Hi Bradsmum,
We went to Hurghada in Egypt in November, for a week. The aims of the holiday wer a week in the sun, not doing any housework, reading books, weren't bothered about sightseeing either (sacrilige I know in a place as jam-packed with places to see as Egypt, but I make no apologies!!).
I'm glad we were in Hurghada, down the coast, not on the Sharm peninsular, because this was further from the bombing at the Hilton on the peninsular.
The weather was hot 'apparantly' (28-30) but didn't feel it because it is such a dry heat, unlike caribbean for example. So, it was lovely.
Being Winter, the sea water was cool and the pool water (unheated) was even cooler, we never swam in the pool, but I did take dd into the sea. In the summer it heats up considerably I hear.
We stayed at the Intercontinental in Hurghada, 15 mins from the airport. It was a lovely, reasonably big and impersonal hotel. We had a big room with all mod cons. Not ultra new, but kept very clean daily. Lovely balcony looking out to the sea.
The strip where the hotel was, was man-made, hence a man-made beach with no waves and little tide. The hotel had good beach loungers with permanent umbrellas up.
Buffet style food included. Always looks fab on the first night, by day 3 it's got a bit boring. Sadly for me I was in the early stages of this prgnancy so was very limited in what I could eat. However, as hotel buffet's go, I would say it was above average, both for breakfast and dinner. For lunch there was a cafe on the grounds as it were, 2 in fact. Serving decent food; burgers, pizza, salad, hot sanwiches etc. We ate lunch every day, had not much booze at night, a few ice-creams charged to our room which came to £80 for the week.
You can't drink the water there, but there are small supermarket type shops around where you can stock up. They never put ice in our drinks at that particular hotel.
Service was good, all men as it is a Muslim country, not a woman to be seen! And no pork obviously.
Dp did a kite-surfing course a little further along the coast, so he got his kicks. I got to read 3 books, so I got mine.
Not many Brits there, mainly Europeans. europeans who smoked at breakfast lunch and dinner That was the biggest downside, it was awful trying to pick a table and guessing whether you thought your neighbours would light up or not!
It was further than we thought, flights were between 5-6 hours, so not great, dd didn't have a seat
Didn't get bitten either.
As I say, the aim of our holiday was purely relaxation, I had no intention of leaving the hotel to do any mad dashing about touring and sight-seeing, so it served it's purpose for us brilliantly.
Hope that helps a bit!