Your rating of this hotel:
8.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms:
8.0
Service:
9.0
Cleanliness:
10.0
Food:
9.0
Amenities:
8.0
I'll start with why we chose this holiday in winter and why specifically in the Egyptian town of Taba. After the end of summer and the onset of autumn, somehow I always want to continue it - I love the sun and warmth much more than slush and eternally freezing limbs. Therefore, such a kind of spiritual oasis in December would be very useful for my body. In the summer, in those parts, well, it's sooooo hot, everyone knows that. Well, our choice fell on Taba because, firstly, everything is just beginning there in the resort of Egypt, so it is still quiet and there is no fuss and tediousness of local residents. And secondly, this is a place where four countries border at once: plus Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and getting into any of them while in Egypt is much easier than directly from Ukraine. Well, the hotel The Three Corners El Wekala Golf Resort 4 *, chosen by Netu, immediately approved our right decision at the local travel agency. And, as it turned out, we did not lose at all.
Well, first things first.
From Kyiv to get directly to the Taba airport, it is possible only with the tour operator "Pegas Touristik", which at first was somewhat embarrassing because of the mass of negativity about him on the Internet. But this psychological barrier was quickly and successfully overcome by us, because with another operator it was necessary, having arrived in Sharm El Sheikh, to go to Taba for about 3 more hours along the serpentine with a local driver-ace behind the wheel, which was not seen as a very tempting prospect . Yes, and the duration of rest necessary for us in 10-11 days was again provided only by Pegasus (Teztour had 7 and 14 nights and a completely different price list). In Taba on the new Boeing-737-800 we were delivered from Boryspil in 3 hours and 10 minutes. His airport is brand new and very small, and they are still working on the runway.
Passengers from no more than two flights can fit in the arrivals hall, so together with Belarusian lovers of the winter sun we went through passport control: the customs clearly but quickly gave everyone the go-ahead, naturally not forgetting to collect $15 from each. (By the way-1, for Belarusians, Moldovans and Azerbaijanis there are some rules for entering Egypt, but for Ukrainians and Russians everything is very simple there. By the way-2, in front of all of us, the airport police chief tried to reason loudly and force him to buy a visa to one couple who categorically refused it, deciding to limit themselves only to the Sinai stamp - though I don’t know how it all ended: we had already left, they were still arguing). And besides, they had to fill out their entry sheet right on their hands - the vigilant Egyptians fenced off all the approaches with a soft ribbon like a labyrinth, where it is almost impossible to make a step left and right.
But these were already mere trifles - after all, we arrived in the land of Moses and the temperature on November 30 at noon was almost thirty degrees Celsius.
With half a dozen very decent buses, having sorted out all the tourists who arrived, they took their routes to all the associated hotels in Taba - it was about 45 minutes to go to ours. The terrain in that region is mountainous, the road was constantly winding, so it was impossible to particularly accelerate on it: in the light of a number of recent bus accidents, we were calm about that then. Actually, we never managed to see the TABA settlement itself, or maybe it was just on the other side of the airfield. . ?
At the reception El Wekala (El Vikal - that's what the Egyptians themselves call it) they arranged everything quickly, in Russian they almost don’t rummage there, so there’s nothing to ask, as if there was nothing.
This time we didn’t give a bribe, maybe that’s why we ended up in the topmost 5th building on the second floor (there are 7-8 of them there, two or three-story buildings built in the Asian style). The room got a double standard, without a balcony or loggia, although there are some there, but we did not change, although we read in the reviews that this is possible. The main room is 20 square meters, everything is as usual in the kit - air conditioning, TV, telephone, spacious built-in wardrobe with a safe inside, simple painted wooden furniture. Bathroom - about 4.5 m2: sanitary ware, shower room, by the way a hairdryer. Thick terry towels, two each and a fifth before the shower, along with bed linen, were changed every day without any requests and throwing them on the floor. Swans and elephants were spun for us on the bed without a dolyar, but if you do put it in, the local cleaner will continue to hone his bedding skills in your room. Only the second 1 was in the mini-bar.
5l bottle of their usual water without gas "Baraka". It turns out that if these three liters are not enough for two of you for the entire stay, then the staff, of course, seeing the lack of moisture in the room, will supply it to you, but at $ 3 for one unit - a little expensive! Of course, you can buy water at the nearby Mario Markete, where it costs about 0.60 EL. But we made it even easier: we refilled our empty bottle from 20 liter pins placed here and there throughout the restaurant complex - for free.
After accommodation and lunch at the restaurant, we went to get acquainted with the territory of the hotel. By the way, first a little about the restaurant. Here, three hours are allotted for each meal in the main restaurant, which consists of three halls: in the one where you pick up your food, with air conditioning and it is also for non-smokers; then a larger hall, as it were, in the lower tier, where you can already make a fuss; and on an open terrace overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba.
I liked the food, especially since we have something to compare it with: a large selection of various second courses, broths, full of vegetables, fresh fruits, and I won’t say anything about sweets at all - it’s just immeasurable and for every taste. Every day, chefs prepare specialties of some countries: for example, Italian on Mondays, Chinese on Tuesdays, Belgium on Wednesdays, etc. And in the evening, eating all this under burning candles, they also season with the corresponding quiet national music of this power from the speakers. Good Egyptian beer and three varieties of dry wine, as well as cocktails, are served in glasses by the attentive waiters instantly - just blink and in unlimited quantities. There are also tea and snack hours in various bars and on different days of the week, slightly different in time.
There are pool bars, on the beach, Peanuts and Afandina bars, where you can only drink water, soft drinks, tea and coffee, but alcohol and ice cream for money. There are several more beautiful private and always empty restaurants of unknown purpose, located here on the common territory - why are they needed there if all inclusive (at least for our Pegasus), I still did not fully understand. Yes, here we have completely debunked the myth of Europe that quit smoking...
The surveyed habitat area, where we had to spend 11 sunny days, turned out to be, unfortunately, not very large. The builders were still bringing a couple of completed lower buildings to completion, there they had very little left. The hotel is located at the very foot of the mountains, so the sun sets there early at this time of the year - a little earlier than at 16 o'clock there is already a shadow all around (and on the beach somewhere at half past five). Lots of greenery, silence and peace, the birds sing all around!
Two dozen assorted shops with goods for every taste, equipped here, are quite enough to buy souvenirs or something else for relaxation. Inside, behind the terrace, there is only one pool with a fairly normal temperature of fresh water, a tiny children's paddling pool does not count. There are enough sunbeds with mattresses for the lazy in three rows around them for everyone who wants to sunbathe on the spot. Issued Towel Card for a towel can only be exchanged here, which is not very convenient. Vacationers are mainly from Europe: the British, Germans, Italians and French, mostly not young - you will not often hear the Russian language here. Therefore, the smiling staff is tuned only to those languages, a minimum knowledge of at least English is very desirable here. But I didn’t notice any difference in the attitude towards us: they try to understand and help everyone who applied.
By the way, there were quite a lot of vacationers with Arab families: they have such a tradition there at the end of November to hang out for a couple of weeks after the completion of their Eid al-Adha. There were no problems with them, otherwise it is sometimes written in Nete ..!
Still, the lazy ones go swimming in the Red Sea, or rather the bay. Personally, I can’t understand at all those who flew to such a distance and lay around the pool all the time - and these are the majority. . ! Therefore, El Vicala beach is almost always empty: for example, in the Crimea, one could only dream of such a thing. If you get up early, quickly pack up and eat until 09-15, then to get to the beach, you have to walk: it's about 25 minutes down at a calm pace among palm trees with fallen dates and yellow flowers, along an excellent path along the asphalt. Company cars and buses do not move along it often, so the air is always fresh.
By the way, in December, from the 6th, the winds blew and even light clouds appeared, so we also had to reckon with this and dress up a little. On the other side are several golf courses, between which the gentlemen scurry back and forth in their small electric cars. Well, after the specified time, couch potatoes can get on hotel white minibuses: at 00 and 30 minutes of every hour, in my opinion, until 17-00. Between all five hotels of this complex (more on this below) every half an hour there are also larger blue basses, but well-ventilated, because they have no windows and doors. It turns out that you ended up in a kind of town with your own internal transport with traffic controllers (! ), diligent security and everything else necessary for a carefree holiday.
The wide and spacious beach is equipped with large umbrellas with C-shaped fences made of branches, but with not very comfortable plastic sunbeds, mattresses for which the beach-boy should have brought, but more often they carried them themselves, because. he was hiding somewhere in the morning. There is a small playground, a modest pool (with ice water) and a shower, a bar with a toilet. In the bar you can fill up with soft drinks (there you can also fill your empty bottle with water). In terms of the cleanliness of the beach area, it’s a C grade, I have never seen it being cleaned, and at least there are trash cans all around, but in some places there are cigarette butts, bags and papers. Also, annoying flies and mosquitoes sometimes fly, interfering with complete relaxation and comfort. (In the hotel area, we have seen more than once how they were poisoned with special cannons with acrid smoke. Maybe that's why we were never bitten by them).
The first 30-40 meters the sea goes shallow, the depth grows gradually, then small coral fields with different living creatures begin here and there - a mask with a snorkel is simply obligatory for their lovers. If you walk to the left along the beach for about two hundred meters, then there is a bridge built far into the sea, in the middle and end of which ladders are lowered into the water to the most beautiful underwater places. By the way, this is already the territory of the next Sofitel hotel.
Now it's time to tell you what else consists of what I mentioned above, in my opinion, the best hotel complex in Taba (I will explain later why it is so). One Turkish gentleman built five hotels at once on the same territory, giving every vacationer the right to choose. Our Three Corners El Wekala is the only one among them with 4 stars. All four other five-star hotels are comfortably located on the very shore one after another in a pair between our beach.
To the left of Wekala-vskogo beacha: Hyatt (Hyatt Regency Taba Heights) and Sofitel (Sofitel Taba Heights). Right: Taba Heights Marriott Beach Resort and InterContinental Taba Heights Resort. The latter, in my opinion, is located in the most favorable place in relation to the sunset: the mountains are farthest from it. Hyatt, on the other hand, suffers first - almost immediately behind its beach, a whole ridge of rather high cliffs begins. By the way, a good path leads to the very top along their ridge, and from there such a view opens up! Between all the hotels right along the beach there is a convenient path along which you can easily get to any of the four. Unless the guard sitting near each of the conditional borders may ask you to show him what you have in the package. You can also drive up on the blue bus, plying throughout the complex through the front gate, also without brakes and questions. Therefore, walking, sunbathing and visiting their pools can be absolutely calm. Oh, and sun beds.
But to eat and drink there - it won’t work, they won’t even pour plain water, if only for money, I specifically tried it. Most of all I liked Sofitel, with its seven pools and, probably, the most spacious territory. Hyatt is the greenest, but somehow strongly clamped in the mountains. Marriott really liked the large and warm pool where you can swim through the grotto. Inside another grotto there is a bar with a beautiful aquarium inside, and above it you can slide down a hill and also walk along an impromptu amphitheater with a park of flowers, stones and sarcophagi. InterContinental did not fit into the soul at all, although it looks like the most modern of all four hotels. There is nothing beyond its territory - a guard and a desert with an endless seashore ...
I can’t say anything about local animation - neither good nor bad.
Guys with girls in brightly distinguishable uniforms are constantly pushing around, but somehow there is no particular sign of their work. Every evening after 21-00 in the local amphitheater for 6 rows, performances and competitions are arranged according to the internal schedule: that is, on Mondays, for example, a belly dance (with one artist and everyone else); on Tuesday - the miss of the hotel, on Wednesday - the best couple, etc. They animate mainly on the territory of the hotel itself, but we all the time disappeared on the beach below. In general, we were not sad without them.
On the second day after arrival in the morning, we met our Pegasus hotel guide, a young and pretty girl, Irina. Having told about all the nuances and pitfalls of local recreation, and answering our questions, she gave us a printed schedule of work of all hotel establishments in Russian, as well as excursion programs offered by Pegas Touristik.
Nete writes about all sorts of terrible guides from other hotels, who immediately after the first conversation make us sign a paper that we will go on any excursions only with them and no one else. They scare and almost forcibly push Israeli and Jordanian tours at terrible prices and then in every possible way treat those who did not go with them ...Nothing like this, it was not even close here! Irina behaved more than worthy, and it seemed to me that if we ourselves had not additionally asked about sightseeing trips, then perhaps we would not have focused our attention on those at all. By the way, this is not surprising, because on our territory we counted at least three representatives of local tour companies that officially rent space in El Vecal. But in the light of a number of recent terrible accidents with our injured tourists, we did not go to them at all and ask anything there.
Although I think that everything would be cheaper for them, because their price, of course, does not take into account insurance, and how Egyptian drivers behave on the road is already known far beyond the borders of this power to the whole world.
Basically, all the tourist people who flock to Taboo on vacation are also eager to visit the borders of Egypt. Nowhere on the Pegasus sites can you find any prices for such trips, for some reason they have a big military secret. So all of you who read my review have the opportunity to compare the current price for the trips they offer:
Jerusalem (with Dead Sea) 1 day - $175/145 (second price per child, with taxes and fees)
Jerusalem (with Dead Sea) 2 days – $330/300
Jordan (with Petra) 1 day - $265/230 (since November 1, the Jordanians decently raised all their prices)
Jerusalem + Jordan (with Petra) 2 days - $400/395.
(By the way, in vain: it has its own yet undiscovered Petra - this is a whole complex of significant archaeological sites in the north-west of the country Madain Salih (or Al-Hijr), including 111 rock burials of the 10th century BC - 1st century AD. e. , as well as a system of hydraulic structures related to the ancient Nabatean city of Hegra). An Israeli trip from Egypt is always fraught with certain difficulties: pre-registration of passport and visa documents; additional payment for an Israeli visa (I won’t lie how much); departure by bus late at night; a rather difficult passage of the Egyptian-Jewish border, where the Israelis behave with all tourists indiscriminately, simply boorishly, and sometimes they turn someone back without explaining anything.
Well, the tour program itself is built in such a way that all visits and sightseeing of shrines with sights take place literally on a run, from which you do not receive any God's grace, but you can’t even talk about pleasure here. In general, Israel specifically exhausts all tourists here. A two-day trip there is much easier and easier, but it is also much more expensive. By the way, these same facts were confirmed to us by all the Russian-speaking vacationers from other hotels with whom we crossed paths and talked in our other excursion programs. Therefore, having read about this in advance on Nete (and having talked with the same "crazy" travelers at work), we decided not to go to Israel at home. Another tick in the personal list of countries visited in this form would absolutely not work here.
For such a serious state in the future, a separate purely pilgrimage trip for 7 days, offered in many of our Dioceses, throughout this wonderful legendary land is needed. To each his own…
ABOUT OUR EXCURSIONS.
Jordan's Petra, as a new wonder of the world, attracted and beckoned us with its accessibility from Taba most of all. For private traders offering their services here, including via the Internet, as far as we have explored, this topic is naturally cheaper, though not very much. Everyone here makes his own choice. Having received our dry breakfasts at the reception, a minibus picked us up from the hotel at six in the morning. It was only three minutes drive to the Taba Bay Marina crossing, which was our advantage here. After a dozen different buses gathered there, after about forty minutes, we all went together to the customs office right here on the pier - no one had any problems with the border guards.
A small 100-seat ferry catamaran "Sindbad" took us to Aqaba in 45 minutes: it was possible to be both on the upper deck behind the ship and downstairs in the common saloon. Upon arrival, right on the ship, we were stamped with severe-looking passports by the Jordanians, but also without delays and problems. Quickly seating each language group separately on the buses waiting 400 meters away, we and our new Jordanian guide Ahmed immediately set off on an almost new 49-seat Mercedes Tourismo along an excellent road to the desired goal. Along the way, in tolerable Russian, he told us a lot and interestingly about his country and its history, about the inhabitants, about the beloved king, he also showed and described to us all banknotes - dinars, which are in state circulation here. However, absolutely on a par with the dollar. Well done! True, instead of the planned 1 hour 40 minutes, we got to the place all three hours. T. to.
we stopped twice more: just in the desert at a beautiful rock with camels and Bedouins for a photo, and near some souvenir shop with a toilet not far from the Dead City. (By the way, it is still better to buy souvenirs in Petra itself - everything will be cheaper there). And what a view of the mountain range of the Valley of Moses and the settlement of the same name, directly adjacent to the ancient city, near the entrance! Already around noon in front of the Petra Visitors Center, we were quickly given tickets, and we all moved down to the gorge along a 2.5 km route: it is impossible to stray from it, all people go in only one direction. Talking about the history of the kingdom of the ancient Nabateans, Ahmed slowly led the whole group to the rocky temple-mausoleum "Treasury of the Pharaoh", as the Arabs call it - the highlight of this place. Then he dismissed the whole group, giving us a couple of hours to explore on our own and return to the bus.
To be honest, based on what I saw, I was not very impressed. Moreover, 60% of the entire heritage is still at a 6-meter depth and is waiting to be studied in the future. In addition to the famous treasury, the appearance of which is known to the whole world today, there is still something to look at. But maybe the whole impression, like my health, was badly spoiled by horses, camels and donkeys, a huge number of which scurry about with their handsome guides back and forth, taking sick tourists, some up, some down, or just rolling everyone. Like the clouds of pink dust they raise, settling in a thick layer on passing travelers. Therefore, I would like to warn you: whoever reacts incorrectly to the presence of a large number of animals and dust, it is better to immediately tie a scarf-arafatka tightly on your face or completely abandon this trip.
As if to justify the reaction of my body to this mess, on the way back we met a large group of Japanese, who, going down to meet, almost all were already covered with extra clothes from this terrible smell and dust. And they know a lot about how to live longer and better ...
The length of the coast of Aqaba is 27 km, for Jordan this is the only outlet to the sea. This resort is more free from religious Islamic influence than other cities in Jordan - women allow themselves to dress more simply, and this was clearly visible from the bus window. In addition, Aqaba, like Eilat, has been declared a duty-free zone, which contributes to the development of shopping: for this, Aqaba is nicknamed "the economic lungs of Jordan. " (Before leaving for Egypt, they wanted to take us to their famous bazaar, but, unfortunately, there simply wasn’t enough time, due to the sloppiness of one Russian who was very late for the bus in Petra).
Aqaba is also famous for the giant flag of the Jordanian revolution, located on the coast. The height of the flagpole is 136 m and the size of the flag is 60 by 30 meters. The flag is clearly visible even from neighboring countries and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest flag in the world.
On the way back, we were fed at the roadside 5 * hotel "Moevenpick Resort Petra", by the way, disgusting and tasteless food. For which our guides - Ahmed and Daria (from Pegasus) even dashed off a complaint against them. We returned "home" by the same way around 17-30. By the way, they took warm clothes with them in vain - they just dragged them all the way in their backpack ...
Next tour: SEA TRIP $55/30. Being in Hurghada, we then really liked and remembered the boat trip. Therefore, we decided to repeat it here, too, in a different area.
We were not picked up from the hotel early, in my opinion, at 08-30 and by bus, again picking up Russian-speaking tourists from other hotels along the way, in half an hour we reached the Hilton, on a small pier where the yacht was waiting for us. By the way, "Hilton Taba Resort 5 *" with its one huge building, a tiny plot and camels walking along a small beach, we did not like at all - well, hotels of this level and with such a name should not be like that! Moreover, on its own territory there is a small pier for 3-4 pleasure yachts: and this is definitely a dirty sea and air. Having exchanged our passports for masks, snorkels and fins, we moved along the Taba coast. We were lucky: the sea was calm and quite warm, + 23C according to my feelings (they don’t have thermometers for the temperature of either the sea or the air anywhere, and there are no changing information boards about this).
By the way, Israel immediately begins at the Hilton and its northern fence is the Egyptian border: as I understand it, another state is already perfectly visible from its window ..!
Next tour: Colored Canyon + St. Catherine's Monastery (jeep safari) $55/30. As we realized already on our return, that one without the other would have made a completely different impression on us. Surprisingly decent Toyota Land Cruiser, picking us up from the hotel at seven o'clock in the morning, moved towards Nuweiba. There were six of us in total (the seventh was a cameraman - by the way, don’t even think about buying a DVD from them there: the quality is g ...but) with a salon with two benches for about four priests each, on which we sat facing each other. Along the way, taking with us a second similar, but clogged SUV with Russian-Ukrainian extreme lovers, we very quickly got to the local natural wonder - Color Canyon.
Moreover, for the last half an hour, rolling over the cabin and clanging our teeth, we rushed along the "washboard" of the stone-sand desert inside a wide gorge. And finally, here they are - the granite rocks of the Canyon created by nature itself in all shades of pink. An unforgettable sight! By the way, they reminded me a lot of the plateau of the Valley of Moses in front of Petra. It took a little more than an hour and a half to go down, its passage and ascent - some chubby ones had a hard time at all, especially when we seeped into a narrow hole under an overhanging block in the narrowest part of this unusual gorge. But what an exotic beauty there. . ! Our jeeps were waiting for everyone at the other end of it.
After about two more hours of racing, then again off-road, then along an excellent track among the bizarre rocks of Sinai, we finally got to the second, and for many the main number of today's route: the monastery of St. Catherine, lost between the rocks at the foot of Mount Moses. Although it is not large, it is continuously operating: we arrived almost on time - the service was just ending. Dozens of buses, hundreds of people, so getting through the gates of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world is very problematic. Finally we are inside: the main temple is not at all large, it houses the relics of St. Catherine, as well as a unique collection of ancient icons. True, for this we had to go to the right side of the altar to the exit, but we went to the left and we didn’t get the rings.
Our Egyptian guide, the Christian Coptic Rimon, also turned out to be unaware, so he didn’t warn all of us ...Inside the monastery building is the Burning Bush (you can’t get close to it - the courtyard is blocked off), numerous chapels, the well of Moses and a small but beautiful monastery garden. Having a little enlightened, those who were not tired, they climbed onto the rock nearby the monastery: from it the whole structure is in full view, the photographs should turn out to be very picturesque and sensual. Near the bus stop there are many shop-tents, perhaps it's time to leave the material memory of this holy place, well, and give your dry hotel breakfast to the poor Bedouin boys. Then again two hours of a frantic race on hot asphalt, a late lunch in an eatery-type cafe, we take fellow countrymen to their hotels, and by six in the evening we are already "at home" ...
By the way: having visited the entire coast from the Israeli border to the Tabsky and Nuveybovsky districts, we were 100% convinced with our own eyes that so far no cooler than our five-hotel complex has been built in that region: in our opinion, the best price-quality ratio. Therefore, you can definitely keep this in mind, who is going to go there on vacation. In Nuweiba, everything is still very sad: all around are dug up hills and unkempt construction areas, there is NOTHING to catch even a glance .. .
Well, first things first.
From Kyiv to get directly to the Taba airport, it is possible only with the tour operator "Pegas Touristik", which at first was somewhat embarrassing because of the mass of negativity about him on the Internet. But this psychological barrier was quickly and successfully overcome by us, because with another operator it was necessary, having arrived in Sharm El Sheikh, to go to Taba for about 3 more hours along the serpentine with a local driver-ace behind the wheel, which was not seen as a very tempting prospect . Yes, and the duration of rest necessary for us in 10-11 days was again provided only by Pegasus (Teztour had 7 and 14 nights and a completely different price list). In Taba on the new Boeing-737-800 we were delivered from Boryspil in 3 hours and 10 minutes. His airport is brand new and very small, and they are still working on the runway.
Passengers from no more than two flights can fit in the arrivals hall, so together with Belarusian lovers of the winter sun we went through passport control: the customs clearly but quickly gave everyone the go-ahead, naturally not forgetting to collect $15 from each. (By the way-1, for Belarusians, Moldovans and Azerbaijanis there are some rules for entering Egypt, but for Ukrainians and Russians everything is very simple there. By the way-2, in front of all of us, the airport police chief tried to reason loudly and force him to buy a visa to one couple who categorically refused it, deciding to limit themselves only to the Sinai stamp - though I don’t know how it all ended: we had already left, they were still arguing). And besides, they had to fill out their entry sheet right on their hands - the vigilant Egyptians fenced off all the approaches with a soft ribbon like a labyrinth, where it is almost impossible to make a step left and right.
But these were already mere trifles - after all, we arrived in the land of Moses and the temperature on November 30 at noon was almost thirty degrees Celsius.
With half a dozen very decent buses, having sorted out all the tourists who arrived, they took their routes to all the associated hotels in Taba - it was about 45 minutes to go to ours. The terrain in that region is mountainous, the road was constantly winding, so it was impossible to particularly accelerate on it: in the light of a number of recent bus accidents, we were calm about that then. Actually, we never managed to see the TABA settlement itself, or maybe it was just on the other side of the airfield. . ?
At the reception El Wekala (El Vikal - that's what the Egyptians themselves call it) they arranged everything quickly, in Russian they almost don’t rummage there, so there’s nothing to ask, as if there was nothing.
This time we didn’t give a bribe, maybe that’s why we ended up in the topmost 5th building on the second floor (there are 7-8 of them there, two or three-story buildings built in the Asian style). The room got a double standard, without a balcony or loggia, although there are some there, but we did not change, although we read in the reviews that this is possible. The main room is 20 square meters, everything is as usual in the kit - air conditioning, TV, telephone, spacious built-in wardrobe with a safe inside, simple painted wooden furniture. Bathroom - about 4.5 m2: sanitary ware, shower room, by the way a hairdryer. Thick terry towels, two each and a fifth before the shower, along with bed linen, were changed every day without any requests and throwing them on the floor. Swans and elephants were spun for us on the bed without a dolyar, but if you do put it in, the local cleaner will continue to hone his bedding skills in your room. Only the second 1 was in the mini-bar.
5l bottle of their usual water without gas "Baraka". It turns out that if these three liters are not enough for two of you for the entire stay, then the staff, of course, seeing the lack of moisture in the room, will supply it to you, but at $ 3 for one unit - a little expensive! Of course, you can buy water at the nearby Mario Markete, where it costs about 0.60 EL. But we made it even easier: we refilled our empty bottle from 20 liter pins placed here and there throughout the restaurant complex - for free.
After accommodation and lunch at the restaurant, we went to get acquainted with the territory of the hotel. By the way, first a little about the restaurant. Here, three hours are allotted for each meal in the main restaurant, which consists of three halls: in the one where you pick up your food, with air conditioning and it is also for non-smokers; then a larger hall, as it were, in the lower tier, where you can already make a fuss; and on an open terrace overlooking the Gulf of Aqaba.
I liked the food, especially since we have something to compare it with: a large selection of various second courses, broths, full of vegetables, fresh fruits, and I won’t say anything about sweets at all - it’s just immeasurable and for every taste. Every day, chefs prepare specialties of some countries: for example, Italian on Mondays, Chinese on Tuesdays, Belgium on Wednesdays, etc. And in the evening, eating all this under burning candles, they also season with the corresponding quiet national music of this power from the speakers. Good Egyptian beer and three varieties of dry wine, as well as cocktails, are served in glasses by the attentive waiters instantly - just blink and in unlimited quantities. There are also tea and snack hours in various bars and on different days of the week, slightly different in time.
There are pool bars, on the beach, Peanuts and Afandina bars, where you can only drink water, soft drinks, tea and coffee, but alcohol and ice cream for money. There are several more beautiful private and always empty restaurants of unknown purpose, located here on the common territory - why are they needed there if all inclusive (at least for our Pegasus), I still did not fully understand. Yes, here we have completely debunked the myth of Europe that quit smoking...
The surveyed habitat area, where we had to spend 11 sunny days, turned out to be, unfortunately, not very large. The builders were still bringing a couple of completed lower buildings to completion, there they had very little left. The hotel is located at the very foot of the mountains, so the sun sets there early at this time of the year - a little earlier than at 16 o'clock there is already a shadow all around (and on the beach somewhere at half past five). Lots of greenery, silence and peace, the birds sing all around!
Two dozen assorted shops with goods for every taste, equipped here, are quite enough to buy souvenirs or something else for relaxation. Inside, behind the terrace, there is only one pool with a fairly normal temperature of fresh water, a tiny children's paddling pool does not count. There are enough sunbeds with mattresses for the lazy in three rows around them for everyone who wants to sunbathe on the spot. Issued Towel Card for a towel can only be exchanged here, which is not very convenient. Vacationers are mainly from Europe: the British, Germans, Italians and French, mostly not young - you will not often hear the Russian language here. Therefore, the smiling staff is tuned only to those languages, a minimum knowledge of at least English is very desirable here. But I didn’t notice any difference in the attitude towards us: they try to understand and help everyone who applied.
By the way, there were quite a lot of vacationers with Arab families: they have such a tradition there at the end of November to hang out for a couple of weeks after the completion of their Eid al-Adha. There were no problems with them, otherwise it is sometimes written in Nete ..!
Still, the lazy ones go swimming in the Red Sea, or rather the bay. Personally, I can’t understand at all those who flew to such a distance and lay around the pool all the time - and these are the majority. . ! Therefore, El Vicala beach is almost always empty: for example, in the Crimea, one could only dream of such a thing. If you get up early, quickly pack up and eat until 09-15, then to get to the beach, you have to walk: it's about 25 minutes down at a calm pace among palm trees with fallen dates and yellow flowers, along an excellent path along the asphalt. Company cars and buses do not move along it often, so the air is always fresh.
By the way, in December, from the 6th, the winds blew and even light clouds appeared, so we also had to reckon with this and dress up a little. On the other side are several golf courses, between which the gentlemen scurry back and forth in their small electric cars. Well, after the specified time, couch potatoes can get on hotel white minibuses: at 00 and 30 minutes of every hour, in my opinion, until 17-00. Between all five hotels of this complex (more on this below) every half an hour there are also larger blue basses, but well-ventilated, because they have no windows and doors. It turns out that you ended up in a kind of town with your own internal transport with traffic controllers (! ), diligent security and everything else necessary for a carefree holiday.
The wide and spacious beach is equipped with large umbrellas with C-shaped fences made of branches, but with not very comfortable plastic sunbeds, mattresses for which the beach-boy should have brought, but more often they carried them themselves, because. he was hiding somewhere in the morning. There is a small playground, a modest pool (with ice water) and a shower, a bar with a toilet. In the bar you can fill up with soft drinks (there you can also fill your empty bottle with water). In terms of the cleanliness of the beach area, it’s a C grade, I have never seen it being cleaned, and at least there are trash cans all around, but in some places there are cigarette butts, bags and papers. Also, annoying flies and mosquitoes sometimes fly, interfering with complete relaxation and comfort. (In the hotel area, we have seen more than once how they were poisoned with special cannons with acrid smoke. Maybe that's why we were never bitten by them).
The first 30-40 meters the sea goes shallow, the depth grows gradually, then small coral fields with different living creatures begin here and there - a mask with a snorkel is simply obligatory for their lovers. If you walk to the left along the beach for about two hundred meters, then there is a bridge built far into the sea, in the middle and end of which ladders are lowered into the water to the most beautiful underwater places. By the way, this is already the territory of the next Sofitel hotel.
Now it's time to tell you what else consists of what I mentioned above, in my opinion, the best hotel complex in Taba (I will explain later why it is so). One Turkish gentleman built five hotels at once on the same territory, giving every vacationer the right to choose. Our Three Corners El Wekala is the only one among them with 4 stars. All four other five-star hotels are comfortably located on the very shore one after another in a pair between our beach.
To the left of Wekala-vskogo beacha: Hyatt (Hyatt Regency Taba Heights) and Sofitel (Sofitel Taba Heights). Right: Taba Heights Marriott Beach Resort and InterContinental Taba Heights Resort. The latter, in my opinion, is located in the most favorable place in relation to the sunset: the mountains are farthest from it. Hyatt, on the other hand, suffers first - almost immediately behind its beach, a whole ridge of rather high cliffs begins. By the way, a good path leads to the very top along their ridge, and from there such a view opens up! Between all the hotels right along the beach there is a convenient path along which you can easily get to any of the four. Unless the guard sitting near each of the conditional borders may ask you to show him what you have in the package. You can also drive up on the blue bus, plying throughout the complex through the front gate, also without brakes and questions. Therefore, walking, sunbathing and visiting their pools can be absolutely calm. Oh, and sun beds.
But to eat and drink there - it won’t work, they won’t even pour plain water, if only for money, I specifically tried it. Most of all I liked Sofitel, with its seven pools and, probably, the most spacious territory. Hyatt is the greenest, but somehow strongly clamped in the mountains. Marriott really liked the large and warm pool where you can swim through the grotto. Inside another grotto there is a bar with a beautiful aquarium inside, and above it you can slide down a hill and also walk along an impromptu amphitheater with a park of flowers, stones and sarcophagi. InterContinental did not fit into the soul at all, although it looks like the most modern of all four hotels. There is nothing beyond its territory - a guard and a desert with an endless seashore ...
I can’t say anything about local animation - neither good nor bad.
Guys with girls in brightly distinguishable uniforms are constantly pushing around, but somehow there is no particular sign of their work. Every evening after 21-00 in the local amphitheater for 6 rows, performances and competitions are arranged according to the internal schedule: that is, on Mondays, for example, a belly dance (with one artist and everyone else); on Tuesday - the miss of the hotel, on Wednesday - the best couple, etc. They animate mainly on the territory of the hotel itself, but we all the time disappeared on the beach below. In general, we were not sad without them.
On the second day after arrival in the morning, we met our Pegasus hotel guide, a young and pretty girl, Irina. Having told about all the nuances and pitfalls of local recreation, and answering our questions, she gave us a printed schedule of work of all hotel establishments in Russian, as well as excursion programs offered by Pegas Touristik.
Nete writes about all sorts of terrible guides from other hotels, who immediately after the first conversation make us sign a paper that we will go on any excursions only with them and no one else. They scare and almost forcibly push Israeli and Jordanian tours at terrible prices and then in every possible way treat those who did not go with them ...Nothing like this, it was not even close here! Irina behaved more than worthy, and it seemed to me that if we ourselves had not additionally asked about sightseeing trips, then perhaps we would not have focused our attention on those at all. By the way, this is not surprising, because on our territory we counted at least three representatives of local tour companies that officially rent space in El Vecal. But in the light of a number of recent terrible accidents with our injured tourists, we did not go to them at all and ask anything there.
Although I think that everything would be cheaper for them, because their price, of course, does not take into account insurance, and how Egyptian drivers behave on the road is already known far beyond the borders of this power to the whole world.
Basically, all the tourist people who flock to Taboo on vacation are also eager to visit the borders of Egypt. Nowhere on the Pegasus sites can you find any prices for such trips, for some reason they have a big military secret. So all of you who read my review have the opportunity to compare the current price for the trips they offer:
Jerusalem (with Dead Sea) 1 day - $175/145 (second price per child, with taxes and fees)
Jerusalem (with Dead Sea) 2 days – $330/300
Jordan (with Petra) 1 day - $265/230 (since November 1, the Jordanians decently raised all their prices)
Jerusalem + Jordan (with Petra) 2 days - $400/395.
(By the way, in vain: it has its own yet undiscovered Petra - this is a whole complex of significant archaeological sites in the north-west of the country Madain Salih (or Al-Hijr), including 111 rock burials of the 10th century BC - 1st century AD. e. , as well as a system of hydraulic structures related to the ancient Nabatean city of Hegra). An Israeli trip from Egypt is always fraught with certain difficulties: pre-registration of passport and visa documents; additional payment for an Israeli visa (I won’t lie how much); departure by bus late at night; a rather difficult passage of the Egyptian-Jewish border, where the Israelis behave with all tourists indiscriminately, simply boorishly, and sometimes they turn someone back without explaining anything.
Well, the tour program itself is built in such a way that all visits and sightseeing of shrines with sights take place literally on a run, from which you do not receive any God's grace, but you can’t even talk about pleasure here. In general, Israel specifically exhausts all tourists here. A two-day trip there is much easier and easier, but it is also much more expensive. By the way, these same facts were confirmed to us by all the Russian-speaking vacationers from other hotels with whom we crossed paths and talked in our other excursion programs. Therefore, having read about this in advance on Nete (and having talked with the same "crazy" travelers at work), we decided not to go to Israel at home. Another tick in the personal list of countries visited in this form would absolutely not work here.
For such a serious state in the future, a separate purely pilgrimage trip for 7 days, offered in many of our Dioceses, throughout this wonderful legendary land is needed. To each his own…
ABOUT OUR EXCURSIONS.
Jordan's Petra, as a new wonder of the world, attracted and beckoned us with its accessibility from Taba most of all. For private traders offering their services here, including via the Internet, as far as we have explored, this topic is naturally cheaper, though not very much. Everyone here makes his own choice. Having received our dry breakfasts at the reception, a minibus picked us up from the hotel at six in the morning. It was only three minutes drive to the Taba Bay Marina crossing, which was our advantage here. After a dozen different buses gathered there, after about forty minutes, we all went together to the customs office right here on the pier - no one had any problems with the border guards.
A small 100-seat ferry catamaran "Sindbad" took us to Aqaba in 45 minutes: it was possible to be both on the upper deck behind the ship and downstairs in the common saloon. Upon arrival, right on the ship, we were stamped with severe-looking passports by the Jordanians, but also without delays and problems. Quickly seating each language group separately on the buses waiting 400 meters away, we and our new Jordanian guide Ahmed immediately set off on an almost new 49-seat Mercedes Tourismo along an excellent road to the desired goal. Along the way, in tolerable Russian, he told us a lot and interestingly about his country and its history, about the inhabitants, about the beloved king, he also showed and described to us all banknotes - dinars, which are in state circulation here. However, absolutely on a par with the dollar. Well done! True, instead of the planned 1 hour 40 minutes, we got to the place all three hours. T. to.
we stopped twice more: just in the desert at a beautiful rock with camels and Bedouins for a photo, and near some souvenir shop with a toilet not far from the Dead City. (By the way, it is still better to buy souvenirs in Petra itself - everything will be cheaper there). And what a view of the mountain range of the Valley of Moses and the settlement of the same name, directly adjacent to the ancient city, near the entrance! Already around noon in front of the Petra Visitors Center, we were quickly given tickets, and we all moved down to the gorge along a 2.5 km route: it is impossible to stray from it, all people go in only one direction. Talking about the history of the kingdom of the ancient Nabateans, Ahmed slowly led the whole group to the rocky temple-mausoleum "Treasury of the Pharaoh", as the Arabs call it - the highlight of this place. Then he dismissed the whole group, giving us a couple of hours to explore on our own and return to the bus.
To be honest, based on what I saw, I was not very impressed. Moreover, 60% of the entire heritage is still at a 6-meter depth and is waiting to be studied in the future. In addition to the famous treasury, the appearance of which is known to the whole world today, there is still something to look at. But maybe the whole impression, like my health, was badly spoiled by horses, camels and donkeys, a huge number of which scurry about with their handsome guides back and forth, taking sick tourists, some up, some down, or just rolling everyone. Like the clouds of pink dust they raise, settling in a thick layer on passing travelers. Therefore, I would like to warn you: whoever reacts incorrectly to the presence of a large number of animals and dust, it is better to immediately tie a scarf-arafatka tightly on your face or completely abandon this trip.
As if to justify the reaction of my body to this mess, on the way back we met a large group of Japanese, who, going down to meet, almost all were already covered with extra clothes from this terrible smell and dust. And they know a lot about how to live longer and better ...
The length of the coast of Aqaba is 27 km, for Jordan this is the only outlet to the sea. This resort is more free from religious Islamic influence than other cities in Jordan - women allow themselves to dress more simply, and this was clearly visible from the bus window. In addition, Aqaba, like Eilat, has been declared a duty-free zone, which contributes to the development of shopping: for this, Aqaba is nicknamed "the economic lungs of Jordan. " (Before leaving for Egypt, they wanted to take us to their famous bazaar, but, unfortunately, there simply wasn’t enough time, due to the sloppiness of one Russian who was very late for the bus in Petra).
Aqaba is also famous for the giant flag of the Jordanian revolution, located on the coast. The height of the flagpole is 136 m and the size of the flag is 60 by 30 meters. The flag is clearly visible even from neighboring countries and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest flag in the world.
On the way back, we were fed at the roadside 5 * hotel "Moevenpick Resort Petra", by the way, disgusting and tasteless food. For which our guides - Ahmed and Daria (from Pegasus) even dashed off a complaint against them. We returned "home" by the same way around 17-30. By the way, they took warm clothes with them in vain - they just dragged them all the way in their backpack ...
Next tour: SEA TRIP $55/30. Being in Hurghada, we then really liked and remembered the boat trip. Therefore, we decided to repeat it here, too, in a different area.
We were not picked up from the hotel early, in my opinion, at 08-30 and by bus, again picking up Russian-speaking tourists from other hotels along the way, in half an hour we reached the Hilton, on a small pier where the yacht was waiting for us. By the way, "Hilton Taba Resort 5 *" with its one huge building, a tiny plot and camels walking along a small beach, we did not like at all - well, hotels of this level and with such a name should not be like that! Moreover, on its own territory there is a small pier for 3-4 pleasure yachts: and this is definitely a dirty sea and air. Having exchanged our passports for masks, snorkels and fins, we moved along the Taba coast. We were lucky: the sea was calm and quite warm, + 23C according to my feelings (they don’t have thermometers for the temperature of either the sea or the air anywhere, and there are no changing information boards about this).
By the way, Israel immediately begins at the Hilton and its northern fence is the Egyptian border: as I understand it, another state is already perfectly visible from its window ..!
Next tour: Colored Canyon + St. Catherine's Monastery (jeep safari) $55/30. As we realized already on our return, that one without the other would have made a completely different impression on us. Surprisingly decent Toyota Land Cruiser, picking us up from the hotel at seven o'clock in the morning, moved towards Nuweiba. There were six of us in total (the seventh was a cameraman - by the way, don’t even think about buying a DVD from them there: the quality is g ...but) with a salon with two benches for about four priests each, on which we sat facing each other. Along the way, taking with us a second similar, but clogged SUV with Russian-Ukrainian extreme lovers, we very quickly got to the local natural wonder - Color Canyon.
Moreover, for the last half an hour, rolling over the cabin and clanging our teeth, we rushed along the "washboard" of the stone-sand desert inside a wide gorge. And finally, here they are - the granite rocks of the Canyon created by nature itself in all shades of pink. An unforgettable sight! By the way, they reminded me a lot of the plateau of the Valley of Moses in front of Petra. It took a little more than an hour and a half to go down, its passage and ascent - some chubby ones had a hard time at all, especially when we seeped into a narrow hole under an overhanging block in the narrowest part of this unusual gorge. But what an exotic beauty there. . ! Our jeeps were waiting for everyone at the other end of it.
After about two more hours of racing, then again off-road, then along an excellent track among the bizarre rocks of Sinai, we finally got to the second, and for many the main number of today's route: the monastery of St. Catherine, lost between the rocks at the foot of Mount Moses. Although it is not large, it is continuously operating: we arrived almost on time - the service was just ending. Dozens of buses, hundreds of people, so getting through the gates of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world is very problematic. Finally we are inside: the main temple is not at all large, it houses the relics of St. Catherine, as well as a unique collection of ancient icons. True, for this we had to go to the right side of the altar to the exit, but we went to the left and we didn’t get the rings.
Our Egyptian guide, the Christian Coptic Rimon, also turned out to be unaware, so he didn’t warn all of us ...Inside the monastery building is the Burning Bush (you can’t get close to it - the courtyard is blocked off), numerous chapels, the well of Moses and a small but beautiful monastery garden. Having a little enlightened, those who were not tired, they climbed onto the rock nearby the monastery: from it the whole structure is in full view, the photographs should turn out to be very picturesque and sensual. Near the bus stop there are many shop-tents, perhaps it's time to leave the material memory of this holy place, well, and give your dry hotel breakfast to the poor Bedouin boys. Then again two hours of a frantic race on hot asphalt, a late lunch in an eatery-type cafe, we take fellow countrymen to their hotels, and by six in the evening we are already "at home" ...
By the way: having visited the entire coast from the Israeli border to the Tabsky and Nuveybovsky districts, we were 100% convinced with our own eyes that so far no cooler than our five-hotel complex has been built in that region: in our opinion, the best price-quality ratio. Therefore, you can definitely keep this in mind, who is going to go there on vacation. In Nuweiba, everything is still very sad: all around are dug up hills and unkempt construction areas, there is NOTHING to catch even a glance .. .
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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