Sea Star Taba Hotel

3 readers found this review helpful

Have just returned from a week in the Sea Star yesterday. Was very worried about the hotel after some mixed reviews on here. To the extent that I even tried to change the hotel with the operator! We went as two couples (one young couple and one mature couple). All of us are experienced travellers, so would like to think we can give a balanced view on the hotel. I rated this hotel on its overall ability to provide me a good holiday (5*), and I had an excellent and relaxing time. In the uk the rooms would be a 3 * standard.
Firstly, if you are looking for somewhere lively, don't come here. This is a place to go to for a relaxing time in the sun, with nothing to worry about. It is not the Costa del Sol, Magaluf or anywhere like that. It is the hotel only and nothing else (+ any trips you do, with a lot of choices).
Secondly, you have to remember you are in Egypt, and a 4* Egypt hotel is not the same as England. You can’t get something so cheap and have extremely high expectations. If you are a very fussy person (or a serial complainer) please don’t come here.
The hotel is clean and spacious. The photos in the previous post are laughable and do not show a rounded view of the hotel. It is old and needing renovation in some parts I accept, but on the whole is fantastic hotel with great facilities.
The pools are nice and always some spare beds. The hotels is surrounded by mountains and beautiful.
The staff are friendly and make the extra effort.
The food was surprisingly good for an all inclusive. Every night had different options of chicken, beef and fish along with salads, meats, pasta's and much more (the breads are fresh and very nice). My partner is a very very fussy vegetarian and had no problems. For an all inclusive, I thought it was very nice.
You can pay extra and go to the 'steak house' or 'italian' restaurants (we paid £20 for 4 of us in the steak house, with desserts!). The steaks were fantastic, and the restaurants view onto the three countries over the water (Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan)!
The rooms are clean and spacious, with nice balconies. We had a pool view and it was very nice, seeing the mountains in the distance. Nothing to complain about in there.
The beach is a 2-3 min walk, very pleasant with water sports available (£30 for a speedboat for an hour, recommended... !). They took us to the best snorkelling spots in that time, the same spots as the whole day boat trip we had previously done.
I could go on and on... But overall this is a nice hotel and the poor reviews below do not do it justice. For the money it is unbelievable value!
However if you like clubbing and nightlife, don’t come here.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! We absolutely loved our ‘chill-out' week in Taba... it was just what we needed. Wonderful people (will definitely return to see you all!). Food good, room great, bed changed every other day, bed made and room tidied everyday. We reported leaking toilet second day am and it was fixed before end of day, you couldn't get better service than that!!
It was the first time for me to snorkel and I loved it so much, I can't wait to do it again. Pristine 'cosy' beach less than 5 mins walk from hotel (bus available every hour if preferred, but truly, the walk is just a few minutes!) and friendly attendants. Someone complained about rocks near the water's edge, hence making it difficult to walk into the water and one of the attendants trudged back and forth in 45 degrees heat many times with the offending rocks in a large bucket on his shoulder which he deposited on a more remote part of the beach...how's that for service?!
Look out for the delightful young boy who sells his mother's hand-made jewellery on the side of the road in the baking heat, always a smile on his delightful face (such wonderful teeth, but they would be as he doesn't eat sweets or drink bottled fruit juices!), his donkey waits for him in the 'shade' of a leafless thorn tree. Also, a hello to the shop-keepers at the hotel, they were all friendly and very helpful, not to mention the restaurant staff who learned our names on the first day and always greeted us morning and evening with a 'good morning sandeeee or good evening reechard'!!
One more thing, don't forget to book the boat trip from the Hilton - with an introductory scuba dive and a wonderful lunch included. As you can tell, we had a wonderful time... thank you Sea Star & all!
Sandy & Richard from Wales

We had a lovely week at the Sea Star. The food was fine - always plenty of choice especially if you like salad and puddings!
We had no problems at all with tummy bugs; we followed the travel agents advice to wash hands after handling money (when you see it you'll see why!!).
In fact I got several small bottles of antiseptic hand gel and carried those around to use before eating/drinking. We only drank bottled water or water from the dispenser and were all fine all week.
The hotel staff were always friendly and helpful, weather was good, pool quiet, beach quiet most of the time. Sea was quite cold - I envied the kids their wetsuits.
This is a great place to go if you just want to chill out, there's not a lot else to do (unless you go on the trips) but that's just what we wanted for a week.
The staff were very keen for our 16 yr son to join them for their daily football session.
The evening entertainment is limited but the male spinning dancers were worth watching (better than the belly dancing).
We would have no hesitation in going back for a relaxing week with good weather & food.

1 reader found this review helpful

I had a fantastic holiday at this resort; a great place to chill out because that is all you can do there, unless you go on excursions or diving. Rooms are always clean and the whole complex was constantly being tidied. Staff were really friendly and would help in any way. One thing though, they would not serve you drinks after 12! Michiel the shop guy always 'had trust' and even though he was ripping you off he made you feel like he wasn’t. Fags are always cheaper at Taba airport! The beach was a lovely quiet place, nationality depending. Lots of snorkelling to do and the sea was quite warm (warmer than the pool). Great for kids and not too far to walk if the bus wasn’t around. As for the food... well, they did offer a great selection! And very tasty, but for the majority (not all) something went very wrong! We should have all ate more dirt as children just to prepare us for the aftermath! A lot of upset tummies and put the toilet roll in the fridge! It’s a shame, but if they get this sorted I would rate the place 10 out of 10! If you are flying late, it’s worth extending your room for £20 and all inclusive for an extra £10 per room. Taba is a developing place; catch it while it’s quiet because it won’t be in 10 years! Always carry your passport and bear in mind Egyptian time could be any time but generally late or delayed.

Excellent holiday, very good value for money, paid a visit to Taba Heights, but all to 'flashy' there.
Never suffered from any tummy bugs as I took the advice of a friend, who told me to always use antiseptic gel after using the money and only drink water from a water dispenser or bottle and by following this advice we were bug free.
The staff were friendly, helpful always on hand to help.
Would love to go again.

Hotel was very clean and the staff very friendly, especially Ahmed who joined in our games round the pool.
Wide selection of food, although it was quite repetitive night after night.
The complex is very much on its own in the middle of nowhere, but for a relaxing holiday by the pool/beach it was fine. Being All Inclusive, we didn't have to find anywhere else to eat at lunchtime.
Would recommend going to the local diving centre near the Hilton Hotel. We did an introduction to diving which was amazing; you get to see lots of fish in different colours.
We also did an excursion to Dahab, where we had a meal thrown in looking over the beach at sunset, and time to go round the shops.
They took us to a perfume shop, run by a nice guy called "Jimmy". Sampled homemade perfumes, though not cheap.
On the whole, this was a great holiday. The pools were large and kept very clean. The weather was hot as you'd expect, but still comfortable with the breeze coming off the sea.
We would definitely go back there again.

Had one week break didn’t know what to expect as this was out first time to Egypt! paid very little for whole package and found it overall very good.
Staff very friendly and helpful, rooms clean and tidy and towels were changed daily and the sheet every other day!! Even had a towel sculpture left by the cleaner!! Very impressive!
Food was ok! Not too bad, there was something for everyone!!
Went on 2 excursions first one to the stars!! Very good and interesting and an eye opener! 2nd trip was lazy dayz, snorkelling for the day and relaxing on a boat!! Very recommended!
Made some fantastic friends there. Adam & Victoria / Dave and Diane and the rest of the crowd!! You know who you are!! Thanks had a brill time.
Don’t forget to visit Michelle (man) next door to the hotel!! Runs a nice shop for all your little nix-nax!
Overall hotel is in the middle of no-where, private beach is excellent, all staff friendly, and if you after a relaxing holiday this is for you!
Only fault was that the all-inclusive on our last day finished at 3pm and we was there till 6pm so everything after 3 we had to pay for!
Watch out for the football matches between the hotel staff and the guests!! Very entertaining!! By the way we won 6-1 cheers chaps.

My family and I have just returned from the sea star and I can’t tell you how much we all are glad to be home! The hotel boasts a 4 Star rating which certainly it is not!
Whilst we were there at least one in every family was ill with an upset tummy which was no ordinary tummy upset, this kept people in their rooms for sometimes days.
The first thing you said to people was how you feeling? Not good morning!
At least three guests visited the doctor whilst we were there and told not to worry about the bill till they checked out only to find a bill for at least £100!
The other thing people need to be aware about is their valuables, my husband bought me a necklace which was stolen and also two pairs of my son’s tracksuit bottoms were taken! You do have a safe deposit box but you can’t exactly put your clothes in a safe.
The food was horrible same thing day in and day out! The only good thing about the holiday was the people we met and playing football against the Egyptians be careful though you might get hurt!

Someone stated there was loads of entertainment e.g. comedians, quizes etc. Um, not when we were there and no one else in this review it seems either.
A disco which all the kids loved, one belly dancing show and the 'Oriental Dance', which had a guy spinning - was amazing.
Although this was the fact - we had a fantastic holiday. Myself, my husband and our two children (8 & 5) had a ball.
We met amazing people, the children didn't get out of the pool -they had their gangs in the evening and so did we.
We chilled out and just had a break! The beach is gorgeous and the hotel standards were top. As far as the food, it is a third world country trying their best (as they know) to satisfy us westerners and they do alright. Variety, my husband was loving it!
We did get a bit of a bad tummy, but that is to be expected with climate and change and diet and so on, you just get on with it. Although it was just my husband and I, the children were fine.
Anyway, got great tans, made good friends (meeting up this weekend) and the kids had such a nice time.
Last minute, reasonable, high standards, No complaints here.

My husband and I went on a last minute cheap holiday to the Sea Star Hotel for 2 weeks. As we paid very little money we were not expecting a lot, but we were pleasantly surprised at what a fantastic hotel the Sea Star is.
The food was nice but did get a little monotonous by the end of the 2 weeks – but there was always something to eat and there was some variety at times.
The beach was very cosy and the beach bar was open 10am - 5pm. We were a little disappointed with the snorkelling/diving though. Be carefully of the tiny jelly fish (this was not every time we went the beach though), as they don’t half sting you.
We never used the mini-bar but found the prices to be fairly reasonable. The health club looked fairly cheap also, but beware of the staff that come round the pool to ask if you’re interested as sometimes NO is not good enough and you have to be harsh.
On the day of departure the All Inclusive finished at 3.00pm which if you are flying out later on can be a tad annoying. We opted to keep the room and this was £20 until 4pm.
The kids club was never open and a lot of families did say that was the reason for picking this hotel but most kids just seemed to entertain themselves within the pool.
There is nothing to do of an evening apart from sit around reception drinking (not that bad). All the hotel staff are very friendly and really look after you.
We never went on any trips as we thought that looked expensive and but there is a variety of trips available.
Overall I would recommend this hotel if you just want a quite get away with nothing to do for the duration of your holiday.