Amarina Jannah Resort & Aqua Park Review: Marsa Alam, Egypt
Every October we return to the same stretch of Red Sea coast, and this year it was our third stay at Amarina Jannah Resort & Aqua Park in Marsa Alam. We spent a week in early October in an upper-floor family suite with a full sea view, on the all-inclusive plan, and it was the best room we have had here.
We chose this resort the first time because it was the closest one to the airport. We keep coming back for what we found once we arrived: a relaxed, standalone resort, a beautifully kept garden, a beach with a coral reef you can reach from a jetty, and a team that makes a family feel welcome. Here is what a stay is really like, from the arrival and the rooms to the reef, the aqua park, the food and a typical family day, along with a few practical tips for planning your own visit.
Highlights of our stay at Amarina Jannah
- A coral house reef you reach from a wooden jetty, with sea turtles, lionfish and many other fish.
- An aqua park with slides for adults and kids, plus a separate toddler pool with slides.
- Rooms in small buildings along beautifully kept garden paths, about 15 minutes from the airport.
- All-inclusive dining, snacks at the beach and the aqua park, and drinks until midnight.
- A kids’ club for ages 4 and up, daily activities, an evening program and a gym on site.
- A team that remembers you: your table is ready and your drinks are already on the way.
Contents
- Why We Keep Coming Back
- Getting There and Checking In
- The Rooms and the Garden
- The Beach and the House Reef
- The Pools and the Aqua Park
- Food and Drink
- Days, Activities and Kids
- The Team Behind the Stay
- Practical Tips Before You Go
- Who It’s For, and Who It Isn’t
- My Rating: 9 out of 10
- What It Costs
- Amarina Jannah FAQ
- Final Thoughts
- More Marsa Alam Guides
| Our stay | Early October, 7 nights, our third visit |
| Room | Upper-floor family suite with a full sea view |
| Meal plan | All inclusive |
| From the airport | About 15 minutes |
| Transfer cost | Roughly $30 for a minibus for six of us |
| Best for | Families with young kids, snorkelers and reef lovers, a relaxed beach week |
| Good to know | A steady sea breeze and a pebbly sea entrance (bring water shoes) |
| Less suited to | Travelers who want a big nightlife scene |
| My rating | 9 out of 10 |
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Lili’s picks for Amarina Jannah Resort
Where I’d stay: This is where I’d stay in Marsa Alam for a relaxed family beach week with a coral reef right at your doorstep. Check availability for Amarina Jannah on Expedia.
Best if you want: a quiet, standalone resort, a house reef you reach from a jetty and an aqua park for the kids.
Not ideal if: you dislike wind or you are after big nightlife.
Before booking: pack water shoes for the pebbly sea entrance, and ask for an upper-floor sea-view room if you can. That was our favorite room in three stays.
Why We Keep Coming Back
The first thing you notice is how self-contained the resort feels. It stands apart rather than as one wing of a large hotel complex, so it is relatively isolated from the busier strip, and for a family with a small child that is a real advantage. On a beach holiday we do not need shopping streets or crowds, and here we have neither.
The resort has also kept evolving. Over three years we have watched it grow, with new buildings in a more traditional hotel style that stand apart from the little-house accommodation. Facing the sea from the beach, the new bar and restaurant are on your right, and a new main restaurant is being built near the shopping area.
One of the pools was under renovation or maintenance this year, and we did not miss it. It is a good sign when a resort keeps investing in itself, and together with the warmth of the staff and the weather in early October, when the days are lovely and the crowds are smaller, it makes a return visit an easy choice.
Getting There and Checking In
Amarina Jannah is about 15 minutes from the airport, so the transfer is refreshingly short. We paid roughly $30 for a minibus for six of us. It is worth confirming your pickup in advance: this year we waited about 15 minutes for our driver, while on our previous visit he was already waiting for us.
On arrival you leave your bags outside the entrance and walk in. The receptionists are kind and welcoming: they ask for your passport and your booking, you complete the registration and you receive your wristband. If your room is ready, you get it right away, and we were also welcomed with a drink.
A small cart then took us to our room, and our suitcases followed later. Tipping is customary in Egypt, so we tipped as we went: $2 for the bags and $2 a day for the housekeeper.
The Rooms and the Garden
The rooms are spread across small separate buildings, with little streets running between them, so the resort feels more like a village than a hotel. The garden around the paths is beautifully kept, and it has a lovely atmosphere both in daylight and in the evening, when the windows glow along the walkways.
This year we stayed in an upper-floor family suite with a full sea view, and it was our favorite room in three stays. It stood right next to the gym and aqua park building, close to the beach and the restaurant, which makes everyday logistics with a toddler easy.
The suite is split into two separate rooms, and the sea panorama wraps around the whole suite. The inner room has a double bed, a sofa and a comfortable armchair. The outer room has two single beds and a few pouffes to sit on, and there is a terrace too. Both rooms are spacious, with plenty of space for the whole family.
The bathroom has two toilets and a shower only, with no bathtub. In the room you will find a safe, a kettle, a fridge and Nescafé, and housekeeping left us almost a case of bottled water every day, around 5 to 6 liters.
We slept very well and nothing disturbed us at night. One member of our group, a lighter sleeper, noticed an occasional beep from what was probably cooling equipment, so earplugs or a white-noise app are a good idea if you are sensitive to sound. We sleep with white noise ourselves, which helps.
The Beach and the House Reef
The beach is the heart of the resort. It is sandy, clean and free of litter, lined with straw-roofed umbrellas and sun loungers, and a long wooden jetty leads out over the water to the coral reef.
The entrance to the sea is pebbly, so anyone with sensitive feet should bring water shoes. Once you are in, the reef is beautiful. We have seen a sea turtle, lionfish, a trunkfish and plenty of other fish, and dolphins sometimes swim past, though we have not met them at the resort yet.
We have also taken boat trips to other reefs, and the house reef holds its own against the ones out in the open sea. For anyone who loves the sea and coral walls, it is reason enough to choose this resort.
Beach life is well organized. You receive a fresh towel every day with your towel card, at the beach, and the staff there are friendly and helpful. There are now two beach bars, and we liked the newer one best this year, though it did not serve coffee, so we used both.
Marsa Alam has a steady sea breeze, and nothing at the water blocks it. The loungers have windscreens for comfort, and the wind brings waves, which we love for playing in the sea. If you prefer perfectly still water, keep that in mind.
The Pools and the Aqua Park
The resort has several pools and pool bars. The pool water is cold, and because the sea is why we travel, we rarely used them. The aqua park is the highlight for families, with slides for adults and children and a separate pool with slides for the little ones. Our son found the water cold at first, but he soon forgot about it and spent the rest of the time on the slides.
Food and Drink
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served in the main restaurant, Elements, with snacks available at the beach and at the aqua park. We celebrated my birthday on October 2 at Luca Toni, the resort’s Italian restaurant. My favorite breakfast was a freshly made omelet with plenty of salad and a fresh roll from the bakery counter.
Lunch always included fish, chicken and beef, and dinner brought a changing mix of seafood such as crab and calamari, plus beef, lamb or duck. The team often grills outside as well, so it is worth checking whether something is on the grill before you fill your plate.
Food is the topic guests disagree about most, and some find it simple or repetitive. Our experience has been positive: we always found plenty of dishes we enjoyed. The flavors differ from American or European cooking, and for us that is part of the point of traveling. Drinks are included too, with alcohol served until midnight at the bars.
Days, Activities and Kids
Something is on every day: aqua gym, yoga, volleyball and more, plus color parties and foam parties that families enjoy. In the evening there is always a program for the kids first and then one for the adults. There is also a gym on site, close to the beach and the aqua park.
A kids’ club runs in the morning and the afternoon for children aged 4 and up. Our son just turned 3, so we have not used it yet, but it is good to know it is there.
Our own days follow an easy rhythm. After breakfast we head to the beach and stay all morning: our son plays in the sand while we snorkel, sunbathe and enjoy a drink. After lunch he naps, and I take a coffee up to the lobby. Then it is back to the beach until everyone is up again, a snack from the snack bar, dinner and the evening program.
On other days we went on excursions, which I’ll write up separately. Offers come to you on the beach, and in our experience the ones we took were good and reliable, and sometimes cheaper than going through a travel agency.
The Team Behind the Stay
What turns a good resort into one you return to is usually the people, and this is where Amarina Jannah stands out for us. At the restaurant, the staff recognize us when we arrive and have our table ready, and the waiters come over to ask whether we want the same drinks again. We say yes, and they are already on their way. At the bars we are always served with a big smile.
This year a young man on the beach team, who had been working at the resort for only seven days, looked after us with great kindness. He did not speak English, and we did not need it: we built a warm connection anyway. On our last day he gave our son a beautiful Egyptian pound as a gift, a small gesture we will not forget.
Two team members deserve a special mention. Mohamed at the reception helped us again and again, from arranging bookings to taking our son to a doctor when we needed one. Mohamed at the bar made wonderful cocktails and kept our son happily entertained while we relaxed.
Practical Tips Before You Go
- Pack water shoes. The beach is sandy, but the entrance to the sea is pebbly.
- Expect a sea breeze. The loungers have windscreens, and the wind brings the waves.
- Confirm your airport pickup in advance, so your driver is there when you land.
- Tip as you go. We gave $2 a day to the housekeeper and $2 for the bags.
- Sort your mobile data before you land. The resort WiFi was good, but WiFi does not cover the airport, the road or excursions. I used a Holafly eSIM, and the code MILESANDFLAVORS gives you 5% off a travel eSIM. See how it worked in my Egypt eSIM review.
- Excursions, massages and the spa cost extra. Apart from our excursions, we did not spend anything beyond the all-inclusive plan.
- Not everyone speaks English, but we have built warm relationships with the team over the years.
- Get travel insurance. Twice over our stays we needed a doctor, and each time the clinic was professional and helpful. Our insurance covered everything.
Who It’s For, and Who It Isn’t
Come here if you love the sea and coral reefs, want a quiet resort and do not need much shopping or bustle. It works very well for families with small children, who get a beach, an aqua park and a daily program in one place.
Think twice if you dislike wind or if you want a lively nightlife scene. That is not what this resort is about.
My Rating: 9 out of 10
I give Amarina Jannah 9 out of 10, and I would return for a fourth stay. The point I hold back comes from two small trade-offs: the pool water was cold, and the wind is a constant on this part of the coast. What I value most is how hard the team works to make guests feel at home. We are repeat guests, so I am clearly a fan, but I have included what did not work for us too.
What It Costs
Prices vary a lot by season, room type and where you book. Check the current rate for your dates, and make sure you know what the meal plan includes. You can see current prices on Expedia here.
If you compare rooms, look at the sea-view options too. For us, the upper-floor sea view was worth it.
Amarina Jannah FAQ
Is Amarina Jannah good for families with young kids?
Yes, it worked very well for us with a young child. There is an aqua park, a separate toddler pool with slides, daily programs and an evening kids’ party, and the kids’ club takes children from age 4.
Can you snorkel at the resort?
Yes. You reach the coral reef from a jetty, and we have seen turtles, lionfish and many other fish. Bring water shoes, because the sea entrance is pebbly.
Is the food at Amarina Jannah any good?
Opinions differ, but we have always found plenty to enjoy, from fresh omelets at breakfast to seafood, beef, lamb and duck at dinner, and the team often grills outside.
Is the WiFi good?
Yes, the WiFi was good for us. I mostly used it at the resort and relied on my eSIM everywhere else. You can read how that went in my Egypt eSIM review.
Final Thoughts
Amarina Jannah is a warm, family-friendly resort with a beautiful house reef, a lovely garden and a team that cares, and that combination is why we return every October. If I could change one thing about our stays, it would be their length: next time I would stay for several weeks instead of one.
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