Welcome home Jean .Looking forward to reading that review . Always like to add to my list.

I would also love to read it as I was there too at that time..and was stuck out at sea when the storm struck..our boat had to take cover at Gubel Island and it was tied down with 7 mooring lines...also the storm sank a ship in Israeli waters...I have never known wind so rough....and the sand covered the boat!

Welcome back Val. Glad you were safe when the storm hit. Looking forward to reading more about your holiday

That must have been really scary Val
We were by the pool on the morning but about 1pm it clouded over with a strange red cloud and became cold.
The next moring there was a thin layer of sand everywhere,but the sun was shining and it was lovely and warm.
I felt sorry for the folks in Sharm as the pictures on TV looked awful.
I think after been to Hurghada I dont think we will visit Sharm again.
The coral isnt near to the shore like Sharm but all other aspects were better than Sharm in my opinion.
On Friday before we left it was 34c!Landed that night at Gatwick and it was - 10c

bet you were on the same flight as a load of other divers from my holiday..they landed at Gatwick at -10!

I don't stay land base in Egypt any more..I prefer to fly to Hurghada and then get straight on a boat and go to sea for a weeks pure diving!

We were on the Thomas Cook flight that landed at 9pm,35minutes early on Friday evening.
Felt sorry for the Easyjet passengers who had their flight delayed until 11pm.
We spent the night at the airport before we went as the weather was dreadful in Surrey and decided to get to the airport the day before.
Thomas Cook told us we had to check in at 6.30am on day of departure regardless if airport was open or lose our holiday and money
We managed to get a taxi and paid £60 for 19 miles but it was worth it.
We spent the night beside some lovely Canadians waiting to fly to Vancouver who were amused that the airport was closed because of the amount of snow and the country was almost at a standstill.
The staff at Gatwick were excellent and gave us all blankets and a free hot meal in the staff canteen.
Thomas Cook are starting flights from Newcastle and Glasgow next May so we hope they will continue during the winter months as the temperature was hot enough for us.

we got nowt..just as we were about to land at Manchester at 10pm, they shut the airport and we had to go to Birmingham. Landed there at 10.15pm. They would not let us off the plane until 11.30pm as they didn't know what to do with us. We got through customs, eventually tracked the bags down and got on a bus to Manchester at 1 am. We got to Manchester at 2.30am..then had to get to the car park to retrieve our car...then drive home with the main route we take closed!!
We got home at 5am..and in the time from landing at Birmingham to getting home, we worked out we could have flown back to Egypt!!

We didn't get a drink,food or a voucher and the bus had no heating...we had no information given to us..not even the crew on the plane knew what was happening..

Welcome home I look forward to reading your review.

Jay,
Great to hear Hurghada has another fan! Glad you had a good time and look forward to reading the review when posted.

Val, hope your experience in storm wasn't too hairy - bad storm, small boat not good news. Was your diving experience altered as a result of the shark incidents in Sharm?

Regards, Caro

Hi Caro..nope, it did not make one bit of difference to my diving. The only thing was we had a small change to the itinery in that we did not go near Ras Mo. The dive leader did say to us that if sharks were spotted in the water before the dive, they were told they had to cancel the dive..but we all said we were going in anyway...there were sharks around out in the blue..but sadly, I did not get to encounter them.

My review of the Sindbad Aqua hotel is now posted. I took loads of photos but havent a clue how to put them on the photos gallery.
If anyone can advise me how to post them I will do so when I get home.

Instructions for uploading photos HERE

luci