Steigenberger Coraya Beach

Accommodation runs to 364 rooms and suites, arranged in low rise clusters through the gardens rather than one large block, so most are only a short stroll from a pool or the sand. Every room has its own balcony or terrace, individually controlled air conditioning, satellite television, a minibar, a safe and WiFi, with 24 hour room service on hand when a lazy morning demands coffee on the terrace. The style is warm and understated, with arches, natural tones and plenty of light. Views split three ways across the resort: pool view rooms sit closest to the action, garden view rooms occupy the greener, quieter corners, and sea view rooms look east over the bay towards the sunrise.

Almost all of our customers stay here on All Inclusive, and it is a well run version of it: generous buffets, local drinks served until midnight and enough named venues to keep a fortnight interesting. Here is exactly what your board covers at Steigenberger Coraya Beach Marsa Alam, and what carries a supplement.

What All Inclusive includes

• Buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner in the Al Maha restaurant
• Local beers, wines, spirits and cocktails, soft drinks and juices from 10am until midnight
• Afternoon tea with sweet and savoury bites, plus ice cream through the day
• One a la carte dinner per stay, included with advance reservation
• A fruit basket on arrival and bottled water in your room
• Sauna, steam room and jacuzzi at the health club

Premium imported labels and extra evenings in the speciality restaurants are payable locally. Dining arrangements do shift a little from season to season, so we confirm the exact package alongside your quote.

The restaurants

The bars

• Night & Day lobby bar, coffee by day and a nightcap later
• Margarita pool bar, with swim up stools at the heated pool
• Palmito beach bar, the sundowner spot
• Zuzu’s bar, with billiards from early evening
• The oriental café, for shisha and Egyptian tea under the stars

Three outdoor pools sit among the gardens between the buildings and the beach, each with a slightly different character, so you can follow the sun or the quiet as the mood takes you. The main pool is the sociable one, home to the Margarita swim up bar, and it is heated to around 30 degrees through the cooler months, which makes a real difference to a January dip. The other two are unheated and noticeably calmer, ringed by terraces and greenery for a long afternoon with a book.

Loungers, parasols and towels are included at both the pools and the beach, and because the resort is adults only there is no splash and shriek soundtrack, just the occasional clink from the swim up bar. Winter days in Marsa Alam are typically sunny with highs around the low to mid twenties, so between the heated pool and the sheltered, swimmable bay, this is a genuine year round resort.

• Three outdoor pools framed by sun terraces and gardens
• Main pool heated to around 30 degrees in the cooler months
• Swim up bar at the heated pool
• Loungers, parasols and pool towels included
• Quieter garden corners when you want silence

Our advice on tactics: mornings belong to the beach and the reef, when the light is best in the water, and the pool terraces come into their own from midday as the swim up bar finds its rhythm. If you prefer to be horizontal and undisturbed, the loungers around the two unheated pools and the deeper garden corners stay pleasingly quiet even in high season, because everybody else is either at the bar or on the sand.

The beach is the headline: 800 metres of sand curving around Coraya Bay, gently shelving into clear, calm water and backed by shaded loungers and chill out corners. The bay opens to the northeast and is naturally protected from the open sea, so the strong currents and swell you can meet elsewhere on this coast rarely trouble it. You can wade in for a swim straight off the sand, then wander back to the Palmito bar with salt still in your hair.

Snorkelling at Steigenberger Coraya Beach Marsa Alam

Coraya Bay holds one of the finest house reefs in Egypt, and it is astonishingly easy to enjoy. A purpose built jetty gives snorkellers and divers their own easy entry points, and from there the bay’s two reef walls, one to the north and one to the south, can be explored on any day of the year. Expect dense hard and soft corals, anemone fish, moray eels, shoals of colourful reef fish and regular visits from green turtles, all within a few metres of the surface. If you only ever snorkel once on your holiday, do it here at first light.

Diving with Coraya Divers

The long established Coraya Divers base sits right on the bay and runs everything from first bubbles sessions for complete beginners to guided house reef dives and courses for experienced divers, with zodiac and speedboat runs opening up the outer reef. Day trips reach the celebrated sites of the deep south: Abu Dabbab with its green turtles and occasional dugong, the sheer walls and pelagic life of Elphinstone for advanced divers, and the spinner dolphins of Sha’ab Samadai, better known as Dolphin House. Diving, tuition, equipment hire and any motorised water sports are payable locally, and we can point you to what is worth pre booking.

The spa is run by Mividaspa, one of Egypt’s largest spa and beauty groups, and it suits this resort’s unhurried mood perfectly. The treatment menu covers classic, hot stone and Thai style massages alongside facials and beauty treatments, all bookable and payable locally, while the health club’s sauna, steam room and jacuzzi are included for All Inclusive guests. An hour here after a morning on the reef is, our customers tell us, the making of the day.

Those who like to stay active are well served too. A fitness room with cardio machines and weights opens daily from morning until early evening, floodlit clay tennis courts can be booked with equipment hire, and there is beach volleyball on the sand, plus table tennis, darts and boules around the resort. Come evening, the billiards tables at Zuzu’s bar get their turn.

• Mividaspa treatment rooms and massage menu
• Sauna, steam room and jacuzzi included on All Inclusive
• Fitness room open daily
• Floodlit clay tennis courts
• Beach volleyball, table tennis, darts and boules
• Billiards at Zuzu’s bar

Madinat Coraya is a purpose built collection of a handful of resorts arranged around one sheltered bay, a few minutes south of Port Ghalib on Egypt’s deep south coast. It is quiet by design: no through traffic, no strip of bars, just the bay, the reef and the desert hills behind. This is the deep south of Egypt’s Red Sea coast, a world away from the busier resort strips further north, and people come here for one reason above all: some of the clearest water and healthiest coral in the country. Guests can stroll between the neighbouring resorts around the bay, which is exactly how the Dine Around restaurants earn their keep, and the marina village of Port Ghalib makes an easy evening out, with its waterfront promenade, shops and cafés a short taxi ride away.

Getting to Steigenberger Coraya Beach Marsa Alam

Every Classic Holidays quote includes return airport transfers with meet and greet, and this is one of the shortest runs in Egypt; you can realistically be checking in within half an hour of collecting your bags. The same short hop makes late departure days painless.

Marsa Alam also pairs beautifully with the Nile. Many of our customers add a few nights in Luxor or a full Nile cruise before their beach week, trading temples at dawn for turtles by lunchtime, and our specialists build the whole itinerary, flights, transfers and all.

Quick answers to the questions our customers ask most often before booking Steigenberger Coraya Beach Marsa Alam.