hi jo - i can try and answer a few of your questions we also usually go to Turkey and tought we would give Egypt a go this year and have just came back. We stayed A/I at Hilton sharks Bay. Firstly the Egyptian people are very similar to the Turks . they are extremely friendly, cannot do enough for you and really make a fuss of the children If you are actually staying in Naarm bay then they is plenty of action, resturants, shops (the same fake handbags ) although the shop keepers are a little more scary than the turks . we only went down there for 1 evening but hubby wasnt really impressed ( too many shops for his liking ) the resturants we passed looked reasonably priced but we only stopped for a drink and just as a guide 2 beers and 4 cokes cost us £10. this is sort of where the similarity to Turkey ends. The landscape is very different and apart from Naarm bay is desert , seperated by a long road with beautiful hotels down big drives and behind closed gates . Beyond these is the red sea which you really need to be in to appreiciate . again if your not staying in Naarm bay there really isnt anywhere to walk in the evenings and this really was the only minus for us.

We had a lovely time and i have rebooked flights for next easter and then hopefully going back to turkey in the summer as we did miss turkeys Atmosphere.

We really did feel very safe in our hotel and wasnt overly concerned when we visited Naarm bay but we sort of feel that we are probably in more danger living on the outskirts of london and dealing with the underground.

there are several trips to go on and lots of watersorts, we did the quad biking and loved that (although i was really nervous at first) . our 2 older boys (15 and 13) enjoyed it so much they went again on their own the last night. We booked with the guys arouund the pool at our hotel and we paid £20 each but the sefety was exellent and crash helmets were provided although we saw many other parties did not. you can go to cairo or luxor and there are lots of boat/snorkelling trips available .

hope you have great time. sorry cant help with the weather at christmas although im sure i read somewhere that its around 70 degrees and you may loose the sun early. when we were there at easter the sun was up very early , you could actually sunbath from about 6.30 but the intense heat started to wain around 2 oclock and the sun was gone by 4.30 so you may find it similar to that as their clocks dont move forward to about now . evenings at easter we still felt chilly because a little breezy so yes i would of thought at least a cardi at christmas

hope some of this helps - sorry to witter on.

lyn