there are toilets in the lobby, in the main restaurant, the tropicana restaurant, and a couple of other places such as the beach (behind the fish restaurant) and near the noisy pool (i've kept all the stuff the hotel gives you, along with a better self drawn map of the hotel which i'll post as soon as i get a few minutes!)

Just to let you know, it was a parasitic infection, treated in the end with Tinidazole & Morphine from the hospital. She's out and on the mend. The docs think it was probably from a water supply. So, don't use the local tap water to wash your teeth (we did), and try not to drink very much pool/sea water (the G/F was learning to snorkel, so probably had a good big couple of mouthfuls of sea water!) .

If you have any questions, please feel free to fire them across, as i'll try to help if i can.

On another point, about the tipping mentioned a page or two ago (or maybe on the review pages). I got to know my cleaner quite well (you should have seen his amazement when he saw and listened to my iPod!!) and found out that he works 14hr days for 21 days, then gets 7 days off, then back on again, he gets paid 600LE a month (YES £60!!!!!) so i can't say i begrudge him a few quid since he did a better job than nearly any hotel cleaner i have seen in the UK. He also mentioned that even the bar staff were on around that amount.

Gemjas,

as mentioned, you dont need malaria tablets for Sharm. There were a few mossies in the hotel, i got bit 4 times in the first couple of days, which is a new all time low for going away for me. then i finally acceded to our lass and used the Avon solution mentioned in a thread in the forums here, and it worked a treat (even if i did smell like a girl!!!)

Kef

djanej / pippy / kefkef

Thanks for all the info i think i'll tell my partner to return his tablets and get his money back.

I have loads of the avon stuff so i will apply lots of that

Thanks again for all your help

Gemma
(Gemjas)

hi everybody
avon fans can you tell me what the avon stuff is? i've got some of their spf lotions and some aftersun with insect repellant, is this what you mean?
only 12 weeks on thursday for me (ha ha i know its ages away but i've been counting since we booked it a few months ago!!)

nic

Nic

The Avon stuff that everyone is on about it the skin so soft range thye mosquitoes really don't like the stuff

Hope this helps

Gem

Hi gemgas

We too fly on the 23rd where are you flying from we are from birmingham will see you at hotel any way are you with thomas cook??

Marg

hello everyone...
Im going out to the Grand Azure on the 3rd of July and i am taking my 15 year old and 16 years old daughters. I don't mind them having a few alcoholic drinks, but will the hotel staff serve them?.....as i don't want to have to buy their drinks for them everytime they want one! their sensible girls and i can trust them.....
any advice?
thanks kjwilma x

Well in Egypt the MDA (Minimum Drinking Age) is 21... (consumption)

but obviously there's bound to be some corruption in the system, especially at tourists hotels. If they look confident, act mature and don't draw attention to themselves i'd be very surprised if they were turned away...

hi everyone
gem thanks for the avon info, it has come at just the right time - all the skin so soft stuff is buy one get one free in our most recent avon book so i'll do my bulk ordering tonight!!!!

nic

Hi Marg

We fly from manchester and have booked it through direct holidays

Only 10 more days to go

Gem

Hi Gemgas

re the avon stuff - is it any avon skin so soft stuff???? if so i'll order loads, i sat in the back garden and got bitten 4 times!!!!! absolutly typical, so not holding anything to chance!!!

2 weeks today, and i may well be supping at the bar.....with the whole of the crowd from this forum, sounds like there will be loads of us...anyone flying from gatwick at 0945??

Hi Jo90

I find that the best skin so soft is the green one that seems to really work

Hope this helps

Gem
(gemjas)

Hi to all. Another newbie to the site

I go to the LTI next Thursday the 23rd June. I am really worried about the whole stomach upset thing. I have a problem with my liver and having had REAL food posioning before and am really scared to get ill. Also we are going out to celebrate the fact that we have just got engaged


We are staying in a suite and would love any advise.

Hoep to see some of you out there

Hi everyone,

We are now back (to pooring rain yuk!) and had a brilliant time. Airport totally fine no queing or anything, just the ridiculous amount the taxis were trying to charge. The weather was perfect for us as the breeze kept things tolerable even for our little ones. Monday it felt much warmer as there was no breeze. The place is amazing, yes they could improve on a few things, slow drinks service at resturants, covered play area for the kids, and a few other little things, but nothing to ruin your holiday. Apart from our baby (11 months old) we all suffered from stomach upsets, which is unusual for me as I never get this and I have travelled to quite a lot of places, Kenya, Gambia, carribbean, however, it never ruined our holiday at all. Don't know what caused it as our 5 year old just ate pasta and rice the entire holiday, my husband and I ate similar food to our baby who loved everything especially the shepards pie. The only difference was our babies drinks were always warm whereas ours were cold. We even boiled the bottled water for ourselves just incase.
Pools great and our baby could crawl around quite happily in the waterfalls pool. Slides great, kiddies club good. At first our daughter wouldn't attend but then they had some new girls (hello Stephanie) whom Bethan liked and so she went most days. Entertainment not up to much but pretty much the same as most all inclusive places we have been to (apart from Kenya which was brill).
Considering it was half term our first week, we never found it that busy at all, everwhere acctually quite quiet and relaxing, we could even get a speciality restuarant on the same day.

We had a suite and two of the couples we met out there upgraded to the suite and said it was deffinately worth it. Our room was lovely, and were where we asked, ground floor right next to the pool so we could pop back and too to our room easily and not cart everything on the pram to somewhere ten mins away. We never really used the executive lounge for drinks at night as we would have to take the kids to bed around 11.00, but our friends would use it at night. We ordered room service quite a few times which only comes with the suites. We also never tipped as we like to tip for good service not to get good service. We gave our maid (sorry cleaner as a man) a tip on our last day as he did a really good job, especially on my daughters birthday, balloons and flowers everywhere.
people were tipping round the pool to get drinks brought to them , but we just thought they were lazy as the bar was just by us anyway and gave you a chance to chat to others.

Anyway I think I have chatted enough, anyone want to know anything just PM me. Will sort out pictures and stuff by the weekend, not that we have much to show you as most are of the kids.

Thanks everyone on here who helped us choose this, we would deffinately go back, which we don't normally say.

Nicola

Hi Nicolaw

We have only 3 weeks to go, can you tell me if you took anything for the stomach upsets? tablets etc, I have been told to get them out there, My wife and kids are paranoid about getting ill.
I,ve also asked the hotel about room upgrades as we are in a standard room and they say wait untill arrival, we don't get there untill 10pm, can it be done then or do you wait untill the next morning and move? what is the bedding combination in the rooms as we have two children? and are they quite large - not used to being in the same room for two weeks on holiday!
Many thanks

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

Friends of ours upgraded when they arrived and that was around 9.15 at night so I think its ok to do it late, but then your paying for an extra night which you don't really use!.

We had a bed in the alcove for our daughter which was fine, She has a double bed at home and can fall out of it, here she never fell out once. We also had a bed for our baby, and not a cot, but decided to keep the bed instead as we slotted it between our beds and it worked out much better than a cot as we didn't have to pick him up to give him milk.
The room lovely and big so that our baby could quite happliy crawl around. bathroom huge, but the extra shower would over fill and so we tended not to use that much.

We just took our own tablets with us which totally bunged me up for a day or two, didn't do too much for my husband and of course our daughter couldn't take anything, but was much better after a few hours extra sleep.

Wish we were going back out.

have a great time, as long as you go with an open mind you will have a fab time.
Nicky

oh hi nicolaw
so glad you enjoyed it. the time seems to have flown by!
do you know how much it costs to upgrade to the suite? i think i told you we're gonna be in a superior room but i'm sure this just means a standard.
did you meet lots of nice people and did you have any bother with other nationalities (ie the russians that we keep hearing about on this site).
what was the weather like in the evenings? whats the lowest factor spf you could use without sizzling?

nic

Hi Nice Nic.

Weather fantastic. great at night, not to hot and the air conditioning great in the rooms. I think an upgrade is $25 each if you upgrade there, we booked a suite here and it was £200 extra for 2 weeks, which was worth it for us for the extra room. The couple we met out there went last year in a standard room and upgraded this tim and said it was worth it.

I started off on factor 25 and went down to 2 on the last day and I didn't burn at all. We used the one day stuff from Piz Buin which was great. Kids used 40 and 30 and they didn't burn at all, some kids had huge blisters on them. we are all fair skinned and burn easily so we took it easy here. We were worried that it would be too hot for the kids but they were totally fine and the pools were fine, especially in the afternoons. Felt a bit cooler the last few days but I think the temp was getting hotter, but still nice.

No problems with any of the foreign people really a few kids pushing in for ice cream but thats about it.

Anything else you want to know please feel free to ask.

Nicky

Hi Nicolaw

Glad to hear you enjoyed the holiday

Hoping you can help we are going to LTI on 23rd June :D, can you tell me is there a dress code for dinner etc.

Thanks

Gem