Amwaj Beach Club — Hotel in Red Sea

There are 10 things that are impossible in the Amwaj Beach Club hotel.

SWIMMING AT THE BEACH. You can walk endlessly, and the water will barely reach your waist. If you dare to embark on such an expedition, make sure to use water shoes, because the rocks will have no mercy on your feet. There is a pier you can use to delve into deeper waters, but it gets quite wavy, and you can hit a nearby coral (which happened to me, and a guy with a bloody toe).

RELAXING AT THE BEACH. Ok... you can't swim at the beach, but at least you can relax there, right? Not really. There is always someone selling you something at the beach and pool areas. They are like mosquitoes on a hot and damp summer evening. As soon as you ward one off, another one appears with another proposal. It's like the finals of Shark Tank -- everyone is pitching something. The "beach pitch" could be fresh fruit, then another guy pitching fruit cocktails while you are still eating the fruit you bought earlier, then a photoshoot, tours, massages, camel rides, quad rides, you name it. I understand these guys are trying to make a living, but it really damages the experience. It seems like everyone in the hotel is trying to hustle you into something. I felt like I was always playing tug of war with them; they insist, I decline, they insist, I decline. I was tired of it by day 2.

NOT GETTING HIT BY THE RESTAURANT ELEVATOR. Watch out. The elevator doors close too early and can hit you while walking in. Not a big deal for me, but the prematurely closing doors hit my 1.5-year-old daughter on the forehead, leaving a bruise (she still has it a week later). My wife was also a victim of the overzealous Schindler elevator.

GETTING A DECENT DRINK. I rarely drink, so this was not a major issue. But I was curious to try the local drinks (not often do you see Arabic on a liquor label). I did not expect much from them, but they were terrible. The cocktails tasted like syrup. The local beer was decent though.

QUIET. I don't know how many people enjoy Pitbull (or similar performers) blasting at full volume all day in the pool area. I would like to poll every single visitor to see if they actually enjoy this. If they do, then I was definitely in the wrong place. The pool closest to the lobby is not so loud but all the other ones are overwhelmed by loud -- and very bad -- music.

PROPER LUNCH TWICE A WEEK. For some reason lunch is served in the food court by the beach and not in the standard restaurant on Sunday's and Wednesday's. It was impossible to find a table (especially in the shade). This area is 3x smaller than the standard restaurant making it suffocatingly crowded.

GETTING MY PHONE CHARGER OUT OF THE SOCKET. See my attached photo.

NOT SLIPPING IN THE POOL AREA. From all the choices of flooring, why did they choose the one they chose? I suppose price played an important role... nothing else can explain why they chose such slippery flooring.

GIVE THE FOOD A GOOD RATING. I found it ok, but my wife had stomach problems from the day she arrived until she left.

THAT HIS HOTEL IS 5 STARS. Claiming 5 stars while clearly being 3 stars is deceitful.

Not everything was bad. The coffee at the lobby bar was great. Room service was good. I mentioned that water did not flush in the bathtub, and it was promptly fixed. The pharmacy across the street is very professional. Food during the Middle Eastern night was good. Third floor restaurant (make sure to book) view is terrific. Breakfast croissants cooked by Salah are fantastic. The weather was perfect (hot but breezy). Overall, you get what you pay for. This is a budget hotel, and you get budget quality. The hotel provides good value. But some things can be...

I'd like to share my opinion of the Amwaj BeachClub Resort hotel, where I had the pleasure of staying from July 4th to 17th. I was very pleasantly surprised by the resort. I've read many reviews, and they were varied. One word I can use to describe the hotel is HOSPITALITY. Great hospitality from the very beginning! Above all, Amwaj is made up of wonderful people who make up an extraordinary team! They are sincere, smiling, funny, and professional! They are always there to help and never complain about their work! It's such a pleasure to be in such an atmosphere! For two weeks, I was surrounded by wonderful, friendly people with smiles every day! I didn't experience any unpleasantness from the resort staff. I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Mohamed, who oversees hospitality at the hotel and trains the resort staff. He helped me from the very beginning, and we spoke English every day. He is a very kind and friendly man, and I am very grateful for what he has done for me and for what he does for the entire hotel. He is professional and cares about his employees and guests.  I've never met anyone so friendly in this position. The entire hotel staff are smiling people. The lobby bar has great bartenders and very good drinks. Mr. Mustafa (or Mostafa - please forgive the typo) is very smiling, witty, and hardworking. The coffee in the café is excellent, especially the baristas. Said Nasser - the best barista at Amwaj! Soprano Restaurant...it's hard to describe what was going on here! Above all, I felt at home! The food was delicious, fresh vegetables and fruits, different dishes every day, and pastries. Juices, wine, and sodas were all available every day! The restaurant often had live music – on a transverse flute – and a beautiful atmosphere! Three times during my stay, I was able to try the Italian and Indian restaurants. Twice, I chose the Italian restaurant, where a wonderful chef prepared exquisite Italian dishes: delicious cream of tomato soup, breaded calamari, seafood pizza, tomatoes with arugula and Parmesan! Everything was perfectly prepared, I felt like I was in Italy! The dishes were served with care! Dessert – the Pana cotta – was perfect! The chef was very smiling and friendly; I enjoyed chatting with him, and he's very professional! His dishes really wowed my palate! I recommend it 100%! The Indian cuisine was also excellent! The dishes were spicy, the beef in the sauce was perfectly tender, the chickpeas were perfectly prepared, and the fish was perfectly seasoned, melting on the palate! The chef is very thorough, knowledgeable about Indian dishes, and doesn't overdo the spices – everything is an A+!  Room on the 3rd floor. The only downside is the lack of a working elevator (temporarily). Beautiful views of the pool, resort, and sea. The pool... I was pleasantly surprised; one was for children, the rest for adults, depending on the depth. My favorite was the deepest, at 160 cm. Clean, cleaned daily, and closed after sunset (it's a bit of a shame it didn't stay open longer, as the water was pleasant after sunset). I consider my entire stay a great success. I'm so happy to have found this resort and surrounded myself with such wonderful people! They are the people who make Amwaj! I felt right at home! Mohamed and the entire staff, thank you so much for such a warm welcome. I was incredibly happy to stay with you! This is just the beginning; I will definitely return to Amwaj because I miss this great team! It's truly rare to find such genuine and kind people in a hotel.  I recommend this resort to anyone who values not only excellent hotel conditions, but also professional treatment from hotel staff and top-notch hospitality! I highly recommend it...

We were lucky to get a room on the left side as you look towards the sea, on the 1st floor, very close to the restaurant and with 1 queen size bed, we were very pleased. Although many people complain about the wireless, we had no problems, everything went ok and if we weren't planning to go on trips, we didn't need the sim card at all. The rooms are a bit old, we had 2 days of stronger wind and we could feel and hear the wind entering the room even though the door was closed. The window on the balcony could not be locked and was broken in the upper corner, about enough to fit a finger, but that didn't bother us. In the bathroom, you could hear strange noises from the wind through the ventilation, but we closed the door and it was ok. We had a door between us and the neighboring room through which you could see, on the upper part, but we put some napkins in the crack and luckily no one was in the other room. All in all, the rooms were well-kept and clean, this was enough for us, because we didn't come for the rooms, we came for the sea, and the hotel's pontoon was perfect for this. Good food, about the same things but with different recipes, we really like it and it is nice that food is not wasted, we gladly recommend the food. The coffee in the breakfast area is only instant (Nes), not ground beans, but you can find ground beans coffee available at the bar on the ground floor. When we went to the Italian restaurant, the view was fine and all.. but the food was not really to our taste and we found it kinda bad, the mozarella was strange, I think fake, the spaghetti sauce with flour.. not very ok. We talked with other guests and they had the same opinion. But on the 1st floor, it's heaven on earth, really good food. What we didn't like, in the evening the hotel should add napkins to be available for taking, not only the cloths that are actually elegant and arranged beautifully, but the napkins are also necessary. The plates were clean as well as the cutlery. We ate the salad and drank juices from the machine and had no problems with a possible infection with E-coli. We washed our teeth using only bottled water and we also washed our brushes with bottled water, which we always got for free from anywhere in the hotel. What we would have liked, if there was a place where you could always get your cutlery. Cutlery was always left on the table, and I don't know if this "luxury", is really necessary because the cutlery can become dirty without the staff even noticing.

The staff was always very attentive to the hotel guests, we felt treated with respect by a smiling and professional staff.

Another thing we didn't like, we caught several times when there was no toilet paper in the women's bathroom, a bit inconvenient.

Overall we would gladly recommend the hotel and would...