"An honest review, visited Egypt 5 times and stayed in 3,4 and 5 star resorts.
This isn’t a 5 star resort.
This is my personal and very honest opinion on TUI Magic Life Redsina, Aug 2026.
I was going to wait to write this, upon return back to the U.K., but as things are declining day by day before we go home, I want to pre-warn others & provide my own opinions.
Hold tight.. it’s a slightly long one.
Redsina grounds; stunning. Well kept by hard working gardeners, the views are beautiful as Egypt itself is a stunning country. The layout is neither huge or particularly small, but very easy to get around.
Hotel rooms: we stayed as a four (2 kids aged 7 and 12), family deluxe and it was.. okay. 2 double beds joined together and separated between sliding doors were 2 sofa beds. Not the comfiest, but sleep-able. My parents (2 people), stayed in a double deluxe and this was a pretty small, sad room. 2 separate small double beds, a small walk way, then the obvious (bathroom, wardrobe.)
Bathrooms- shower only, okay showers, toilet and sink with mirror. Shower gel and lotion, with shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom, but we brought our own as these weren’t the best and we prefer our own.
Cleaners were okay, barely saw them though.
We didn’t even manage to tip, speak to or liaise and we had noticed different people going into our room when we would walk past, so who do we tip and who do we talk to? Not sure. However, we did then manage a week into the holiday, see one in particular cleaner who was very helpful, friendly and lovely. We tipped him as he was just trying his best and being so nice.
The mini bar is chargeable and albeit, at a very cheap price, this is pretty snide. You get 6 canned soft drinks for free (not refillable or replaced) and water. The chargeable items are things like nuts, crisps, chocolate and canned drinks like red bull, one bottle of beer, etc. We didn’t use this once and bought our own snacks from the stores outside the hotel, from the shops which is way more cheaper than onsite shops; to put into the fridge.
One pair of goggled & 2 nose protectors for swimming cost nearly £70 GBP!
Guest relations: very helpful, friendly, informative. I came here to organise a breakfast birthday surprise for my husbands birthday. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen due to miscommunication, staff members at Magico being confused and I had to tell my husband on the morning of, as a worker took my ticket I was provided and walked off. We catered to our own breakfast as usual at a table we found (should’ve been reserved), we finished our breakfast and then suddenly the waiters come over banging a hand drum & sang happy birthday, with a small birthday cake. This wasn’t a surprise at this point and more of a shock. I spoke to guest relations and informed them of the mishap. A birthday cake towel was placed in our room..
I did also provide a note to the hotel upon booking as a request and went to guest relations, so I don’t know what else I could’ve done differently 🤷🏼♀️
Magico Restaurant; boring and repetitive. Gluten free option is sparse and sad. Some nice bits to choose from sometimes, chicken nuggets, pasta, chips and pizza ALWAYS available.. Service is shocking after day 3-4 and I don’t think through fault of the workers entirely, but under staffed, ram-packed with guests & too busy. We had to get our own drinks, remove our own plates and it became self-catering almost. We’ve decided not to eat here in the lunchtime or evening for the remainder of the holiday. We aren’t fussy eaters, my kids love to try new things but there isn’t any to try? It’s just not five star food or options. Yes, 2 weeks we expect some things to get repetitive, but we found this day 4. Bored. Sadly.
The atmosphere here was also strange. You’d feel it? Sometimes okay, sometimes welcoming, most the time not, you just wandered in. Sometimes you could almost feel tension, it just wasn’t pleasant.
My son was also given a glass with orange juice in, as requested when asked by a waiter and it was given to him in a very dirty glass, with pink lipstick all around the rim. Not only is this dirty, but my son carries an epi pen and cannot consume peanut. If this previous guest had peanut and this glass wasn’t washed thoroughly, the cross contamination could’ve caused an allergic reaction, even more so, an anaphylactic reaction. At this point I didn’t even bother to ask for a clean one, we just finished our meal and left.
Al la carte restaurants:
Italian: always fully booked. So didn’t bother.
Egyptian: lovely food, lovely service, overall nice atmosphere, gluten free options were brought from magico, was disappointing as it’s same old & bread I got for appetisers were desserts.. (?) strange, but I didn’t complain.
Mehmood was our waiter and he was so funny, catering and polite, he was so nice!
Green curry: lovely Indian choices of food, nice sat by the ocean and tasty. Service was nice.
This restaurant is open by the beach in the day for lunch and the first few days into the week, was lovely. A little slow, but we chilled. No fuss.
We went again and it was slow, but okay.
We went a third time for lunch (as we prefer the beach) and the service was just gone. The food was rushed, things were missing or undercooked and the waiters just couldn’t attend and it wasn’t even ridiculously busy. Sad times.
Ahmed who works here has a very strange attitude too (a waiter.)
Entertainment: we can’t comment on the amphitheatre as we didn’t go, but the lobby terrace, some nights were okay, some were quiet as it was all at the amphitheater, the white party on a thurs was disappointing.. neither here or there.
Barely saw the entertainment staff, my kids are 7 and 12, don’t want kids club and I don’t force them to do anything they don’t feel comfortable doing.
We preferred going out of the hotel for food, walks and browsing, soho square etc.
Waterpark: lovely, little selection of slides and a baby pool. Loungers here much more available, the atmosphere is more relaxing here and the kids enjoyed this more than the main pool, even though there was no swimming pool. The snack bar here is enjoyable; nice selection of foods, snacks and ice cream.
Main pool: I’ve never been to Benidorm and don’t judge those that do; but it just isn’t a Holiday destination I pick due to wanting to experience more as I’ve done Spanish islands, etc. but this pool FELT what I would feel like Benidorm would. To some this would be amazing, to others this would be horrific. Take it as you will.
The pool is about 150cm, so small children if not strong swimmers would struggle or require a life jacket or float constantly. They do have a baby pool, but for babies or 5 and under. 45cm.
The sun lounger situation isn’t great at all. Be awake around 6-8am to reserve around July-Aug and another guest told me 5am wake up to reserve at the adult pool 16+. We barely spent time here, as not only was it manic, the service is strained and it was closed twice due to contamination for up to 2 hours.
The pool bar is manned, but unknown as to how many bar staff per day.
They do have pool activities on different days, my kids tried to enjoy the inflatable pool day, but this was CHAOS. The lifeguards did their jobs and were around and IN the pool, but three times I heard the rep speak over the mic to be mindful of smaller children as it was just a free for all. My youngest who looked excited and tried one inflatable, came out looking stunned and a little scared. His dad was with his all the time at this point. There’s no way you could leave a child under 10 during this, more so if they’re not strong swimmers.
The beach/ocean: Made this holiday for us. We knew the Red Sea would never ever let us down. The Red Sea is thee most beautiful ocean I have ever had the opportunity to swim in. The marine life is just out of this world, the jetty where you can jump into 30m water, manned by a lovely life guard, is out of this world. Gorgeous waters, where we witnessed many different coral life, fish, puffer fish, eels, sting ray and even watched a flying fish above water!!
We brought swim shoes, we always do, highly recommend.
Some local kids walk up and down this beach, as there’s a public beach to the right of the hotel and the kids try and sell bracelets and can be quite fussy. We just politely declined and I ended up providing drinks for these kids; as it’s very hot in August.
Excursions: Staff around the pools offer trips and excursions, I didn’t find this a bother last year at a different 5 star resort, but it’s quite apparent here. They’re polite and friendly though! Ahmed curly was one our faves to talk to & provide us information about the ocean and diving. The spa team were also friendly and polite.
Water: I felt like I was on water rations this whole vacay. I drink 4.4 litres of water back at the U.K. due to being a gym goer and well, an adult. The bottled water here is refillable (?) from the cleaners in the room (around 3 large bottles for a family of 4. Now bear in mind, one of these is placed in the bathroom for our teeth. We purchased 2 Jaz insulated refillable bottles from the hotel, but to keep refilling these at understaffed bars was a CHORE. The water if it was refrigerated or kept cool, tasted.. strange. Coated almost. The ice was minimal and it has ended up causing me dehydration and a very upset tummy, but thankfully at the water park the kids have hydrated on peach ice tea, lemon tea, coke and whatever water we could get.
We did bring electrolytes thankfully, but I didn’t think we’d be using these because of the lack of water, more so us & the sun.
For a five star resort? This was pretty poor.
Barring the bar on the beach, there’s no water available anywhere. Whereas the previous hotel had buckets of cooling tanks with fresh, plastic bottled water, which was a god send.
So we expected at least some sort of accessible water, which was nowhere to be found other than bars and minimal in your room. The request of ice was difficult too.
Overall experience and review?
I wouldn’t visit again or come back even if it significantly dropped in price per person. It’s put me off staying in another TUI magic life, as in comparison to TUI blue, it doesn’t even match & we only paid £1500 less than the 5 star TUI blue, we stayed at last year. So to pay such a high amount, such an extortionate amount for 6 of us, all-inclusive for 2 weeks, I’ve been nothing but stressed whilst here with 4-5 days to go, trying to find things to do, places to eat, things to see outside of the resort, spending more money than initially planned.
After speaking with other guests, I’ve heard that within the last 3-6 months this has significantly gone downhill and slipped in quality and service. I’ve also been informed that this has only been Magic Life for less than a year.
Hard-earned, self-employed money has gone into this and a birthday while away and it’s been utterly disappointing.
I’m always grateful to be able to visit such a beautiful country, Egyptians are always friendly, welcoming and polite (we’ve found) and we always enjoy being here in the country & surroundings, but this resort was not it.
I would highly reconsider or speak to your local TUI rep for up to date information, complaints and concerns before booking this hotel. More so if you’ve been to other 5 star resorts around Sharm El Sheikh, as the Redsina very may well disappoint you.
I’m so sorry to have wrote this. I wish it could have been different."
