Taba Heights - A Luxurious holiday for Relaxing (Taba Heights (Egypt))

Member Name: yahoo2003

Product:	Taba Heights (Egypt)
Date:	23/07/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, very high quality, snorkeling is amazing, food is delicious

Disadvantages: No real nightlife

I went to Taba Heights with my boyfriend 4 years ago, and no holiday since has matched up in terms of a relaxing beach holiday, so we went back again this month. Here is my summary:

The Location:

Taba Heights is located around 40 minutes drive from Taba airport in Egypt. It is useful to note that it is a tiny airport with nothing to do, just the one room, and on the way home you will generally be dropped off by your tour company 2 - 3 hours before your flights. So I would definitely recommend having a good book or some games ready!

The Resort in General:

Taba Heights is not really much more than a stretch of 4 - 5* luxury beachfront hotels. There is not a 'centre' as such. The Red Sea, which the resort sits on, is an absolutely beautiful sea where, even just snorkeling, you will see hundreds of beautifully coloured fish. While normally look out of your balcony at a beautiful sea with lovely sandy beaches (and a few pebbles here and there especially on your way into the sea so bring some jelly shoes!), on the other side are magnificent mountains and desert.

The Hotels:

Hotels in Taba Heights are all about quality. They are all chain hotels such as Marriott, Three Corners, Sofitel (where we stayed), Hilton, Intercontinental, and others. Although we have only stayed at the Sofitel we have gone for drinks at the other hotels as they are all in a line. From my experience they all seem nice but the Sofitel seems to be the most luxurious (but maybe I'm biased!).

The Sofitel:

The Sofitel is extremely grand looking, with high ceilings and domes and large pillars everywhere. The pool is very luxurious with 3 different sections (one fresh water and two pool water) and also a jacuzzi at the top. They spend hours cleaning the pool every night as they do with everything at the Sofitel.
The people are extremely courteous and helpful and do not expect tips although they are obviously appreciated.
The hotel is right on the beach and on the beach, which is private, the sun loungers have their own section each so it's quite private and not over-crowded at all.
On the beach there is also a Sheesha tent where you can smoke flavoured tobacco if you want, but in my case just get a drink and enjoy relaxing on the cushions on the floor and looking out to sea.
There is a gym, a spa where you can get massages and where there is a separate smaller pool, a kids club, and other things to explore.

The Food at Sofitel:

The food is delicious and there is a huge choice - it is all-inclusive. It changes every night but there is always a large salad bar with complex salads and lots of bread to choose from. There is also a lot to choose from on the hot bar, normally a choice of a fish dish and a few different meat / chicken and also veg dishes, as well as side dishes. It seems to be a variety of different nationalities food as well as some more traditional Egyptian food (which is a bit like Turkish food so lots of houmous). There's always one section where you can have something freshly made (for example a stir fry at night, or an omelette for breakfast) and there's also a BBQ outside which does a different meat every night. At breakfast you also have a huge choice of hot food such as eggs, pancakes, waffles, or cold food such as croissants, fruit, salads.
As well as the all-inclusive restaurant there is an A La Carte restaurant which I didn't eat in, and a Tepanyaki restaurant where you sit round the chef's table (if you want to) and he cooks the food in front of you and gets you involved too. I thought this was tasty but overpriced (around £50 for two of us for food and a drink each and no dessert).
If you want to arrange something special you can pay to have a romantic dinner on the beach or at the top of a tower they have overlooking the whole hotel, or next to the jacuzzi which is above the pools - we didn't do any of this.
At lunch there is a full lunch in the main all-inclusive restaurant with loads of options, or lunch by the pool which is chips and pizzas or burgers etc.

Drinks:

Unlike many all-inclusives, you can have more than one drink at a time and they are generous amounts and a decent selection of local beers, wines and spirits. The only negative is the cocktails which I found very strong and also generally fairly disgusting.

Shops:

At the Three Corners there are basic shops such as a Pharmacy or there is a market around an hours drive away (from memory as it was on our first trip to Taba that we went there) where you can buy souvenirs etc. When we went there we found the hassling unbearable and the shops not very good anyway so soon just went and sat in a bar.

Entertainment:

Perhaps because it's more of a quiet holiday, the entertainment wasn't very good - some dancers or something like that every night on stage, and not really a disco, and the all-inclusive drinks stopped at 11 and after that the nightlife gradually died off and officially closed at 1am.

Things to do:

There are various trips out such as boat trips, jeep trips, eating out in the stars, etc. Cairo is too far if you are only there a week or two I think.
There is also a Taba 'Festival' at the Three Corners hotel every Friday but we went along and didn't think it was very different from hotel entertainment, but we did get henna tattoos done which was fun!

Overall:

If you want a luxurious, relaxing holiday, with a couple of trips if you fancy it and maybe some watersports, it is perfect and I love it here personally. If you want somewhere which is very cultural and you will learn and see lots of new things or have a mad nightlife, this is not the place for you.

Summary: Go to Taba Heights if you want a High Quality, relaxing holiday