hi emf#53,

i was wondering the same thing too!!! were off to the same hotel on sunday!! where are you flying from? cant wait!

i have heard theres some kind of shopping precinct opposite the grand azure hotel, which isnt too far from our hotel prob bout 10 mins away. but whether they sell snorkelling equipment i have no idea!! i'm assuming there will be somewhere to buy it in the hotel but it might not be very cheap......

Flying from Gatwick about 10:00 Sunday morning - cant wait

I have got a mask and snorkel but no fins - just found another thread on here about the hotel - 5 pages long - and it all sounds good, something about a bit of new building works going on but apart from that everyone seems to love it.

How long are you out there for?

they do sell snorkelling gear in the hotel shop, dunno how much though, bought somne from here for my kids 2 years ago, think they were abt a tenner each but they are good quality and are still going strong. just got back from the albatros last night so i know the have them in..there is a supermarket along the road which will be cheaper as we wanted the shoes for walking on the coral and they were £2..the hotel shop wanted £6.50 . hope this helps..

sharon

Cheers Sharon - how was it over there then - is it still V hot? How was the hotel and food etc?

.

hi emf,
yes its HOT in the 40`s..they are buliding another floor but you can`t really tell as they have boards painted the same colour as the hotel in front so you can`t really see anything, food..they have themed nights Italian,Egyptian,English etc..can`t remember exactly the days but remember the english night there was 6 teenagers in front of me and when the chefs lifted the top off the chips they cleared the whole tray between the 6 of them it was soo funny.a tip try to make friends with the blokes at the entrance of the hotel(security,taxi`s etc) they will order mcdonalds for you and the taxi will take you to the gates of the hotel to pick it up..
just to add it is VERY hot, if you haven`t been before it will hit you like a ton of bricks.. a lot of people say bring it on etc..we love the sun and the heat but it does take a few days to adjust. it was 35 degrees at 5pm in the shade..

have a great time

sharon

we wanted the shoes for walking on the coral

I really do hope that you didn't mean that.

hi emf#53

we fly from manchester on sunday!!! not long now.....

i'm debating whether to get snorkelling stuff here or there now.... aaargh!!!

maybe see you there!!! what do you guys look like? we will be a party of two 20-25 yr old couples. my chap has a lot of his left arm tattoo'd with japanese coi carp!!

have a good time anyway, im sure you will!!!! cos i know we will!!!

Just me and my mate, both in our late thirties - leaving the ladies at home this time :-)

Bought some fins here yesterday so am sorted now.

Will look out for a fishy arm :-)

See you out there maybe.

Everest,
i said that cos i can`t remember the name of the shoes you wear when you go in the sea

sharon

Everest wrote:

we wanted the shoes for walking on the coral

I really do hope that you didn't mean that.

I would say get your mask and snorkel here before you go, to save valuable time holiday time whilst over there... you dont want to have to waste time shopping for this. Most hotel shops sell 'sea shoes' for under £5, so they are more readily available over there than here. The mask is a good idea tho, as we had a couple of trips before getting our own, and whilst snorkelling with hired stuff we spent more time emptying our masks than snorkelling, and by that time our eyes were so sore with the salty red sea water it was a pretty miserable experience. However, we are now owners of our own masks and it has made snorkelling an absolutely fab experience!!

we bought ours over there so we didnt have too much luggage with us. we went out of the hotel and turned left where there is a shop/supermarket bout 5 mins down the road. we bought our snorkel sets from there and it cost about 23 quid for two decent ones. they also sell flippers and sea shoes there not sure of the price as we didnt get them.