Red Sea Relax

Ahmed, the hotel manager, helped us arrange trips to Three Pools, where we swam and hired quad bikes, and the Blue Pool, with its beautiful underwater reef and camel rides along the beach. We spent five nights here over the school half term and had a fantastic time. The staff were friendly, the place was clean and tidy, and the food was good, including grilled vegetables, cheese toasties, omelettes, and Nutella pancakes. The location is great, about 50 yards from the seafront shops and restaurants, and our teenagers enjoyed being able to wander around. The pool was lovely, as was the sea. We didn't scuba dive, but enjoyed snorkeling and taking a pedalo out. If you're willing to embrace the local people and Bedouin culture, I'd thoroughly recommend coming here. It massively exceeded our expectations 🙏

The pool staff are rarely at the pool bar, despite the hotel's pride in it. The reception manager, though, was very attentive. Red Sea Relax can be a nice place, especially since it hosts Dahab Freedivers center. The rooms are old but functional, and the breakfast is manageable, though you might prefer having it by the sea since the hotel is so close. My main concern is what happened twice on separate dates: I found traces of cat or dog excrement between the pool beds. When I asked for it to be cleaned, staff first suggested I move elsewhere. After I insisted, they used a broom and only cleaned part of it, saying it was difficult to remove. I spoke with the manager, who sent another local man over with the same broom, which had been stored at the pool bar. He rolled it quickly and splashed people nearby with whatever had been on it. It was the animal waste they'd only partly removed. Since it was hard to get off, another employee came with a flat metal tool and managed to remove most of the hardened mess. Then the man put that tool, which had the organic material on it, on the marble countertop of the coffee machine in the pool bar. When I said I was a doctor and noticed this kind of thing, he got annoyed and left. You can draw your own conclusion. The pictured traces were only partly cleaned, and the last picture shows just a drop or two that were left.

The pool was very clean, but so cold that almost nobody used it. Breakfast was average and the same every day, though they would make scrambled eggs, an omelette, or fried eggs if you asked. My first impression of Red Sea Relax Hotel wasn't great: we were brought in through the back entrance and had to walk along a dusty, dirty road. The reception looked nice, and the receptionist was very friendly. The room was average, but the mattress was extremely hard, which made sleeping especially difficult with my carpal tunnel syndrome. Nights were noisy too. All the balcony doors face the pool, where people sit, drink, and socialize every evening. We could hear every laugh, conversation, and bit of noise inside. The doors really felt like they were made of cardboard. The bathroom was a further disappointment. A robe hung from a string attached to the ceiling, the shower's ventilation window looked straight into the shaft, and the sink was coming loose from the floor. Housekeeping was disappointing as well. I took off the bedsheet and left it on the floor to be replaced, but after cleaning they put the same dirty sheet back on the bed. Very unfortunate.

The rooms are acceptable, and the bathroom is a little dated but still okay. The location is unbeatable, the staff are friendly and helpful, and the breakfast is surprisingly plentiful. A decent hotel.