Hyatt Regency Reviews

This is our 3rd visit to Taba which apart from the Taba Hilton is the best hotel we have stayed at in Egypt. Whilst the food did become a bit monotonous after 2 weeks, you must remember that this is a resort hotel which is different from 5 star city hotels that do al a carte menus as opposed to buffet style at the resorts. We had no complaints about the food which was plentiful, well cooked, well presented with a good daily selection ? especially the deserts!

We arrived mid December 04 departing 1st Jan 05, on a half board basis and had the pleasure of the New years Eve celebrations ? ?an absolutely wonderful evening? which started at 8pm until 3am- then back to our rooms for a sleep, into breakfast, a swim in the sea, back to the room for a shower, pack and flight home (for a well earned rest I may add!!)

The shop at the hotel is a big rip off for sun cream etc etc Please don?t forget to take your own otherwise what we pay for in the UK at say Boots - £15, will cost you over £45 in the shop. Wine is VERY expensive at the hotel £40 for a cheap local red which is at best ?yuck?, Lansing Champagne £150 compared to Tesco?s £35. Take some decent bottles of wine with you as well as some bottled water to get you started. WARNING: ?you must not drink the tap water ? if you do ? BEWARE of the ?Taba tummy?. There were one or two stomach complaints from guests but they had drank local water, or, over indulged on the desserts at dinner, otherwise there were no real problems ? just to be on the safe side take some Imodium tablets and a bottle of cordial especially if you have children ? the shop will charge you £12 for Imodium as opposed to £4 in the UK. Water from the shop is £1.20ltr.

There is however a garage/shop about 2 miles away on the main road to Nuibia ? it?s a pleasant walk if you like being in the sun as there is no shade on the road. They sell bottled water for .30 pence ltr, ice creams, sweets, sun cream, beach things etc all at reasonable local prices. If you do go there, you may like to take an opportunity to sit down outside, have a cup of local coffee, a smoke from the water pipe and talk to some locals ? this is the only Egyptian culture you will find at Taba. The resort is still under construction from what is (and still is to a greater extent) a desert stopover. A day trip to Nuibia is worthwhile if you are looking to buy some carpets - which are a good buy, or other trinkets at the market ? BUT hone up on your haggling skills. DON?T whatever you do, have any food or drinks (unless you can actually see the bottle being opened at the market shops ? if you do, have the Imodium and toilet paper handy as they wash the salads and make tea from the local tap water ? You have been warned - again!

Take a small kettle, adaptor, tea / coffee and dried milk to have in your hotel room as regretfully these are not supplied and again expensive to buy. A pot of coffee or tea is about £1.50 pp from the hotel. I appreciate this sounds like penny pinching but if you have 4 coffee?s each a day for 2 weeks ? it adds up!

My wife did the day trip to Petra which leaves at 4am returning at 10pm. She arrived back absolutely exhausted but thoroughly enjoyed the experience and, much to my surprise, she would do it again. At the local sea-world (transport provided free of charge) try the para-sailing. We are both over 53 and enjoyed every second of it. The staff at sea world are VERY professional taking every precaution to ensure YOU are safe. They also do an intro to diving course which I understand is a brilliant experience. We did want to do this but all sessions were fully booked ? you do need to book a couple of days beforehand for the majority of activities at sea world. If you are with Longwood, use their passport system for payment ? it?s a lot more convenient and dare I say, cheaper, as you pay in £Stg. You will love the hotel and the facilities. As stated by other reviews, take some small US$ bills with you for tips.

Have a good stay.

Hello all, just returned from the Hyatt yesterday 15th January 2005. Where to start.... I have stayed in many a 5* hotel, and what i would say like other reviews is do not to expect the same level of 5* here as you would get in a city based location. Would certainly say this hotel is above 4*. But what i realised is this is a beach resort, not a city based hotel.

I travelled from the UK with a company called Peltours..... very good company and would book with them again. When you arrive at Taba airport it's like other reviews have said. You get off the plane onto a bus for a 2 min journey to the arrivals 'lounge'. With the airport don't expect much other than a stone building that you pass through. But that said, baggage reclaim and getting onto the bus took no time at all.

We had a wonderful rep that escorted us to the Hyatt and he was very good. To make things better your rooms are already prebooked, so no waiting about to check in. You are handed a slip with your room number on. (May give a secret away, but well worth joining Hyatt Gold and ring or email the hotel prior to your arrival as i got a seaview upgrade free). When you arrive at the hotel you are greeted with a cold drink, and within minutes was handed my room key E209. As we did not arrive til past midnight, the hotel kept the restaurant open for us, which was well needed.

The hotel.... It's the largest of the 3 currently in Taba (building in progress on a 4th but that is well away from the hotel). It is set out over a large area, and set amongst lovely grounds. There are 3 pool areas plus a kiddies pool area which all look rather impressive. Two pools are heated which was needed in January. The staff very friendly, and the food... good variety and did enjoy. No bad bellies anyway!!! This hotel is for sure for those that want to get away from it all. If you want a lively resort go elsewhere. But overall the hotel was very good, room service v good. Only one moan as a wine drinker the local wine is terrible and i refused to pay the £35-£50 pound for imported wine. Good job i took a couple of boxed wines with me and stored them in the minibar so that sorted me out anyway!!! A must is to do the snorkeling from the 'pier'. What a view!!! Much better than the glass bottom boat trip.

Would recommend overnight trip to Cairo, stayed in the Conrad Hotel, now we are talking a 5* city based hotel overlooking the nile. (even had choice of 6 pillows for that good nights rest). The 5 hour trip to get there was well worth it, and pay that bit extra to see the mummies in the Egyptian museam.

So we did have a lovely hoiliday and would recommend this hotel to anyone after a quiet break. Would love to be still back there now for a little while longer. Would i go back, maybe in ten years when the resort is built up that much more... but do not let that put you off. When we left the Hyatt never before have i been met by hotel staff wishing us well on our journey and handing us a gift. It was a really well spent holiday and never have i felt so calm and unstressed. So sorry if i have gone a bit too much here, and hope you enjoy your stay as much as i did. And for the price you pay worth every penny. ENJOY!!!

Fantastic.... what more is there to say, get out there and see for yourselves.. but realy the flight out was terrible as we had the seats in front of the twin exits on the wings (row 14) and these seats do not recline, did not bring headsets for inflight entertainment as previous reviews stated none on flight, so had to buy @ £2.50 each, so take your own, watched spiderman 2 and other stuff, opps sorry flew out with XL AIRWAYS ???

The Taba international airport is ?? well diferent, funny when you get off plane cram into bus for trip to terminal, drive 50 yards and get out to wait in line for passport control,walk 8 foot to where another custom guy bored out of his mind sits to have a look.

Coach trip to hotel didnt seem to take long certainly not 40 mins, you get a nice free cold bottle of water for the journey and once at the hotel, everyone went to get their luggage first, but was told on the bus to book in first to get your room number so it can get delivered, so we headed stright for the Longwood desk got our room No identified our luggage and went straight to our room, which was in block A top floor (2nd) and was pleasently surprised with the whole room, the view was Fantastic, and we didnt pay or ask for this, only the dodgy door handle to the balcony was a problem if you shut yourself outside

Took 1 litre each of Gin and Vodka with us as review said drinks was expensive after 9pm,but never got back to the room b4 12pm most nights, excellent sat tv, with good films on, food average in main restraunt beer(Sakara) bit bloaty, wine Rose is best even done a couple of bottles (GB£15) signed everything to room but spent all the time on the beach and beach bar(fantastic) where Bernie Winters serves you. met some other couples,had fantastic time just chilling out on the beach all week,some how even had the same 2 sunloungers 20ft from the bar,

the distance from the room to the restruant was ideal excersise after sleeping or having a meal then heading to the beach bar for evening drinks, always seemed quiet (no kids)then the walk back was romantic in the moonlite gardens, we were both sad to leave.

Shop in hotel was ok,prices marked up and fair price 200 cigs GB£15.00,which you can buy at airport on way out along with soft drinks/coffee/snacks,but no alcohol, there is 3 points of sale at the airport, so dont listen to the 1st guy, also a bit cramped in seating area.. go again ?? yes on list of top holiday chillouts ..actually only 1 on list.

We Recomend this Fantastic Hyatt hotel we paid £530 each for half board for 7 nights and paid on check out a total £260 for all other signed off services, only cash we took was (usa)$100 for tips and came home with change, did not go on any trips/diving, but did swim in all pools and sea, oh and the Breeze barnext to the pool does a very good lunch,but will ruin your appertite for Dinner as large meal.. thank you Hyatt group Fantastic Break..

Due to the floods in the Domincan Republic we cancelled our intended holiday and got the last two seats on the plane back to Taba.

Aestreus flight - on time, meal ok but has no entertainment.

Transfer - we had booked a limo transfer via E mail with the hotel but it did not turn up so fortuntely we managed to get on a Longwood bus.

Hotel is as previously was and is fantastic, we requested the same room as last year and we got this. Rooms are well designed with good storage space, enormous bed and balcony, safe and fridge in room.

Pools - there are many of these and you do not need to be up at the crack of dawn to reserve one. Sea - fabuolous for snorkelling although the first week we were there the water was a bit rough and therefore you could not seem much but the second week it was calm so fantastic. If like us you do not particularly like deep water if you wade out to the small pier further down the beach from the main one the water here is shallower with some good coral growths nearer to shore.

Restaurant - they have improved this for the English since last year and taken some of the spices out of the food. You still get a good salad bar for starters and a choice of various hot dishes + show piece dishes for main course followed by fruit or cakes. I believe they have brought in a top chef to further improve it.

Trips - this year we did the over night trip to Cairo and I am so glad we did the Pyramids this way and did not opt for a two centre holiday staying in Cairo for any length of time as it is a dump. The tour was arranged with Longwood and from memory cost just over £110 each + departure taxes etc. When leaving you will go to the Egypt/Israel border walk half way through the building pay money show passports then cut across middle of building and exit again showing passports and eventually paying more money before you join the main road again - at 4am this is a farce that you could well do without but fortunately you do not go through the same ordeal on your return journey. It took us about 6 hour by coach we finally got to Cairo and visited the Museum for a few hours where we were appointed our guides whilst in Cairo. We then went to a Papyros factory - take that to mean shop where they are very very pushy. From here we went to the Meridean Hotel in Giza which was where we stayed for the night - it was a nice 5 star hotel with a few different restaurants to choose from. If you go onto the roof you get some unique pictures of the Pyramids.

You could then pay extra to visit the sound and light show over the Sphinx but we did not do this. The next morning we left early to visit the Pyramids with our guides, we visited all three and went inside the smaller one (you pay extra for this and it is extremely hot and claustrophibic inside - but a once in a life time opportunity). Beware all the locals trying to sell rubbish or offer camel rides - they often follow you even when youv'e said no or other words!! Beware the tourist please as we were led off to visit other sites by one and then he wanted money and more money than was reasonable - i was a little shocked by this or perhaps just naive. After this we visited the Sphinx followed by a perfumery - not too pushy in here and then we went to a floating boat/restaurant on the Nile followed by a visit to a very hectic market and then we returned to Taba by coach where they played videos to while away the time. I would recommend the trip if you are there for two weeks, it was somewhat tyring and hectic and I would not like to try and cram it in if I was only there for 1 week.

We both thoroughly enjoyed this holiday even although we had been only the previous year. We will return at some point in the future and highly recommend it to anyone considering going as long as you are aware there is nothing outside the hotel complex and it will spoil you for any future holidays.

Booked 7 night break last minute to Hyatt Regency, Taba for excellent price, half-board basis. Hotel was exceptional, traditional low-rise Moorish design of buildings very much in keeping with dramatic mountainous backdrop. Rooms were large and luxurious, scrupulously clean, magnificent wet-room shower, marble fixtures and fittings. Lot of attention paid to landscaping of the grounds, one day came across guy trimming grass borders with scissors! Staff are very obliging and professional, attentive without being intrusive or over-familiar. Pool areas fantastic, plentiful sun-loungers so no need to do dawn reservation with towels! Beach was clean and wide, jetty out over reef (snorkelling a must, bring your own equipment though, daily rental about £5, not great quality), beach bar and water sports centre right there. Good variety of food each day, no real repetition through the week.

We wanted to get away from it all and relax, Hyatt certainly met our needs! Only slight downside was that there was literally nothing around for miles apart from this group of 4 - 5 hotels, so you're stuck in the resort, and the evening entertainment rather pathetic; thats to say, few token belly dancers and dance routines in traditional dress for an hour, ";nightlife"; non-existent! But there's a late bar ";On the Rocks";, local beer about £2.50, Gin+tonic £7, cocktails extortionate! Bring some duty free and rope in like-minded people to have a room party later, much cheaper and UK spirits more palatable than Egyptian meths/vodka!

Overall, had really relaxing time here, very luxurious, but younger party people will definately prefer Sharm / Naama where you can do your own bellydancing in decent clubs and bars!
P.S. We met and fell in love in Sharm el Sheikh one year ago, celebrated our first anniversary in Taba Hyatt!