A Stranger in Paradise
In October of 2020 I was invited to El Gouna by a friend who wanted me to stay at his house for 3 days.
I decided to prolong my stay by 5 more days. My 8-day trip turned into an unplanned 15 month stay.
I fell in love with this magical place, El Gouna. I started to realize it was a combination of the elegance of the Riviera and the charm of Venice.
The first hotel I stayed at was the Three Corners Rihana Hotel in Downtown El Gouna. Rihana is a comfortable, clean hotel. The staff are very friendly and courteous. The beach is pleasant, sandy and easily accessible. They also provide you with a boat that takes you to Zeytouna Island and back. The food selection in their all-inclusive buffet is excellent for breakfast, average for lunch and dinner. As for the rooms, they are well kept and pretty spacious.
I stayed there for 5 months and would have stayed more hadn’t it been for one employee in the room reservation department who was discourteous and didn’t know how to treat a good customer.
As a consequence, I moved to Panorama Bungalows Hotel. A gorgeous property located inside one of the main lagoons in El Gouna, it offers a beach front that is both diverse and huge. The swimming pool is of average size and only the Jacuzzi is heated.
The rooms are spacious, although they can use considerable upgrading especially the bungalow rooms.
The food is excellent and holds the standards of a genuine restaurant rather than a generic hotel style buffet.
The only problem with this hotel is its reservation desk, which seems to be at a loss when the bookings are made online. It takes them several days to find it and they tend to try to have the guest solve the problem with the website rather than address it themselves. This took place almost every time I renewed my reservations with them online.
Next came Fanadir Hotel. It is a nice, clean and modern hotel. The rooms are on the smaller side but well furnished. TV channels are abundant. The service is good although you have to check-in and eat in their sister establishment Mosaique.
Unfortunately, their breakfast wasn’t very good and the premises are slightly isolated from the Marina’s center of action and activity.
Then I went to Steigenberger Hotel. A five-star property with a beautiful beach and a shuttle boat to the golf course.
The pool is relatively small given the size of the property. I heard that it was beautifully heated in winter, but my stay there was during summer and I never used it due to its constant overcrowding.
Despite its 5 star rating, the service in general was rather disappointing, whether at the restaurant, room service or housekeeping. The restaurant staff was very inattentive and discourteous and the food was average at best. I also complained that I frequently received dirty towels!
Labranda Paradisio Hotel was my next destination. The property is vast with several swimming pools and pleasant walks. It offers one of the most beautiful sea front beaches in El Gouna, as well as access to more than one lagoon, offering sunbathers and swimmers multiple options.
However, the jet ski and boat rental booth are a slight nuisance and can be better located to open up the beach more for the swimmers.
Their food is very good, the staff courteous & I had no complaints regarding the rooms.
The bar service for the all-inclusive guests is rather inconvenient though, because it’s not available except at the beach and main pool area, during the day, requiring a long walk and in the main lobby, in the evening, requiring climbing almost 2 floors.
All in all, it’s a great hotel to spend a quiet time.
I then moved to the Three Corners Ocean View Hotel. It’s an adult only facility, which was a huge plus for me. The premises are beautifully located at the tip of the Marina offering a spectacular view. That hotel was the only one that I have been to that has an elevator making it easy to be in one of the upper floors.
The staff is courteous and the food excellent.
The swimming pool is relatively small but very enjoyable because of the adult only feature, which allows for peace and quiet. The hotel has no real beachfront; there’s only a small pier from which you can take a dip in the open sea. Your swim there will be confined to a small area outlined by the hotel due to heavy yacht and boating traffic in the area. However, they do offer a free shuttle boat to Zeytouna Island as well as a shuttle bus to Makani Kite Surfing Beach. All in all, the Three Corners Ocean View hotel is one of the best hotels I stayed at in EL Gouna.
My next stop was Dawar El Omda; a boutique hotel in the heart of downtown El Gouna. The hotel is cute, clean and well organized. The location offers easy access to all downtown areas in two steps. It is also an adult only hotel which is a big advantage.
However, the rooms are pretty small and you have to climb too many stairways to reach your room.
The meals are offered in their sister establishment Sultan Bey Hotel, so guests have to cross the street to eat. However, they give you the option to have a limited selection breakfast delivered to the pool area from the buffet across the street in Sultan Bey.
The pool is rather small but beautifully heated, which was enjoyable during the colder winter months. A free shuttle boat to Zeytouna Island is also available.
Sultan Bey was next. It’s a cozy beautiful property located on the main lagoon. It provides a picturesque view of Hill Villas, Panorama & Zeytouna Island. It’s also located in the heart of downtown El Gouna giving easy access to all the downtown activities and dining options.
The rooms are spacious, clean and well organized. The food is good.
Management is in good touch with the guests and their needs. The General Manager sings for the guests every Wednesday and her husband accompanies her with his music, which creates a very cozy and friendly atmosphere. The assistant manager is an exceptionally nice person who will go out of his way to help. He is a great asset to the establishment.
The pool is nicely heated and a free shuttle boat to Zeytouna Island is also available.
Sultan Bey is one of the best hotels in El Gouna.
By the time you read this article, I will have left El Gouna, taking with me memories of some of the best days of my life, spent in that special and charming place.
Thank you for letting me share my El Gouna experience after which I no more felt like a stranger in Paradise.
Comments
Post a Comment