JAZ Solaya — Hotel in Red Sea

As I promised to wonderful hotel manager that I would write a review, I am doing so. The hotel is one of the best in Marsa Alam, if not the best value for money. I rate it 5/5 for us. The rooms in the hotel (block 1, room 1126, where we stayed) are older, but clean and comfortable. The room cleaner Ezat is a very nice gentleman and we salute him. The hotel staff is at the highest level, everyone works at 100% from the dishwashers, the smiling waiters (the great Salah "Habibi" in the Safari restaurant) to the hotel management, which tries to accomplish you in everything (including late check-out at 14:00 instead of 12:00). The surrounding gardens of the hotel are very well maintained and the gardeners deserve a lot of respect. The hotel offers animation programs throughout the day, so if you or your children want to have fun, you will have no problem. There is a sufficient amount of food, everyone is sure to choose from breakfast to dinner. Everything is perfectly flavored and we enjoyed everything. If I compare it with our stay last year (Albartos Sea World Marsa Alam), in Solaya is less food, but everything here is much more varied and better flavored. During the stay, it is possible to visit the a la carte restaurant once (we were at Momo) and we enjoyed a great dinner. The hotel also offers an aqua park with many slides, where you will have a great time. As for the beach, Solaya has the best strategic position by the sea. It is close to the pier, but also has its own sandy beach with a gentle entrance to the sea. Unfortunately, the underwater life here is a bit worse, some corals are dead. But if you are lucky, you will also see a turtle or dolphins. We saw them twice during our 15-day stay. If this hotel was in Abu Dabbab Bay we wouldn't go anywhere else on holiday, it would be perfect. I wish Jaz Hotel Group would build or buy a hotel near this bay.

A few comments (rather suggestions for management to improve).

bottled water: 0.5 l is really not enough per person. We drank it in the time between leaving the sea at 17:00 and leaving for dinner at 18:30. If we were thirsty during the night, we were out of luck. At the Albatros Sea World Hotel there was a fridge full of bottled water in the main restaurant and everyone could take as much as they wanted for the night / trip.

grilling at dinner: fairly repetitive (seafood, ground beef and chicken slices). At Albatros they did different Asian mixes (wok stations), small pieces of chicken/beef, mixed with vegetables, noodles or rice and seasoned with spices. This was great, there was a lot of interest in it and I don't think it's difficult to prepare.

once a week it would be great to have some better fish like tuna / salmon etc for dinner. Wherever we went on holiday in the world it was like that and it was a nice change.

food hygiene in the water park / during breakfast in the main restaurant: I don't think it is appropriate to leave uncovered food / ice cream cones. There are many little birds that fly in and nibble on waffles, pancakes, cones. I really have no interest in eating ice cream in a bitten cone.

smoking during Savana lobby seating: as the Savana bar offers outdoor seating for a drink with service, it would be great if one level / terrace was non-smoking. We really don't like cigarette smoke (we're not alone, we've heard this complaint from several guests) so we had to sit inside the Savana bar, where luckily all indoor areas are non-smoking.

ecology and sustainability: considering that JHG presents them as a company that strives for sustainability, environmental protection, etc.. We really don't understand why grass clippings / trimmed bushes are put in plastic bags. Wouldn't it be better if every gardener had a cart on wheels to dump this "waste". Subsequently, the carts would be dumped into a large container and everything would be free of unnecessary plastic waste.

Please do not take this as a criticism of your hotel, but only as suggestions for improvement. We felt at home in your hotel and had a wonderful...

So hard to figure where to begin. But the tl;dr is: come to Jaz Solaya. You won't regret it.

This is our third time at Jaz Solaya and second Christmas/New Year visit. Last year we came with one other family so the kids would have friends to play with, this year we came with 5 families and a total of 20 people! It has been epic thus far, and continues to be fun every day.

First, Solaya is ideally located if you want quick access to the water park. Our kids are all old enough to walk over by themselves, it's all inside a large compound that includes 5 hotels plus the water park. So everyone can find something to do, folks can go together or break apart and do their own things.

The sea water is still warm enough to swim, a bit bracing upon entry, but then warms up as you swim around looking at the fishies or just go back and forth from the platform. There's also diving, so don't forget your PADI card if that's your thing.

The rooms we recommeded to all our friends are the deluxe family rooms. They're newer and really a great layout for families with up to two kiddos (or couples where one snores!). There's a hallway and a door between the sleeping areas, so that's super comfortable. They're not first line by the sea, so you have a garden view (I believe exclusively), but it's fine. Everything is super close and easy to get to.

The food is always great and safe to eat. Nobody has ever gotten sick eating anything here in any of our trips, including the salads and fresh fruit. Bottled water is provided in the rooms in reusable glass bottles, and the housekeeping staff is great and gives you as many bottles as you need. So stay hydrated! The special meals for Xmas Eve and NY Eve are epic. Come hungry. And don't forget to use your visit to an a la carte restaurant while you're here. We always like the Lebanese/Egyptian place. So tasty.

And the staff, omg, everyone is so accommodating and does everything they can to make your stay as wonderful and memorable as possible. Islam from the front desk team really went above and beyond for our group, and gave his number to WhatsApp if we need anything else.

There are two warm pools currently, and they're quite comfortable for swimming. The unheated pool is not surprisingly pretty empty most of the time. There are absolutely zero issues with finding a lounge chair at any time of day, none of this reserving chairs before sunrise i've seen at other resorts. Really, they've struck a great balance and even when the resort is quite packed, you don't feel rushed or tight on space or anything. Even at the meals at the buffet, there's no stress or difficulty finding a table for even our large group. Of course we have the kids sit on their own, but still 12 adults is no problem.

There's also not too much of the pressure to buy massage and desert packages. If you tell folks you're not interested, they seem to remember and leave you alone.

I'm trying to think of what I'd do differently or recommendations I'd make for improving the place, and honestly, as a family destination this is really hard to beat. We've been all over the planet, and for Europeans the close distance can't be beat. One person in our group said they could have more spoons. So that's our only advice. Check that the spoons are replenished and available regularly in the buffet. that's it. :) Highly, highly recommend Jaz Solaya if you're considering a family holiday in Marsa Alam, or even if you're trying to decided between Marsa and Hurgada and Sharm....go to Marsa and come stay at Jaz Solaya. You'll have fun and your family...

This is our second time at Jazz Solaya Hotel and this time was the worst in Jazz group in general.We are an Egyptian family of 3 with our English friends also a family of 4. It started since the booking, the person in charge of the reservation had a bad attitude in dealing with us and told us that the hotel is almost full however on their website there were still available rooms left and when we mentioned it he told us I will update the website right now. The surprise that we booked the same rooms we asked for after the call with around 5 hours. After the booking we called them for some notes mentioning that we have a baby and need a room in ground floor sea view, another guy took our notes and confirmed it. On the day of arrival, they said unfortunately you will stay in the first floor and when we refused they said we cannot help more. My wife asked them if their are available rooms with pool view in the ground floor they said yes and we took it only when we asked.

Most importantly on the second day one of the receptionist called Islam came to the pool and he started talking to my wife and our English friend asking for their nationalities, and when he knew that my wife is Egyptian he said “for you it is fine we are Egyptians, the comment is not important for us” and started to address the English woman asking for her room number to take her feedback. The last day on check out. I called the reception asking to send someone to help us with the bags. They told me bring the bags outside the room and leave it however when we came the first time we left it in the room as usual and the receptionist was very polite responding that we will send someone to take it ASAP. It seems that the management has changed or maybe their policy we are not sure but definitely our first experience cannot be compared with the second one. I am not recommending this place for anyone who believes that people regardless their nationalities, skin color or religion should receive the same service as long as they pay the same...