Hi MJ

Dont think I have any experience of this particular hotel ( unless they have renamed the red sea holiday village yet again) but I have general experience of travelling to Sharm.

You do tend to get iffy reviews sometimes but think they may well be worth taking in the context of some folk actually not liking Egypt/Tunisia/Morocco style holiday destinations. Unfortunately I havent yet managed to visit Tunisia but I would have thought if you enjoyed your holiday there you will enjoy Sharm.

I guess the main tips I would give are

a)Don't buy a £10 visa unless you intend to leave the Sinia
b)Make sure you have your jabs, the triple that we need for the UK, plus typhoid and Hep
c)When eating at the buffet try and pick food that is hot and looks like it is recently put out
d)Take sterling & change to LE once you get there you will get a better rate
e)Don't tip £1 coins, no good for anyone, you will over tip & it's a pain for tourists they hassle to to convert back
f)Tip in low denomination LE instead
g)Never pay a cab driver what they ask for, there are loads just make to walk away
f)If you get ill buy Antinal from the chemist, it's not Imodium it's an AB so treat as such
g)I think your hotel is in Nabq Bay, but take one trip to Namma Bay for a mooch, it's like marmite
h)Wait to get there before/if you want to book any trips as you may get recommendations from others
j)don't forget to snorkel

I'm sure you will love it especially your 9 year old. When we stayed at the holiday village they had swim up rooms and the setting was lovely, they were beyond my budget otherwise would have definaltely given them a go.

If you have anything specific please ask.

Enjoy

Doe

Thanks for those tips doe.

The hotel we have booked to is currently called 'Coral Sea Splash Resort', but is being renamed as 'Coral Sea Aqua Club' for 2013. It is in Nabq bay, and Namma Bay is approx. 30km away.

As I said it gets very positive reviews under its current name, so hopefully it'll be ok.

Showed our son the photos last night on Thomsons website and on Tripadvisor, and he is so excited, and wants to go now! It's gonna be a long year!

Been reading a couple of the topics on here, and we really fancy doing the Cairo trip, but probably by air as we don't fancy the 6hr coach trip each way. But looking at possible costs, we'd probably only be able to afford the one day trip, rather than the stop-over.

With regards the Visa's, can we skip these at the airport on arrival incase we don't end up leaving Sharm, and still sort them later if we do decide to go on the Cairo trip? Or is it better to just get them at the airport anyway?

Embarrassed to say I have not actually got round to doing the Cairo trip as I am one day hoping to do a Nile cruise.

However I have heard it said that what you are saying is a good idea.

If buy the visa at Sharm and decide you are having so much fun chilling out it is a waste of the £30. If you decide to go once you have been in the resort for a couple of days, any enterprising tour representative will have some way of getting one for you. You may have to give them your passports to take back up the airport and they may charge you a bit on top for admin ie 3 x £12 but I am sure they will not want to miss out on the sale of three trips to Cairo so they will find a way to get you the visas.

Basically the visas look like a postage stamp that has 15 US dollars written on it and then some bloke puts a date stamp across it which is the date it starts from.

Doe

We have rebooked for the newly named Coral sea aqua club. We went as a family of 4 last year and it was superb. This was our first ever package holiday normally preferring going to Bavaria or France so we were nervous. Food was fantastic, any people complaining could be found eating McDonalds/KFC all week. There was plenty of choice in the restaurant and the staff were first class. Rooms were excellent standard with an additional room for the kids with 2 flat screen TV's. Waterpark was excellent and we had an excellent family holiday. My wife and I stay in some of the top hotels in the world including The Ritz, Jumeriah Beach and Gleaneagles and I can safely say that although a different experience it was wonderful, that why we rebooked the day we returned home. The trip to Cairo by bus is not 6 hours, nearer 8 hours would be the truth. Our day trip to Cairo took 27 hours from leaving the hotel until our return.
Don't take Egyptian money with you, there is an ATM that will take English notes and convert them to Egyptian
pounds and gives a far better rate of exchange. You can also use your bank card to withdraw money from it.
You do not need much spending money for anything other than trips or souvenirs.
Hope this helps, Enjoy

Just got back from our fortnight at the Coral Sea Aqua Club, and we loved it.

My Review is now up...

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/reviews/egypt/sinai-penninsula-and-red-sea/sharm-el-sheikh/coral-sea-aqua-club/

MJ

Glad you had a great holiday MJ, thanks for your review which I have just read and it is spot on and very informative

Great review sounds like its a good hotel and you really enjoyed yourselves.

Doe

johnson293 wrote:

Just got back from our fortnight at the Coral Sea Aqua Club, and we loved it.

My Review is now up...

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/reviews/egypt/sinai-penninsula-and-red-sea/sharm-el-sheikh/coral-sea-aqua-club/

MJ

Hi MJ,

Thanks for your great review! Please keep them coming
Do you have any photos of the hotel that we could accredit next to your review? We would be very grateful
Just let me know if you have any and ill drop you my email address.

Many Thanks,

Phil

Phil,

yes we have loads of pics of the hotel complex, and would be happy to send some to add to the review.

Cheers

MJ

Thanks MJ

I will PM you my email
Cheers, Phil

Thanks for photos MJ, these have been added now and are showing on the site
Cheers, Phil