Just back from 1 week here, fantastic complex, great staff, everybody so friendly, cant really fault it, had no probs with sickness etc, cleanliness very high standard. Weather great 30 degrees on Christmas Day!!
The only fault was coming back home to Gatwick and the miserable taxi driver, think he should go to Sharm and learn to be happy like the egyptians!!!!!!!!

Excellent place everything is true what has been said about this place, GREAT GREAT GREAT. We returned home on Monday 22 December after a weeks break.

Don't wish to repeat what has been said before but just a word on local currency and tipping.

You can't get low denomination notes from our banks at home only 200 and 100 Egyptian Pound notes. We wanted to take local currency for tipping. Don't bother. They will gladly accept £1 coins. We tipped our waiter a couple of £1 coins a couple of times during our stay and got great service, bringing us drinks as soon as we sat down and everytime he passed us brought more drinks without being asked!

When we returned home we cashed in our Egyptian Notes and on £200 worth we lost £33 in exchanging back at our local bank.

Another thing is you might be asked by waiters or local Egyptian reps to change £1 coins into notes usually in multiples of £10 or £20. Don't worry, there is not a problem as the Egyptian banks will not accept £1 coins only notes so the waiters need to exchange the coins for notes. This can be useful as you then have coins for tipping!

Just go for it, great place you will love it all.

Myself, husband, my sister her husband, my brother and his wife all went to the Blue Bay from 27th November 2008 to 04 December 2008. Myself and my husband, my sister and her husband had been before in November of 2007 and had enjoyed it so much that we booked a return trip and took our brother and his wife with us.

The Hotel was as we remembered it and our brother was very very impressed. He had spoken to lots of people that had been to Egypt and had been told to be careful with the food - he found this not to be true at all at the Blue Bay and we will now be booking for us all to go back again in November 2009.

On our first visit we had got on famously with one of the section heads in the main restaurant by the name of Zaher, unfortunately he was not working while we were there this year and so got his friend Syad to look after us. We did meet up with Zaher a couple of evenings while we were there, which was fantastic and he took us to an egyptian bar in namba bay where we had a fantastic evening. I have to say that Syad did a grand job in looking after us, but then almost all of the staff are exceptional at the Blue Bay. Nothing is too much trouble and always done with a smile and a bit of a joke. They really do love the english and are blessed with a dry sense of humour, which fitted in well with our party.

The Hotel lived up to our memories and we once again had a fabulous time, eating, drinking,swimming sun bathing and generally having a good holiday. I myself am a very fussy eater and yet every night was a delight to eat in the main restaurant with loads of choice for everybody.

The rooms are nice and large and the cleaning is done to the highest of standard. Most egyptians work long hours, but they never moan about their lot, they are always just pleased to pass the time of day with you. Even the gardeners (who by the way keep the grounds in tip top condition) would stop what they were doing if you walked by, they would look up, say good morning or good afternoon, wait for you to walk by and then go back to their work. Such very nice manners.

There were a couple of changes that had been made since our last visit that we thought may have been a mistake and they were:-

The Piano bar was now an international brand bar and to go in here and sit you had to pay for the drinks - as the all inclusive drinks are very good (although I always asked for small rum and large coke so that it wasn't too strong and this worked) this bar was not used. We only saw one couple in it for about an hour on one of the evenings.

The Hotel does fantastic pastries and last year these were available at the lunchtime restaurants. This was no longer so this year which we did miss.

The boys went off on a Thomson organised sand buggy trip which they thoroughly enjoyed (boys just being boys). We took a trip to a Casino which was good fun and the boys did a bit of snorkelling down at the hotel beach.

A few other staff members to mention were the security staff, especially those down on the main gate, the taxi staff, including the manager of this section and the Main Reception Manager that we bumped into whilst we were in Namba - these people made the holiday even more enjoyable.

We will be returning to Blue Bay again in 2009. You get exactly what it says on the tin.

Well done guys you are doing a great job.

The only complaint that we had about the holiday had nothing to do with the Hotel but was the flight. we had booked with Portland Direct and it was a first choice flight. We paid additional to be sat together. We made numerous phone calls to get our seats allocated to be told firstly that we could not do this until 3 months before the trip. On phoning back we were told that they could not allocate us seats, but if we got to the airport early we could sort it out then. On arrival at the airport - strangely enough our seats had already been allocated and were a 3 and a 3. We explained to the lady that we wanted 3 window seats, first of all she said she could not change them, she then spoke to her supervisor who could change them but only for the back end of the plane. We were not happy so took the original 3 and 3. On top of this, this was probably the worst flight I have ever taken (I have flown all around the world so I am able to comment on this) the seat pitch would have been cramped for children never mind adults. 2 of our party had booked vegetarian meals. On the flight out they were given to the wrong people on the way back we had to specifically ask for them. Not Good.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

We have just returned from the Reef Oasis Blue Bay Resort and Spa and hope to give an honest review.

We had an amazing holiday and would definately consider returning to this hotel sometime in the future. The hotel itself is stunning - immaculate grounds and much thought has gone into the design of the grounds and buildings - definately 5*.
Wonderful views up the coastline and of the Sinai mountains.

The staff are fantastic, very friendly and they have a lot of time for you, we did not tip until the end of our stay so dont feel you have to tip during your stay for friendly service. If you sit in the same place in the restaurants you will get to know your waiter and they will know what drinks you want when you sit down.

The beach is brilliant and the reef is immediately off the beach - the snorkelling is just out of this world. If you dont want to get wet you can stand on the jetty and look down and you will see the fish. We often dive but did not feel the need here as the snorkelling is so great.

Our room was immaculate, modern and very spacious.

For the benefit of this review I will mention the things that we considered a let down. These things didnt really bother us but having booked a 5* platinum hotel we had high expectations!

- If you ask for juice at any bar or restaurant you will get either concentrated juice out of a carton or more frequently squash. At breakfast freshly squeezed orange juice is charged at 3 euros.
- Ice cream had to be paid for and the one place you could get it for free was in the restaurant in the evening but it was served to you so you couldnt take too much (bearing in mind this was in a self service buffet where everything else is help yourself). Quite amusing.
- Meals are buffet help yourself which is relaxed and easy going but when you are on holiday at a 5* platinum resort it would be nice to sit down and be served sometimes. There are a la carte restaurants (Italian, Fish and French) but you have to pay for these menus! So not exactly 'all' inclusive. You do sometimes feel you are in a 3* canteen when it is busy and everyone is trying to get to the same food.
- Terrible service at the Carribean and Bistro bar you could sometimes be waiting an age with waiters walking straight past you.
- No waiter service around the pools you will need to go and order at the bar (not a problem for us but some people like this service).
- No bath in the room.
- Some pools unheated and no jacuzzis heated - very cold.
- If you ask for more bottled water in your room you will be charged. One large bottle and two small bottles are left everyday for free.

As I said these things didnt really bother us but for some it may and for the benefit of this review I wanted to let you know.

Incidently the food we had was always freshly cooked and hot - my husband did get sick but I am convinced tummy bugs are spread from the serving utensils - hundreds of people using the serving spoons to put food on their plate - and who knows where their hands have been?! My advice is take some antibacterial handwash to use before you pick up your bread roll! I did not get sick and nor did our 12 month old son who ate a huge variety of food.

You will have a brilliant holiday!