Following a week's Nile Cruise (see separate review) we spent a week at the Sunrise Holidays Resort at Hurghada. (Through Thomas Cook).

This is a large hotel situated close to the downtown area of Hurghada.

Our balcony was very small (compared to the one next door which was about three times wider) and although we did have a sea view, we were situated in one of the deep recesses which didn't get any sunshine.

We didn't encounter any problems in finding a sunbed, but there was nowhere to sit comfortably in the hotel grounds and read a book, play cards, etc.

The bolt on the door did not fit and handles were missing from the drawers - we did point this out but nothing was done. Reception staff were friendly enough but we had to nag the room people to clean out the room and make up the beds on two occasions.

Beaches here are all hotel-related and it was impossible to stroll along the water's edge for any distance as you can do in, say, Majorca or Ibiza.

The town itself is slightly run-down and shabby with the usual street traders pestering you to look in their shop (in all honesty we expected this, it's a fact of life in Egypt).

There is a small marina at the far end of the town, (about half an hour's stroll from the hotel) but a lot of building work was going on and it really wasn't attractive at all.

We took a taxi trip along the coast to Sunrise's sister hotels, the Mamlouk and the Garden Beach (about 15 minutes, cost 20 Egyptian Pounds plus tip, you have to haggle). From what we saw of the Mamlouk, the surroundings and facilities were far more attractive than the downtown area where we were staying. Maybe this was a case of "the grass is greener" but this hotel was well laid out and spacious. Surroundings were also cleaner and more modern.

Back at the Holidays Resort, we strongly suspected that the drinks (fully inclusive) were watered down, and the food was often lukewarm to cold. If you ordered white wine, you got a fairly rough-tasting orange coloured drink, but we persisted with the waiters and eventually got a decent glass of white wine.

Plus points - we did a very good glass-bottomed boat trip - 2 hours, 50 Egyptian Pounds each. We also did a taxi trip to a local market at Al-Dahar village (?) which was good fun.

Overall, somewhat disappointing, wouldn't recommend, prospective travellers would do much better with the Mamlouk.