Taba

We flew into Taba airport late in the afternoon of 2 December 2008.  Taba airport is primarily a military airport and is not well set up to cater for large tourist arrivals.  However, we managed to pass through passport control relatively quickly (only one man in a hut) and pick our bags up so at least we were safely there and had all our stuff.

Taba is located in the North West part of the Gulf of Aqaba, bordering Israel and facing Jordan and Saudi Arabia across the Gulf.  It is in the Sinai part of Egypt which is technically part of Aisa and not North Africa.

The Resort

 Taba Heights resort is nestled at the foot of the mountains on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba.  It consists of four hotels along the coastline, a marina (and dive shop!), a golf course and the village ("uptown") where there are shops, a few bars, restaurants and another hotel.

The Hotel

We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel which was the furthest South on the coast and nearest the dive shop.  We had read some reports on trip advisor before we came away which were quite mixed so we were not quite sure what to expect.

When we got there we could not fault the hotel!  To begin with the check-in process went very smoothly, plenty of staff around to help you and the baggage was quietly taken away to your room without a fuss.  Our immediate impressions of the hotel were that it was very clean with professional yet friendly staff.

When we got to the room we were amazed.  We had asked for a room with balcony and sea view and we were not disappointed.  The room had a 40ft high ceiling which kept it nice and cool and a huge bed to relax on.  There was plenty of space and a great en-suite with huge walk in shower.

For an all-inclusive deal the food was in general very good with a good choice for vegetarians also.  There was also cake, ice cream and afternoon tea served at 4pm at one of the outside pool bars - how English!  There were a number of outisde bars including the Lagoon bar that were always open to serve free drinks through out the day.

 The staff were fantastic - very attentive without being in your face.  Everyone was incredibly polite.  However, as you might expect some of the staff started to get a bit too friendly when they knew we were coming to end of our holiday - all to do with the tip!

The Trips

We were not planning on doing many, if any, trips as we were more concerned with relaxing, sun bathing and diving.  However, we did end up going to Dahab for an evening which was good but a bit pricey for what it was.  And as for the markets!!!  We knew what to expect from Dahab itself but we were told that we were going to the Jade Market which was huge and we were not to get lost and we had to be very quick to get back on the bus in 15 mins.  What a pile of poo!  It was nothing more than a glorified shop, extortionate prices and we were out within 2 mins.  Phew.

The only other trip we did was to Petra (the Rose City of Petra, or the Lost City).  This was definitely money well spent - absolutely amazing.  We crossed the Gulf of Aqaba and then took the coach to Petra.  The coach journey was interesting as it goes high up over the mountains to drop down into Petra.  But as for Petra itself, words cannot describe and unfortunately our pictures do not do it justice.  It is one of the new wonders of the world and you can see why.

The Diving

Chris spent the rest of the holiday diving.  The diving was very relaxed and the water was a reasonable 23 degrees.  A big thanks to everyone at Red Sea Waterworld who made the diving enjoyable and a big thanks to Gary who took me to see my first sea horses!!

There were approx 10-12 dive sites that the the boats regularly went to.  There was plenty of hard and soft coral and regular sightings of moray eels, lionfish, stone fish, porcupine puffer fish and scorpion fish along with a few sightings of frog fish.

However, the highlight for me has to be one of the shore dives I did with Gary.  Ironically Gary used to live in London and dived/worked at the dive club in Norbiton where I used to dive - hi Aquanaut!  Anyway, Gary took me out as a family of sea horses had set up habitat just off shore.  Awesome - never seen them before and they were a sight to behold.  The amazing thing was was that they shared their habitat with the largest amount of lion fish, stone fish and morays that I have seen in such a small environment.  We even saw a dwarf lion fish.