Jaz Aqua Marine – Hurghada

In a break with our usual holiday style we booked a last minute holiday for 7 nights all inclusive at the Jaz Aqua Marine through TUI. When I say last minute I mean it. We finalised plans on the Wednesday to fly out on the Thursday morning.

The 9:30am flight from BHX meant we were in the hotel by 6pm. Important to note is that on arrival at Hurghada (and all Egyptian airports) it is necessary to purchase a visa at $25 USD or £20GBP. Take cash with you for this as it is not possible to use cards to pay.

Our Superior Room, 1250 was nice and spacious with a balcony overlooking one of the hotel’s many pools. Here’s a tour of the room:

As with most traditional all inclusive resorts most meals are buffet style, however guests of the Aqua Marine can enjoy three meals on a 7 night holiday in the a la carte restaurants – Italian, Chinese, Indian, Seafood or Middle-Eastern cuisine.

On the first night we had some food in the buffet and it was themed that night around Chinese with plenty to choose from. I could imagine at full capacity the buffet would be incredibly busy, however the longer opening hours would help negate that.

The styling of the hotel is classy with plenty of wow factor:

In terms of the Speciality dining, we tried the Italian, Nino’s and found the food very good with an ambient atmosphere. We enjoyed it that much we had two of our three meals there. We also tried the Chinese but didn’t enjoy it so much.

Other dining options during the day include the pool bar La Perla and the Paradisio beach bar plus sandwich, hot dog and pizza offerings around the hotel gardens, in addition to the buffet. We tried both La Perla and Paradisio as well as the pool bar at Jaz Blue.

All of the food we ate was to a good standard and service consistently friendly and efficient.

Sample pool / beach menus:

The all inclusive drinks package offered a good range of beverages, including cocktails which can be ordered between 10am and 11pm. As it’s so long since our last holiday like this we’d forgotten about ‘local spirits’ which are the standard for this kind of holiday. Alternative brands were available, at cost however the charge was prohibitive. It is perhaps something tour operators could consider on whether to offer a premium plus upgrade option, however id imagine in countries such as Egypt where importing alcohol is costly this might not be a viable opportunity.

For an excursion we made contact with Mahmoud Eid via Facebook and one of the groups set up for the guests of the hotel. Mahmoud provides us with a trip to the ‘Dolphin House’ – a full day out to sea, swimming with dolphins, snorkelling at the coral reef, banana boat and lunch for £20 – absolute bargain.

We really enjoyed our holiday, and would recommend it as an alternative to traditional destinations. Egypt is a safe country to visit and we hope to return one day for another Nile cruise. If direct Luxor flights aren’t resumed we’d definitely opt to stay at the Aquamarine either side.