Penguin Village Hotel – Dahab, Egypt

Penguin Village

Penguin Village is one of the top two places to stay in Dahab, Egypt. It’s truly a toss up between Penguin and Octopus Garden Resort. I’ve stayed at both hotels and I was extremely satisfied with the both of them. Liz and I stayed at Penguin Village for 8-nights back in June and we had the time of our lives!

Location

Penguin Village lies right on the boardwalk that lines the edge of the Red Sea. It’s centrally located on the boardwalk which makes it easy to stroll down to some of the many restaurants, and it’s just a 20-minute walk or so to get down to the lagoon where you’ll find the sought after bright blue sea water, the kite surfers, and views of the big brown mountains that wrap around the Red Sea in the distance.

The Rooms

We booked a double room with NO sea view. We’re just not the type of people who need to pay for a sea view when we can simply walk twenty feet to the edge of the sea. It’s just not worth it to us. The room itself was decent enough. It lacked lighting and always seemed to be a bit dark in there but other than that the rooms were cleaned each and every day so we couldn’t complain about that.

We had a man that would come into our room to clean them each day and we would arrive back to our room only to find a new animal on our bed that the man made out of twisted up towels. Interesting to say the least. One day we walked in and there was a swan on the bed with freshly picked flowers. Aww, how sweet!? Oh, and he even placed a cigarette in the swans mouth… Attractive!

Problems/Issues

The only problems we ran into while staying at Penguin Village were the following…

• The staff didn’t seem to be too interested in their paying guests. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt as if they pushed people away with their slight attitudes at times. Overall the Penguin Village staff just weren’t really the most caring and personable staff that I’ve ran into on the road.

• The restaurant is wildly over priced compared to a few other better restaurants that line the boardwalk.

• Wi-Fi is 10EGP/day which isn’t expensive at all but it’s just the principal of it that bothers me. It was pretty disappointing that Penguin didn’t offer free Wi-Fi considering most hotels and restaurants offer internet for free in Dahab. To be honest, we ended up dining at our favorite restaurant in Dahab each and every day because we could hang out as long as we wanted, eat good food, and mess around on the internet for free. Let’s face it… in this day and age Wi-FI should ALWAYS be FREE. NO EXCEPTIONS!

• We booked a private mini-bus back to Cairo (overnight) through the staff at Penguin Village and I have to say it was one of the scariest rides that we encountered on the entire trip. There was no such thing as sleeping on this mini-bus, the driver was absolutely flying and we we’re wide-eyed wondering if we were going to make it through the night.

Amenities:

Restaurant, Roof Deck (Loved it!) , Mountain View Rooms, Sea View Rooms, 24-hour Reception, Sun Chairs, Airport Transfer Service, Safety Deposit Box, Laundry, Safari/Excursion Programs, Diving/Snorkeling Programs, Day Trips. Wi-Fi Available for 10EGP/day.

Rooms/Rates:

• Various Room Options. See Penguin Village Room Rates

Contact Information:

• Telephone : +20 693641047
• FAX : +20 693641047
• Mobile : +20 103015159
• Email: info@penguindahab.com
• Website: Penguin Village