Dive Trip Report - Dahab Hilton

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Marek K

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On Mania's insistence, here's a report from our recent trip to Dahab, 16 July - 1 August 2007. I'll cover the dive operation (Sinai Divers) and dive sites here; and start with the hotel, the Dahab Hilton:

We were very happy with the hotel overall. It's apparently the poshest hotel in Dahab. The standard rooms are all in bungalows with two rooms on the ground floor (two twin beds), and two upstairs (queen bed). Wife and I had an upstairs room, and our kids had a downstairs room in the same bungalow. All the beds were extremely comfortable, with a choice of pillows. And of all things at the Red Sea, there were down comforters!!

There are also some deluxe-room bungalows, but we didn't see what they looked like.

Rooms were extremely clean overall, with daily housekeeping. We don't think the bed linens were changed every day, but not a problem. Towels were changed daily.

Each room has a covered patio or balcony, with a view at least onto the attractive saltwater lagoons.

Bathrooms have American-style (small and shallow) bathtubs with showers. The bathrooms were showing their age a bit -- grout was discolored a little (the air conditioning doesn't seem to include the bathrooms), but that wasn't a problem. But everything was perfectly functional. We didn't need any maintenance. Only minor thing was the occasional, um, odor seeping out of the floor drain, even though it was covered... that seems to be a common issue even in first-class hotels at the Red Sea. But again, not a significant problem.

Only some of the rooms have safe-deposit boxes -- ours didn't. But we locked up our passports at the safe-deposit boxes at the front desk.

The rooms do have wired "high-speed" Internet access -- but for a price (something like $10 per day). There's also wireless access in certain common areas -- also at a price. We didn't use any of it.

Because of the bungalow design -- and all the saltwater lagoons (no swimming in them!!) --the entire outside feeling of the hotel is extremely open and attractive -- particularly at dusk. Also because of the design, the average density of guests seemed very low.

The pool isn't huge, and it's a bit stark -- no landscaping or palm trees immediately around it for some reason. But there were always available lounges under shade (even at 11:00 AM for us sleeping in!!). The beach is rather small, but again shaded lounges were always available.

What we really appreciated was the quality of the food. We were on half-board, and took all our meals at the buffet restaurant. There are a few other specialty restaurants at the hotel (seafood, Italian), and HB folks can get a partial credit there... but we didn't feel the need to. Each night was a different theme (International, Mexican, Italian...), and one night per week it's al-fresco Egyptian specialties in the hotel courtyard. Restaurant service was extremely friendly and attentive; as soon as you set your knife and fork down on an empty plate, a waiter was there to clear it. Drinks were of course extra, and alcoholic beverages (particularly wine, even the excellent Egyptian Sphinx wine) were very expensive... of course.

Overall service at the hotel was also very good and extremely friendly. The first rooms they put us into were right next to the main reception/restaurant building, and there was quite a bit of noise from the air-conditioning unit on the main building's roof... and the view wasn't that great. We asked to be moved to a quieter building, and gave a $20... um... gratuity. It took them a day to get everything arranged, but it worked. We heard of someone else getting moved, with no mention of baksheesh. (Avoid at least Bungalows 1, 2, and 3 on the west side, right next to the main building... the bungalows on the east side appear to better isolated from the noise.)

By the way, none of the hotel employees ever, ever solicited baksheesh... though we gave gratuities occasionally as appropriate.

We took a walk along the beach and glimpsed the other adjacent "exclusive" hotels along the bay there. The Coralia Club just to the east looked very nice; but all the rooms looked to be "motel-style," in two-story linear buildings. It also looked pretty spread out, with a long walk to the nice-looking pool. The Swiss Inn, just to the west, also looked very nice; the pool was attractive, with more adjacent greenery than the Hilton's. But the whole compound was much less open and low-density-looking than the Hilton. We would have been happy at either of those, but didn't regret being at the Hilton.

Oh... there's of course no airport in Dahab; access is via Sharm el-Sheikh, just over an hour's bus/minibus ride away. Our charter company arranged for the transfers.

--Marek
 
BTW...I told you long time ago that this is a very good hotel and you isistent on choosing another one. Good to know you finally ended up in Hilton.
Did you take any windsurfing lessons?


Mania
 
mania:
BTW...I told you long time ago that this is a very good hotel and you isistent on choosing another one. Good to know you finally ended up in Hilton.
Nie Kochanie... what happened last year was I was debating between the Hilton and the adjacent Swiss Inn, and their respective Sinai Divers and Extra Divers operations.

You said the Hilton was the luxury hotel in Dahab, but that all you knew about it first-hand is that you'd once wandered onto the grounds and liked the way it looked.

Partly because of your recommendation, I actually made reservations for the Hilton then, before I got unexpectedly deployed and had to cancel. And that's why we decided to try again this year, and made it this time. Thanks again for the recommendation.... you were right.
mania:
Did you take any windsurfing lessons?
You kidding? At my age, and while diving??

Seriously, I once took windsurfing lessons at the Wannsee in Berlin. Wasn't very good at it...

--Marek
 
Hilton Dahab is a good hotel, however the Hilton Dreams & Hilton Fayrouz in Sharm beat those one in Dahab. I found the service and food to be better than in the Dahab resort.

However, there is a new hotel in Dahab, which is Le Meridien. Looks great, they are accepting the reservations since the end of this month:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/lemeridien/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1937

There is a special promotion from PoseidonDivers.com (which is the diving center running in the Le Meridien Dahab) for the month of September and/or October, where for 272 GBP per person you get:

* Transfers SSH airport - Le Meridien - SSH airport
* 7 nights on the BB basis in Le Meridien resort
* 5 days diving

I consider this offer to be attractive, as normally you have to pay 550 GBP per week on the BB basis in this hotel, so you get the diving and transports from the airport for free.

I hope someone who will check this hotel and Poseidon Divers can give some reviews. Personally I am going to Egypt in September, however decided to book Hilton Dreams in Sharm again and use Emperor Divers which offers a very good standard of services. I consider also Sharm to be more attractive diving place than Dahab. Dahab is relaxing, great place, however always when I am there, I miss a hint of luxury, great choice of good restaurants and cafes which can be found in Sharm as well as great hotels located withing walking distance from Naama Bay.

Cheers,
Sebastian
 
Hey, Sebastian, where ya been the past year and a half?? :D

For us, the big thing drawing us to Dahab is the shore diving. My wife gets terribly, horribly seasick -- even aboard a 15-minute out-and-back boat dive on a glassy sea. Not many places down there with great shore diving like Dahab...

Le Méridien there may be a good option for the future. Where are they... on the same bay south of Dahab as the Hilton? Beachfront, south of the existing hotels? Hard to tell from the Mapquest map on the web site... but I remember some serious construction there, and seem to remember someone mentioning Le Méridien. A ways separated from the other first-class hotels...

Price may be too $$$ for us, after the inital promotion... any idea whether there are going to be charter packages from here?

--Marek
 
Hi Marek,

Well, I was quite busy recently, moving to Malta actually. However I didn't try the diving here yet.

You are right, this is a great advantange of Dahab. My girlfriend has seasick problems as well. She has to take seasick pills every time for the boat diving trips. But despite this, she prefers diving in Sharm :)

As for the Le Meridien, yes, it is on the same bay as Hilton is. Hard to say if the travel agencies are going to add this hotel into their offers. Personally I didn't see Le Meridien in any of them for this year yet.

Sebastian.
 

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