World Gym

We had seen that there was a gym at the Platform outside Marina and had decided to go check it out. We were greatly disappointed as the equipment was 1. missing, 2. not of good quality and 3. incredibly expensive. One day at the gym will bring you back 75LE, three days cost 150:E. 

No thank you, we're rather just do push ups for the week end or just get fat!

Foot ball in Marina

We at isa7el have a lot of great memories in this football field. It's not a bad field at all, there are actually two. One is made from synthetic grass, and is more popular and the other is made from natural grass.
The natural grass field is better this year than previous years, they've been taking more care of it it seems.
The prices for the natural and synthetic fields are 200 and 250 LE and hour respectively. obviously over priced, but not that bad considering there should be at least 10-20 people coming to play and that a decent meal costs around 50 LE.
Make sure to indulge your athletic side next time you're in sa7el then!

Abo Mazen

Here at isa7el we're generally great lovers of Abo Mazen back in Cairo, however we were very pleasantly surprised, and pleased, with the place here in Marina.
If you like shawerma in general of Abo Mazen specifically then you will like the food. The service is very polite and helpful and punctual enough.
They have a rather large area where they serve the food and drinks with a funny movie playing. There is also a kiddy area with PlayStation and kiddy toys.
It's a wonderful family gathering area where families can come to have a good time and make beautiful memories.

Porto Marina

Poroto Marina's great Ramadan offer with a tent directly on the beach with an open buffet that includes iftar, sohor and snacks in between. It costs 250 LE per person and the atmosphere is great.

                        

Enjoy it and have a great Ramadan!

For more info call 19156.

Abo Ashraf

Abo Ashraf is in business as usual in Ramadan but there is talk of cool special activities including competitions and live music during Eid.

There is currently no minimum charge but I talked to the managers and he says this may change after Eid.

The end of season for them will be about a month after Eid.

The Abo Ashraf info page on isa7el--> http://www.isa7el.com/Food-and-Dining/Restaurants/Detail/2866

Foota

Foota is a brand of funky beach towels brought to you by Brandcow. The First of its kind in the Middle East, all Foota products are 100% cotton made in Egypt... You can find them at: - - Diplomatic Village 3 Entrance (KM126 North Coast) - Loft Fifty Nine Concept Store (59 Sultan Hussein St. , 5th Floor, Alexandria) Check out their Facebook page

Public beach in front of Zahran, Marina 2

We were reasonably  happy with this beach. The atmosphere was very calm and soothing. The umbrellas cost 30 pounds but if you're a smooth talker you might be able to negotiate a bargain. There are drinks and snacks available as well.

They usually have Mohammed Moneir or classics such as Om Kulthum Playing in the background, very chillaxed.

The only thing that may be a bother to the especially queasy may be that the first few meters into the sea have a lot of sea weed on the ground, so you get that weird sensation of 'stuff' being squeezed underneath your feet and between your toenails.

But otherwise the water was very clean and also very shallow. You would still have enough high to stand by the time you got to the safety rope (the one that marks where jet skis might pass by).

Cinderella Coffee Shop

The Champs le sais is known for bustling and highly energetic places, but the Cinderella coffee shop is a very refreshing exception in that it is very chilled out and very quiet. The service was pretty good as well which, unfortunately, an exception whjen it comes to coffee shops. The atmosphere is so quiet we often go there to work.

The food was good, compared to the standards you usually find in coffee shops but the sheesha was very clean and exceptional. They usually have nice movies on play on the background such as "Smeer, Shheer wa Baheer", "Fasel wa na3ood" and "365 youm sa3ada". So pretty chilled and funny.

However they don't have wifi, which sucks but there is a nice kiddy area near by and a place where kids could rent bicycles, so it's a good location to chill out in if you have kids.

Nady el Sayarat Beach

The team went to inspect the beach at Marina 2 at the Cars club. You have to walk quite a bit till you actually get to the beach. Once you do you will find that the beach is divided into two, there is a private beach and there is a public one.

The private beach is excellent, it's very quiet and incredibly clean. There are drinks and snacks and an umbrella costs 20 pounds (but sometimes you can haggle for a better price so give it a shot!). There aren't that many people and it's a great place to go and chillax.

The public beach however, completely and utterly sucks! It was quite dirty, there was absolutely no order. The water was different and not very clean and there were people going into the water with their clothes on.

Make sure to NOT go to the public beach there!

Chillies Porto Marina

 

Chillies is usually a pretty safe bet, the quality of the food is usually consistent no matter
where you go. This Chillies was no exception.

The chicken and meat were well cooked and served in just the right temperature (hot
but not burning) and with just the right amount of spice. The service here was fast and
very friendly. We felt that both the quality and quantity of the food was still not equal to the
amounts of money we had to pay though.

But the most powerful thing about the experience was the location, we had the choice to
eat in a little pergola right by the port or next to the walk way where most of the seating was
located. Both locations were very beautiful since you would have the cool sea breeze flowing
through your hair and face and you can watch all the beautiful people walking to and from
Proto Marina's different attractions.

Brazilliano

Brazilliano is a great place to just chillax and not spend too much money. The service I
personally felt was good enough for an ahwa. It's also very family friendly and there's even a
little kiddy station while little children can play around (and not bother their parents).

Brazilliano's special place in the Champs Elysees (Shaonzilizeh yan3i) makes it a great place
to just chill out and not worries about appearances or money. They always have a funny
movie on and you can enjoy the cool summer breeze blowing on your face with friends.

Arouba 7

Arouba 7 is a new beach, so we didn't know what to expect. But after arriving at the Marina 7
beach and paying my 50 LE week end ticket to the friendly reception people we were pleasantly
surprised with what we saw. The beach was well organized, there were nice drinks and bbq
chicken being served, the service was nice and helpful, this was a well run business.

The seating was also very good with a general seating area with lounge chairs and an
awesome VIP huts area.

The Beach is on a beautiful lake, and because it's a private beach it's very clean and regularly
cleaned, you're also less likely to run into the occasional clumps of sea weed you find in the
open sea.

Definitely one of our favorite private beaches, I'd strongly going there to spend a fun day in
the sun!

Saber

Saber, yes that's right, the original Marina experience!
 

Old Marina goers will be very familiar with saber and will probably have a lot of fond
memories there. We are here to assure you that saber is as awesome as ever, but if we may just
make a little criticism, the service this year is definitely worse than we remember. we had to wait
15 minutes till one of the guys finally came to take my order.

But naturally, this is Saber, people don't come here for the service, they come for the
general laid back atmosphere of awesomeness. The 15 minutes we spent waiting for the guy
to take our order were spent laughing and joking around with our friends and having a good
time.

Less people than we recall from previous years were playing cards and more were engrossed in
their BB's, an interesting note. But overall nothing has changed about this ivonic landscape of summer awesomeness.

Maxim Private Beach

Maxim is a private beach that lies in gate 5 opposite of Maxim hotel. Membership for
the summer will set you back 400 LE while a weekend ticket costs 100 LE. After seeing
everything inside we expected the place to be bigger, especially that the security and
employees outside had acted as if they were guarding a top secret government facility. The
furniture items were not too shabby but I felt they had not made good use of the space they
had. There was no actual beach, the place over looked the lake. Also there was a little pool
which I didn't find too impressive.

Inside there was a café that served a quite respectable menu, so at least that was good.

But all in all, definitely not our favorite place to spend the day in sa7el. We felt that we should
have received much greater quality for such a price.

Gate 7 beach, very end of Marina

In past years this was a relatively quiet beach since it's on the very edge of Marina. It is still relatively  quiet, which many people like, but not as quiet as before. The sand is is of the iconic sa7el type which is soft and easy flowing (perfect for building sand castles). The water apart from the occasional clump of floating sea weed, is perfect.

All in all, a very good beach, although you have to be careful some distance down the beach
where there are rocks and you have to tread carefully.

We especially love to go very early when there is almost no one at the beach and the sun is
up but not brutally hot yet.

Costa Coffee Gate 4

Place is decent enough, but I had a very bad experience with trying to connect to the wireless network. However the service was very polite and helpful. The atmosphere was good, and the place was clean.

La Plage and Yashmak (now public beaches)

Upon hearing that La Plage was closed this summer I was, naturally, disappointed. But I went to the beach to check out what was going on. It was hard to believe that this was La Plage, with all the grass, gym, cafes, bean bags and cool platforms gone. Instead it was just a beach. La Plage and Yashmak were all one long strip of beach.

However, after I got past my slight disappointment I looked round me and saw people bathing in the sun, children running around and making sand castles, people were splashing along in the beach and generally having a good time.

Even though all the shiny stuff was gone, the beach was still there, the sun was still hot, and the breeze was still cool.

It was still a very nice place and people were still having fun and the water was still awesome. It was still a great place to be.

This only means that WE bring the party with us!

The Spot Beach Review

Between gates 6 and 7, there lies a quaint little beach called “The Spot”. It’s a public beach, but it has music playing in the back ground, as well as umbrellas and beach chairs to rent and drink are served.

Some friends used to tell me that The Spot was not a ‘cool’ place to hang out. So I went with some prejudices to check the beach out (last time I went to The Spot was roughly 2 years ago).

The first thing that I noticed was the very chill atmosphere of the beach and the orderliness it was managed with. The water was relatively very clean and without the occasional clumps of sea weed (which I personally don’t mind) you usually run into in most other beaches.

The umbrellas cost 30LE and the chairs 10 LE. There were plenty of people but it wasn’t annoyingly crowded. Light relaxing music was softly playing in the background and combined with the nice breeze, created a very relaxing atmosphere.

There was a little café called Fresco where they were serving both and cold drinks and some deserts (naturally over priced, but hey, that’s economics for ya!), the service was good, but not excellent.

All in all, a great beach and a great place to work on your tan, it’s also very family friendly. I definitely went home with a better perception of the beach when I came in.

ElSafwany Review

After a day in sa7el eating junk food, me and my friends decided a change in diet was in order. After debated going back on forth on what to eat, we decided on kebab and meat balls. We headed to Marina 2 to a place called ElSafwany. The atmosphere was very quaint and friendly and the head waiter was very charismatic. We were sitting in a little garden by the lake and there was a funny movie playing in the back.

I personally had a half kilo of kebab and kofta and half a barbecued chicken. The service was fast enough and always very friendly and served us good quality bread, salads and classical Arab sauces (ta7eena, baba ghanoom, tomeya, etc).

The food was excellent, everybody was satisfied with their meals. They didn’t use too much oil and everything was cooked perfectly.

The bathrooms were very clean and even perfumed, there was soap so we can wash all the kofta away.

We winced a little when we saw the cheque at the end, but it was well worth it.

Here's a link to the locations and contacts of all ElSafwany's branches on isa7el--> http://isa7el.com/Search?search=el+safwany&x=0&y=0

So make sure to pass by ElSafwany, the food is worth it and the place is great!