Hotel Dreams Beach Resort

The Dreams Beach Resort is situated in the centre of Hadaba's coastline together with a handful of other hotels. It is around a twenty minute drive from the airport while the neighbouring zone of Naama Bay is just five minutes' drive away.

The Dreams Beach Resort is the bigger sister of the Dreams Vacation right next door. The hotels share their beach as well as the health club, located at the Vacation, although there are plans for a health club to be built at the Beach Resort in the near future. The animation team, which consists of sixteen English-speaking members, is also split between the two properties and the kids club, located at the Beach Resort, is also shared.

All 483 rooms at the Dreams Beach Resort, with the exception of three suites, are standard. They are decorated fairly ordinarily with cheap looking light wood furniture featuring a green motive, a picture and a small vase of flowers being the only efforts to liven the space up. All rooms are equipped with a safe, television, fridge and either a terrace or balcony. The bathroom, which needs a little touch up, comes with toiletries, a hairdryer, a bathtub and a bidet. Depending on the orientation of the room, they will have a garden view, pool view or sea view. The suites, which are well furnished, only in a style that has not been in fashion for quite a number of decades now, have a separate comfortable living space with sofa and armchairs, flatscreen television and tea and coffee facilities (plus Nespresso machine), while the bedrooms are slightly larger than the standards and boast quite a bit of storage space. Their bathrooms are no bigger, but do boast jacuzzi bathtubs. They of course also have balconies, all of which face the sea.

The hexagonal shaped lobby is centered around a slightly raised platform bordered by plants upon which are clusters of tables and chairs themselves around a column which disappears into the lighting fixture. Around the edges of the hall are situated the reception, the guest relations desk, the concierge, the excursions desk and the 24 hour lobby bar. The hotel has two swimming pools each with a kids pool and the main one with a diving pool. Both the main pool and the kids pool at the smaller of the regular pools have slides and each have heaps of space around them with funky pink loungers and blue and white striped parasols. There are no buildings or obstacles blocking the sun from the sun bathing areas of the pools so a whole day's bronzing is guaranteed. The health club, accessed down a pretty grim path, is located at the hotel's sister property the Dreams Vacation. The gym is fairly well equipped while the rest of the modest health club features a standalone jacuzzi, sauna, nicely tiled steam room and four double massage rooms. The sixteen members of the animation team have full programmes for daily activities (stretching, sports, dancing), music (chill out tunes, dancing, sun set beats), the kids (painting, games, mini disco) and night time shows (variety, oriental, traditional Egyptian). During the day there will always be one of the team taking care of the little ones at the Children Paradise Kids Club. There is a whole host of sporting facilities to be taken advantage of at the Dreams Beach Resort with archery, boccia, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, water polo, pool, mini football and mini golf. The kids have their own little playground and there are of course all the diving, snorkelling and water sports you can imagine down at the beach. 15 shops, ranging from fashion to art, from jewellery to spices can be found on the hotel's premises meaning there is ample choice when it comes to taking something back for friends and family. Other services include a clinic, pharmacy and bank. The public areas of the hotel are generally kept nicely and the plants and trees look healthy. The staff were full of smiles and enthusiastic.

The hotel's main restaurant, Opéra, has a French theme running through it, with models or carved foodstuffs dedicated to the country's capital. While the presentation may not be tip top, the food is reasonable and the space brought to life a little by murals. The restaurant has a terrace for al fresco dining. Another option for lunch and dinner is the à la carte Italian eatery, Pergola, which has seven different set menus with salad and dessert being served on a buffet, all of which is on a non inclusive basis. My Place, which is also not part of the all inclusive package, is a more formal, yet relaxed restaurant serving meat and fish dishes in the evening only and which has its own bar. The floating candles, illuminated trees and portraits on the walls create an intimate atmosphere for a romantic dinner. The two remaining restaurants are located on the beach. First up is the Grill House which, like Pergola, offers several set menus with the same buffet arrangement. It is constructed entirely from wooden branches weaved together and offers great views out to sea. The other option is the rather cheesy Love Boat, which is, quite distastefully, in the form of a boat. Here, an international à la carte menu is served at a gala dinner two nights per week and a reservation is imperative. It's also possible to eat at the hotel's Bedouin area, however only on gala dinner nights. Otherwise this is the place to grab a drink and sit back with a shisha. There are in total seven bars at the Dreams Beach Resort, including in the lobby, at the swimming pools and at the Oasis Café, which has a live singer every night.

The beach, which is right behind the hotel, is shared with the Dreams Vacation, but can only be accessed via the Beach Resort. The entire length of the beach is over 1,300ft but this is not continuous. It is broken up into several parts by the rocks and there are also several levels to the beach meaning more intimacy and much more space, although it does take away from the beauty of it somewhat. Due to the formation of the beach, direct access into the water is quite tricky and not advised; better to use the pontoons (there are three of them) and head straight into deep waters past the reef where the snorkelling is great.