Hi Briar

We're not looking for anything outside the hotel. Last time we were in Sharm we only left the hotel once! Just a nice place to chill & snorkel.

- Tony -

PS Happy New Year to all in Skeggy!

Yes Tony, forget about Sharm and Taba! The Coral Hilton at Nuweiba is where you want to be, or if you can possibly forego a kids club, The Swisscare in Nuweiba which has even better snorkelling than The Coral.
All the rooms at Swisscare are suites with two bedrooms, so you can be close to the kids but not too close!

You should seriously look at both hotels and you will find bags of info on HT.

Well, after many, many hours of searching HT & googling other sites, I'm still at a bit of a loss. The sticking point is the kids club. The missus & I are keen snorkellers, and it would be great if there was somewhere we could drop off the sprog for a few hours & be sure she was safe & entertained.

I was hoping to find a hotel with a kids club run by First Choice, Thomson or other British TO, with some organised activities, but they all seem to be low-key affairs, run by the hotels. The comments in the hotel reviews section aren't encouraging, e.g:

Coral Sea Resort, Nabq - "First Choice reps do run day time activities if they can be bothered" - "The kids club was awful more of a crèche. You could take your children and leave them then return to sign them out, but they were left a bit to own devices there with not much arranged."

Hilton Nuweiba Coral Resort - "Not a place for children ... nothing much to amuse them."

Hilton Sharks Bay - "The Kids club was not up to much either, it only ran for 3 1/2 hours a day and the staff from the Animation Team obviously did not enjoy running the club."

I'm not being selective here - I seriously could not find any favourable comments about kids clubs.

Any ideas would be gratefully received.

- Tony -

Who wrote that about Nuweiba?
True there isn't much in the way of organised activities - a kids disco early evening, some games in the pool etc. But the hotel has crazy golf, pedaloes and 'surf' canoes, two pools each with kids sections and large sunshades over the sun-loungers, a kiddies play area, pool table, basketball hoop, volleyball, tennis and squash courts, table tennis, lovely sand with large sunshades and sun-loungers, very safe sea. All inclusive. Banana rides or ringoes you do have to pay for.

Snorkelling is Ok off the hotel beach, better if you walk 100m walk up the beach and brilliant if you wander a bit further to the Swiiscare/Regina beaches. Emporer divers on site is well run and use the house reef which is packed with fish and easy for novices. If you are keen snorkellors but haven't dived go and talk to them for an intro dive. You'll love it! Ther 8 year old could even do 'Bubblemaker', Scuba for kids in the pool.

This is a popular hotel, there will be other kids around to make new friends - guaranteed. There isn't a kids menu as such, but if the food isn't to her liking just speak to one of the friendly chefs.

PS - This an biased opinion. Most people who've been to the Nuweiba Hilton end up with a biased opinion. There is one contributor to this Forum who appears to have at least four trips to Nuweiba arranged this year. We've only been 4 times - I've met people on their 13th trip and heard of repeat visits into the high 20s at least. Speaks for itself...

hi Tony . I was going to recommend Hilton sharks bay - we were there last april and going back this year. A/I really IS A/I there.

The snorkelling is great so no problem there although there isnt much of an actual beach.

I can confirm that the kids club is run by Hilton and although my children are much older so didnt use it they appeared to have good facilities , children all seemed to be enjoying themselves and the staff enthusiastic. there is a great childrens pool away from the main one, plenty of sunbeds there and a great kiddies water slide. Again the evening entertainment isnt up to much but they do make an effort and they do run a mini disco.

and another bonus is when we were there it was mostly british.

lyn

Hilton Nuweiba Coral Resort - "Not a place for children ... nothing much to amuse them."

In all my visits to The Coral Hilton, I have never seen an "unamused child" and that includes my own!

Well, I've narrowed the options a bit by dint of booking a flight to Sharm. I hadn't realised that you could fly to the Red Sea from my local airport - Bristol - I'd assumed it would mean the usual lousy A303/M3/M25 trek up to Gatwick. But I saw flights from Excel, with nice 10:00 departure, for just under £300 each, so I got 'em.

So that effectively takes out the Nuweiba Hilton, lovely though it sounds. The most popular AIs in Sharm seem to be the Hilton Sharks Bay and the Coral Sea Resort. I'm tending towards the HSB for two reasons:

. people say the snorkelling at HSB is the best around Sharm, and
. I can book it direct & save lots of £££s - CSR seems to be completely tied to FC & Eclipse.

So, many thanks for all the excellent suggestions & help.

- Tony -

tony . If you book with http://www.hilton.co.uk early enough you should be able to get it quite cheap. I have booked for £61 per room per night A/I for easter. that price i believe is now double that . I couldnt book bed and breakfast here for that

I have also booked XL flights and used the promotional code available which gives a further £15 off each. there are a few available if you havnt seen in the general help forum .

lyn

Hi Lyn

You're going in a couple of months aren't you. Lucky you. I've been looking on Portland and the Hilton Sharks Bay is now mega expensive on there, most expensive one. I think they might start discounting soon cos they did last year when I booked (might of been end of Jan though?) so I am back to doing the 'saddo' checking of the various websites most days.

Hi Chris. I did save quite a lot even compared to the portland price at the time which was a fairly good one compared to others. we are going sat march 31st for 10 days. I saved £900 compared to their thursday flight and £16oo comparing their monday flight. but i have a saturday flight with XL which is even better as long as the flight goes Are you still looking at going Easter as well then??

lyn

tony if you do decide to try and book HSB with the hilton web site. when you try to add a child to the room it comes up unavailable. so you need to either book it over the phone or book as 2 adults and email the hotel direct and they will add the child for you to the booking which is what i did. either way your child will stay free but need to pay $25 per night for the A/I and you wont need to pay anything now

lyn

I've just booked HSB, and got a very good deal direct through Hilton. 125USD per night for the 3 of us - about £65. So the total cost is about £1300 including local daytime flights.

I tried Portland, but they only had twin rooms available, which they said wouldn't take us and the daughter. The only online quote I got was from Libra who wanted £1696, so I reckon I've saved nearly £400, which is not bad at all :-)

Don't you just love this Interweb thingy?

- Tony -

Hi Lyn

Just read your post. The Hilton website accepted 2 adults + 1 child no problem!

- Tony -

Thats a fantastic deal tony. there are 5 of us and we need 2 rooms hense our big saving. just had a look too and it looks like the "family" rates have changed. they are now saying Children under 11 eat free as well as stay free. my youngest is 10 so maybe we wont need to pay the extra $25 now also now saying children under 18 in their own room pay half the normal room rate. my eldest 2 are in a room of their own and are 16 and 14. maybe i will email them dont think i stand a chance tho seeing as the room rate is now double what i paid.

lyn

So, done it now, and only 141 days to go. My only problem is: can we really get though £65 worth of food & drink a day?

...

...

Oh, Mr Hilton, give me a real challenge! :-)

- Tony -

Well done. Sounds like you got a good deal. I went on the website Lyn posted and they also had good prices for the Hilton Sharm Dreams which is a hotel i'm considering staying at in Namma Bay on B&B.

Until this thread I had never really considered booking DIY to Egypt.

I'm sure you will give it your best shot re. the 65 pounds worth of food and drink per day. Enjoy.

now now Tony . that £65 does include the accomodation for the 3 of you too

chris. is it the Easter holidays your looking at??? I have actually found that for Egypt you really can get a bargain by doing DIY and you know how much i research prices first. Youve been before so know the set up at the airport . 10 mins in a cab or get the hotel to pick you up. i have done all my booking direct with hilton and sent numerous emails direct to the hotel with requests that have been answered almost immediately and havnt had to pay a penny to them yet , just given a credit card number and i could cancel a couple of days before if i wanted The only thing im sweating on are my XL flights. I did book quite a while ago now tho so maybe thats helped with the saving .

lyn

Hi Lyn

How much did you pay per head for your flights, can you remember? I suppose it will mean travelling on the dreaded Excel but hey someone has to. Flights only with thomson/ thomas cook at the moment are almost as much as a package.

If I can leave it as late as 13th/14th April, I can get a room rate at the hilton Sharm Dreams of something like 63 pounds per night and I think the second room for the kids would be half price, not certain about that but its what their site is saying, I might have to dash off an email.

I know that is what you paid for AI at Sharks Bay and Dreams is room only, they dont seem to include breakfast, but it still seems like a bargain. A few days before and its lots more (too close to easter I suspect)

What I really like is that you dont pay till the end of your holiday, whereas a lot of the accommodation only sites want your money up front. (i'm such a coward when it comes to DIY LOL)

Also I think from reading their site they will send a complimentary transfer vehicle out to the airport to collect you, as I really don't fancy the scrum and bartering at the airport after 5 or 6 hours on a cramped plane. I'm making it sound charming aren't I ? LOL Hope I'm not putting Tony off.