OUNI INC

I still can’t believe it, but only two weeks ago I was invited by CLUB MED to spend a week in their brand new 4 Trident Premium SINAI BAY resort located in TABA, EGYPT. 

I’m a sucker for basically any Maghreb destination and quite frankly a holiday of this type came right on time, so I didn’t hesitate and happily accepted their offer. 

After a quick and somewhat hectic rescheduling of my agenda I was ready to leave ‘Constant State of Grey Belgium’ and not much later I found myself on an airplane, direction Egypt, with let’s say, véry promising temperatures. 

Four comfortable flight hours later with BRUSSELS AIRLINES I arrived in Taba Airport where the heat dropped on you like an elephant on a daffodil. Hammering. 

Interesting detail, this must be one of the prettiest customs document I ever had to fill in. 

After a 40 minute busdrive crossing some very beige desolated landscapes…

we arrived in the SINAI BAY resort and I was ready for my very first Club Med holiday ànd the following stunning view I got to enjoy for 6 days. The land across the ocean is Saudi Arabia by the way. Pretty amazing right? 

The resort is hidden and completely surround by red stone mountains and makes sure you are completely cut of from modern society.

This resort was clearly made to create an isolated paradise and makes sure everything is available for you to forget your daily stressful life and therefore a perfect match for me. 

If I decide to go on a hotel-beach vacation, it’s usually because I want to rest, sleep, enjoy the sun and do absolutely nothing for a few days, something that takes a lot of effort for me to do, since I’m a workaholic by nature.

Honestly, I was slightly worried about the whole Club Med experience, since they are somewhat known for very social group activities, GO’s (Gracious Organizers) and kindly suggested dresscodes for their nocturnal events. 

(show spectacles, dance competitions, beach parties, white parties, casino nights etc) 

I’m a bit anti-social when I’m on a beach/rest holiday, but I quickly found out that Club Med is equally satisfying for customers who prefer to enjoy a more isolated and private SINAI BAY experience. 

It is extremely warm in Taba during summer (off season) so it’s advised you drink a lot of water and stay out of the sun during the hottest moments of day. This was the time when you can enjoy the clean and airconditioned rooms to rest in, go online (there is no wifi, but if you want internet you can ask for a direct cable connection by the reception)  and enjoy a private little garden that is accompanied with every room. 

The sweet Mohammed, our ‘Chef De Chambre’ who made sure our room was fresh & clean everyday made it his own personal challenge to make us crack up over his daily towel creations. Scorpios, elephants, crocodiles or peacocks, you name it, the man can construct it. 

I took the hottest hours of the day as the perfect moment to try out the gym the Sinai Bay resort also provides, fully equipped with Technogym material btw! (my favorite) 

Ofcourse, the resort offers you a wide variety of other (group) sport activities such as aqua gym, stretching, pilates, beach volley, tennis, golf, all guided and supervised by the super friendly and fun loving GO’s. ( Gracious Organisers) 

I tried out the snorkeling (I can’t believe I forgot to take some dorky pictures with my snorkel gear) the hobie cat sailing and the wake boarding.

(Ps: All water sports are included in your holiday except diving and wakeboarding.) 

I’m a beach type of gal so this is where I spend most of my time at Sinai Bay and can you blame me?  Check out some of the amazing views I got to enjoy on the daily. 

The last hours of the day I mostly spend at one of the 4 pools the Sinai Bay resort offers. 

However, the one I liked the most was the salted ZEN pool, a very peaceful swimming pool where people could enjoy the final hours of the day reading, sleeping or having a relaxing & quiet aperitif with their families, friends & loved ones. 

I definitely can not forget to mention the FOOD. 

I didn’t really take any pictures of the food, so the only food picture I have is from this cut-out watermelon. Ahum.

I think I was more distracted by the enormous offer they had and I couldn’t wait to begin my daily food fest and actually éat instead of taking pictures of it. :)

The resort offers an amazing breakfast, lunch, diner ànd dessert on the daily, with a huge variety of different (fresh!) meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, salads,bread, pastry, sauces, spices, and much more.

There was not one thing I could possible think of that they did not have.  I was actually really impressed by the high level of food production they managed to come up with every day and especially how the chefs maintained the quality of their products and even offered different cooking styles like Thai, classic french, American, vegetarian and Arab.

Now. Over to the spa!

I enjoyed a BALINESE MASSAGE, following a ritual from Bali, a relaxing massage with “Baume Fondant aux Noix Tropicales”, combining Thaï gentle pulling and smoothing traditional movements. Yup. It was à-mazing. Sigh…

At the end of the week I treated myself to a japanese Ko Bi Do massage, a ‘Youthfulness Face Care Massage’ and I must say, it’s one of the best facial treatments I ever had. My face was completely glowing after the session.
The staff of the Cinq Mondes spa resort is extremely professional and are trained massage therapists.

If you ever go to Sinai Bay, don’t miss out on this, the setting is really amazing and I believe this CINQ MONDES spa might be the cherry on your already pretty amazing holiday cake.

Let’s discuss nocturnal activities! 

When it comes to satisfying your cultural fix, Sinai Bay offers you different options, as in a visit to Jerusalem, a visit to Petra, Jordan and St-Catherine’s Monastery or a 4x4 desert drive through the Sinai desert. Not bad right?

I was really excited and totally looking forward to book a trip to Petra, however the price for this pretty exhausting trip is (don’t be shocked) 320€/PP… I actually considered it for a minute but that’s too much money for six hours in a bus and only a three hour visit on location, which is not enough if you want to climb your way up to see St. Catherine’s Monastery.

The 4X4 drive through the Sinai Desert was cancelled due to safety reasons with the recent Egyptian elections, so the only pieces of Egyptian culture I got to see were these goodies at the local tourist shop Sinai Bay resort holds. :)

Ow well,  you can’t have your cake and eat it I guess, and Egypt is still very high on my to-do list for an actual 10 days cultural trip anyway, pyramids & Petra included! :)

All stories come to an end, even desert fairytales so…

I hope this review gives you a pretty good impression of what Club Med’s Sinai Bay resort in Egypt can do for you. This is how I experienced the trip, the more relaxing and ‘zen type of way, but you can easily come here with your entire family, young children included, I promise you, your kid will have the time of his live in Club Med’s Mini Club.

I was really amazed how Club Med offers a holiday for different types of needs whether you are a very quiet, social, active, party or family type of person.

The Sinai Bay resort holds an amazing staff of GO’s and GE’s, all super friendly and very helpfull to fulfill your every need at any time of the day. When you are sick there is a resort nurse at your disposal. Believe it or not, everyone who works there really do their job from the heart and the power of this resort is not only because of the burning sun or the amazing surroundings, but definitely and most importantly because of the people who work extremely hard to make your stay the best it can be.

I wasn’t really into Club Med before, but I think you can definitely call me a fan now.

CLUB MED, thank you for this amazing trip, thank you for taking such good care of me, but most of all thank you for offering me a little break in the midst of my very hectic life. I’m still wearing my Club Med bracelet I received on the bus, just as a simple reminder that I need to give myself a holiday from time to time.

Special thanks and shout out to:

Dominique Declercq  Sofie Brantegem, Elisabeth Rodrigues, Julien (chef de village), Ahmed, Sherif, Ousha, Mohammed & Ali.&

I leave you with some of my final holiday snaps…

Love,