Egypt in January - Where to go/stay or alternatives?
Discussion
We need some winter sun at the very start of January but don't want to fly more than about 4 hours so are looking at Egypt & the red sea. Trouble is we've heard so many stories about food poisoning, scummy hotels & resorts etc. that we're a little nervous about it.
Can anyone recommend a decent resort that has enough on-site to keep us entertained (neither of us are swimmers), has no kids and is at the very least 4* quality?
Alternatively any other suggestions for where to go? considering Cyprus but afraid it will be a little on the cold side.
Can anyone recommend a decent resort that has enough on-site to keep us entertained (neither of us are swimmers), has no kids and is at the very least 4* quality?
Alternatively any other suggestions for where to go? considering Cyprus but afraid it will be a little on the cold side.
Zippee said:
We need some winter sun at the very start of January but don't want to fly more than about 4 hours so are looking at Egypt & the red sea. Trouble is we've heard so many stories about food poisoning, scummy hotels & resorts etc. that we're a little nervous about it.
Can anyone recommend a decent resort that has enough on-site to keep us entertained (neither of us are swimmers), has no kids and is at the very least 4* quality?
Alternatively any other suggestions for where to go? considering Cyprus but afraid it will be a little on the cold side.
El Gouna is lovely and quiet.Can anyone recommend a decent resort that has enough on-site to keep us entertained (neither of us are swimmers), has no kids and is at the very least 4* quality?
Alternatively any other suggestions for where to go? considering Cyprus but afraid it will be a little on the cold side.
Hurgada has more going on and is also very nice.
Zippee said:
Can anyone recommend a decent resort that has enough on-site to keep us entertained (neither of us are swimmers), has no kids and is at the very least 4* quality?
What sort of things do you want? There are plenty of watersports resorts there but if you don't swim there's stuff all else to do IMO unless you're happy just sitting about. Inland though there are resorts in places like Luxor with loads of sites nearby.Went to Sharm in June with the GF and had an absolutely awesome time. The gf hot a touch of an upset stomach, but on the whole we were ok. Just be careful what you eat.
I'm vege and was fine, non veg friends who dive a lot in Egypt say they tend to eat either fresh fish or vege and are ok. Fresh fish is generally quite cheap.
We stayed in a 3* which was clean, quite nice and had lovely staff. If you want something more upmarket then look up the Hyatt or Hilton resorts.
Aside from some snorkelling/scuba, there is still plenty to do. There is quad biking in the desert, an aqua park, safaris by road or boat to Ras Mohammed national park and countless trips to the pyramids, St Catherines monastery etc.
We didn't get a chance to go on one of these trips but people reported back positively.
I'm vege and was fine, non veg friends who dive a lot in Egypt say they tend to eat either fresh fish or vege and are ok. Fresh fish is generally quite cheap.
We stayed in a 3* which was clean, quite nice and had lovely staff. If you want something more upmarket then look up the Hyatt or Hilton resorts.
Aside from some snorkelling/scuba, there is still plenty to do. There is quad biking in the desert, an aqua park, safaris by road or boat to Ras Mohammed national park and countless trips to the pyramids, St Catherines monastery etc.
We didn't get a chance to go on one of these trips but people reported back positively.
Got back from Sharm about a week ago and will say its not food poisoning despite what everyone will say(I have had the real deal so know the difference) ,its just a change in diet and your body getting used to the heat.A quick trip to a chemist will soon sort this out just ask for Antinal it normally works with in a couple of hours.
I wont recommend our hotel as it was geared up for families but all in all we had a good time
Side note if you bank with Natwest a lot of the cash machines refuse to let you have money although the rep knew about this and gave us the names of a couple of machines in Naama bay that do work
I wont recommend our hotel as it was geared up for families but all in all we had a good time
Side note if you bank with Natwest a lot of the cash machines refuse to let you have money although the rep knew about this and gave us the names of a couple of machines in Naama bay that do work
We were absolutely fine with the food/drink, but:-
- we were careful where we ate
- we made liberal use of the alcohol-rub hand-gel before eating and after handling money
- we avoided ice and salad
Sharm will be absolutely fine as long as you can handle the hassle from the restaurant owners and shopkeepers. Will probably be quite cool in the evenings though.
- we were careful where we ate
- we made liberal use of the alcohol-rub hand-gel before eating and after handling money
- we avoided ice and salad
Sharm will be absolutely fine as long as you can handle the hassle from the restaurant owners and shopkeepers. Will probably be quite cool in the evenings though.
Office_Monkey said:
Am taking the GF in Jan, staying in Sharm. Anyone got any recommendations for diving? Would it be better to do a PADI course before I go?
If you haven't done any before then I'd try and get the theory out of the way in the UK. If not then you'll spend half a week or so doing theory which imo is a waste of being away.It does take a few days to do the initial PADI course. I'd quite like to do this at some point, but this holiday, I wanted to chill out. Instead we did some snorkelling which we enjoyed and some sites in Sharm have decent views even from snorkelling.
Head for the Taba / Nuweiba region of Egypt , good all-inclusive hotels , nice beaches, great snorkelling and cheaper than Sharm.
I used these guys a couple of times :
http://longwoodholidays.co.uk/
I used these guys a couple of times :
http://longwoodholidays.co.uk/
We were relatively careful at first with food and drink but I totally forgot on one day out and ended up gorging on some great salad and enjoying ice cubs in my drinks. Fortunately neither of us had a problem the entire time.
Snorkelling was amazing and a day trip to Cairo to see the pyramids and tour the Egyptian Museum was great despite the heat, crowds and a delayed flight on a very dodgy old aircraft. Can't remember which hotel we stayed at, it was fine, but a lot of people seem to recommend the Sharks Bay Hilton.
Snorkelling was amazing and a day trip to Cairo to see the pyramids and tour the Egyptian Museum was great despite the heat, crowds and a delayed flight on a very dodgy old aircraft. Can't remember which hotel we stayed at, it was fine, but a lot of people seem to recommend the Sharks Bay Hilton.
Edited by cs02rm0 on Tuesday 27th October 10:55
Been to sharm twice, egypt has some great things to offer, great climate and the red sea is stunning and diving is very good but the resorts are pure tack, but that's resorts I suppose, just make sure you get a good hotel, more than ever a decent hotel is a necessity when you go somewhere like this, we stayed at the Hyatt and then the Gran Rotana, wouldn't recommend the Rotana but the Hyatt was just superb in every way, also the 4seasons is top notch, I would only choose 1 of these 2 if i was going again
cs02rm0 said:
We were relatively careful at first with food and drink but I totally forgot on one day out and ended up gorging on some great salad and enjoying ice cubs in my drinks. Fortunately neither of us had a problem the entire time.
I had no issues, ate salad, had ice and brushed my teeth with the water.Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff