Glad to hear you are having a great holiday Graham Ooer at the Russians and their unique way of welcoming in the New Year

Thanks for the update Graham, we're heading out next week, its our first visit to Sharm & really looking forward to it.
Slainte
Gill

That was a good read Graham, lovely to hear from you and pleased you are having your usual brilliant time.

edinburgo wrote:

Thanks for the update Graham, we're heading out next week, its our first visit to Sharm & really looking forward to it.
Slainte
Gill

you will love it. have a lovely time, been there bout 5 times and wanted to go back in may this yr, but as we are taking 2 holidays this yr hubbie choose Tunisia for may, me I choose goa for nov serves him right for not talking me to Egypt lol.

Sharm sounding particularly wet and wild right now!

the cocktails

We suffered from a bit of wind last night, not us personally but the weather has turned slightly breezy, today so far has been breezy and considerably cooler and fairly overcast with only a few short sunny periods however the clouds do currently look as though they are going to break up and go.

The lad that works the pool bar is a gem, he has just brought us a coffee and he remembers just how we like them, later on he will bring us round some other refreshments and he even comes on to our patio with them.

I have been watching a bird by the pool ( no not the tall red headed Russian) but a feathered type of wading bird, it is totally confused and appears to be looking for fish in the pool

We are trying to work out what we should do next year, should we try a different resort such as Hurghada for a change or as we still love it here at the Jasmine should we come back and visit all our friends here again?

I though I would share some small bits of info that might be helpful to somebody if they are coming to Sharm.

Although not my cup of tea some people have had KFC and McDonalds delivered to the hotel so if anybody wants something like that it is worth noting it can be delivered to you at your hotel.

Taxi prices are the same as last year and can be haggled to around the 20-30LE (£2-£3) from Naama out to the hotels along the main peace rd, the airport will cost around £13-£15, Soho Square is around £6, always remember to haggle and agree the price prior to getting in the taxi.

If you want to go to Sharm Old Town the cheapest way is to get on the small blue busses that run up and down the main road, they are used by the locals and should just cost 1 LE (10p) although some drivers will try and charge tourists a bit more (50p), if you want to get on one of these busses just stick out your hand and it will stop.

If you are planning excursions they are cheaper from the local sellers however you might feel happier booking through your rep so only you can decide on that one.

Eating out there is a huge choice ranging from Pizza Hut right through to fine dining, places such as Hard Rock Cafe & Buddha are among the dearest with prices quite similar to the UK however there are a great many other restaurants to choose from that are more reasonable.

Wifi, many places will give you free wifi just for purchasing a drink, meal or snack or you can get a local SIM card for your phone that works out cheaply, there is a main Vodafone shop next Carrefour supermarket which incidentally is handy for buying items with no hassle and visible fixed prices.

Suncream and anti mosquito sprays are comparatively expensive so try and bring some out with you.

Tipping, a small tip of 10-20LE (£1-£2) every couple of days or so is greatly appreciated by bar/pool staff, cleaners etc, just tip whatever you are happy with and to whoever you think deserves it.

Shokran = Thank You

La Shokran = No Thank You

Right I am off to catch the last of the rays now that the sun has come out again just as it starts to set.

Thanks for popping in Graham and for all the useful information.

Hope you get more & of course plenty of & (dancing, - not pink elephants - don't want you seeing those )

Further update

The hotel and in fact the whole of Sharm continues to get quieter and quieter, there appears to be a huge drop in visitors since our first week.

The weather has really taken a turn for the worse, there has been a drop of about 10-12 degrees or perhaps more, the last few days have been very cloudy with only a few spells of sun and it has been pretty blowy which is making it even cooler.

The new guests at the hotel are looking rather unhappy particularly when they hear how nice it was last week, hopefully it will warm up.
I see the weather has been pretty cold throughout Europe with snow in Greece and Turkey, at least Sharm hasn't turned in to a skiing destination yet lol.

If you are coming out soon definitely bring some warmer clothing now and not just for night time either, I have now got a jacket on although the sun has just come out and there is slightly more blue skies.

Our planned trip to St Catherine's , Dahab and Coloured Canyon got cancelled, I don't think there was enough people booked.

A price update for excursions all priced per person.

Cairo

Thomson price
Fly - £165
Bus - £79

Local price (variable slightly)
Fly - £110
Bus - £38

Quad biking

Thomson £33 or double £24
Local £20 or double £15

Luxor

Thomson £179
Local £120

Local prices vary from company to company and you can haggle over them to try and get a better deal.

Do you think it might be warmer in Luxor Graham ? I have been thinking about going after Xmas one year, but am just not convinced I would like the weather, maybe I would be slightly better off weatherwise going to Luxor?

I am glad you are having a good time regardless and as a committed holiday goer I am sure you are not letting something like jippy weather spoil a relaxing break.

Doe

Lebanon has had heavy snow and floods and Israel has had lots of heavy rain since the weekend.
Cyprus is just having some extremely cold weather and we woke up at 7am today to 4C which is almost unheard of... The high for today was expected to reach 10C.
They've even had snow in the low ground of Chlorakas and Yeroskippou today in Paphos plus there's a fair old bit of snow on mount Olympus. Platres was a white out earlier this morning with blizzard conditions. Generally, Platres falls below the snow line but it does get them on odd occasions.
We have another day or so of these bitterly cold temperatures and then it will push back nearer to the norm of 18C but with some rain from Friday to Sunday.

Egypt isn't so far from us so it sounds like they're having some unexpected weather of their own. As a rule, I believe Luxor is usually a little warmer than SSH.

Hi Doe

As Shell mentions it is usually a bit warmer in Luxor than Sharm most of the year round however this particularly bad spell of weather in Europe has also hit all of the Middle East, as far as I can see it is to last for a few more days.
Luxor has been lovely in the past when we have been at this time of year apart from a huge sandstorm that hit it a few years ago while we were there, I have never see anything like that before or since.

Just as well the seasoned travellers made backup plans to go to Malta in 7 weeks then Turkey 7 weeks after that

Greetings from back home

We arrived back last night and I am pleased to say that the temperatures had picked up back to around the 27 (80) mark and the evenings were warmer too.

The resort has continued to get quieter and quieter, between the 2 hotels that made up our accommodation there was a capacity for around 700 guests and from today there are only about 55-60 staying so they have closed one of the restaurants.

Welcome home Graham, glad the weather picked up for you towards the end. Rather worrying about the lack of visitors over there, this seems to have been going on for a couple of years now. I know there is a huge oversupply of hotel rooms and restaurants in Sharm, but when we last went in October 2011 we went to Namma Bay most night for dinner and it was like a ghost town, especially the further up the prom you went to the Sonesta Beach hotel and Oonas. We could have had whole restaurants to ourselves.

Even places like the Viva Beach restaurant that have traditionally been very busy only had three or four tables taken each night.

we went to Namma Bay most night for dinner and it was like a ghost town, especially the further up the prom you went to the Sonesta Beach hotel and Oonas. We could have had whole restaurants to ourselves

.

It is even worse this year, the restaurants from even as far in to Naama Bay as around the Ghazala Beach area are all desserted with whole restaurants empty and the Sonesta end is a ghost town.

All the restaurants must be really struggling, even although we were AI we still eat out a lot in the evening and you do feel really bad saying no when they try to get you in for a meal or drink.