Hyatt Regency Reviews

The location is excellent, with the most fantastic coral reef for snorkelling.

On the downside all the sun beds on the beach were all taken by 7 a.m. because there is a severe shortage.

Everyone I spoke with (Approximately 10 to 20 people) with the exception of a party of four had diarrhoea with stomach cramps with or without vomiting and were very unwell.

Think twice if you are concerned about illness.

The Hyatt Regency is a beautiful hotel, set in landscaped sub-tropical gardens. The rooms are very spacious. The design is marvellous. The usual block-of-flats format was discarded by its architect in favour of modular buildings. The hotel looks like an ancient village straight out of Arabian Nights, providing a very romantic setting.

The staff are very friendly and helpful. Nothing is too much trouble for them.

On the down side, drinks are on the expensive side - especially if you raid your room's mini bar.

The hotel has its own private sandy beach with access to the very warm sea via two wooden piers. Snorkelling is a must, so take a quality snorkelling set and flippers with you or buy them in the local shops, which are a short ride away on the free bus service. I got a good quality mask and snorkel for about £25. The fish are amazing but beware of the occasional Barracuda, which are best avoided. I only saw one but it was about 4 feet long and quite scary. I gently retreated back to the jetty so as not to attract its attention.

Unfortunately, the experience is spoiled by the food. Evening meals are not up to standard. If you like your meat and two veg, you will be bitterly disappointed. British tastes are hardly catered for. If you have young children, they will not enjoy any of the food on offer at the open buffet. When we complained, the head chef (a charming Frenchman) took time out to speak with us. He was quite honest and frank, explaining that he was only allowed to spend less than $2 per head on food. That is quite astonishing for a 5 star hotel. To be fair, he offered to rustle something up for us if we asked a member of staff.

Will we return? Probably yes - but I will also budget for eating out at one of the excellent local restaurants. Our favourite is the 'Flying Carpet' where we enjoyed a three course meal and a bottle of quality wine for about £18 each.

The resort of Taba Heights is very quiet. There is no night life to speak of so if you prefer a lively atmosphere, go to Sharm instead. If you just want a peaceful, relaxing holiday, then Taba Heights fits the bill perfectly and the Hyatt Regency makes an excellent venue.

Just reterned from our holiday in Egypt,we had a wonderfully relaxing time, the hotel was of a high standard, we did the best deal ever by upgrading to a lagoon veiw, its well worth the 20 dollars a night.
The food was very good vairied and plentyfull and the staff where great. The only drawback was the price of drinks, our bill for 2 weeks was 900 dollars, and we brought our own duty frees to put in the fridge.
Worth noting there is a shop at the three corners where you can get wines and spirits at fair prices.
Another good thing, a free bus service to the 4 hotels and Waterworld.
And so to Waterworld, the day trip on the Henry De Monfreid is a must 55 euros each and well worth it a good lunch incuded and lots of snorkeling Ahmed the main man is a good lad.
But by far the best thing is the diving. For a beginer the PADI discover the red sea is great and well worth the 85 euros, a great experience.
We will be going back but possibly next May when its a bit cooler as it was very hot day and night.
Also thanks Austraes for a good flight, good luck Libby on your move to Virgin.

Lovely Hotel - Much nicer than Mariott and Sofitel which we looked at, Lovely rooms fantastic service things fixed or dealt with immediately. Wonderful pool and good snorkelling. Take your own equipment though including fins - when we went in June it was 40 degrees and very very windy so could not swim in sea without fins.

Things not so great

Rip off prices for anything in shop - if you forget your suntan lotion it is £18 a bottle !!! Lilos are £12. So bring everything. We saw one chap buy water from nasty local shopping centre which may be cheaper. Drinks expensive too - local beer £3.50.

Disappointed could not eat in other restaurants - only one buffet restaurant - they have a stupid system with a leaflet which pretends that you can eat elsewhere for free but turns out to be a 3 pound discount.

Get Gold card before.

Shop around for price of holiday as we paid too much.

Not much info from hotel about stuff -eg the beach unless you ask - they just left us to Libra holidays who just tried to sell us expensive excursions.

Libra holidays conned everyone into paying £15 each for a visa at air port and I think they took £5 of that as a handling fee - so big rip off - check out other emails on this subject which tell you that you dont need one.

Lots of fruit at our buffet.In june hotel only half full - so nice although usual no of Brits doing the towels on deckchairs routine at 8 AM !! Buffet in evening pretty rubbish save for breads, soups and puddings.

Nothing else there just relaxing.

Watch out at the water centre as my husband left his money on the counter by accident and they denied taking it. There was no where else it could have gone.

This was our 6th visit. The temperatures were very hot this June, about 43 in the shade and 50+ in the sun.
It's the only place I've ever wanted to return to as it's big ,clean, the people are friendly, and it's so relaxing. The perfect place to chill and refresh.
I love to snorkel but am not a good swimmer so this place suits me as the water is reasonably shallow in places.
But don't walk out from the beach into the water as the coral is protected. Read the signs on the beach .

The entertainment does get a bit boring apart from the man who spins.Amazing.
As other guests have said, the drinks are expensive and so is the water at about £1.30 a bottle.Take the free shuttle bus to the Mario supermarket where you can buy 6 bottles for about 60p.I noticed the Marriott hotel had a sign outside saying you're not allowed to bring in food etc which hasn't been bought in the hotel.

You do get a reduction voucher of about £2 from reception if you wish to have dinner in one of the other hotels involved in the offer. We took advantage of the voucher at Chez Pascal and had a great Chateaubriand for about £9 each before the discount.The asaparagus was perfectly cooked and the meat was full of flavour. Say hello to Emad at Chez Pascal if you go.He's incredibly pleasant and friendly.
We also had a curry at the Pub tandoori and I'm told the food is cooked by an Indian chef.

If you want to tip your room cleaner at the start of the holiday , it's worth asking when he's due to go home for his week's break.You don't want to tip on Monday and discover a new cleaner has arrived on Tuesday. We knew ours from previous visits so we tipped at the beginning. He'd turn one of our towels into a different shape every day....we had a swan one day wearing my spare sunglasses.

All the staff speak English but it's worth learning a few phrases as they really appreciate that you've made the effort.
A lot of people do return to this hotel and you may meet people you've met on previous visits.... hi to Kaye and Steve, hope to see you in October.