Sharm El Sheikh Hotels: Amar Sina Resort

Volume II, Number 5 May 1st, 2001

Amar Sina Resort
Sharm El-Sheikh

By Daniel Lanier

Amar Sina Resort  Sharm El-Sheikh

Those of us, which occasionally or regularly spend a vacation in a typical holiday resort, know it: If youve seen one, youve seen them all! It doesnt matter, if it is a five-star resort or a three-star facility their design is too often an uniform, assembly-line production, built by bored, uninspired designers. Not that the tourist doesnt feel comfortable. But sometimes he may look from his balcony down to the usual pool, next to it the usual pool bar, surrounded by the usual two or three-story modern or kitshy apartment buildings and he may feel somehow unsatisfied. Everything seems to be a little bit too perfect, too predictable, too standard, not unlike a first-class home for the aged.

The little four-star resort Amar Sina in Sharm El-Sheikh follows the same pattern, apartment buildings around a pool, but it is different, very different. It has a soul, a special style, as the hotels brochure writes it with a touch of understatement. The owner is also the architect, and one feels it everywhere, that he wanted to create a place not for tourists, but for friends. With great fun and an appetite for detail and a sense of harmony, he designed the apartment buildings, each one unique, in a slightly rustic Nubian style, interlocked with each other to generate as much shadow as possible, with different oriels, balconies, terraces and wooden shutters, unobtrusively enriched with rural Nubian ornaments, playful red brick walls, wooden Nubian benches in front of the houses or shipwreck planks integrated into the masonry.

The rooms are simple, but tasteful and cozy, equipped with warmly tinted wooden furniture. The daylight shines through four glassy bricks on the dome-shaped ceiling, each one in a different color, so that the rooms atmosphere changes with the course of the sun, yellow in the morning, red at noon, green and blue in the afternoon and in the evening. Clean bathrooms, AC and satellite TV are standard. The honeymoon suite features a romantic four-poster from brass, so narrow, that bride and bridegroom, as the hotel owner explains it with a smile, cant escape from each other. The swimming pool, near to the houses, looks like a private hidden oasis. It consists of the main pool, a paddling pool for children, a thermal pool and a Jacuzzi.

The guests have the choice between several restaurants, for example an Italian restaurant, a seafood restaurant, the Ali Baba roof terrace and the marvelous Bedouin Tent. An internet caf is open 24 hours per day, but think twice before youre going to print out e-mails. The price at LE 3 (80 cents) per page is indecently high.

The hotel organizes all kind of activities, water sports, horse or camel riding, desert safaris, and it hosts the Colona Dive Club. Last but not least, the private Red Sea beach is located one kilometer away from the hotel, where deck chairs and beach service are free of charge to patrons and it is easily reachable by the hotels free shuttle bus service.

One of the most fascinating attractions of Amar Sina is the Egyptian farm behind the resort, with traditional Egyptian houses, a garden, an oriental restaurant and a little zoo with pigeons, ducks and other animals, especially popular with children. The guests are allowed to get their breakfast there if they want, with fresh and warm home-made Pita bread, vegetables from the garden and fresh eggs from the chicken house.

Many of the guests return again and again to Amar Sina or recommend it to their friends and relatives, apparently because they really felt at home there.

Amar Sina. Ras Umm Sid, Sharm El-Sheikh. South Sinai. Egypt.

Telephone: +20696622-22 or -23/24/25/26/27/28/29.

Fax: +2069662233.

E-mail

Love on the Nile By Mark Antoine

Climbing Mount Sinai By Joyce Carta

The Ancient Egyptian Concept of the Soul By Caroline Seawright

The Nile By Marie Parsons

Just What the Doctor Ordered in Ancient Egypt By Ilene Springer

Package Tours Vs. Independent Tours: Which is Best for You? By Jimmy Dunn

Camels, and Trekking in Today's Sinai By Angela Wierstra

Ancient Words: Scribes of Egypt Revisited By Catherine C. Harris

Editor's Commentary By Jimmy Dunn

Ancient Beauty Secrets By Judith Illes

Book Reviews Various Editors

Hotel Reviews By Jimmy Dunn & Juergen Stryjak

Kid's Corner By Margo Wayman

Cooking with Tour Egypt By Mary K Radnich

The Month in Review By John Applegate

Egyptian Exhibitions By Staff

Egyptian View-Point By Adel Murad

Nightlife Various Editors

Restaurant Reviews Various Editors

Shopping Around By Juergen Stryjak

Web Reviews By Siri Bezdicek

Prior Issues

April 1st, 2001
March 1st, 2001

February 1st, 2001

January 1st, 2001

December 1st, 2000
October 1st, 2000
September 1st, 2000
August 1st, 2000

July 1st, 2000

June 1st, 2000

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See Also Sharm El-Sheikh Holidays

Last Updated: June 26th, 2011