Blogs from Red Sea, Egypt, Africa

I will be raiding Egypt in July/August, visiting Sharm El Sheikh. Really excited!! I will try to keep a constant blog going, offering tips and advice as I find it out. This will be my first ever trip to Africa, therefore I am incredibly excited/nervous. If there is anything people could recommend to do while there, this would be hugely appreciated! If this helps, I have booked the trip through www.directline-holidays.co.uk on an all inclusive deal, 5 star hotel for 14 nights. I can't remember the name of the hotel, but it was called something like iberutal (i'm sure I could google it :p) . A number of the hotels had really bad reps on trip adviser, while this one seemed to be good, albeit a bit far out comparitively. The cost was about £880, which ... read more

Tuesday 17th April 2012: After nearly 3½ months of the best time of our lives, we are beginning to change our attitude to cruising. Until very recently it has all been about the itinerary, the amazing sights, sounds and smells of each destination and, of course, the ships. But now it is increasingly about days at sea. Some people find sea days boring but to us they have developed into the most blissful enforced relaxation. Being half way up the Red Sea we are still in wonderfully warm weather so the mornings and middle of the day are spent enjoying the air conditioning going to lectures, meals, playing lots of iPad nonsense, scrap booking, reading and just sitting on the balcony watching the sea go by. Once the main heat of the day is ... read more

Had a good sleep and were up at 7am to the most amazing view! Took a moment to enjoy our veranda and view of the sea/beach before we headed to breakfast! Had a buffet breakfast and then had our optional cruise boat excursion which we didnt expect to have. Sherif organized this boat cruise so that we could go snorkelling and so the group could actually experience the Red Sea before they left today for Cairo. It was actually chilly on the boat, but nice in the sun so everyone picked out different sheltered areas on the boat to sun tan. We stopped at 2 snorkel spots which were both wicked! The water was freezing but most people braved it. I stuck right with the snorkeling guide in the water as he fed the fish so ... read more

After seemingly spending all of December and January (so far) in the rain and chill we decided to head off for some sun; this time in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.We flew from Birmingham after a 6.15am departure from Cardiff. The flight took 5 hours and we arrived at Sharm el Sheikh at 6pm local time. Our hotel, the Savoy, is located only 6 kms from the airport so we were checked-in by 7pm local time and then went out for a meal at one of the restaurants in the pedestrian mall outside the front entrance of the hotel. All very easy though the temperature was rather cooler than we had expected. Friday 13th January: After a leisurely breakfast we looked round our hotel, the Savoy, which is very nice consisting of sprawling low rise accommodation with ... read more

In December 2011 Shark Attacks hit the news. Sharks were attacking tourists in Sharm el Sheikh and people fled in fear. Beaches were closed, boats lined up in the bay's stopping people going deeper than there ankles. It was chaos. Then the revolution hit in January of this year and Egypt's well built up, distinguished tourist industry came crashing down around Mubaraks ears. Divers stopped visiting, sight see-er's stopping visiting. And a huge majority of Egypt's workers lost their livelihoods. But the country remained strong. Its people didn't give up, they fought for their rights and they are still fighting today. In Sharm in a little dive centre called Oonas 4 guys came up with an idea to get people back. Make an underwater video featuring four grown men, acting like prats infront of the camera ... read more

We are now at the Red Sea/Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm El Sheik and it is 6.30pm as I start trying to catch up on the last couple of days. It looks as though we might get a decent internet system here, even though it is very expensive so I’ll try to get this typed up and cut and pasted onto the website tonight – if the internet works out!! To say we are both physically ‘shattered’ is probably putting it mildly as the schedule has been just crazy over the last 2 days. I left things last as we waited on Sunday night for a call from a doctor to give Joy her B12 injection. WELL, that didn’t work out!!!! After sitting up late waiting I went down to reception at 11.30pm to discover that ... read more

Ahlan wa Sahlan ya Shabab! This past weekend I found myself going two hours outside of Cairo for a follow up orientation through AUC to Ain Sokhna, a resort port city on the Red Sea. While all the students from AUC had to sit through two short presentations on harassment and safety it was well worth the FREE trip to the beach! Most people forget that Egypt has much more than just ancient Egyptian sites and deserts. The Red Sea is actually a huge part of Egypt's tourism, especially for people who travel down from Europe. And who can blame them? The Red Sea is quite spectacular! While I have already been in the Red Sea on the Jordanian side in the port city of Aqaba, my opinion is that the water is definitely warmer and ... read more