We went swimming over the reef. We liked.

Written: 16 july 2013
Travel time: 15 — 25 september 2010
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For families with children; For recreation with friends, for young people
Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 7.0
Service: 7.0
Cleanliness: 7.0
Food: 6.0
Amenities: 7.0
Hotel Coral Beach Rotana Resort-Tiran 4*
September 15-25.2010
Vouchers were bought from Tez Tour through the office of the Hot Vouchers network on Novatorov Boulevard (St. Petersburg). Tickets and vouchers were safely received a day before departure at the Hot Vouchers office. We flew by Ural Airlines back and forth (Airbus A321 aircraft). The flight time there is convenient - at 17:20, but the flight was delayed by almost an hour (due to some circumstances - they were not informed), therefore, by the time we arrived, we had arrived (our hotel was the last on the list, because they delivered, starting from the farthest ), settled in, had dinner, went to bed at about one in the morning. The return flight is not at all convenient, given that we were traveling with a 3-year-old child - at 21:20, arriving in St. Petersburg at about 4:30. At the Tez Tour counter at the Sharma airport, instead of the usual $15, you can pay $20 for a visa, and the Tez Tour staff will not only stick a visa, but will quickly fill out the arrival form themselves.

Placed in those numbers that were originally ordered, they were registered in the voucher. No additional cash injections. Parents - Classic Sea View, the three of us with a child - Classic Suite. You can buy Classic rooms, and at the reception, paying an additional 10 dollars per day, you can get a room with a sea view, about which there, at the reception, there is an announcement in 4 languages. Moreover, in English, Russian and German the price is “from 10 dollars”, and in Italian “from 10 euros”. What is it for?
The rooms are quite decent.
The Classic Suite was in the 7th building next to the reception. The room has 2 rooms, each with access to the same balcony (rather a loggia). Each room has an LCD TV (2 Russian channels - 1st and Planet RTR), a telephone (calls from room to room are free), air conditioning (they didn’t make much noise, they didn’t smell like sewage, like on a previous trip to another hotel). In one room there is a large 2-bed, in the other - a single bed, a sofa, an armchair, chairs, a desk, a coffee table. Combined bathroom with bath, sink, toilet + bidet (2 in one), hair dryer. Each room has a safe and refrigerator.
Classic Sea View - an ordinary 1-room suite, only with a sea view - the first line, 1st building. The room has a TV, telephone, balcony, air conditioning, safe, refrigerator. Combined bathroom with shower, sink and toilet.
A 1 liter bottle of water is placed in the room every day. The refrigerator is initially empty. The minibar is paid (I don’t know how it works when the refrigerator is empty, apparently, you need to order by phone).
There was one problem in our room - the water pump did not work well in the building, and the water pressure was constantly changing with a cycle of about 5 minutes. One day there were periods of 1-2 minutes every 5 minutes when no water flowed from the tap at all, apparently due to the fact that our room was on the 2nd floor, and the pressure sensor was on the 1st. In the parents' room with water everything was in order.
The hotel was chosen mainly because of the more or less lively reef. The reef lived up to our expectations. There are many colorful corals, as well as many fish of different types and sizes.

It is best to swim early in the morning before breakfast from 6 to 8 - as long as there are not many people in the water, there is a chance to meet something interesting. In addition to the usual fish (sergeants, butterflies, parrots), we were lucky to meet moray eels, stingrays, tilozura, squid. There are 2 pontoons in the hotel, the left one did not work for some reason, perhaps due to the sluggish landscaping work near the left pontoon. Entered the water only from the right. The length of the pontoons is only 20-25 meters. From the right pontoon, you can only sail to the right, including swimming on the reef territory of neighboring hotels, diving under the buoys. It was forbidden to swim to the left under the buoys. Later I walked to the left on foot along the coastline, and there I dived from the pontoon of the neighboring hotel.
Beach towels can only be taken once a day. If you take a towel in the morning, you do not need to take it until the evening. Never had a problem finding free sunbeds - even next to the pool, even on the beach. Apparently, the people were distributed quite evenly between the pools and the beach, because if all the vacationers came to the beach at the same time, there would obviously not be enough sunbeds.
The all inclusive includes only one restaurant, which is at the reception. There is also a paid seafood restaurant - $ 30 for a buffet.
The food in the main restaurant is typical for an Egyptian buffet, without any special frills. For 10 days, an unbaked chicken came across once, another time - an undercooked fish. Fortunately, there were no consequences for the stomach. Tables 2.4, 5-seater. On the 2nd day, our tables were served by the enterprising Jamal, who began to hold for us a 5-seat table, at which we usually dined. He did not say anything about payment, but we left a dollar after each breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Jamal's attention to our table was ensured. Therefore, the advice is to exchange dollars for small ones in advance. It will be very useful here. In addition to our table, Jamal kept several other tables filled with drinks. We tried not to complicate his task, we came to the beginning of lunch and dinner. Before meals, Jamal always offered to bring drinks - hot (tea, coffee), cold ("juices", hibiscus, water, fanta, sprite, cola), spirits (beer, wine, strong), included in all. All local drinks that are poured into glasses are free. Freshly squeezed juices, foreign alcoholic drinks are paid. There is a problem with tea in the hotel - only black tea and coffee brewed in large thermoses. If you want green tea or flavored tea, bring tea bags with you and ask the staff (in our case, Jamal) to provide boiling water. With seats in the restaurant, problems were sometimes only for large families to sit at the same table. With us, this problem, due to the regular “baksheesh”, disappeared from the 2nd day of rest.

From the excursions of the Tez tour I advise two:
1. Jerusalem 1 day (departure in the evening, 5-hour transfer (sleep on the bus), a tour of Jerusalem starts at 5 in the morning, there is free time to buy souvenirs, in the evening you will be at the hotel. We did not take this tour, we were too cramped for time, and we want to go to the Holy Land not for a raid, but for one or two weeks. This excursion usually costs $ 180, we found the last two days of the season, September 16-18, when the Taz tour offered it for a discount - for $ 150. For other operators, the cost of such an excursion reached $ 230.
2. Mount Moses and the monastery of St. Catherine. $40 per adult, $20 per child. But with children under 12 years old, I strongly advise against it, it will be very difficult. Departure 21:30.2-hour transfer with a short sleep in the bus (take a pillow with you, at least an inflatable one), night climb to Mount Moses, meeting the dawn on the mountain at about 5-6 am (the guide will definitely tell you that when you meet the dawn on Mount Moses “forgiveness of sins”), descent to the monastery, breakfast with dry rations, an hour tour of the monastery (Burning Bush, Moses’ well, relics of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine in the Transfiguration Church of the monastery), back to the hotel by 12:30. The temperature at the top at night was about +10 degrees, sometimes +5 and strong wind. Be sure to have a windproof jacket, a knitted hat, a change shirt, a sweater (you can change a wet shirt, socks and put on a sweater under the jacket at the last stop a few meters before the summit), adhesive plasters, hydrogen peroxide, sterile wipes, iodine or brilliant green (at case of injuries with violation of the skin). All this is better to put in a small backpack. If you are too lazy to bring a sweater with you, at the last stop you can rent a blanket for $5. But instead of a sweater, it’s better to take a sleeping blanket (one for two) from home with you, which you can turn around while waiting for dawn. I assure you, you will fully feel the value of the extra 1.5 kilograms of a sleeping bag! On your feet, be sure to have comfortable well-worn closed sports shoes, sneakers are best. On the way back, descending in daylight, we met girls in flip flops and even stilettos. I can’t imagine how they could climb the mountain in such “shoes” and not be crippled. Before the ascent, everyone was given a flashlight with fresh batteries, which was enough for the entire ascent, but it is better to have your own with a forehead mount. Extra objects in the hands during a long lift strain. Climb 6 kilometers on a gentle road (about 2 hours) and 1 kilometer on the steps (about an hour) with 7 stops. If you are not confident in your legs, you can rent a camel for $16 to climb the first 6 kilometers; you will have to go on the steps of the last kilometer yourself, the camel will not pass. You can also ride a camel back 6 kilometers. From food to go on the rise, it is enough to have 100-150 grams of natural chocolate and half a liter of water per person. Dry rations are usually left in the cafeteria near the monastery and consumed after the descent. If your legs are strong and you don’t feel dizzy, I recommend going back not along the gentle 6-kilometer road, but along the steps. It's a little harder, but much faster and more interesting. The rest of the day after returning to the hotel will have to sleep off.
3. Boat trip to the Ras Mohammed reserve. At first I wanted to recommend, but the trip was very disappointing. The corals near the hotel are much richer than they showed us. If you want to go somewhere to swim with a mask and snorkel, it is better to use the services of one of the dive centers in Sharm. They know the best places for snorkeling, and the price will be the same as tour operator trips.

I recommend this http://www.dive-afrika.com/ru/index.html
I dived with them on three sites. At the last one (between Ras Mohammed and Sharm) we met a manta!
During the vacation, the spouse completed a 4-day diving course at the PADI OWD course at the Russian dive center Dive Africa ( http://www.dive-afrika.com/ru/index.html) In addition to this center, there are 3 Russian dives in Sharm -center, and there are Russian instructors in many other dive centers (including our hotel). This center was chosen on the recommendation of my St. Petersburg instructor. The total cost of the 4-day course (including transfer between the hotel and the center, textbook and certificate fee) is 280 euros. Who is short on time, you can pass the theory and the pool in advance in any center in Russia, and the "open water" - in Egypt. Save 2 days, but cost a little more in total.
The hotel has three swimming pools, two have a paddling pool for children. There is a playground. The child can be left for an hour in the "kindergarten" under the supervision of Russian teachers. Animation at the hotel is Russian (and only Russian), for children - from 21 to 22 hours, for adults - from 22 to 23 hours. Free gym with jacuzzi, tennis court. There is a free bus to Naama Bay twice a day (seats must be booked the day before the trip). There is an ATM at the reception. There is a bank where you can exchange dollars and euros for local pounds in a nearby hotel of the same Rotana system. But, as the guide explained, it is better to make purchases in Sharm in dollars, in which prices are indicated in Sharm stores, because local merchants round off the rate from 5.5 to 5 Egyptian pounds per dollar.
The entire staff of the hotel speaks fluent Russian.
UPD. During the rest, we caught a very rare event for Sharm - a thunderstorm in September:
Translated automatically from Russian. View original