hi all

over in the GA at the moment. it is very quiet , they are about 600 people down due to the bombs.

you can get a sunbed at 9 am easy as any thing. as soon as you put an empty glass down they bring you another drink.

lovely hotel, friendly staff, great food, place really clean. So far no funny tummy. but very very very hot.

hi wendywu
leaving for airport late today and flying out tomorrow. Can't wait. Sun, sand, sea, snorkelling and not forgetting the eating 7 drinking
See ya soon
dodie

Hi Hotrodder, Ermintrude, thanks for your reply. Take your point about crashing out, prob the heat and the water slides will knock them out too!

Have seen "Wendywu's" message from the GA, sounds quite, hope it stays that way for us. Ermintrude, I have one of each 12 yr old is a girl, (going on 20!!) and 9yr old is a boy, hopefully we'll see you around the pool for cocktails at breakfast!!

Hi again Joannie, hope you have a good flight out on tuesday. Please feel free to work your way down the cocktail menu and check out the best cocktails for us before we arrive on thursday. Yes I hope it stays quiet for us too, although I'm anticipating that the flights will probably be full and hotel occupancy rates will be rising steadily by the day. Mind you I am really not thrilled at the thought of having to reserve a sunbed at 6am so I hope we are as fortunate as Wendy and can 'lie in' until 9!

Hi Ermitrude

Have a good flight out on Thursday. We will be there on Sunday, cant wait. I hope it is still quiet. I certainly wont be getting up at 6am to put towels on a sun bed, all I want to do is chill out, relax and re-charge my batteries.

Might meet you there.

have a good one.

Sheila

What is the Vodka supplied by the hotel like, I don't fancy upgrading my wrist band so I will be on the local stuff. I drink Asda Smart Price vodka so I am not that fussy.

Hi to everyone going to GA I hope you have a wonderful holiday as we did.We The hotel is fantastic, very hard working staff, friendly, clean and HUGE! We ate in all restaurants and prefered the chinesebut all were excellent. We found it easy to book from 10 am onwards sometimes on the same morning. Sevice is very good at the bars in the reception,better on the first week when you are new, but thats nice to feel special on your first week. Everyone is very friendly and chatty and have a good memory for names. We were a bit disappointed with the animation as we have seen better but it passed the time. Egyptian evening on a Wednesday is very good for food and entertainment. We booked our excersions through Thomson and the people who walk around the pools you can haggle a bit with the ones in pink. We went scuba diving but to be honest if its fish you want to se just go to the end of the jetty to snorkle and you will be amazed. you can buy rubber shoes from the shop on the beach for £5 and they are good quality and snorkle gear. I was ill for one day and we all had the runs BUT if you go to the chemist across the road he will set you right. Cant pin point anything that gave us the bug its just one of those things. When you are there can you please say hello to Sharkey at the pool bar below the main retaurant and to Akram Mohammad Diab and Fauhod who work tirelessly in the main restaurant from Shaheen and the girlsTHANKS Vodka is not bad you just have to ask them to make it a bit stronger and they are more than willing. We went through the coctail list by the end of the holiday and enjoyed it . Have a lovely holiday and think of us poor people back here in the cold.

Hi All

Just returned early hours of this morning. Great holiday, loved the place. I know it was very quiet due to the bombs. But i could not fault it. I will post a full review on the site later.

A word of warning, Lorna the FC rep who was lovely, has been swapped for Claire from the conrad, see that topic.

im going to this hotel next year

could anyone tell me the transfer time in a taxi from the airport

thank you

Hi Ian

It is only about 15min.

Hi all
returned on 27th August and would agree with Wendywu comments. fantastic time. lovely hotel. great weather. great staff. all in all a superb 2 week holiday.
for anyone going soon, am very jealous and already looking into booking again next year.

Just returned and have to say we had a fantastic time and I find it hard to believe anyone could have any complaints about this hotel.
The pools are amazing, each with a different atmosphere. We never had any problem getting a sunbed at any time of the day and the pool guys, particularly on the children's slides, were great.
We ate in all the restaurants and never had any problem booking and no tummy troubles at all. Whilst the main restaurant is a buffet there was so much choice, breakfast, lunch and dinner that I can't believe that people couldn't find something they like.
The kids club - with its own pool was pretty good although the staff's English was limited but this is an International Hotel and my boy (aged 6) just mucked in and had no trouble making himself understood.
We didn't upgrade and standard room was plenty big enough but if you have older children they may not be very comfortable on the campbed stlye bed.
The hotel is spotless and the staff really friendly. They work very hard to make sure that you enjoy your holiday.

We travelled with Thomas Cook and the rep Dale was exceptional.

So all in all - sorry to be back and yes we would go again.

I understand there is no entertainment at night, but i would like to know how many bars are open at night, hoepfully there is a choice.

Entertainment is limited childrens disco followed by a sketch show, basic magic show or mr/miss grand azure. three times a week there is a bus to sister hotel for disco in Naama Bay- leaves at midnight and gets back about 4 am. Don't know what it is like as we didn't go.

There are 2 bars the lobby bar and the terrace bar. There is music at the terrace bar and a disco but in the hoidays seems to have quite a lot of 'young teenagers'. Probably better when not in the school holidays.

Hi All

The bar with the pool tables in was open very late when we were there.

You can walk along the beach road to the complex next door. They have a few little shops that are open in the evening. They also have a disco that you could go into.

The entertainment did the trick of keeping my two teenage daughters happy. This left us to sip cocktails in the lobby.

But to be honest the sun was out so long that it was a rush to get in and showered and changed to eat at the 9 o clock sittings. You did not finish your meal until gone 10. Then into the lobby for a coffe. Before you knew it the evening had gone and it was past midnight. All that sun makes you feel feel tired anyway.

You will not be bored honest, the Lobby Bar is a lovely setting to drink in, and the service is second to none.

Okay, we're home too after an enjoyable two weeks. By the end of our second week we were feeling a trifle smug as we hadn't been ill at all and had eaten and drunk everything (in moderation of course ). However, the day before we left my husband, and later in the day myself, were both fighting for the loo but a quick dash across the road to the pharmacy for some Antinal and Streptoquin sorted us out in time to fly home.

On the whole we have come away with few complaints and I consider the holiday to have been good value for money. We have stayed in All Inclusive hotels in the Caribbean (5 in total) and in Turkey (3 times) and Cyprus (once) as well as many other international hotels in the US, Dubai and Europe on differing board basis. With one possible exception the Waterfalls pool has to be the nicest of all the hotel pools we have seen in our travels and the two other pools and the waterslide complex are also excellent. Additionally the sunbeds are very comfortable (which can make or break a holiday in my opinion as I always aim to make good use of that particular facility! ) and we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to reserve one as I had previously feared. We found the waiters, room cleaner, pool and bar staff to be very friendly although, as others have said ,some staff at the lobby bar were not quite so amiable or efficient. Partly for this reason, but predominantly because of the smoky atmosphere, I did not particularly enjoy the lobby bar and we made little use of it. It's a shame because right next to the bar is the library where our children were happy to watch TV but neither my husband nor I wanted to endure the smoke. It's true that we could have sat on the far side of the lobby away from the bar or outside on the terrace (which was nearly always empty) but that seemed both unsociable and unappealing. We enjoyed a couple of evenings playing Pool or table tennis with the children at the sports bar but that was also smoky and had no air-conditioning. The Terrace Bar was nicer for an after-dinner coffee or cocktail but the children were bored there after one drink. There didn't seem to be many other kids their age around at all to be honest - maybe a handful - but the majority were younger. So all in all we certainly did not make much of an impact on the cocktail menu! I know I probably sound like a miserable old bag but really it's just that the evening set-up just didn't seem to work for us. This wasn't a problem though; we enjoyed our meal (went to the Italian twice, the Chinese and the Seafood) and then headed back to our room (sober!) around 10ish as the kids were tired by then anyway. One other quick point worth mentioning is that the white and rose wine is utterly undrinkable.

The hotel is clean, the grounds are immaculate and our room (Junior suite in cluster 14 top floor) fine although not as newly furbished as I was expecting. The blackout curtains were wonderful and prevented the children (and us) from waking too early. The water temperature and pressure in the shower fluctuated wildly during use but that's not unusual for a large hotel. The beach was much nicer than I was expecting and there was barely anyone there. We hired the mopeds and took a ride along the beach front in both directions which was fantastic fun and not to be missed. The kids enjoyed riding with us and we got to glance at some of the neighbouring hotels as we passed by.

I've rambled longer than planned but any further questions please ask.

I have heard that lti grand azure dont change travellers cheques, can anybody confirm this??

yes the grand azure does have entertainment, there is live music by the main restaurant every night and also have entertainers which is caberet for children and then adults. the entertainers have to cater for the italians and russians too but still good. must watch or enter 'mr grand azure 2005' every saturday night!!

one more thing...... buy your 'sea shoes' before you go out, alot cheaper in the uk before you go, i think places like qd, asda etc do them!!

glove1

hi all

No the GA does not change TC, you have to go two hotels down to get it done. But reception does change sterling and a much better rate than you get in england. We just took that with us. They will also give you small notes that are needed for tipping.