Monkey Bean-Sprouts: April 2014

What a blissful week we have just gotten back from - 90 degree weather and not a cloud in the sky! As much as James and I love adventurous holidays, the truth is, with two toddlers, city breaks are not exactly restful. We are definitely at a time in our lives when the all inclusive resort has great appeal. And that's exactly why we had a perfect week in Egypt. I'm sad to say we saw nothing of Egypt itself, but the Hilton Sharks Bay was a good fit for us, and to make the trip even better, we went with the Dibberts. Nothing like built in friends and no work to be done! Our days were filled with sun, swimming, food, drinks and sleep. Perfect!

We flew through Cairo without much curfluffle on the way there, though I must say that the Cairo airport is a mysterious and dysfunctional place. We were shuttled around from one cue to another with tons of people standing around but no-one really working. At any rate, we got to our destination safe and without any major happenings, so no real complaints here. The way back was a different story - 5 hours delay in Cairo! YUCK. But still not enough to erase all the good our vacation did for us.

The Hilton Sharks Bay is a huge resort, and divided into a deluxe and regular side. Even though the regular side was under renovation, we hardly noticed as we were staying in a lovely two room suite on the deluxe side, with a balcony overlooking the middle of three giant pools. The set up was genius. The middle pool was built with a beach area along the edge of the pool which tapered into deeper water much the way a beach does into the sea (only there was no sand in the pool. So you have all the advantages of playing in the sand, with none of the hassles for kids. They were in heaven because they felt super confident and safe to play in the water without us standing over them supervising every step. We could lay under umbrella shade on lounge chairs sipping mango juice while the kids went nuts. Perfect! And the pool had a fun water slide on the other side which the kids liked to do with us (sitting on our laps). There were two pool bars in between the 3 pools, so snacks and drinks were always at hand, and our room was near by so we could easily head in for nap times etc. The food wasn't as bad as I had thought - in fact most of the time I found the buffet to be great - especially in terms of more middle eastern cuisine. I loved all the cucumber, tomato, yogurt, hummus etc! What always makes it even better is that I didn't have to cook or clean up for an entire week. That's worth a whole lot to me! The kids also just loved being with Cassidy and Jamison, and we certainly had a good time too.

The Red Sea and beach area was on the older side of the hotel, so we could either walk the 10 mins to get there, or take a quick shuttle bus down (which the kids loved!) We only went a couple of times with the kids because they were, quite frankly, way happier on the pool beach, and more able to play and get into the water (the sea had barriers so you couldn't go out far from the beach because of the coral, so you had to instead walk out on the jetty and jump in where it was deep, if you wanted to swim and snorkel. I'm glad I got a chance to snorkel twice, and I was impressed with the coral and fish life there (it didn't look like it would be much of anything, but turned out there's a whole lot more down there!)

So we had a happy week. You learn that when the kids are happy, the parents can be happy too. Too bad about the trip home, but even that wasn't the end of the world. 11pm arrival was a bit tough!