SHAMS ALAM BEACH RESORT

LOCATION

Shams Alam Resort is located 45 km (28 miles) south of the town of Marsa Alam in the wildlife rich Wadi El Gemal National Park and about 110 km (68 miles) south of Marsa Alam Airport.

ROOMS

160 – all sea facing.

ROOM FACILITIES

Rooms are reasonably spacious and built in a traditional Islamic design.  The facilities include air conditioning, in-room safe, private bathroom,  mini-bar,  satellite TV, 24 hour room service, small seating area and balconies with a sea view.  Rooms with disabled facilities are available.

HOTEL FACILITIES

Shams Alam boasts a 1 km long private beach, a main restaurant which provides (to cite one travel website) “many lip-smacking dishes to its guests”,  a coffee shop which serves drinks and snacks,  a weekly oriental show, horse riding, camel riding, massage, a children’s play area, squash, billiards, table tennis, beach volleyball, a Roman Theatre, night club, shops and a Bedouin tent. There’s a great choice of bars for anyone who likes to be always near a drink – beach bar, swimming pool bar, billiard bar and even a diving bar !    A nearby diving centre can provide diving and snorkelling lessons. 

GUEST REVIEWS

On Tripadvisor, as of 16 March 2019, the hotel was ranked 38th out of 77 hotels in the Marsa Alam region, which is a slight improvement on its position of 39th out of 66 hotels back in 2013 and arguably no significant change from its position of 35th out of 69 hotels in May 2019 when there were eight fewer competitors. As of 16 March 2021, 77.4% of reviewers of reviewers rated the resort as either “very good” or “excellent” (+10.3% since 2013 and 0.3% since May 2019) and just 9.5% gave it either a “poor” or “terrible” rating – barely changed (-0.2%) on 2019.

TRIPADVISOR RATINGS – JUL 2013 TO MAR 2021.
DateJul
2013
Jan
2017
Feb
2018
May
2019
Mar
2021
Ranking39/6633/7434/6835/6938/77
% “very good”
or “excellent”
677676.277.177.4
% “poor” or
“terrible”
1299.69.39.5

On Holidaycheck.de, as of 16 March 2021, the resort overall scored a respectable 4.8 out of six stars, though down slightly on the impressive 5.0 out of six stars achieved in May 2019, when we last checked. Similarly, the percentage of reviewers recommending the resort, as of 16 March 2021, slipped slightly from 92% in May 2019 to a still creditable 85%. However, there were, on the other hand, some notable improvements, with the ratings for two categories upgraded; the all important gastronomy experience edging higher to a mouth watering 5.1 (from 5.0 in May 2019) and sport and entertainment also advancing to 4.7 (from 4.6). The full figures for all the dates we checked are given in the table below.

HOLIDAYCHECK RATINGS – JULY 2013 TO MARCH 2021
DateJul
2013
Jan
2017
Feb
2018
May
2019
Mar
2021
Hotel4.95.25.15.04.8
Service5.25.55.55.45.3
Rooms5.05.34.84.74.5
Gastronomy4.85.35.05.05.1
Sport &
entertainment
4.85.14.74.64.7
Location4.85.14.74.64.7
% Recommending??959285
Nicely edited combination of hotel walkaround and holiday memories.
Nov 2019 – 37.48 mins – 48+ likes – 5,800+ views.
Promotional video.
Jun 2019 – 6.37 mins – 30+ likes – 5,000+ views.
Hotel walkthrough and mouth watering buffet close-ups.
Aug 2019 – 4.01 mins – 17+ likes – 1,900+ views.
Snorkelling on Shams Alam’s house reef – commentary in German.
Jan 2020 – 6.22 mins – 35+ likes – 1,900+ views.
A tour of the hotel focusing mostly on the beach and house reef.
May 2019 – 11.42 mins – 30+ likes – 4,600+ views.