After the liveaboard, we spent 11 days relaxing on the beach. My other daughter and my wife joined us there. The Hilton is located about a 30-minute drive south of Marsa Alam Airport, next to Abu Dabbab Bay. The hotel’s private beach section is situated on the side of the bay. This means the northern reef is in front of it, and direct access to the sea isn’t possible. If you want to get in the water, you have to walk about 200 meters to a very shallow entry point over sandy ground. Snorkeling along the reef is beautiful. There are so many fish. We even saw a stingray. Once, we watched a moray eel swimming along the reef. We were so distracted that we didn’t notice the
turtle approaching from behind until it dived right beneath us. The reptile, about 1.5 meters long and 1 meter wide, was slightly startling for a moment.
On the beach, the staff try to fulfill every request. The lounge chairs are fine, and the straw-roofed umbrellas are huge. If you need a mattress, you’ll get one. Here’s how I handle tipping: if I see that an employee is going out of their way to make guests comfortable, then starting on the second or third day, I tip accordingly. And yes, please tip in Egyptian pounds, not in euros or other currencies. That also has something to do with showing them respect. In any case, “our” lounge chairs were always already set up starting on the third day.
Behind the beach section, there’s a restaurant that offers all-inclusive drinks (mediocre ones) and a small snack all day long. Around lunchtime, there’s also salad, a few dishes, and desserts. Nothing fancy, but it’s enough. If you want more variety, you have to go back to the resort. That’s either a short 10-minute walk (to the main restaurant) or a ride on the little train, which runs reliably every 20 minutes or as needed.
The main restaurant serves breakfast with a huge selection. Eggs are prepared to order. Flatbread is freshly baked in the oven.
Lunch also offers a wide variety, and in the evening there are themed nights. On the terrace, there’s always something fresh off the grill. The pasta station is open for every meal and isn’t half bad. The waitstaff are very attentive and naturally earn a tip or two as a result.
In any case, I have to admit that this was one of the best buffet restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. Everything is always fresh and not dried out. They make sure that even for the last guest, it looks just as good as it did for the first.
There are also three specialty restaurants: an Italian, a seafood, and a Greek one. You can visit each one once per stay on the all-inclusive plan. But that means you can only choose from a very limited selection of dishes. At the seafood restaurant, for example, the options are either a soup or a hummus variation as a starter, a mixed seafood platter, grilled fish, a Margherita pizza, or a plate of pasta as a main course, and a tartlet or fruit for dessert. Everything else costs extra. For example, the surf and turf platter with beef steak and king prawns for €50, which is already very expensive for Egypt. Even if I want a seafood pizza instead of the Margherita pizza, that costs an extra €14. That’s a real turn-off! I’m happy to pay a little extra if the value is right, but not that much. The specialty restaurants were also sparsely attended, from what we saw. We, too, went back to the buffet restaurant after trying one (that day, the buffet had exactly the same seafood as what was served in the seafood restaurant).
If you prefer a pool over the beach, there are several to choose from. Two with pool bars, and another, smaller pool for adults only. I can’t say much more about that, since we were always at the beach.
I actually planned to go to the gym regularly, but I was so disappointed that I only went once. It seems like this is more of a token effort. They have a gym. A large, beautiful, light-filled room. Actually brilliant. But just one treadmill, two bikes, and a stepper. In the weight area, a barbell bench where the weight plates have to be shared with two other machines, a few dumbbells weighing 5, 7.5, and 12.5 kg. A weight bench with 20 and 25 kg dumbbells. A multi-gym that’s falling apart and can’t be used properly. And that’s pretty much it. Except that the air conditioning was set to 25°C. I was already sweating without even working out.
Our rooms were large and had a connecting door. The kids’ room had a bathtub, ours had a shower. Both had a large TV, though only RTL and ARD were available in German. However, you could pair it with your phone via Bluetooth to listen to music. There was also a terrace with comfortable seating. But we needed that more to dry our stuff. The air conditioning worked perfectly and could be adjusted individually. A fan was also available. Plenty of storage space for everything and a laptop-sized safe.
There was entertainment, but it wasn’t intrusive. There was a show every evening by the main pool. On the first day, you’re swamped by vendors trying to s

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Great hotel and fantastic diving center. The only criticism is the communication from the diving center when canceling day trips to Elphinstone or Dolphin House. We were only informed ON the day boat that we couldn't go to Dolphin House due to the waves... In our opinion, that was far too late. So €60 per person went down the drain and we only did two normal dives from the boat near the coast. If we had known this beforehand, we certainly wouldn't have gone and would have dived comfortably at the house reef, which, incidentally, is very nice and, strangely enough, is still in the best condition of all the reefs. The dive guides also marketed and promised us trips to Elphinstone every day, but they were canceled every morning due to high waves. That really annoyed us. Otherwise, the staff and center were very professional and clean.

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The staff was very helpful and very courteous. The rooms were very clean and the garden view was very quiet.

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Voucher had not been forwarded through the travel agency as well as the room layout for a group of 12 people so there was some chaos at check-in. After handing over the proposed room arrangement everything worked out fine

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Super nice environment everything down to the last detail.

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