I was at le Meridien last year in early April.
The good:
- Very nice rooms
- All face the sea
- Multiple pools
- Helpful staff
- Very nice grounds
- Buffet style meals - plentiful choices (with other restaurant options on site)
- On-site dive operator Poseidon Divers = boats were not crowded while I was there and dive guides were great
- Beautiful location running uphill from the sea.....beautifuil views of the Gulf of Aqaba and Saudi Arabia across the water
Issues (these may not be issues depending on what you are looking for):
- Pricey, but like anything else, you get what you pay for
- Passing through airport style metal detector upon entering hotel makes you feel like the outside world is somehow insecure...
- Located outside of town (inexpensive taxi ride - 10 minutes).
- Pebble beach, not sand beach
- Limited shore diving opportunities on site, but Poseidon offers on site boat diving and will drive you to other shore locations like the Blue Hole, etc.
- Russians seem to like this hotel
- Resort is set on multiple levels with stairs to get up/down to beach.
Here is a review of my trip I posted on trupadvisor - hope this helps.
Chris
We had a fantastic time at this hotel = stayed there from 6-13 April 2009. We are a family of 4 with kids ages 12 and 14. We spent most of our time diving, snorkeling and taking desert adventures in and around Dahab
..so no worries about securing a beach lounger each day as some other reviewers have mentioned 
OVERALL IMPRESSION: We loved our experience at the Meridien. The hotel never really seemed crowded while we were there (the week before Easter). It was a great place to chill out by the pool/beach and do some diving/snorkeling. The hotel appeared very well-run, has a beautiful physical location and is comfortable in every way. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is located away from Dahab town (10 minute taxi ride). For us, this was no problem, as we had plenty of peace and quiet but were able to reach town easily when we wanted to (taxi rate was 27 LE/3.80 Euros, one way). The setting is also beautiful = aquamarine Red Sea in front of you, desert mountains behind you and a beautifully kept set of grounds.
SERVICES: Overall service was great. Check-in process was smooth and painless, as we were greeted with guava juice and a cool towel and lounged on the lobby couches as the manager gave us an overview of the hotel and took our information. Without exception, all members of the hotel staff we interacted with were always extremely courteous, helpful and friendly. Staff members accepted tips with a heartfelt thank you, but never appeared to expect tips. They do have a small snack/souvenir shop on site as well as a bank/ATM. There is a rather sleepy kids club with an outdoor play gym and activities center (for kids up to age 12), small game room with ping pong table and pool tables and a small fitness room with cardio equipment. There are 2 outdoor tennis courts and a basketball court that is in the process of being finished. They are also apparently in the process of building a more full service gym that will be ready by the end of 2009 (not sure where on the grounds this is being built
.we didnt see it).
ROOMS: We had adjacent superior rooms (317-318), which are in the southern wing of rooms. VERY quiet. Room quality was very high, with stylish décor. Small terrace that had a water view. Beds were very comfortable not too hard and not too soft. Nice flat screen TVs with a decent array of European channels.
FOOD: We were traveling with our 2 teens, so the breakfast and dinner buffets were perfect for us (instant food with no waiting!). Good selection of high quality food and a different theme every night so that it was not too repetitive. We tried some of the other restaurants and room service for lunch and late night food both were great. Breakfast was the same everyday but was very nice = eggs prepared for you any style; all other breakfast foods were buffet.
DIVING: I did 8 dives with Poseidon Divers, the onsite dive school at le Meridien. Poseidon has a location at Meridien as well as in the lighthouse area in Dahab town. I brought all of my own gear with me, but it appears that they have a full selection of rental gear as well. The selection of diving varies depending on what you are looking for. There is a small pier at Meridien from which Poseidon runs 1 tank boat diving trips each day at 9:30, 12 and 2:30. They will go out even if only 1 diver is interested. The boat is a small speedboat (~8 meters long) equipped to handle about 8 divers at a time. The most I divers encountered during the week was 5. On 2 trips, it was just me and my own private divemaster
VERY NICE. The boat trips leaving directly from the resort focus on the reefs directly north (Napoleon reef) and south of the hotel. Boat rides are no more than 15 minutes one way, with the boat returning to the hotel after every dive. Entry is via back-roll; exit is via a sturdy portable non-fins ladder hung over the side of the boat = hand your weights and fins up, and up you go. The health/quality of the reefs was generally very good on these dives = mainly smaller, macro fish life, although Napoleon reef is the home of some big Napoleon fish that we saw from a distance. Poseidon also provides a divemaster to guide you on all dives. I did 6 of my dives via these boat dives. One advantage of doing dives from one location is that I had the same DM for most of the dives
meaning that once I showed him I generally knew what I was doing on the first dive, he gave me plenty latitude underwater (thanks Mamdoh!).
There are many other choices for diving in Dahab with Poseidon
both shore and boat diving. I also took a 2 tank trip to the famous Blue Hole while I was there, diving the Canyon and Bell/Blue Hole shore dive sites (10 minute car ride from Meridien to Poseidons Dahab town location where we picked some other folks up; 15 minute further drive via jeep north of Dahab town). The Canyon site was relatively cool, but can get overcrowded since everyone wants to make the drop to 30 meters inside of the narrow Canyon itself. The highlight of the entire trip for me was the Bell/Blue Hole dive. The Bell is a narrow chute about 200 meters north of the main Blue Hole site that drops from the shore straight down to a depth of about 30 meters. When you pop out of the bottom of the chute, you are on the outer ocean wall of the Blue Hole (drops from 6-7 meters straight down into the deep blue 300-500m abyss)
absolutely fantastic dive site. Beautiful, healthy soft and hard corals and great small/medium fish life. When I first arrived at the Blue Hole Ill admit I wasnt expecting much given how many cars and people I saw when we arrived (most ended up being snorkelers). As we emerged from the water, the entire group was amazed at what a beautiful site it was (and some of our group were widely-traveled divers). We also ate lunch at the Camel restaurant at the Blue Hole site = good sandwiches and some of our group had a nice long apple shisha smoke after our dives
nice and relaxing.
My wife and daughter (12) also took a 2 day PADI scuba diver course (sort of a ½ OW course) with Poseidon. My wife commented on how well she thought the course was run (thanks to Dominic, their dreadlocked instructor) and how patient he was with both of them.
EXCURSIONS: We set up our Dahab-area excursions through independent vendors (Quad biking, Mt. Sinai climb, daytrip to Petra)....although we didn't use the hotel for these, we had great experiences on each. Dahab is in a great location for taking full advantage of all the things that the Sinai peninsula has to offer.
SUMMARY: We loved our experience at le Meridien
.and would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a high quality, upscale, relaxing hotel in this beautiful location.
