Helen,my friend went to the Mexicana Sharm yesterday for the second time.She loves it and goes to Naama bay on an evening which she said is about 10 minutes in a taxi. I think its a Thompson hotel and it has B&B,HB or AI options.

Hi Helen . For somewhere outside of your hotel to wander you will need to look at hotels within or a close proximity to Naama bay.

A high number of hotels here will be B+B/HB but that proximity comes at a premium and you could be faced with paying almost as much for one of those as you would for A/I along the coast . Practically all of those further out will be A/I and you would need to choose carefully bearing in mind stomach upsets are common with the high temps at that time of year when bacteria grows rapidly on food. Personally I wouldnt go for "cheap" in Egypt unless it was a decent hotel with good reviews at a good price .

I dont think it is as cheap as it was to eat and drink within naama Bay but I'm no expert on that so hopefully somewhere else can help.

Other options to consider would be the ras um sid area which is close to Old sharm and a mall or Nabq bay end of sharm which is the furthest away from Naama (maybe 20-25 mins) but has a selection of bars/shops etc for a wander of the evening .,but dont expect the atmosphere of NB .

Another option would be to look at El gouna where you would fly into Hurgarda. http://www.elgouna.com/Home~SectionID~17.html Im still hoping to get there one day myself as it sounds lovely and has marina and downtown areas to keep you occupied . I believe there is a decent choice of board arrangements and even the A/Is use a dine around scheme that allows you to use the resort restaurants too.

Hope that helps a bit .

lyn x

Hi Helen

I think you would be better off with either Namma Bay or Ras um Sid. Perhaps you could read up on the Hilton Farouyza (i've spelt that wrong) or the Hilton Sharm Dreams as these are both B&B, one is beach side and Dreams is the other side of the Peace Road. Both these hotels get good reports and you can walk to the bars and restaurants of Namma Bay from them.

If you fancy Ras um el Sid, you could research the Rennaisance Golden View Beach resort, i've stayed here and it's a nice B&B hotel, you can book it with Thomson/Portland and Lonwoods. You can walk to Fantasia from there which has restaurants, plus you have the El Fanar restaurant. The consierge at the front of the hotel can always get you a cab to Old Sharm, I haven't been and it gets mixed reports, there are also restaurants there. The RGVB has 4 restaurants of its own and we ate in three of them and the food was fine. You just pay as you go.

IMHO Nabq wouldn't be good for you as its all AI's so the two new malls there are a bit dead.
It was great for us and I loved having a beach that was decent and really liked the Holiday Village, but I needed an AI because of budget.

It's no good for people who want to go out to eat every evening, just not enough choice and too dead of atmosphere. I found myself missing the hassle of Namma Bay a bit but couldnt persuade DH too take a cab down there.

Doe

Helen we got a brill deal going to the"mamluok palace hotel" there is a video of the hotel on you tube if you want to have a look at it ...we got 2 weeks A/I for the 13th of july 2010 for £620 each ............colleen

Helen, one of the best things that I enjoyed about El Gouna was being able to walk out of an evening without any hassle. Restaurants in Downtown and the Marina. On the minus side for us was not being able to snorkel nearby but if having a mooch about of an evening is important to you, I would definitely look into it. It is so easy to get around as well - a weekly ticket allows you to use the bus or boat, or you can jump in a tuk tuk

Thanks for all your suggestions folk. My goodness there's a lot to choose from. It's a good job I started browsing early I think.

Helen , might be worth looking at Luxor aswell, if you enjoyed the sightseeing at the pyramids and you like that sort of thing then Luxor has plenty of ancient Egypt to see , valley of the kings and luxor and karnak temples.
we went in april this year and usually go for beach type resorts but found Luxor fascinating, but it was extremely hot then but then again anywhere in Egypt in August is going to be really hot. We stayed in the Steigenberger hotel on the banks of the Nile and it was fantastic we had B&B and there were plenty of restaurants to choose from for the evening , lunchtime snacks were great and reasonably priced and you could rest on your sunbed watching the boats going by on the Nile, the sights and views are awesome in Luxor and i think we will going back there next April.

You can let me know where you book, Ive swithered to Egypt also. lol.