooms in our opinion were in the west wing facing out to sea. (Rooms 1232 - 1253)
The food is good - the best range we've had at any hotel in Egypt. There's the main restaurant for breakfast - a huge choice here including fruit, cereals, hot food, cold meats and cheese, a bakery section with 27 different kinds of danish, cake and pastry, at least a dozen different kinds of bread plus pancakes and waffles, freshly squeezed orange juice and so on.

The restaurant also does an evening buffet on a different theme each night e.g. Far East, Carnivore, and you can also get a la carte meals here - pretty much the same menu as the room service menu (24 hour room service - tray charge 10 le.) There's an Italian a la carte - the food here was really nice - fresh tagliatelli with red sea lobster sauce... The options for lunch are the beachside Copper Crescent restaurant - pizzas, burgers etc or a sandwich.

The beach and sea are superb - we have travelled the world snorkelling and really can't say enough about it. The sand is soft and creamy coloured, the sea is crystal clear and the most incredible colours from pale aquamarine to blue so deep it is violet.
It's the best we have seen in Egypt and the offshore reef is as good as anything we have seen in the Maldives. There's also a jetty which goes out to sea and right over the edge of the reef which makes snorkelling out there very easy. You can see the most amazing things - lion fish, parrot fish, octopus, barracuda, in only a couple of feet of water. The glass bottom boat and snorkelling trips are also wonderful.
Apart from the lack of facilities and the fact that Soma Bay is still under construction the only other downside to the holiday are the prices at the Sheraton and the lack of service sometimes.

It could be that all prices have leapt in Egypt over the last year. We have been visting Egypt for about 10 years and have found the prices fairly steady in that time. Our last visit was to the Movenpick in El Gouna in June 2004 - costs were at least a third more at the Sheraton this year.
I have priced these in Sterling based on 10 Egyptian pounds to £ 1 Sterling.
Large bottle of water £1.30 (cost in Safaga about 15 pence)
Tea or coffee £1.60
Stella Local Beer £2.60 bottle
Vodka (1 shot) £4.50
Egyptian wine about £15 bottle - non Egyptian from about £ 30
Sandwich from the beach bar £2.60 with crisps 70p
Pizza from the Restaurant £5.50
Room Service Spag Bol £ 5.40 (with tray charge)
Buffet Meal - £ 22 for all three courses
A la Carte Tagliatelli with lobster £14
Desserts £ 4 each
There is a small shop which sells postcards, suncream etc and Pringles at £3.30 per tube which is still cheaper than at the airport where they are £4.50.

The other issue apart from the prices was that there were just were not enough waiters for the number of guests. Everyone was well trained and friendly but just didn't always have time to provide the level of service you'd expect in a reasonable hotel let alone what was supposed to be a 5 star one.
This was particularly noticeable in the beach restaurant at lunchtime where it was not uncommon to wait a while to even get a menu. It was supposed to be the low season when we visited butwas about 85% occupied so maybe they just had more guests than anticipated.
There are very few English guests there - mostly Germans and Italians, followed by French and some Russians/Slovakians. Apart from some slight towels-on-sunbeds-at-6am friction everyone got along fine.

We will definitely go back to Soma Bay for the sea and snorkelling. It will get better as more facilities are put in place - as long as it doesn't turn into an other Naama bay (where you can't move on the beach)