There is not much difference at all with the standard and the select room. We stayed in a standard room and our brother stayed in a select room. There was no seperate sofa area, the only difference was they had a rain shower, a dvd player and tea making facilities. To be honest, its not really worth the extra money!

As for kids in the pool with T-Shirts, almost all the children wear T-shirts in the pools. The first choice ones that are given out at kids clubs seem to be the most popular!

When we were at the HV mid June, they had just brought in a new rule for the sunbeds that actually worked in our favour. If you reserve beds in the morning and are not back to your beds by ten o clock your towels would be taken. Best thing to do is get up, have breakfast and make your way down to the pool for 10am. You will easily get beds, usually right by the pool!

As for Visas, the only time you need them is if you are planning to travel out of Sharm. We paid £40 for four and never used them!

Hi, Im so glad to have read these posts, it has really put my mind at rest. We go to the HV on the 18th August and to be honest I have been dismayed reading the reports on holiday watchdog which are either brilliant or awful. As mentioned Trip Advisor has mostly very good reports and you just get so you dont know what to think anymore. The holiday watchdog reports are advising people to contact a particular solicitor which made me a bit suspicious. Anyway as I said I feel a lot happier now.
Can anyone advise on the following :-
Is it better to buy snorkels etc here or buy them when you get there - in the past we have bought cheapy snorkels and just left them behind when we left but as we plan to do much more snorkelling on this holiday I wasn't sure,
Do you need to but shoes to wear in the water and again, can we get them when we get there?
Do you need to take any of your own towels or do they provide plenty to take to the beach etc?
Do you now need to bring your own hairdryers as Ive read that the hotel supplied ones are not connected after someone got a shock?
Is it cold at night?
Do you just take english money?

Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply

jo x

Hi Jo

I agree about the reports on Holidaywatchdog - they seem a bit iffy to me as though it is the same person / group that are wrting them all

It won't be cold at night, still very hot in the 30's
You will need shoes for the sea, we bought them there when we last went to Sharm ( LTI hotel next door to HIV )
I took snorkels with me - but may buy them over there this time
Not going to take any towels will use those supplied by the hotel
I always take my own hairdryer as I find those in hotels aren't powerful enough

Hope that helps - We go on the 31st July

Hello, can anyone tell me if there is a dress code in the restaurants?
We've been away in the past where it has stated long trousers for the men etc. and when we got there lots of men in shorts. Very annoying when you've packed mainly long trousers!!
Cheers!

Does anyone have the e-mail address so that we can advise them of my daughters disabilities?

I think it's best to take english money,you can pay for everything in english.
The email address is http://www.holidayvillage@coralsearesorts.com

Cheers Caz for the e-mail address.

Have just returned from the hv and on first impression it was great, the room were spotless the grounds were beautiful and the beach is amazing, the sea is undiscribable to anyone who hasnt been there.
We travelled as a group of seven and all took the acidphillius from holland and barret 2 weeks before travelling and whilse we were there. We also meet a family of 12 who travelled on our flight who didnt take these and when they came down on day 5 we thought we had escaped the mystery bug due to taking the tablets, but we talked to soon!the next day I stated to suffer from stomache cramps and diarrhoea, it didnt make me feel poorly but just needed to be near the loo, We got 3 sorts of tablets for £16 and they made it dissapear, the 3 days to follow it went though everyone in our party, and by day 9 I had it back but twice as bad, had to spend day in bed, it then went back though eveyone one else getting worse and not going, we went to the chemist who then gave us more medicine but still didnt help, in the end it was time to come home and we resorted to taking 3 imodium and it seemed to help, but now were home my husband and dad are ill and suffering and are gioing to doctors in morning.
This im sure is not nothing to do with the food, and am sure its just air born, and the luck of the draw who gets it but if you do get it it spoils your holiday, I dont know how first choice can say no one has complained the reception has a list as long as your arm with people who have suffered. I know people who will read this will think i am just out to complain but I can honestly tell you this is the truths,I went worried I would get it even considered changing but my family convinced me to go opened minded and enjoy myself, but now I can honestly say if some one paid for me to go I would not return, yes if the hotel was situated in a different country or I could be sure I wouldnt get ill then maybe I would go. Also if you still decide to go I would advise you not to take travellers cheques as they do not change them on the complex and you have to walk about 10 minutes to do so, even though this isnt far the tempertures were 110+ whilse we were there and the last thing you want to do is go walking!!
Me and my daughter both have blonde hair and blue eyes and yes the men do want to stop and talk to you but we didnt recieve too much hastle!
For young children I would recomend getting a factor 50 sun suit and you can let them play in the water and only have to worry about creaming there arms and legs, we saw so many people who let there children run around without a top on, and sat under the umbella them selves!!

Hi the Bakers, sorry to hear about the bug you got, keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed that we don't get struck down when we go in 8 days time!

Can you advise if you were drinking the local water (from the filtered machines) or the bottled water?
Also, did you have ice in the drinks?
Just trying to eliminate some of the possibilities before we go!

Thanks
Martyn

I st want to warn people that the pharmacy just outside the gates of the HV charges a lot more than the one over the road to the entrance of the LTI hotel next door.I think its called Chans pharmacy
I was charged 85 LE for eye ointment and drops which if I had used would have blinded me. When I asked at the other pharmacy how mush these were he said 20LE!I told the FC rep as he had recommended this pharmacy and he said he would have a word with him for overcharging.He also trys to sell you special BLUE pills
The pharmacy outside also sells Antinal at inflated prices when its available in the HV shops for 50p!

I wrote to FC on 14 June!! got a reply yesterday ...well they addressed it to Mr and used the word Mr 3 other times in the letter.. funny when I printed my christian and surname on bottom of letter, but saying that I don`t even think they read it as their reply doen`t even touch the contents. We have just been fobbed off with the bog standard reply.

They are sorry we needed to contact them. They are aware it can be very stressful to read bad reports on accomodation you are due to travel to. They have spoken to the reort with regard to our concerns: Hygiene - they can advise its regulary checked by the resort manager and an independent hygiene company and always scores well in this area.

Their 40 staff live, eat and drink in the HV and none of them have reported symptoms of illness.

There are a large amount of guests that arrive on a weekly basis and there have been only a handful of complaints regarding illness. They are advising it is down to high temps. All guests are being advised to keep hydrated to avoid symptoms of sunstroke and stomach upset caused by the temperatures.

If there were any issues relating to customers health and safety they would take this very seriously and take immediate action.

They wish us a wonderful holiday!!!!!!!!!!!

My letter metnioned the sickness and diarrhea, hygiene at (pool bars glasses, cutlery and plates in buffet etc) Undercooked food! lack of toilets around the complex, faulty electics, shortage of sunbeds, water in the swimming pools... as you can see I went to town.. they have just replied in a standared letter it took them nearly 1 month to send and then addressed it to my husband!

I am really well hacked off with them at the moment, bet the person who wrote the letter hasn`t got a clue! All I wanted was a reply that addressed all the issues I had raised.....

As far as I am concerned they`ve got our ££`s and don`t really give a .....

hi katiesmum
reading your posting this does look like a very similar reply that i got myself . it was worded differently but none of the issues that i have (more or less the same as you) were answered as i would have liked.
we are still looking forward to the holiday (understatement-cant wait really) and just hoping that we are lucky.
see you there
johnl

Hi John,
I think they do know there is a problem, but won`t or can`t admit it... what made me more angry than them ignoring the contents of the letter was them addressing it to Mr and all thru the letter saying in a really patronising way Mr.... then again Mr etc all thru the letter. I signed it with my full name!

Still trying to keep a very open mind but I think am resound to the fact that we may get ill, probability here is higher than some other hotels.

Got 2 bottles of acidophilus on Saturday its on offer in H & B are going to start taking it 2 weeks before.

Here`s to a great holiday, see you there. I`ll stick a daffodil in my beach bag so you know it us!!

its daunting thinking that you are (almost certainly) going to be ill. we seem to be powerless to do anything about it. I veer between trying to convince myself that it will be fine, and worrying about how ill we might be. Its certainly taking the excitement out of things. this is the most expensive holiday we've ever had by about £2000 and instead of looking forward to the indulgence of AI for the first time I'm just worrying.

Hi everyone.

We arrived back in Spain on Friday morning after spending two glorious weeks in HV. We had a fabulous holiday. We all got a dickie tummy at some point but nothing major...at the first sign of a bed belly we went straight to the chemist outside the hotel and got some tablets (sorry can't remember the name of them) and they sorted any problems out within hours. We live in Spain and in the height of summer here i usually get a dickie tummy for a few days usually because of the heat. So we expected to get it in Egypt. We avoided certain foods to be on the safe side such as rice, cold meats and chesses.
The staff , hotel, and trips especially Cairo were amazing.
It was plus 40 degrees whilst we were there and there was a nice breeze to help with the heat. I recommend you stay people going do stay in the shade as much as poss as you will still get a tan when you're walking around and in the pool...its better than getting sun stroke.
Please anyone going...try not to worry.....i realise evryones experiences are different but we had a great time and we made our holiday good. There were other people there who got a dickie belly but all the people i spoke to said they expected it and wern't bothered by it. Most people don't let a bed belly for a day or two spoil their holiday.
Have a great time to anyone going there...Enjoy....Egypt is beautiful!!!!!
Chica Spain x

Hi ya martyn p.
I went out thinking that I would get ill and was very finacle on what I ate pizza and chips for the first five days, eveyone else in the party eat the food chicken, rice and veg and we all came down ill, so cant blame the food, got through 6 bottles of alchocol gel whilse there so even when washing hand in there water I cleaned them again after!! we only stuck to the bottled water what you get free at breakfast time during the day had fizzy or water from the water stations which we were told by reps were safe to drink,even after being so poorly I can honestly say I dont feel its anything to do with food and drink, just an air born bug!!Apart from the mystry bug you can not fault the hotel it was fab!

Thanks for the quick reply, very much appreciated. Just have to see what happens, no going back now!

This time next week, we'll be coming in for landing, can't wait

Going to holiday village on the 22nd of september flying from Glasgow anybody else going then we are really looking forward to it been to the holiday village in Turkey twice and loved it cant wait !!

Just a thought we did not drink from the water coolers at all,the water tasted disgusting. If people who are ill are refilling their bottles up from the coolers then their bottle is touching the water spout. Best to just get drinks from the bar,they have lovely juices etc.