"4/5 – A very good hotel that could easily become excellent with a few changes
We’ve just finished a fantastic 12-night stay at Caves Resort, staying in a Royal Swim-Up Room, and overall we’ve had a really enjoyable holiday. This is a good hotel with some genuinely excellent staff. A few relatively small improvements could take it from being very good to outstanding.
Our Royal Swim-Up Room was spacious, well designed and had plenty of storage. We did have an issue with the fridge when we arrived, as it wasn’t cooling anything at all. We mentioned it to our cleaner, Mahmoud, who immediately replaced it with a much larger fridge that worked brilliantly – it actually kept drinks so cold that some of our water bottles froze, which was very welcome in the Egyptian heat! Mahmoud deserves a special mention. He kept our room spotless every day, created some brilliant towel art and even decorated our room for my birthday, which was a lovely surprise.
The room was generally very clean throughout our stay, although there were a couple of areas that could do with a little more attention. The shower walls would benefit from a proper scrub as there was a little mould in places, and a couple of small screws were sticking out from the side of the shower, which looked like they needed finishing off. The tiled floor also became quite dusty quite quickly, although that’s probably unavoidable given the desert environment. None of these were major issues, but they’re the sort of little finishing touches that would make an already nice room feel even better.
The only downside to our particular swim-up room was the lack of privacy. Our section was shared with two neighbouring rooms, meaning people regularly walked directly past our sunbeds. Looking around the resort, some of the other Royal Swim-Up rooms appeared much more private, so if privacy is important, it’s worth requesting one of those.
The pools are excellent. The large lazy river-style pool connected to the Royal Swim-Up rooms was our favourite. It was kept beautifully clean every day, the water temperature was perfect and it never felt overcrowded.
The main pool, however, wasn’t really for us. It was constantly noisy, whether from the animation team or guests bringing their own speakers. The sunbeds are also packed extremely close together, which made it feel cramped.
The newer swim-up bar pool looks fantastic and is immaculately maintained, but unfortunately it’s so small that as soon as people bring inflatables into it, it becomes almost impossible to actually swim. I think this would work much better as a designated quiet pool with no inflatables allowed.
The bars all offered good service and the drinks were perfectly acceptable for an all-inclusive. A special thank you goes to Abu Bakr in the upstairs lobby bar. He was genuinely outstanding. He remembered our drinks every evening, noticed immediately when we needed another and always served us with a smile. Staff like him make a real difference to a holiday.
Food was exactly what I expected for a hotel in this price range. Yes, it’s repetitive at times, but there was always something decent to eat. The Teppanyaki restaurant was great fun, Bambam Grill was enjoyable, and Wilma’s Egyptian restaurant was also good. None were mind-blowing, but none disappointed either. You’re not paying ultra all-inclusive prices here, so I think the food offers fair value for what the hotel costs.
The hotel grounds are beautifully maintained and impressively clean. The gardens, pools and communal areas are clearly well looked after. The only minor observation was that I noticed a discarded bowl near our room that remained there for the entire holiday. It’s only a small thing, but little details like that stand out when everywhere else is so well maintained.
The beach area is pleasant, clean and well maintained, with another good bar and friendly staff. The only negative was the number of spa and excursion sellers approaching guests. Most accepted “no thank you” politely, but a couple were extremely persistent. One even told me I needed treatment for my “disgusting feet”, which certainly wasn’t the sales approach I’d recommend!
Where I think the hotel could really improve is with a few practical changes.
Breakfast finishes at 10am and lunch doesn’t begin until 1pm. While that sounds reasonable on paper, not everyone wants an early breakfast on holiday. If you miss breakfast, there is literally nowhere to get anything to eat for three hours. Even a small snack station serving pastries, sandwiches, fruit or light bites between 10am and 1pm would make a huge difference.
The evening entertainment also suffers from a lack of seating. Unless you reserve a table around 6pm, you’ll struggle to find anywhere to sit near the stage. Once the pools close, it seems like a missed opportunity not to stack away some of the unused sunbeds and replace them with extra tables. The upstairs lobby bar also has plenty of unused space that could easily accommodate additional seating.
One thing I really missed, especially in the Egyptian heat, was the lack of ice cream and ice lollies. Occasionally ice cream appeared in the restaurant, but only every few days and with limited choice. Having a dedicated ice cream station, or even somewhere to buy an ice lolly during the day, would be a simple addition that I think guests would really appreciate.
I’d also really like to see a genuine quiet bar. The downstairs bar is centred around the entertainment stage, so it’s naturally lively, while the lobby bar upstairs is quieter but still has a fair amount of background noise. Sometimes it’s nice to simply sit with a drink and have a conversation without music or entertainment dominating the atmosphere.
Betty’s Bar, which currently closes quite early, would make a perfect evening quiet bar with some low-level background music. I think it would appeal to a lot of guests who simply want to relax after dinner without the animation or louder atmosphere.
It also looks as though there’s quite a bit of development happening around the resort. There’s a large seating area at the front that currently doesn’t appear to be used, along with another stage and bar area, and it also looks like additional rooms are being built. It will be interesting to see how the resort develops over the next few years, as it certainly feels like there’s room for further improvements.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning the location. The hotel itself can’t do anything about this, but it is quite isolated. Apart from a handful of small shops across the road, there’s very little within walking distance. If you’re planning to venture out, I’d recommend using the hotel’s taxi service or asking for recommendations in one of the Caves Resort Facebook groups. I tried using InDrive for a trip to Hurghada Marina and it wasn’t a pleasant experience, although that’s obviously no reflection on the hotel itself.
Overall, we had a genuinely enjoyable 12-night holiday. The rooms, pools, cleanliness and, above all, the staff made this a very pleasant stay. Mahmoud and Abu Bakr, in particular, deserve recognition for going above and beyond and making our stay even more enjoyable.
Would we return? Probably not in the immediate future, but that’s more about how we like to travel than anything else. We very rarely visit the same hotel twice, preferring to experience different places. That said, Caves Resort is certainly one I’ll keep an eye on. I genuinely think the improvements I’ve suggested are all achievable and would elevate the hotel from good to excellent. If those changes were made over the coming years, I wouldn’t hesitate to consider coming back. It’s a hotel with a lot of potential and, with a few thoughtful refinements, could become one of the very best value all-inclusive resorts in Hurghada."
