Anybody been ? like the look of some of the hotels with their own aqua parks, looking for a recommendation
Stayed at the Reef Oasis Blue Bay, but it was 5 years ago. Was good play to stay, snorkelling excellent, food/drinks were pretty good for an inclusive. My only small dislike was the Russians who were rude and arrogant (but you may get that anyway in Egypt) - but wasn’t really an issue. We went at the beginning of November and temperature was around 30 every day. Wouldn’t start at the cheaper resorts as just heard two many stories about hygiene/ food poisoning.
It's very westernised. Stark contrast with the rest of Egypt. Red Sea is amazing for snorkeling or diving. Tourists will be targeted by touts and hawkers.
I’ve been there, didn’t really like it if I’m honest but it’s good for some cheap winter sun I suppose. Agree with Moog about the touts etc. we had wrist band for the hotel we were staying in (not especially expensive, but probably in the middle tier) and when we went into the town we got targeted constantly by touts selling stuff who recognised the hotel we were staying at). Most hotels have a jetty for snorkelling which is good though. A mate went with his 5ft, blonde girlfriend and apparently had a horrible experience, he went into a shop and 3/4 blokes basically pinned her down and he apparently had to try and drag them all of, said he’d never go there again. It was a while back so I can’t remember the specifics but it sounded pretty horrible.
Yeah, my experience was basically, we stayed one night at an all inclusive hotel (it was as cheap as board only) but when we went to the buffet dinner it was carnage. People basically fighting for scraps. I couldn't face it, especially as a kebab and chips in town was about a fiver, so we left it. Next day by the pool, everyone had food poisoning. Bullet dodged. We got a taxi and went up the coast to Dahab instead, which was lovely. The downside there was that only a few places serve beer, from memory.
The food in the buffets looks amazing but has no taste , none of it . The cocktails are basically rocket fuel vodka and coke in a plastic cup . Accomdoation and pools nice but full of northerners . First and last time I’ve been on a package holiday . The bomb sniffer dog for the coaches was so old and slow I think he had been reappointed from the weed detecting detail . Tried to get out and get a flight to myriad archeological sites but too many terrorist threats so couldn’t go . I would thoroughly recommend the place .
If you got kids and you want a break as they got play clubs etc it’s prob good and is cheap but otherwise I’d go to Morocco or somewhere like that .
Went to Egypt with my missus before marriage and kids. Spent the entire holiday trying to get a picture of one of the chefs who was a spitting image of Marlon King! We never felt safe out and about in the souks. We had an incident when a local guide took us to look at rugs. The owners wouldn't let us leave unless we bought something and got quite aggressive. We basically had to shout and push our way out. Food at the hotel was great if I'm honest.
Umm not feeling confident about this , booked as liked the look of the hotel (with aqua park on site) and should be sunnier than Tenerife, my preference was Mexico , but misses wouldn’t take our son out of school for 2 weeks in December , last couple of times (before COVID)we went to Cape Verde which was alright but fancied something different
You will be fine. Make the most of the good (amazing snorkeling and diving, great weather, relatively cheap food and bev) and just be prepared for the bad (pushy touts and hawkers). La shokran means 'no thank you' in Arabic. Just firmly announce this to any pushy touts.
Never been but the Red sea is on my list of divespots to visit. I may just get a liveaboard if I go. Mexico would of been my destination of choice though, the annoying Americans can be a real toil though.
Full of Russians. Id avoid it. Egypt regularly features as an awful place to visit, Sharm is the westernised bit of it. If you are taking any women/girls you have to worry about their safety, doubly so if they are blonde.
The sites along the Nile are fantastic if you’re into your history. But you have to invest in a proper, knowledgeable guide to get the most out of it and be safe.
I'm looking at Dahab (on your recommendation) any hotel you'd recommend, and looking at @BigRossLittleRoss's post, it's not very practical to do some sort of archeological site day out from there?
I think you defo can, usually by flight in light aircraft but we when we went there was a high terrorist alert and so they werent flying.
I'm very tempted by a week on the Nile followed by a few days at a resort to get in some archeological stuff. https://egyptescapes.com/nile-cruise-stay/9-nt-river-nile-cruise-red-sea-stay/
Was 2008 . But was a small group tour. About 8-10 ? No Ruskies. A few days in Cairo, then flew to Aswan ? Couple of days there. Went to Abu Simbel etc. Then boat trip down to Luxor. Temple of the Kings/Queens etc. Then flew for a few days in Sharm...which I'd happily miss if I did the same holiday again as we really don't do beach holidays/sun & sea. Will see if I can dig out details as I tend to keep that type of stuff. Tour co or boat may still be running....
im taking a very naive blond wife (naive might be a bit harsh but she sees the best in everybody - almost the exact opposite of me) , shall be making sure she stays in the resort
Actually went Kuoni/Peregrine. Can't find the itinerary but memory was playing tricks as we actually went Cairo/Luxor/Aswan and the boat was actually huge but we did the odd small feluca boat trips from Aswan and Luxor. Great for the history and dramatic structures, bit too much for me to be honest but wife absolutely loved it all. It is bizarre seeing this thin strip of fertile land just fade into sand as you go up the Nile. If we did it now we wouldn't do it the budget way we did back then. Sorry loads of words and not much help but as I say if history and archeology is your thing, you would love it....
Yeah that’s one thing about Sharm is you have to avoid places with loads of Russians . They talk to the locals like they are dogs .
If anybody is looking for some winter sun next year have to be honest was impressed facilities excellent Staff excellent Food ok ish (5 /10) Private transfer - appalling I genuinely though we had been kidnapped by a nutter with a death wish Other guest - mixed bag Wifi a but **** , but is that really a bad thing however haven’t left the hotel in the whole trip so no idea what Sharm el sheikh is actually like
During my son's half term we did an eight day tour on this: https://www.cyplon.co.uk/holidays/egypt/nile-cruises/ms-emilio-prestige-nile-cruise It was a tour of a lifetime - I won't say 'holiday' because there were quite a few 06h00 starts. With optional tours to Abu-Simbel (4hrs each way by car through the desert) and a son et lumière show at Karnak (which was our final night and ruined by all the tw&ts filming it on their mobile phones). The boat's exterior was a little tired/tatty but extremely practicable with a totally covered upper aft deck section with its banks of hanging mozzie-cutors (which I noticed more modern boats didn't have). The internal facilities were good. We had the services of a guide who was amazing (and on-call 24hrs to sort anything out and remember I was travelling with an ASD adolescent). We were the minority nationality on the boat (2 of us), the majority of a the passengers were German (I had never been in such close contact with German chavs before), a few French/Walloons, a smattering of Dutch/Flemish and some Egyptian ex-pats (from the US who were only on-board a few days and were our guides to the Egyptian food). A few of the master-race chavs were a bit, ahem, 'stereotypical' but when spoken to in their own tongue they dialled down their 'behaviour' around us (I swear one of them used to go around dressed in some sort of homage to the Afrika Korps). Food on-board was 'alrightish' International Cuisine (beef, chicken and fish selections at lunch & dinner) but the Egyptian night dinner was fantastic (no ice in drinks and were steed clear of raw vegetables and unpeeled fruit - a shame as the salads looked beautiful so no 'tummy troubles' for us). We went all-inclusive for the drinks - the local beer was OK (the Boxheads appeared to lap it up) and I enjoyed a few glasses of arak every night in the sun-deck bar over a few games of backgammon (the mozzie-cutors were very busy). It was mentioned in the brochure that the evening meal was supposed to be semi-formal/smart casual but we were the only one who made an effort). Transfers were by private minibus/car and was always pretty comfortable. Would I recommend it - yes *but* I should have gone for the expense of flying to Abu-Simbel. Would I do it again - no. Why? Well everywhere was packed with tourists (the guide Samih said that it was the busiest he had seen it since the country opened post-covid in June, even busier that in high season before the great plague). We saw A LOT, too much in fact - we didn't go on the perfume factory tour (I've had a belly full of natural product chemistry for 'work' I don't need to see more in my free-time) nor the trip to an 'authentic' Nubian village (too much like poverty porn for my liking). A polite (but forceful) "لا، شكرا" got rid of 99% hawkers the only 'unpleasantness' we had was with small tot following us about the entrance and exit at Kom Obo (although Samih was more upset/angered by it than us - and no I didn't buy the bracelets she was hawking as I piously regarded it as supporting child labour) and the ride in the pony and trap was not for the squeamish. But I would be interested in doing a cruise on one of the Movenpick boats, as this boat was moored at Abu-Simbel and I imagine that the son et lumière at The Great Temple of Ramesses II and the Small Temple of Hathor would be amazing (Samih agreed that it really was something else). I originally wanted 3 days in a hotel/resort then do the cruise (to acclimatise) but all of these had the resort stay at the end of the cruise (which I can now see the point of to 'deflate' from all the touring).
We were also, sort of, caught up in this scam. Our guide escorted us to "...museums..." after a couple of tours. The first one was on the first day after the first tour (Karnak) where we were taken to a "Papyrus Institute" and were extremely dehydrated (we were going back for breakfast on the boat) it readily became apparent that, after the offers of cold bottled water and Arabic coffee we were expected to buy something (I ended up worth a small portrait of Bastet, and a "complimentary" bookmark of Anubis for £17 which we sent to my son's friend in Germany). The other one was at the Valley of the Kings at a "...Sculpture Museum..." where my son bought a small, luminous carved moonstone statue of Anubis for £25 (because he's a metalhead and it was all the money we had on us). This also brings into question Luxor Airport's scanning facilities as I was taught that anything luminous is emitting alpha particles and is, by definition radioactive and it travelled home in my son's case un-touched. Our guide changed his spiel for this claiming they had excellent toilet facilities. This was one of the reasons I dropped the "Perfume Factory" and "Nubian Village/Museum" tours. Security was everywhere with armed cops/squaddies/gendarmes (and frequent check points/road blocks) at all the sites. They were quite 'surly' when first meeting my son but their whole demeanour changed when I mentioned the word "التوحد" (altuwahud - "autistic").
I did love walking through the souks but did the stupid act once of stopping for a split second to look at something. That was it. Hassled and followed down the street for about 200 yards to get me to buy it. I didn't. Went back to the souks for the atmosphere but didn't stop to look at anything after that. Went out in the town for drinks one night. That was pretty decent once you're past the outskirts of the town.