Domina Coral Bay Oasis Hotel

The holiday was a last minute deal, 7 nights for £200 B&B. Domina Coral Bay is advertised as a 5 star resort, with 10 bars/restaurants and 6 swimming pools, situated on the Red Sea Rivera.
For £200 I was not expecting much and I was very dubious for the "5 star" rating.
The complex as a whole is clean and well presented with a great beach. However, it is only on arrival that you are informed that you are not allowed to use all the facilities.
We were unable to use the two nicer pools as the complex is split into 6 hotels, each with their own facilities. Guests of the Oasis/ Aquamarine will find they are limited in which pools they can use.
The pool areas also have limited toilet facilities, so if you wish to relieve yourself you must walk some distance back to your room. (I hoped that nobody used the other, more amenable option!) Gym facilities are available but you must pay a high rate to use them!
Payment system in the complex is strange. You cannot pay by cash. All drinks, meals and use of facilities must be paid on to you room bill or through a credit card system set up by the hotel. This makes keeping track of your expense rather tricky. Reception also double charged me for my room bill. I am still trying to get a refund (easier said than done)
As for Med Hotels, I found the rep very helpful and always easy to contact. My concern was paying for excursions. You will find that all prices listed are in Sterling. When you pay it will be in $. They have their own exchange rate which means you can add on at least £10 per person to the advertised excursion price.
That said, Med Hotels offer an excellent variety of well run excursions. Shop around at the local towns first; you may be able to get them a lot cheaper. Cairo tour/pyramids by plane were £142 per person for a 1 day trip. The guide was excellent, good English and very knowledgeable.
Quality of the food at the resort is poor. There is also a limited option for vegetarians. I would not recommend going for the all inclusive/Full Board option. I found going out to near by Naama Bay/Old Town the better option. Also not all the bars advertised at the complex are open.
Not a bad holiday for the price (though a lot of hidden extras). I would not return to Dormina Coral Bay but look for a reputable hotel not a complex.

This was our first holiday to Egypt where we stayed in the Dominia Coral Bay Resort which was absolutely fantastic. The bedding and towels were changed everyday and everywhere was spotless. The staff are all very friendly and always willing to help with anything you need.
The only downside was the price of the alcoholic drinks, 4 Bacardi & cokes £28 where do they get their prices from? That is absolutely scandalous. Also when you order food or drink you always have to pay service charge and tax which adds substantially to the bill. We recommend you take your own drinks over from duty free.
This wasn't just our feeling, we spoke to a lot of other English tourists who felt the same. If someone opened more English bars with reasonable prices you would make a mint!

What a great vacation! The worst bit was the tour operator-lastminute.com. Firstly they printed our tickets incorrectly so we has stood in a huge queue to check in and then had to go get our ticket changed and then stand in another queue.
Our room (Aquamarine) was beautiful with a magnificent sea view. Definitely 4*+ acc.
To be fair the buffet wasn't brill but we got discount in the restaurants on the resort being half board and the food was amazing. You can’t expect too much from a buffet service anyway. The staff are friendly and helpful even though their English is limited. Way too many Russians-very unfriendly people!
The snorkeling is fab and make sure you take up the option of Quad biking in the desert. Definitely a must do. Aqualand was fun to and we hired bikes and cycled to the go-karting track. Naama bay was good. Best in the evening but be prepared to be hassled by the locals!
The resort is big but definitely walk able. We barely caught a tuf-tuf but they are convenient. If you are fat & lazy don’t bother going because you will just complain about the size of the resort and give negative feedback.
There is so much to do and is definitely worth the money but rather just go B+B so you can enjoy the magnificent food at the restaurants on the resort.

Accommodation was fine (tired, but kept very clean) and cleaning staff were very good. There was also a fridge in the room which was really useful. Word of warning.... don't leave any food or sweet stuff out. If you do the ants will descend upon you and the fumigators will have to be called in.
Food - another story....... As we stayed in the Oasis we were told we were only allowed to use the one restaurant free of charge. This was self service and if you didn't get up early you could almost find yourself eating off the table (no plates) using fingers (no cutlery) and drinking tea out of saucers (no cups). Staff were not very helpful and would tell you to go and find missing utensils from other places.
Actual food was quite unappetising. Lukewarm dishes, never any variation, plus again, if you did not arrive promptly (breakfast or evening meal), chances are the best had already gone.
Eventually we decided to cut our losses and ate out at the Moroccan. This food was good, but of course we had to pay a supplement for the food plus all drinks.
For the rest of the week, we went into Naama Bay and ate out there. The service was much better and food streets above that in the Coral Restaurant in Domina.
Unfortunately Domina Bay Coral has a captive audience and therefore we feel they are complacent where the food is concerned and prices are a lot higher compared to other places in Sharm.
Another disappointment is that we booked with the knowledge that there was a gym, sauna and spa which we could use. What was omitted was that we would have to pay 20 Euros per day per person to benefit from this use! Yet another hidden cost.
The pools - there may be six pools, but if staying at Oasis or Aquamarine, don't go there thinking you will be able to use all these. This is not the case. It is not only the Salt Lake you are not able to use, there are also other pools you will be kicked out of (even though they appear to have no guests when you go to them). On saying this, the pool we did use, the staff were very friendly and always helpful and they ensured the poolside was kept clean of rubbish and empty glasses.
The guest ratio when we were there was about 60% Russian, 30% Italian and 10% everyone else, and certainly the focus of the complex was more toward their majority audience.
In respect of the sea and the coral - Snorkelling was good, there was a wide variety of fish and coral to see. Plus the fact they have set up a floating platform from which you can dive in so as to prevent further damage to the coral.
Final word of warning. There are a lot of steps and high kerbs so if elderly or you have children in pushchairs, take this into consideration.

The complex is huge, and little mini buses run a constant circuit to transport you around. The rooms we had were above our expectations. We had booked two rooms, one for ourselves, and the next door for our teenagers. When we arrived at the hotel, we were very impressed, a golf buggy came to pick us and our luggage up and take us to our rooms. To our surprise we had suites, with huge living areas, large sea view balconies, and good sized bedrooms and bathrooms. The bathrooms were a little on the tired side, but spotlessly clean. There was also a small kitchenette in each suite, with hotplates, fridge etc, and all the pots and pans. The buffet style meals were fine, but were really the same thing each night, but there was such a large chalice each night, it was easy to have a variety. The breakfasts were very nice, but I would recommend getting there as early as possible, as it is chaos after 8 30, and most of the nicer things such as pastries etc have gone. Both meals had drinks included, but the red wine should come with a health warning.......I am sure you could run a car on it if pushed!!!! The beach is very small, but snorkelling there is wonderful, as there is a coral reef, unfortunately it appeared to be 90% dead, a few metres from the beach, and the fish that hang around there are spectacular. There are shops etc in the complex, but they are very expensive. We got a taxi into Naama Bay, but we were disappointed, as it is a purpose built area, which appears to be about 20 years old, and is a bit sanitized. The taxi drivers will try to charge you £50 EGP for this ride, but will all take you for £20 with a bit of haggling. We also went into Sharm old town, which again is a fairly recent area, but a bit more like a real town, but again is obviously there just for tourists. Pay no more than £30 EGP for this taxi ride, although the drivers will try and show you a card and insist the rates are set by the police.....rubbish. We were told by the holiday rep that Naama bay can be as little as £5 EGP and Sharm Old Town £10 EGP to the Russians, who are less polite than the Brits!!! On the whole we really enjoyed this holiday, even if it was a bit like a classy Butlins. There is not a lot to do in the complex at night, and the entertainment was dreadful, we spent quite a while trying to work out what language some of the singers were trying to use, still none the wiser for a few of them!!! Another amusing game for my horrible teenagers was "Spot the boob job" while we were on the beach, and "Guess the price of the wife"....very cruel I know, but very funny. The Russians were hilarious.....6am in the breakfast room, and there were old fat Russian blokes, with these little skinny wives, all much younger than them, and made up to within an inch of their lives, with stilettos and mini skirts at that unearthly hour. I did suggest to my family that they might just be doting granddads with grand daughters...........but then again!!!

We went to this hotel expecting 5 star luxury and received no more than a two star experience.
We were ushered out of a nearby pool as it was reserved for other 'kings' guests which we were not made aware of. The only pools we were allowed use of were a huge trek away from our room and in the heat this was small torture, not to mention the uphill trek back to the room.
The staff were rude, unhelpful. The food was very poor so we ended up paying extra to eat in the restaurants that weren't included in our package. Even then, the dishes and cutlery were dirty.
We had ants in our room during the second half of our stay, despite being fumigated, they still kept coming. The place was dead most of the time which meant the only entertainment we had was in Naama bay (if you could call it that). The resort catered for Italians and if you weren't Italian, you were treated as subordinate. On the plus side, the resort was beautiful but I definitely won't be going back there.

I have just had a week at the oasis coral bay and was very happy there. I mainly went for the snorkelling, which is great right at the hotel's beaches.
I think it is good value for money. But then i knew that 5 stars in Egypt don't mean the same as 5 stars in Europe...
The rooms are spacious and spotless. The whole resort is very well looked after and clean. The staff is very friendly, the food in the main restaurant was good, Italian influenced and offered a good choice. Against a small additional price (5 euros) we could also use the Moroccan restaurant and the Egyptian one.
There are various nice pools (but as the previous reviews say, one of them, a salt lake is reserved for the more expensive hotel) and two different beaches.
It is a big resort, a bit like a village, which i thought was very handy and helped us to relax. We didn't go there for the nightlife so I can't comment on this.
The only thing that annoyed us were the rude Russian tourists and there were quite a lot of them...
But we would go again!

We have just returned from the Domina Coral Bay Oasis on Thursday, 22Sept,2005 after a week there and were not really impressed at all with the hotel.
Upon arrival we were given a map of the complex and did we need it, it is huge. On the map the Oasis was described as a '5 star economy'. That is a exaggeration of the truth as it is a 3 star at most, hats if i was generous!
The rooms were of a decent standard, but never could be classed as 5star ,although they were kept clean.
The food was poor, so bad in fact after day 3 we ate out rather than endure the poor standard on offer.
The prices of everything in the shops were also significantly higher than anywhere else in Naama Bay.
Prior to going I had a knee operation and partially booked the hotel for the fitness equipment on offer. At no point did it say there would be a fee. Well there was, the hotel wanted 20 euros per day!!
It didn’t help with the location of our apartments ,although they were near to the reception, we had to endure a half mile walk to the pool each day, uphill on the way back, this route not being covered by the 'taf-taf' buses that drove round the complex.
Also we were told we could use any of the pools, again a slight untruth ,the one next to our apartment was for use of kings lake residents only, even though it was always empty!
Would I go again?
ONLY if i could get an upgrade to a sultan or kings lake suite, otherwise no!