Mövenpick Tala Bay

I was supposed to be here for four days but unfortunately since alot of activities wasn't there like the night entertainment, I came with my friend and my kids the resort is amazing the employees are friendly especially noorsan from the reception shes friendly and was always here to help us during my one night here thank you alot you made our stay better

Movenpick Hotel Tala bay is a great hotel. The pools are clean and the rooms are good. The food is delicious and varied, especially the multi-course dinner buffet. I thank Mr. Murad, the restaurant manager, and Chef Yousef for their interest in us and surprising us by preparing a special gluten-free dish for my wife, who suffers from gluten allergy. We enjoyed it very much and will come back again

We had an amazing experience during our stay. The staff was very helpful, specially Ghaith Mdallal who leveled up the hospitality, and Murad Nijel restaurant manager who was very professional and friendly

Location Tala bay is located about 13km north of Saudi border (Durri). 20 min drive north to Aqaba city, 30 min drive to local airport & 30 min drive to Israel border (Yitzak). Since I landed at midnight (from UK) to AMM airport, I decided to hire car and drive thru the night along the desert highway. It took about 4hours and the road is relatively smooth for 2/3 of the way but last part beware of pot holes. There is also plenty of fuel stops and basic local convenience stores. Other points of interest is Wadi Rum, about an hour drive away, Petra about 2.5hr drive & dead sea around 3 hours. Within location is Tala bay which offers a marina, a few more hotels, a mini mart , souvenir shops and a few bars and restaurants overlooking some yachts. Very peaceful a short 5 min walk down beach. Room I had a pool view room with a king bed and side presumably kids room with two single beds with adjoining door. Both rooms have large TV’s. The balcony is the highlight, lovely Arabic lamp with wooden ceiling, sort of open log cabin kind of look. Some chairs with a sea view and this was the highlight of the room. Inside the bed is very comfortable, but the decor is kind of boring though clean didn’t have much representation of being in Jordan. However there is plenty of storage space and sockets. The weakness was the lack of guide which although is on TV, everything requires using your phone with a QR code such as room service. There is no info to activities or a map of the resort etc. Personally prefer a nice folder guide to read as I just don’t want to rely on my phone all the time for information. The other weakness for a 5 star is the bathroom, which included a rather basic shower and no separate toilet that you can close (if someone else is using shower). While the amenities are ok fixed , the issue is the sewage smell that comes out of the floor drain. It made going in the bathroom rather unpleasant. Other amenities included a safe but no robe, slippers or much else that one expects at a beach resort of this calibre. There is a fridge and they do include a few cans of soda, basic kettle with tea/coffee sachets but no snacks of any sort. There is no mini bar. It was clean and AC worked well but felt 4star quality on an international beach resort in the Middle East in terms of room. Facilities The facilities are generally 5 star in terms of what is offered. The pools are world class, swim along rivers interconnecting two huge pools, a fun water slide, jacuzzi and some pools for adults only. The beach is fairly nice with plenty of loungers and clean. Sea itself is not so appealing due to stones near the shore. However they have a jetting to walk out and jump in. There is no fish to sea when compared to further down the red sea, though apparently there is snorkelling & diving offered nearby. Other leisure facilities include table tennis table, darts, volley ball and even small football area. There is also a gym and highly rated spa but I found this confusing to get to. It essentially means leaving entrance and going into car park to get to. Signage could be better. I also noticed a playstation room (which didn’t seem to be in use), small mini mart souvenir shop, tour office and water sports place on a pier. Catering In terms of catering, there is three bars, one is more night club, the others are more like lobby bars. There is also a beach bar , pool bar that serves the best ice cream & an italian restaurant. Being on a half board basis there is the main restaurant which is a large buffet for lunch and dinner. Whilst there are quite a few options, the main weakness of this hotel is quality of food. Very little flavour and mainly the hot food is cold. They don’t seem to changes choices so even after two nights and breakfast, it got rather boring. Cheese is dried out, salad and breads look appealing but doesn't taste that great. I ordered room service and it was shockingly bad, while it was fast. My steak sandwich was hard like leather, chips were under cooked and it was cold. No sauces offered and did complain which they comped me but surely meals (like room service) that one pays extra for should be meeting a higher standard. In general they need a new catering manager / head chef - as it was very 3 star quality and when I compare to another hotel in Jordan -, Marriot in Dead Sea, the Movenpick catering was way below standard in comparison, so it is not a country thing, just this hotel. Staff Staff overall are inconsistent other than the Filipino staff, whom are always upbeat friendly and offered the expected level of warmth and welcome both at housekeeping and in the catering outlets. Reception staff (local) are generally ok, but offer minimal detail for the introduction. Generally though staff at the beach & lifeguards, security all are polite though most don’t speak english. The entertainment team didn’t seem that proactive and some staff including lifeguards, are loud shouting to each other and clearly don’t consider that using their smart phones to watch stuff or use speaker phones out loud around pools looks unprofessional and affects the ambiance. Overall I liked the hotel but didn’t know where certain things were, or what was going on. A guide clearly addressed to guests would improve that. For instance I would have liked to have done yoga or other activities but it’s unclear when it is happening and where, so one misses out alot. If food is not important to you then it’s fine, but if they want to be a world class resort then they need to vastly improve both the delivery temperature of food and make it more flavoursome, as well as variate the choices. Clearly the chef has no quality controls in place. Plus make more effort with the rooms being more culturally experience for guests than they are, so one knows you are in Jordan, like a picture. Also Use a air freshener in the bathrooms so one doesn’t want to hold there nose when in there. I am not sure I would return based on these factors. It also seemed very dead given the size of hotel in Marc. The only fun aspect was the pool.

I t was great the hotel is almost very quiet but I like it so much great food on the breakfast also great staff on the reception I want to thank Mr.Mustafa.Q for his great smile and service and the other as well were fantastic will definitely come back