We stayed at the hotel for 2 weeks, the hotel is very clean and the staff are very friendly.

Entertainment
There is no entertainment appart from the man 'singing' in the lobby bar and he tries to sing the same tunes every night and never gets any better. If you wanted to see a show of dancers, snake charmers or have a beach BBQ you had to pay for it.

There are a lot of different nationalities in the hotel more Italians than any other, they were well catered for and their Sprintours holiday reps kept them well entertained during the day and on an evening, something Thomsons holidays should take a good look at.

There is the lobby bar and the beach side bar to go to on an evening appart from that and the Shisha tent there is nothing else to do.

Food
The food looked really good and the presentation was excellent but then I noticed that some of the food they served on an evening service was coming back out again on the following days lunch and evening service this included meat that had sat under a hot lamp for 3+ hours at the first service. The food handling was terrible with the food for the beach piza and Arc restaraunts being taken from the main hotel on dirty trolleys with raw meat and fresh salad being loosely covered in cling film and the staff sauntering down in the heat to the beach so that it was baking in the sun. This immediately stopped any thoughts of us eating at any of those places.

After just two full days there we were really badly struck down with very painfull stomach bugs and so were 5 other people we spoke to that weekend, so much so that one lady went home a week early and another ended up on a drip. I thought I was well prepared for this as I had read previous reviews of people geting ill at this resort, but the imodium did not work and my boyfriend was very ill, so we bought more tablets from the Chemist something the chemist done a roaring trade in at £9 a box, they helped a little as time went on. Because we knew that our illness was from the food we were frightened to eat anythig in the restaraunt so we stuck to bread rolls for the rest of our holiday. We still had bad stomaches when we got back to the UK I have had results back from my doctor (which I will be sending on to Thomsons) and the illness is from bad food handling, to narrow it down its people who are handling the food are not washing their hands after going to the toilet!!! So you can take all of the hand gells and disinfectant wipes in the world and you will still get this bug.

Trips
We did book the Hamata Island hopper trip but had to cancel it because of our bad stomaches somehow three and a half hours on a bus each way was not achievable for us in our delicate condition!

It is such a shame as the hotel is lovely and so are the staff they just need to tighten up on their food hygiene and put on variety of entertainment instead of the one man and his backing track.

Me and my girlfriend arrived at the dreams beach resort on the 18th june for just one week, i knew it was in the middle of knowhere which is good if you just want a pieceful get away at a quite resort which is what we like. After reading a few of the reviews, i began to think i had made a bad decision and was dreading going there, but on arrival was pleasantly surprised. The staff are very polite and helpful and will do everything they can to make your stay perfect. We were shown to are room and all luggage was brought for us, the porter even showed us how the aircon and all the appliances worked. The whole hotel was well maintained and cleaned everyday, every pool was clean and plenty of sunbeds for everyone on the beachs and around the pools. The big moat pool which was the feature of the hotel, had just been refurbished so was clean and full of water. There was two pools which had water slides which were great fun one for children under 12 and the other for older children. and adults. The food was just your normal buffet food which is expected with all inclusive, but there was a good choice at every meal and we never starved, considering we are both fussy eaters, there was a itailian and the boat restaurant we never used these but were told they were excellent. All the barstaff and waiters were a great help and all had a good sense off humour so meal times were never dull, especialiy michel and yanny in the lobby bar which is open 24 hours. The animation were great especially momo and cobra they did game and activities in the day and shows at night.. I didn't watch the shows every night just two which cobra did, he is a nutter who does snake charming, fire breathing, walking on broken glass which are just a few things to mention. But him and momo are great people we all became great friends.The only bad point are the itailians and there animation team spintours who don't really make the effort to mix with the english dutch russians or polish people which is a shame as they just do there own thing. So overall we really enjoyed our stay, it was a nice quite get away. We have booked to go back in september

My husband and I booked this hotel as the reviews given by Thomson were really good. We stayed for two weeks, but unfortunately spent most of the time (along with a large percentage of the other hotel guests) with food poisoning. So bad, that I ended up on a drip as my body could take no more. I have no doubt that this was due to the poor food hygiene and the reheating of the food the following day. When questioning the head chef why the food was the same two days in a row, we were told it was not the same food as the sauce had been changed!!!!!! (What about the meat which was sat in it?, which was apparantely beef and would explain why the vegetarian who left an earlier review was not ill?) When reporting the food bill and very high doctors bills to the rep, I was advised by the rude rep that out of Thomsons 85 guests currently in the hotel, he had only received 21 complaints about the food and was therefore not enough to do anything about it!!!!!!!!!!! Something which I have now taken up with Thomson as I would think that is 21 too many complaints!!!!

Just before our departure Environmental Health appeared and chefs started cleaning counters and wearing gloves, although I think it was too little too late.

However, the lake was being refilled when we left so maybe the pedaloes will arrive by christmas.

The singer in the lobby bar is still there and his rendition of Kylie's LA LA LA is a treat to hear!!

Having read previous reviews and, subsequently, the reaction of the Calimera Hibba refugees on having been moved to Dreams Beach I started my stay there with some trepidation!

Journey time from the airport to the hotel took about 45mins. The coach we travelled on went direct to the hotel as Dreams Beach is actually nearer to El Quiser than Marsa Alam itself and much further away from many of the other hotels.

On arrival we were greeted with hot flannels and glasses of cold karkadee juice. Check-in was fairly swift and we were shown to our room whilst our luggage was brought up by one of the porters.

The room was clean and tidy. The main room (bedroom area) had obviously been recently re-decorated but the bathroom although clean, was older and had obviously not been refurbished as the bedroom area had been: the shower could be a law unto itself! The room had adequate storage space as well as a fridge (filled with several bottles of water which were replenished on a daily basis). There were twin beds but they were the size of a small double which was really nice and the balcony had views over the moat which, as previously mentioned in reviews was empty of water but during our stay was being worked on and was repainted so I assume that it will have water back in it in the not too distant future.

The room was cleaned on a daily basis and after the first couple of days we came back to some interesting towel art on the bed however, this all changed as sadly, my friend’s bracelet went missing from the bedside drawer (yes we should have put it in the safe but, she took it off the night before we went on a snorkelling trip (as she was afraid she would lose it in the sea) and put it in the bedside drawer – when we came back, it had gone. The head of housekeeping did his best to convince us that it couldn’t have been his staff – they searched the room from top to bottom – in fact the whole room was turned upside down by them and us but to no avail. We reported it to Thomson who filled in the usual form but, after that, no more towel art!

Being an all inclusive hotel and, having stayed all inclusive in Hurgharda previously I wasn’t expecting the food to be up to that much – even harder for me as I am vegetarian but, there was plenty to choose from although it was very repetitive and by the middle of the second week I had pretty much had enough! Breakfast consisted of cereals, pastries, bread, fruit salad, yoghurt, hard boiled eggs, omelettes, fried eggs, cooked tomatoes and foul medammes. Lunch and dinner varied in the main eatery – there was always bread and salads available but the hot food was hit and miss – chicken, beef and fish seemed to be on offer every day and for dessert there was an array of technicolor cakes and jellies. There is another eatery by the pool which served pizza and chips daily for lunch plus a fish restaurant (Ark) which cost extra and obviously we didn’t go there with me being veggie. During your stay, you do get one free night at the “Not” Italian restaurant. It is a set menu but as the main was meat they did make me pasta so that was ok. My friend and I suffered no ill effects from eating any of the food (and she is a meat eater) however, during the last week of our stay, quite a few people were ill with upset stomachs – maybe it was the food but having not been ill myself (nor my friend) I wonder if it was more likely the combination of not drinking enough water and the heat – anyway all I can say is we were fine!

As mentioned earlier, the hotel itself is situated away from many of the other hotels. There was a shuttle bus that you could book that would take you into El Quizer but otherwise as with most all inclusive hotels much of what you do during your stay is hotel based.

The “Animation” team that were on site provided daytime and night time “entertainment” (for want of a better word) although I felt that it was definitely geared towards the many Italians that were staying there and what was being offered was really not my cup of tea. It did become quite annoying at times especially the level at which music was played during the day around the poolside as well as the constant announcements over the loud speaker (usually in Italian but also in German and English) encouraging you to engage in such activities as water polo, aqua aerobics, and stretching (or streeetching as it was pronounced). You also had the usual daily routine of fending off offers of henna tattoos, camel rides, quad biking and a massage at the spa – mind you after a few days of my friend and I telling them that we were not interested they usually walked past us and of course it helped if you saw them coming and pretended you were asleep!

There is a bar in the reception area and you have go there at least once to see the guy that sings there! My friend and I were in hysterics – there he is with a keyboard pre-programmed with the most eclectic mix of songs I have ever heard – we had the likes of “Killing Me Softly, “Hands Up Baby Hands Up” and “Brick in the Wall”. He was bloody awful but so awful all we could do is laugh – thankfully, he is not there the whole night but, if you suffer from a nervous disposition I would avoid the bar area when he is on! My friend and I went to the Shisha tent quite a few times. The guy that works there makes fabulous Turkish coffee and of course you can order a water pipe to be brought to your table also for a small charge. This was a nice way to spend the evening as there was a nice breeze coming in off the sea and the stars were wonderful to look at in the night sky.

There are plenty of pools to swim in and the main pools I found to be clean and refreshing and not too crowded and certainly suffered no ill effects from swimming in them daily. I did notice, however, that the pool with the large blue water slide was rarely used as the gate to the slide was often locked and I guess that someone had to come and turn the water on if it was to be used and also had to stand and watch children using it although the smaller red slide in the kids pool was ok. My friend and I tried the smaller pools which are either side of the moat – they didn’t seem as clean (although were cleaned every night) but I guess it is because lots of flowers grow next to them (hence a few petals and bugs) plus, there are a pair of Osprey nesting at the hotel and some of the fake rocks at one end of one of the pools are covered with lots of droppings so I guess that would put people off swimming in the pool. The birds though are magnificent to see and I was chuffed to get some really great pictures of them – there are also loads of cranes, swifts and doves and one night we even saw an owl.

The beach was nice but a shame that there was not direct access to the sea (although
we did know that when we booked). The coral had an abundance of marine life in it
and I got some really good pictures just with a normal digital camera of sea urchins,
crabs and some kind of starfish like creature as the water is so shallow.

The sea itself was accessed via a pier/jetty. The sea was quite rough for a lot of our stay (red flag up) and I have to admit that I chickened out of going for a swim. There was a bay a bit further up from the hotel and a small rib would make trips there from
the beach so you could go snorkelling but it was great to stand on the pier and look at all the wonderful fish (parrot fish especially) swimming around. My friend and I went on the Hamata Island trip and we had the opportunity to do plenty of snorkelling there.

So then to sum up my experience of Dreams Beach – as I say I have mixed emotions.
I cannot fault the helpfulness of the staff (housekeeping excluded) and the general appearance of the hotel however, the food could be vastly improved by not trying so
hard to theme it every night (I believe for the Italian and German guests benefits) and that the Animation Team either need to tone it down a bit or bog off altogether and let
us relax in the sunshine peacefully! I paid £482 for my two weeks in the sun which I think was a good deal. I cannot say that Dreams Beach is not an unpleasant place to
stay, it isn’t, but nor could I say that it was a luxurious place to stay either. It is what it is and doesn’t really pretend to be anything else.