Sharm El Sheikh exceeded all expectations. The one thing which makes it unmissable is the underwater world - simply breathtaking! The Hotel Albatros was super. Very large and slightly impersonal as a result, but couldn't fault the accommodation, facilities and all inclusive apart from the fact that every spirit and cocktail tasted like rum! Plus the Shisha wasn't inclusive. We went off season but the weather was perfect. I'm not too sure you'd want it any hotter! We were lucky enough to have half a km of jetty attached to the hotel. The first time we went to the beach, we could already see fish from the shore. It must have taken us 2hrs to walk up the jetty the first time, stopping every 20secs to take a photo of another amazing fish. We couldn't quite understand why nobody else was stopping to admire the amazing sea life until we got to the end of the jetty and realised just how amazing the sealife really did get! Surrounded by hundreds of large, multi-coloured fish in deep blue water, the odd nemo fish suddenly seemed 'the norm!' We spent most of our day on the jetty. Underwater shoes, a quality snorkel and my underwater camera were all very good luggage decisions. On our second day, I said that the fish I most wanted to see was a lion fish, not believing for one second that about 1hr later, we would be floating above 2 of them! They were beautiful! We even spotted puffer fish. I loose all sense of direction when under the water, but I could have got lost there forever. A completely different and unbelievably beautiful world. Next time though I'll remember that you can get sunburnt on your back when floating on the water! Our rather superb underwater photos are courtesy of Bill's steady hands. I worried too much about kicking the fish!
Despite having plans to visit Mt Sinai and St Catherine's Monastery, we were very guilty of seeing very little of the out of water world of Egypt! We forced ourselves to leave the hotel and jetty for a few hours and caught a shuttle bus to Old Sharm. Quite an atmospheric place and as always, the stall holders were a lot of fun. Some gorgeous buildings on the way. However, my very clever husband had managed to not bring any money with us (used to the all inclusive lifestyle!) so without money, we ran out of things to do.
The airport was the only downside of Sharm - Bill causing confusion on the way there and huge delays, queues and disorganisation on the way back. I put it down to lack of females!
This is one place I'm sure we'll be visiting again. It has everything for the perfect holiday!
P.S. Ignore the photo titles, they seem to have got a bit mixed up!