Steigenberger Resort Alaya

Accommodation is spread across low-rise wings and garden clusters, 290 rooms and suites in all, finished in a clean contemporary style with plenty of natural light. Every category comes with air conditioning, satellite television, free Wi-Fi, a minibar and tea and coffee making facilities, plus a balcony or terrace with garden, pool, side sea or full sea views depending on the room. Even the entry level Superior is around 40 square metres, more space than many hotels give their suites.

Room types at Steigenberger Resort Alaya Marsa Alam

What all inclusive includes at Steigenberger Resort Alaya

All Inclusive here is generous and, unusually for Egypt, refreshingly clear about the speciality restaurants. Buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner are served at Sultana, the main restaurant, with indoor seating and a pool-facing terrace and themed evenings through the week. Snacks fill the gaps in the afternoon at the pool bar and down on the beach, and drinks are included from 10am until midnight.

• Buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner at Sultana
• One dinner per stay in each à la carte restaurant, booked in advance
• Afternoon snacks at the pool and beach venues
• Soft drinks, local beer, table wine and other local drinks from 10am to midnight
• Tea and coffee through the day

Imported and premium labels, fresh seafood at Mashawi and a handful of signature dishes are payable locally, and venues or timings can flex with the seasons, so we confirm the exact dining package with your quote.

The restaurants

Bars

• Amara Lobby Bar and Terrace, drinks and hot beverages from 10am until midnight
• Negma pool bar for drinks and light bites between swims
• The shisha lounge at Zaytoun after dark

Five pools, endless loungers

Water threads through the whole resort. There are five swimming pools in all, from the main pool by the Sultana terrace and the Negma bar to the quieter lagoon pools that wind between the swim-up rooms. Because around 80 rooms open straight into those lagoons, the main pools stay remarkably uncrowded even in peak season, and with every guest aged 16 or over the soundtrack is turning pages, not splashing.

Sun loungers, parasols and pool towels are all provided, and the Negma bar keeps included drinks and snacks within a few steps of the water for most of the day. If you are choosing a favourite, the main pool has the liveliest, gently sociable feel, while the pools set deeper into the gardens are the ones our customers pick for undisturbed reading.

Swimming in winter

Some of the pools can be heated in the cooler months, which matters more than people expect: from December to February the southern Red Sea days are warm and sunny but the water and the evenings cool off. Heating arrangements vary by season here, so we confirm the position for your dates when we prepare your quote. The sea itself stays swimmable for most of the year, and hardy snorkellers barely notice winter at all.

The beach at Coraya Bay

The resort opens directly onto Coraya Bay, a sheltered horseshoe of sand and turquoise water shared with a small cluster of sister hotels. The beach is sandy and generously laid out with loungers and parasols, and the bay is protected from the open sea, so this is a shore for slow swims rather than crashing surf. You can paddle from the sand in the bay itself, while the jetty carries you out over the reef edge for swimming and snorkelling in deeper water without touching the coral.

Snorkelling and diving at Steigenberger Resort Alaya

The house reef is the reason many guests choose Coraya Bay in the first place, and it is widely rated among the best hotel reefs in Egypt. Straight off the jetty the coral wall drops away to around 30 metres, busy with hard and soft corals, clouds of reef fish, turtles and barracuda among the regular sightings and, with a little luck, rays. Because the bay is so sheltered, the reef can be snorkelled or dived in almost any weather.

Coraya Divers run the on-site dive centre, with SSI and PADI courses from first breaths to professional level, guided snorkelling and boat trips to the region’s famous sites. A training platform sits in about four metres of water beside the jetty, which makes this a forgiving place to learn. Diving, courses and guided snorkelling trips are payable locally and are not part of the All Inclusive board.

Inside the Mividaspa

The wellness centre carries the Mividaspa name found across the group’s five star resorts, and it is a genuinely serene corner of the property. Facilities include a sauna, steam bath, Turkish hammam and Jacuzzi, alongside a menu of massages, facials and beauty treatments and a salon. It is an intimate, calm space rather than a sprawling thermal circuit, and that suits the resort perfectly: think a proper deep tissue massage after a morning on the reef, a spell in the hammam, then back to a lounger. Treatments are payable locally, and the signature massages get booked up in peak weeks, so reserve ahead if a spa day is central to your plans.

Gym, courts and classes

For the more energetic there is a well equipped gym and a jogging track through the grounds, with yoga, aerobics and water aerobics sessions run during the day. Racquet sports are well covered too, and because the resort is adults only you will never find the table tennis table commandeered by a tournament of ten year olds.

• Floodlit tennis courts
• Squash court
• Beach volleyball
• Table tennis
• Bocce and darts
• Jogging track and gym

Where is Steigenberger Resort Alaya?

The resort stands in Madinat Coraya, a small, purpose-built enclave of five star hotels arranged around Coraya Bay on Egypt’s southern Red Sea coast. It is about five kilometres from Marsa Alam International Airport, a road transfer of roughly ten minutes, which makes this one of the easiest Egyptian beach holidays to reach: you can realistically be at the pool within the hour of landing. Transfers with meet and greet are included in our quotes.

Day trips and the diving coast

Port Ghalib is the local evening out: a marina lined with cafes, restaurants and shops that makes a pleasant change of scene after a few lazy days in the bay. The serious draws, though, are underwater. Within easy reach are Abu Dabbab, a seagrass bay famous for green turtles and the occasional dugong, Sha’ab Samadai, better known as Dolphin House, a horseshoe reef with resident spinner dolphins, and Elphinstone Reef, one of the Red Sea’s most celebrated wall dives for experienced divers. We can arrange guided excursions and boat trips as part of your holiday.

A week on Coraya Bay also pairs beautifully with the Nile. Many of our customers combine this resort with a Luxor stay or a cruise aboard one of our own ships, and we handle all the connections in between, so the two halves feel like one seamless holiday.

Straight answers to the questions we are asked most often about Steigenberger Resort Alaya Marsa Alam. If yours is not covered here, call us and a specialist who knows the resort will talk it through with you.