El Alamein, Movenpick Resort and Spa

We all loved it at Movenpick Resort and Spa and found the week was as peaceful as we had wanted. The children got on with making and playing with new friends and we all plan to return next year without a doubt. It felt very safe in the resort after our initial shock of our coach being escorted by police to the hotel!

El Alamein, Movenpick Resort and Spa -This holiday was exactly what it said, an ideal holiday to relax and unwind. We did nothing for a week which in our busy lives was exactly what we needed. However, the children were entertained brilliantly, water polo, darts, football, you name it, they did it. The animation team are excellent. The hotel seemed to appeal to families, older travellers, it felt very safe within the resort.

April/May 2005. The Movenpick Resort and Spa was good quality for the price; it has a heated indoor swimming pool, which links through, to an outdoor pool. There is also large unheated pool and a couple of kids pools.

There are 3 restaurants open at the time of writing. The buffet one is where you eat for half board, the food is okay but can be a bit tepid, repetitive and not very inspiring, but at the price its understandable. The food is better in the other restaurants but of course you have to pay extra.

The staff are excellent but if busy can get a little overwhelmed. The level of service is what you would expect in a four to five star hotel, very welcoming and friendly. But overall this is defiantly not the 5 star hotel advertised.

The resort is in the middle of nowhere (desert), so if you want to do something outside the hotel or need a shop or two you have booked the wrong place! There is no supermarket to buy drinks or snacks so everything is through the hotel waiters, coke is about £1.50 after tax, beer £2.50. The sea and beach are good and quite clean, snorkelling around the rocks the visibility is very clear and unpolluted with lots of fish, however the black on the rocks is tar, so watch your feet!

Trips out from the hotel are run by Travel plus, we did Cairo (3.5 hrs on coach one way) and Alexandra (2.5 hrs on coach one way) and enjoyed both, they are well worth visiting; the Pyramids are extremely impressive as is the Egyptian museum. However the food at Alexandra was poor and gave most people stomach upsets. The Cairo trip did not make the best use of the time with only 45 mins at the Pyramids but 1 hr in a very tacky gift shop that Travel Plus obviously got commission from; we were chased around the shop by high pressure sales people. The Alexandra trip was better organised. There is no alternative to travel plus!

Finally the level of security is very high in Egypt, armed police escorts are very common as are metal detectors on hotels and at key tourist spots. It didn't really alarm us, as the probability of running into trouble is very very low.

I would only recommend this trip to people who want to see Cairo (Pyramids) and Alexandra cheaply or people who want to lay in the sun 24/7. For independently minded people look elsewhere.