Egypt, where to start. I have wanted to visit Egypt for many years now, and I finally won the battle with my boyfriend last year and we went on a week's holiday to Egypt, Sharm el Sheikh, Naama Bay to be precise.
So last September we made our way to Egypt, the flight was 5 hours and 20 minutes (ish) and it was hot, we had landed in the evening and although it was dark it was like stepping in to a sauna (lovely). Once we were all checked in and settled in to our room, we went to have a wander.
We stayed right in the middle of town (at the New Tiran Hotel - review coming shortly). I had been told Naama Bay was where we HAD to stay, it had restaurants, nightlife, and the general buzz. We unlike many visitors to Egypt opted for bed and breakfast only, this was because I wasn't sure about the quality of food in many of the hotels as well as the local restaurants and had heard horrific things about both. So being quite a fussy eater I thought we'd opt for being to make our own choices.
Sharm el Sheikh is made up of three bays (quite confusing) as no-one really tells you this and when I originally started looking for package deals and hotels I didn't know where they were, everything just says Sharm el Sheikh (very annoying) so I made sure I asked which bay each and every hotel was in.
Naama
Bay is the biggest bay and full of tourists, restaurants, locals, shops, bars, excursion places, dive shops and taxi's, plenty of taxis. It is a buzz of life, the first night we stepped out on to the street from the hotel and it was busy, really busy, I was so shocked to see hundreds of people everywhere. (We didn't go in half term or anything).
We wandered around and tried to get our bearings, we ended up walking round the corner to TGI Fridays and had a meal in there, we were gobsmacked when we saw the menu, the drinks seemed more expensive than the main meals. We couldn't work it out and thought we'd misunderstood the exchange rate. We ended up paying about £9 for 2 main meals and nearly £12 for a coke and milkshake.
We were quite tired after travelling and decided to call it a night, so headed back to the hotel. The rooms were spacious and comfortable, the hotel wasn't massive (which we liked). We went to bed and slept well in our king size bed. We awoke to quiet went out on the balcony to immense heat. It was between 34-39 the whole time we were there. Lovely.
A lot of people go to Egypt for diving as it is one of the best spots in the world, and we met English people, couples of all ages there for that reason, we got some great hints and tips for day to day stuff to. Like we shouldn't feel intimidated by the locals, they have to have a tourist visa to work in Sharm el Sheikh and if any complaint is made they'll lose it, and their livelihood too. Although the locals can be very intimidating they are just trying to survive and harassing people is all they know. It is a poor country and people are more grabby but they are harmless. Just say NO and walk away. Don't show them any weakness, and never say it's your first time.
Naama Bay hosts a TGI Fridays, Hard Rock Cafe, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds and many more local restaurants. Naama Bay is situated on the beach and the transfer time is 15 minutes from the airport. Sharm el Sheikh is completely purpose built for tourism and is worth going to. There are many Bedouin bars, with large pillows making seats and shish's (flavoured tobacco) available everywhere. Just be careful when eating as a whole, we had funny tummies at one point in our stay and it's not pleasant. We also preferred sitting and chilling out in the evening in the beach bars and hotel bars on the beach, less hassle from the locals.
When it comes to booking all your excursions, I wouldn't say booking through the hotels is best. I am pretty aware of my surroundings and won't trust just anyone and my boyfriend doesn't trust anyone, so between us and booking 1 excursion through a booking agent in Naama Bay's high street equivalent for cash and spending the extra £30-£40 each on the other booking through the hotel. My boyfriend was convinced we'd been had, and we would not get picked up for the trip we'd booked through the local guy, but ever the optimist I studied tourism and appreciate people need to see the money going back in to their community and country, so I was quite certain we'd be fine. We were. We survived both trips, the scary little planes and the tour guides running off and leaving people. (TIP: Don't let them out of your site).
My only recommendation is plan what you want to do before you go. My boyfriend and I had a rough idea of what we wanted to do, and in all honesty we were completely ignorant about the excursions before we went on them. We had heard to go to the Pyramids in Giza and Luxor was each a day trip, and the best way was by aeroplane, at between £120-£160 each, per trip. We had budgeted for this but were not expecting the 4am start times, and hanging around in Cairo after visiting the museum for a few hours waiting for the plane ride back. It is very tiring, we like to do things on holiday and are generally quite active but this holiday did literally kill us, we came home more exhausted than we went.
The beach is quite crowded as it's not public and all the hotels own or share some part of a private beach, we never lied out on it, too busy. Instead we opted for the pool where at any one time the maximum amount of people around it were 6, including us.
When we went to Sharm el Sheikh we didn't know it was Ramadan half way through our stay, it was. This is fine, but a lot of other Egyptian's visit Sharm and it can be a bit annoying as they obviously feel a lot more at home, but it does feel a bit like the European tourists then become second best.
The main reason I wanted to visit Egypt was to see the Tombs, temples, pyramids and the sphinx. Please see my other reviews coming soon on the Pyramids, Luxor's famous Karnack Temple and the Valley of the Queens and Kings.
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Fab review. I'm really pleased you wanted to do the 'real Egypt' tourism bits, I know a few people who've been to Sharm and never left the resort which seems a bit pointless to me x
arnoldhenryrufus 28.09.2009 19:33
oh bless, you definitely needed another holiday to recover - lyn x
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Sep 25th, 2009
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