Having originally booked to go to the Calimera Habiba Beach resort with Thomas Cook, we were informed 4 weeks before our departure that there was an overbooking issue and we were moved to the Dreams Beach for two weeks from 14 May - 28 May. Although the staff at the resort are great and will go out of there way to make your stay comfortable, this hotel has definitely got it's problems.

FOOD
Firstly, the food is terrible. The main restaraunt displays a food theme night poster but in the 2 weeks we were there the food hardly changed. It's very much geared toward the Italians and the Germans and it was only just warm when the restaraunt opened.

POOLS
The lazy lake was closed due to a leak and so the pedalos were out of action throughout our stay. A second pool could not be used as two Ospreys were nesting above it and were dropping excrement and food waste into it. We asked whether the pools were being chlorinated but no one could confirm this.

ENTERTAINMENT
Unless you are fluent in Italian then you have very little chance of understanding the animation teams entertainment programme. The daytime activities are the same every day. There's stretching, or as pronounced by the team "Streetching", Darts and aqua gym. The music played by the pools was the same 3cds played over and over every day. The evening entertainment wasn't much better. The lobby bar gave us the worst singer ever fortunately he only lasted a week and was quickly replaced by a pianist / vocalist.

ROOMS
The rooms were well presented and kept clean on a daily basis. The staff are very keen on ensuring everything works. They even fixed our toilet without being asked. The cleaner is a real whizz at making some fantastic towel displays and none of the staff loitered for tips.

BEACH
Due to the area the beach is shingle and so is uncomfortable to walk on and also harbours sand fly that bite worse than mosquitoes. Make sure you take plenty of insect repellent and lots of re-hydration packs and immodium as you'll definitely need it. Some guests were placed on drips because they were so badly affected. The doctor charges approx US$ 80 which is expensive if everyone in your party gets the bug.

SHOPS
There are a few shops onsite and the man wo runs the newsagent is brill. The other shops are typical foreign nicknack stores and they love to drag you in just to look. Beware of the perfume man as he is a bit of letch when the men are about if you catch my drift.

NOT INCLUDED IN ALL INCLUSIVE PACKAGE
Be aware that ice cream is not included in the A/I package and cost approx £17.50 egyptian pounds. £1.75 english. Eating at Noah's ark also has to be paid for and you only get one free visit to the italian restaraunt. The food in there although limited for choice is very tasty.

We were looking for a little getaway in Feb just to relax. We booked with Thomas Cook who actually told us 2 weeks before we were to fly that the hotel featured on the internet for Marsa Alam was the wrong Dreams Beach....With moderen technology i did look up the hotel details with other tour operators and with of course Trip advisor.
We travelled to the Dreams beach on the 13th Feb so were there over Valentines day. I would say there was the maximum of 60 gust in the hotel....which was great as there were no kids around...well no more that say 5 kids....One reason we came to the Dreams beach was that there has a fish and sea food only restaurant....but guess what? it was closed for the full duration of our stay. They were closed on Valentines day too even though they were advertising the menu....They were even advertising the menu the next day....when we asked why they are not open we were told that its because they do not have enought people but everyone we spoke to was interested to go to the fish restaurant. There was an italian restaurant that we were allowed to use one furing our stay. This was an Al' Carte restaurant but weonly go the choice between 2 starters/2 mains and 2 deserts.... all the food tasted like garlic.
The buffet was not great either...if you like rice rice rice then you will most probs like it. Oh yeah you also have to pay for ice cream even though its an all inc....
We are not fussy eaters in fact our holidays are based around good food...we have been to India/Mexico/Cambrillis/Malaysia/Borneo....all for good food....The Dreams Beach did not live upto our standard.
The amimation team...we we did not do any in hotel activities so can not say much abou that.
The Hotel stops serving wine after 10pm cause its too expensive.
I would rcommend you take a few bottles of Vodka or spirit of your choice when you go to Egypt because the spirits are nasty. they all taste the same....like paint thinner. If you want a shot of Smirnoff its cost somthing like £7.00 english pounds. I would get a bottle or 2 from duty free and fill up a small empty bottle of water from your room and take that down to the bar with you in the evening. Just order a coke and top it up with the Vodka.
We did go Quad Biking which was great and we als owent on a overnight trip to Luxor....if you want any info on this send me an email and i will let give you any information you need.

We booked via Thomas Cook

Grounds
Considering the hotel is in the middle of nowhere the grounds are like a little oasis. Fantastic flowers and plants and lots of interesting birdies to watch.

Pools
There are numerous pools. We only used the main pool which was great although I did tend to get a bad stomach on the days i had been in it - take from that what you will. The children’s pool looked to be successful with the kids club play house right next door.

Beach
The beaches are wicked, definitely our favourite part. They have sun loungers, hammocks and little wicker tent things which you can get out of the sun in. As there is a coral reef off the shore, you cannot enter the sea from the beach, you can however paddle.

Sea
To have to go onto the jetty to get into the sea. We only got 2 days of snorkelling while we were there. the rest of the time the red flag was up due to the wind. There is a life guard on the jetty who will loan you snorkels/ fins if you need them. Do note that it is a severe shelf with large drop, so if you are a nervous snorkeler prepare yourself! The fish are amazing. There tend to be parrot fish, unicorn fish and the most fabulous multi coloured ones out there. They don’t like you swimming too close to the coral, so listen out for a whistle and/ or shouting, which will be the guard telling you to move away.

Rooms
Our room had two beds in which we pushed together to make an extremely large king. There was a/c and a small fridge which was filled with 4 bottles of water each day. The cold water from the tap is vile, so keep a bottle of water back for brushing you teeth. The guys come and clean your room each day and made us some of the most amazing towel creations.

Food
This is where our love affair with the hotel ended as we found the food a bit pants. I'm currently on weight watchers and managed to lose 2lbs whilst away, which for an all inclusive holiday isnt the norm! Don’t get me wrong there is lots there but personally the quality was poor and a little bit samey. We did eat in the Italian one night which was really good. At lunch we tended to hit the pizzeria. I would say take your time if you go here. The hotel is full of Italians and Russians and once a new batch of pizza is put out they think nothing of piling their plate with 6 - 8 slices, which means the fresh supply soon disappears!

Shisha tent
We were completely bemused by this and adopted the approach of letting someone else go first before we did! lol!! The shisha tent is great. Loads of big cushions out side for you to sit on. Shisha itself is a water pipe type thing filled with flavoured tobacco. We tried apple and strawberry, which was just like sherbet. It doesn’t feel like smoking, i think because the impurities are taken out through the water all you get is flavoured air. Anyway for £1 a pop (10 Egyptian pounds) charged to your room its worth a bost.

Entertainment
We aren’t really a 'join in' type of couple so avoided everything, but there appears to be plenty going on. Each day there will be a member of staff trying to get you to something whether it is to see cobra man, the foam party, karaoke or a beach party.

Staff
This is one of the hotels strongest pluses - the guys are wicked and will do anything for you. Do yourself a favour and take some us dollars with you to tip with. You will get great service without tipping, but if you do, they take extra care of you.

Salesmen
You will quickly discover once you arrive that their are plenty of del-boys out there who will try and sell you camel rides, horse rides, henna tattoos, massages, beauty treatments, quad biking etc. They are pretty lovely people who will take no for an answer, just be firm :)

Excursions
We booked these through our Thomas Cook rep and went on the desert discovery and a snorkelling trip to Abu Dabab. The desert discovery was pretty fab going out on a 4x4 across the desert to a Bedouin village where we had tea (very sweet and black) a camel ride and a tour of the village. After that we watched the sun set, had tea and watched a belly dancer. the trip finished with an astronomy lesson which was really good. Once all the lights are out the stars are so bright it was really spectacular.

The snorkelling wasn’t so great for us. I would advise that you book through the dive centre on site rather than take the Thomas Cook trip. We had an issue in that the beach you are taken to is very popular for snorkel trips and there was no way of telling who was in our group and who we should be following. The dive centre however kitted everyone out with colour coded vests and appear to run a much more professional trip. Abu Dabab is pretty cool though we got to see turtles and a sea cow. I would say that the fish back at the hotel beach were better though.

After booking are holiday 2 Dreams Beach we looked on trip advisor to find negative comments about the food, animation team and location. We found non of this 2 be true it was like they were writing about a different hotel. Six of us traveled aged 18-20 and we had a brilliant relaxing break away.

The staff are fantastic they cant do enough for you as soon as you have got an inch left in your drink a new one is brought and same with you plates as soon as you have finished your meal your plates are cleared. The animation team are fun, friendly and caring. They put on activites though out the day for example: yoga stretches, water aerobics and beach volly ball and football. Even though we did not have any small children with us we couldnot help but take notic of how good the kids club was. Every night the animation team put on entertainment....shows...quiz night...beach parties...karaoke and discos.

There were lots of negatice comments about the food so when we went for a first meal we did not know what 2 expect. We pleased to find the food fantactic ...fresh breads....soups...salads....pasta dished made to your liking right in frount of you...and a vast selection of desserts...the meals each night were different theams for example: Mexican, Italian, oriental ect. The childern had thee own area where the food would be more to there liking.

It was a member of are parties birthday while we were way so we booked into the alacart Italian restaraunt. The meal was lovely and all the waiters came out singing with a birthday cake. The night after we booked into the fish alacart restaraunt which was also at a great standerd with entertainment while you ate.

The hotel is beautiful all the grounds are well maintained everthing very clean. The main swimming pool is very large it is not as warm as the indoor pool but when its 36 degrees the pool is very refreshing.

There is two beached to chose from and you get acsess to the beautiful sea and corals from the jetty. You can borrow masks and snorkles form Mohamed for a small tip (the on sight shop was wanting £75 for 2 sets of masks and snorkels). The staff on the jetty are so help full one morning they took 16 of us 10 minutes on there speed boat to another coral free of charge as they wanted 2 show us the most beautiful corals.

one afternoon we took a quad bike trip into the dessert this is not 2 be missed. We all set out late afternoon and took a three hour adventure stopping off at a traditional Egyption small village where we drunk tea and watched the fantastic sun set. If we would had been there for two weeks we would had done that trip again.

The weather was fantastic for a full week we did not see one cloud the hottest day was 36 degrees not bad for march. I no that everybody in are party would go back 2 this resort we were made so welcome and had a unforgettable holiday.