My son and I stayed at the Ocean Bay Hotel in Feb 07. We were mostly in Sharm to dive and not looking for glitzy accommodation as we were expecting to be out diving most of the time.

Pros
- Fantastic location for divers with Ocean College centre on-site so extremely convenient for all things diving. Good 'bonding' with other divers but might be a bit 'cliquey' for non-divers.
- Only 300m from Sharm centre so rich variety of restaurants and shops very close, but not so close you can hear any nighttime disturbance
- Very quiet
- Air conditioning (great for concealing nightime noises)
- Lovely warm pool with diving board and max 4m depth.
- Pool bar that also provided snack lunches (cheaper and better than for example, Hilton Waterfalls)
- Cheap internet access (didn't use it though)
- Safe at reception for £5gbp a week.
- Very friendly staff
- Large rooms with extremely comfortable beds (I'm told the singles are a bit cramped)
- Variety of soap and body wash dispensers in bathroom
- Daily room cleaning with amazing 'art forms' on bed from towels etc, Especially memorable was a crocodile made from my specs, two bottletops, bathmats, spare curtain and fresh towel!!! I tipped loosechange (50p?) a day on my pillow - maybe that helped.
- Ocean College run minibuses around the area and if you ask, they might let you travel to other hotels eg. to Hilton Waterfalls for snorkelling beach
- I was VERY impressed with Ocean College - very efficient operation and we had wonderful hardboat dives for not much money. Great buffet lunch for gbp4 or breakfast and lunch for gbp6 both with unlimited hot/cold drinks.
- Helpful haggle-free shop next to reception
- Bar with large tv might be popular with sports fans but didn't use it ourselves
- Hotel was very quiet in february so we had a choice of sunbeds etc.

Cons
- it's a basic hotel sold at a low price.
- possibly in common with most Egyptian hotels, the porters expect a tip - not a problem except on arrival before we'd got Egyptian currency when the porter who took our suitcases to the room was quite put out at our apparent meanness. A small tip goes a long way in Egypt
- drab throughout
- breakfast is very basic comprising artificial-tasting orange juice, sliced white bread, intermittently working ten year old toaster (apparently a big improvement on the one it recently replaced!,) some cheese, fruit chunks under clingfilm, awful scrambled egg or hotdog and onion chunks. However - big plus - unlimited tea/coffee and .... wait for it...... fantastic omelettes cooked to order literally within a couple of minutes. Wouldn't fancy half board - best to get out.
- phoning home costs nearly gbp5 for a minimum 3 minute call!!!! But then folks back home can call you back. You can't call from your room - need to call from reception
- Basic plumbing (used toilet tissue to bin, crude electric hot water heater, and we there was a time we couldn't get the toilet to stop flushing)
- Poor welcome session by Explorer's rep - come on - life's not that bad!!

We had a big problem with money in Sharm - the banking network went down ("it often happens!") and couldn't get Egyption pounds (LE) out from any ATMs using any Debit or Credit cards. Big lifesave - one of the hotels in central Sharm has a Thomas Cook and they provided Egyption pounds on my debit card with 2% commission, Expensive but a timesaver. Many places take GBP so worth taking some GBP as well.

Some restaurant recommendations -
-Fawane Lebanese restuarant - get your beer at offlicence nearby and they serve it for you,)
- Tam-Tam on the beach for Egyption cuisine and dance show Sunday and Wednesday - best to book at good table) Both take credit cards if the networks are working.

All the food was excellent and we didn't get any 'tummy problems'

In summary, I'd definately go back if diving. If not diving I might go a bit up-market. Enjoy!

For the price you pay you cant get better than Ocean Bay. Location is excellent (off Naama Bay), staff friendly, breakfast good. Decor of rooms not fab but then it is only 3star, cleanliness compensates for this. I had a great time, would definitely go back. You'll like it if you're not a snob. If you want 5 star then stay 5 star. If you want value for money and good location stay at Ocean Bay.

Myself and my girlfriend went on holiday to get some sun and relax. Obviously this resort is a cheaper option but I was suprised at how good it was. The staff were friendly and the facilities were good. The hotel is right next to naama bay so no taxi rides, but off the main part so no noise worries. It only had one pool but it was fine and the pool bar had good food. The hotel bar (Oasis) was a good starting point and had a few things on certain nights to stick around for.
We booked a few trips with Explorers and they were great. Did an into dive and went to Cairo for a day trip. Explorers guides are friendly and informative.
Room facilities standard but enough. If you want a five star room, stay in a five star resort. There was hot water and the toilets flushed so who could ask for more, bearing in mind it is a developing country.
Expect to tip everywhere you go. It gets annoying walking around because everyone hassles you to go into their restaurant/store/cafe.
We met lots of other travellers while we were there and ended up going places with them in a group, which was good.
The Hotel is excellent for its rating and a great winter getaway if you can get it cheap. I would stay at Ocean Bay again if I go back to Sharm.

We booked this hotel at the last minute, mainly to get away from chistmas! We choose this cheaper hotel over a more exclusive one, watching the money! We were more than pleased with the cleanliness, friendliness of staff and the 'chilled-out' atmosphere of the hotel. We were slightly concerned not being divers but realized that it was irrelevant! The hotel is situated just on the outskirts of the centre which is perfect as it takes 2 mins to walk yet you dont hear evening noise. i would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a simple and relaxing break to a warm atmosphered environment. :-)
p.s some reviews may contain references to hassaling, this is common in the streets of Namma Bay. This SHOULDNT deter you! Just be polite and walk on..
ENJOY!