Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
8.0
Service:
7.0
Cleanliness:
9.0
Food:
5.0
Amenities:
9.0
Well, here we are at Braika.
This is our second trip to Marsa Alam, before that we were in Fantasia and it was a super vacation, so we had quite high requests for this trip. In general, we initially wanted to go to Fantasia for the second time, we liked it there so much, but literally at the last moment I discovered that a direct flight to Marsa Alam appeared from St. Petersburg, which bribed me. And since the Neva had no offers for Fantasia, I went to Braika, as I had been eyeing this hotel for a long time.
I will say right away, compared to Fantasia, this hotel has both a number of pluses and minuses.
And I had the following requirements for the hotel: the most lively sea possible, the possibility of swimming in windy weather and the availability of beer with good meat. Animation, swimming pools and spa centers did not interest me initially, since I have been going to Egypt for many years now for the sake of the uniquely beautiful sea.
But first things first.
As I said, the Neva made a direct flight to Marsa Alam. Lie or not - I do not know. Nevertheless, in my favorite travel agency, Odyssey, I bought a ticket to Braika Bay.
It turned out to be really very convenient - a good time of arrival / departure, not far from the airport. Compared to the road from Hurghada, which didn’t seem stressful to me anyway, this time the road from home to the hotel seemed very fast.
At the hotel we were just amazingly received. This is a very good plus for this hotel, because before that we had never been met like this anywhere in Egypt. In a matter of minutes, we received the keys to the room next to the dive center - it turned out to be convenient, since the beach is less than 100 meters from there. Russian girls Elena and Anna work at the reception. This is also a very good moment, since my English is not strong enough to explain various subtleties and nuances with the Egyptians, so when you can explain the essence of your request to a hotel employee to the smallest detail and he understands you, this is very good.
In addition, the girls themselves led tourists to settle in numbers, and for the first time in Egypt I avoided the traditional circus with "showing the number" and seeing the "number show" for a symbolic baksheesh - it just didn't happen here.
And even the luggage, which the porters usually carry long and exhaustingly along some distant paths, was brought quickly enough and received their honestly earned tips.
We immediately canceled all excursions, as we were not going to go anywhere.
We ate quickly and went to the beach.
Just about food. In my opinion, this is the strongest minus of this hotel. No, of course we never went hungry and did not poison ourselves, we did not see cockroaches and the dishes were clean. But there were few dishes even by my standards (I am a hiker and an experienced fisherman and I am no stranger to simple food), and the quality of their execution was not always up to par - the potatoes were often raw, the meat was dry and tough, and every day is the same same assortment. There are no complaints only about pastries, which Arab chefs always turn out amazingly tasty and there were no exceptions. But in the end, I didn’t come here to eat, but to swim in the sea. Rather about him.
Sea. That's what he was driving for. That with which all expectations were connected. And they were justified.
The reef at the hotel, although a little monotonous (wall to the left and right), but not yet killed by tourists, is alive.
We spent 4-6 hours a day in the water, and still it was impossible to tear ourselves away from the beautiful sea. Every evening, tired from a long swim, we literally fell and immediately passed out in order to put on fins again early in the morning and swim, swim, look, look and then tell each other about what we saw.
It is a pity that there are a lot of people in the hotel, it is overcrowded, so the sea in the bay itself is always crowded and cramped, but if you sail away, it becomes quite normal. Although, this is certainly not Fantasy, where you could swim in the sea alone for a long time, here people were met in the water a lot and often.
Many of the sea creatures have been seen. Unfortunately, again it was not possible to see the bracken, shark and manta rays - they were left again for the next time. But moray eels and turtles were in abundance. Turtles were seen every day, and moray eels - almost every swim, and sometimes several of them. I will soon post a separate mini-review about the underwater world of Braika with photos here - wait.
In general, in terms of the sea, the hotel lived up to expectations. The geographical position of the hotel is very advantageous - during our arrival it was windy, there was a wave and it was very muddy in the water, but nevertheless, in the bay you could somehow swim and at least watch something. In the morning, when there was less turbidity, they swam out of the bay even despite the waves, although to be honest, this did not bring much pleasure, since it was very rocking on the waves.
But three days after our arrival, the sea calmed down and the turbidity appeared only in the evening, before lunch there was a wonderful snork. With pleasure, my wife and I recall these hours, which we spent a lot at sea.
Beach. Here he is frankly tight. There are enough sun loungers and umbrellas for everyone, it is not necessary to borrow early in the morning - there were always one or two free umbrellas along the edges of the beach, but a good and comfortable place, of course, had to be taken before breakfast. Compared to Fantasia, there are a lot of people on the beach. In addition, the dive center is constantly working at the hotel, and there is a constant movement on the beach - some divers are brought in, others are taken away, some are thrown on boats, others enter on foot directly from the shore, in general, diving in the hotel is extremely developed and creates some fuss on beach.
The entrance to the water is sandy and fenced with ropes with buoys, located in the center of the bay. Whistlers actively whistle when trying to enter / exit the zone, which is generally correct - alas, there are enough broken corals there and every day they found more and more new fragments. Many people do not take care of nature and treat it purely consumeristically - they visited, spoiled and left. It's a pity.
I also didn’t really like the service on the beach - the bald-headed beach manager is kind of boring and nasty, and his subordinates openly demonstrate their dismissive attitude towards work. Of course, I got everything that was due to me, but every time I had to patiently defend my interests - this concerned the replacement of towels, drinks provided for all inclusive and other little things.
A good plus of the beach is that there are several showers and a toilet right on the beach. Very comfortably.
The main contingent of tourists are Italians. With all the peculiarities of rest that follow from here - where the Italians gather, it is always quite excessively noisy; )
Surprisingly, we took the animation quite calmly. Usually we don’t like her and consider her a bad excess on vacation, but here we even went to the evening performance twice - quite good and decent jokes, it was funny and understandable not only to Italians, which is quite rare.
And one evening there was an Egyptian show in the amphitheater, there were visiting artists. I have seen belly dancing many times and I was not impressed, but here I liked it - a very pretty girl performed it very gracefully, and I liked the music. In addition, there were traditional dances with skirts and other Egyptian traditional numbers. In general, I liked the show, I suspect that it is held in the hotel every week. We had it on Monday.
What more i can say. The rooms are of course a bit old, but everything you need for life is there, except for the safe. However, at the reception, upon request, they gave me a safe for free and I used it the whole trip and it did not cause me any inconvenience.
The quality of housekeeping did not depend on the "four" and the size of the tip.
The general summary is that the hotel is worth the money, and this is a good option if you want to be able to swim in the sea during the season of questionable weather and have a chance to see something beautiful there. And there is a lot of beauty.
In addition to the review, I post links to my photos.
P/S. About all the above comments, I wrote a review for the hotel management in two languages at check-out and left it at the reception.
In addition, I asked to thank the girls at the reception, I really liked their patience and desire to help tourists. Who will go - pay attention to whether anything has changed on these points.
With respect to all readers, Sergey.
This is our second trip to Marsa Alam, before that we were in Fantasia and it was a super vacation, so we had quite high requests for this trip. In general, we initially wanted to go to Fantasia for the second time, we liked it there so much, but literally at the last moment I discovered that a direct flight to Marsa Alam appeared from St. Petersburg, which bribed me. And since the Neva had no offers for Fantasia, I went to Braika, as I had been eyeing this hotel for a long time.
I will say right away, compared to Fantasia, this hotel has both a number of pluses and minuses.
And I had the following requirements for the hotel: the most lively sea possible, the possibility of swimming in windy weather and the availability of beer with good meat. Animation, swimming pools and spa centers did not interest me initially, since I have been going to Egypt for many years now for the sake of the uniquely beautiful sea.
But first things first.
As I said, the Neva made a direct flight to Marsa Alam. Lie or not - I do not know. Nevertheless, in my favorite travel agency, Odyssey, I bought a ticket to Braika Bay.
It turned out to be really very convenient - a good time of arrival / departure, not far from the airport. Compared to the road from Hurghada, which didn’t seem stressful to me anyway, this time the road from home to the hotel seemed very fast.
At the hotel we were just amazingly received. This is a very good plus for this hotel, because before that we had never been met like this anywhere in Egypt. In a matter of minutes, we received the keys to the room next to the dive center - it turned out to be convenient, since the beach is less than 100 meters from there. Russian girls Elena and Anna work at the reception. This is also a very good moment, since my English is not strong enough to explain various subtleties and nuances with the Egyptians, so when you can explain the essence of your request to a hotel employee to the smallest detail and he understands you, this is very good.
In addition, the girls themselves led tourists to settle in numbers, and for the first time in Egypt I avoided the traditional circus with "showing the number" and seeing the "number show" for a symbolic baksheesh - it just didn't happen here.
And even the luggage, which the porters usually carry long and exhaustingly along some distant paths, was brought quickly enough and received their honestly earned tips.
We immediately canceled all excursions, as we were not going to go anywhere.
We ate quickly and went to the beach.
Just about food. In my opinion, this is the strongest minus of this hotel. No, of course we never went hungry and did not poison ourselves, we did not see cockroaches and the dishes were clean. But there were few dishes even by my standards (I am a hiker and an experienced fisherman and I am no stranger to simple food), and the quality of their execution was not always up to par - the potatoes were often raw, the meat was dry and tough, and every day is the same same assortment. There are no complaints only about pastries, which Arab chefs always turn out amazingly tasty and there were no exceptions. But in the end, I didn’t come here to eat, but to swim in the sea. Rather about him.
Sea. That's what he was driving for. That with which all expectations were connected. And they were justified.
The reef at the hotel, although a little monotonous (wall to the left and right), but not yet killed by tourists, is alive.
We spent 4-6 hours a day in the water, and still it was impossible to tear ourselves away from the beautiful sea. Every evening, tired from a long swim, we literally fell and immediately passed out in order to put on fins again early in the morning and swim, swim, look, look and then tell each other about what we saw.
It is a pity that there are a lot of people in the hotel, it is overcrowded, so the sea in the bay itself is always crowded and cramped, but if you sail away, it becomes quite normal. Although, this is certainly not Fantasy, where you could swim in the sea alone for a long time, here people were met in the water a lot and often.
Many of the sea creatures have been seen. Unfortunately, again it was not possible to see the bracken, shark and manta rays - they were left again for the next time. But moray eels and turtles were in abundance. Turtles were seen every day, and moray eels - almost every swim, and sometimes several of them. I will soon post a separate mini-review about the underwater world of Braika with photos here - wait.
In general, in terms of the sea, the hotel lived up to expectations. The geographical position of the hotel is very advantageous - during our arrival it was windy, there was a wave and it was very muddy in the water, but nevertheless, in the bay you could somehow swim and at least watch something. In the morning, when there was less turbidity, they swam out of the bay even despite the waves, although to be honest, this did not bring much pleasure, since it was very rocking on the waves.
But three days after our arrival, the sea calmed down and the turbidity appeared only in the evening, before lunch there was a wonderful snork. With pleasure, my wife and I recall these hours, which we spent a lot at sea.
Beach. Here he is frankly tight. There are enough sun loungers and umbrellas for everyone, it is not necessary to borrow early in the morning - there were always one or two free umbrellas along the edges of the beach, but a good and comfortable place, of course, had to be taken before breakfast. Compared to Fantasia, there are a lot of people on the beach. In addition, the dive center is constantly working at the hotel, and there is a constant movement on the beach - some divers are brought in, others are taken away, some are thrown on boats, others enter on foot directly from the shore, in general, diving in the hotel is extremely developed and creates some fuss on beach.
The entrance to the water is sandy and fenced with ropes with buoys, located in the center of the bay. Whistlers actively whistle when trying to enter / exit the zone, which is generally correct - alas, there are enough broken corals there and every day they found more and more new fragments. Many people do not take care of nature and treat it purely consumeristically - they visited, spoiled and left. It's a pity.
I also didn’t really like the service on the beach - the bald-headed beach manager is kind of boring and nasty, and his subordinates openly demonstrate their dismissive attitude towards work. Of course, I got everything that was due to me, but every time I had to patiently defend my interests - this concerned the replacement of towels, drinks provided for all inclusive and other little things.
A good plus of the beach is that there are several showers and a toilet right on the beach. Very comfortably.
The main contingent of tourists are Italians. With all the peculiarities of rest that follow from here - where the Italians gather, it is always quite excessively noisy; )
Surprisingly, we took the animation quite calmly. Usually we don’t like her and consider her a bad excess on vacation, but here we even went to the evening performance twice - quite good and decent jokes, it was funny and understandable not only to Italians, which is quite rare.
And one evening there was an Egyptian show in the amphitheater, there were visiting artists. I have seen belly dancing many times and I was not impressed, but here I liked it - a very pretty girl performed it very gracefully, and I liked the music. In addition, there were traditional dances with skirts and other Egyptian traditional numbers. In general, I liked the show, I suspect that it is held in the hotel every week. We had it on Monday.
What more i can say. The rooms are of course a bit old, but everything you need for life is there, except for the safe. However, at the reception, upon request, they gave me a safe for free and I used it the whole trip and it did not cause me any inconvenience.
The quality of housekeeping did not depend on the "four" and the size of the tip.
The general summary is that the hotel is worth the money, and this is a good option if you want to be able to swim in the sea during the season of questionable weather and have a chance to see something beautiful there. And there is a lot of beauty.
In addition to the review, I post links to my photos.
P/S. About all the above comments, I wrote a review for the hotel management in two languages at check-out and left it at the reception.
In addition, I asked to thank the girls at the reception, I really liked their patience and desire to help tourists. Who will go - pay attention to whether anything has changed on these points.
With respect to all readers, Sergey.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
Comments (24)
leave a comment
Show other comments …