We booked 2 weeks at the Grand Azure 30th October to 13th November 2008 through First Choice. Having read the reviews on this website I was slight anxious about the hotel and the food in particular. Although nothing special the food was fine. We ate in all four of the speciality restaurants, all were fine except for the Chinese which was awful. There was plenty of free bottled pepsi water available in the hotel

We were upgrade from a standard to superior room - not really sure what the difference is between the rooms. Our room was fine in block 8 in the middle of the resort. We did get woken up early (7.30am) most mornings, but this wasn't really a problem as you needed to get up early to catch the sun, it set at around 5pm each day. the pools were nice and plenty of sunbeds, with good servcie from the bars. The Russians were annoying and rude, but I get the impression its the same in most of the hotels.

The jetty and snorkling were excellent. The grand Azure jetty is twice as long as the other hotels and taked you right out to where the edge of the reef. You can see loads of fish.

We went on two excursions (booked through olympic travel agents), a day trip to Cairo and a camel experience in the desert. The camel ride was ok, got to see the sun set in the desert and have a BBQ meal. The Cairo trip was excellent. We were picked up at 1am from our hotel and drove overnight to Cairo, were we visitied the pyramids, egyptian museum, a souk, and a couple of other places before driving back to our hotel arriving at 3am the next morning. The bus ride really isn't as bad as it sounds!

Overall a great holiday in a good hotel, but if you're expecting 5* luxuary you will be disappointed. The hotel is fine and the staff are really helpful, but it isn't five star.

We have just returned - 8th Nov 08 - from 9 nights at the Tropicana Grand Azure (also known as LTI Grand Azure). This is our 2nd visit to Sharm but our first to Nabq bay (we have previously stayed at Grand Rotana).

We originally booked this hotel because we were due to travel with friends who have a daughter and they were on a budget. We would normally go for a more upmarket hotel but wanted something this time that catered for children and had an all inclusive option to keep the price reasonable for the family due to travel with us. Unfortunately, 2 weeks before our holiday our friends little girl broke her leg and they had to cancel. We tried to change hotel’s but, it was too late (we had booked accommodation with Thomson in UK as they were about £200 cheaper for this hotel than most of the above websites - we booked our flights via Easyjet because we wanted the flexibility of 9 days - not fixed 7 or 14).

So, we arrived very anxious about what to expect because by this time, reports of the standard of this hotel on TripAdvisor had deteriorated dramatically (particularly the food).

Overall, we would give this hotel about 5 out of 10. It’s definitely the most noisy hotel we have ever stayed in so if you like to lay in in the morning, you will not get any peace and quiet here. Even the cleaning staff shout at each other down the corridors and there are the usual problems with the Russian’s who allow their children to shout and run around un-attended at all hours of the day. (invest in a good pair of ear plugs!). Generally we have found that the Russians are extremely rude but unfortunately in Egypt, you cannot avoid them anywhere (you need learn to laugh at them rather than let them annoy you because they have such terrible taste and they eat like animals!). We have found that holidaymakers in general, tend to get up earlier in Egypt during the winter months from October onwards, as the sun comes up and goes down early. During the winter months, it disappears at 4-4:30 p.m. onwards.

The hotel however overall has a great layout, particularly for families as obviously this is the market that it hopes to attract and hence why it appears in the Thomson + First Choice brochures in the UK. There must be at least 600-700+ rooms and the site is large. We got a room in block 21 which is very near to receiption but a good 7-8 minute walk to the beach. If you want sunbeds at the beach, you need to get down there by 9:15-9:30 a.m. latest as the Russians practically take over in this area. There are several water slides to keep the children happy and a range of lovely swimming pools with sunbathing facilities. All in all, if you are under 14 you will have an absolutely great time at this hotel. The children’s entertainment also looked very good and animation team appeared to be doing a very good job. The adult entertainment, what we briefly saw of it was very ‘mediocre’ get in a taxi and go to Fantazia or Naama bay to people watch and experience the true Egyptian atmosphere - far better than staying in the hotel listening to someone who doesn’t even make X factor standard for singing in the UK. Taxi from Nabq to Naama about 70 Egyptian Pounds (just under £10) - confirm the price with the driver before you get in the taxi.

We had upgraded to superior room at booking and we were not disappointed by this. The room facilities were good - including a kettle and tea and coffee making facilities (these were not available at the Grand Rotana and we had upgraded there also earlier this year). A large bottle of water had been provided for us for the 1st night which was welcome as arriving late and very tired, it was very difficult to get to grips with where you could freely get bottled water from. They do not brief you on this at reception. For information for people due to travel to this hotel you can get bottled water from the main bar in the lobby / reception area and from the main Marrakech buffet restaurant in the middle of the hotel pool area (but you have to go and ask for it - just follow every one else’s lead). All of the self service facilities by the pools and at the beach have filtered water on tap by the cup (this is not bottled water).

Our room was kept very very clean by our cleaner who was very polite and always had no problems dealing with our requests. We had some delays a couple of days waiting for clean towels and once we had a problem with our shower which was fixed promptly. On a couple of days the water pressure was very low - one day we got no water at all at 7:00 p.m not even a drip came out of the tap when we wanted a shower and eventually had to shower in cold water at 9:00 p.m. because that was all that would trickle slowly out of the taps! We found the best thing to do was to shower immediately on returning from the pool in the early evening.

Now to the food. As I mentioned above, we only booked this hotel originally because of our friends. We don’t generally go for All Inclusive anywhere in the world because of our experiences of this wherever we have been (particularly in the Caribbean) have not been good. We don’t like buffet food that is the same every night and has been sitting warming itself from the late afternoon hours waiting for hotel guests on steaming trays for long periods of time. This in our experience, encourages bacteria and leads to stomach upsets and gastric problems. The Grand Azure, unfortunately is no different. We arrived in UK half term week so the hotel was very busy and getting a clean table with cutlery at breakfast was practically impossible - this problem did ease as the UK families returned from their holidays and the hotel became less busy. The breakfast choices are good and the lunch options are adequate. We both avoided the warmed up food and ate mainly salads and freshly cooked options such as omlette’s, pizza etc which we knew had not been sitting for hours.

Because we have friends that live in Hadaba (part of Sharm) we were collected and taken out most nights to eat. We therefore only actually ate 1 evening meal at this hotel when we chose to upgrade to the Mediterranean / a-la-carte option. Big mistake!. The food tasted great although there were only about 3-4 options on the menu (this is the same also at the Chinese /Italian / fish restaurant). I went straight down with a gastric problem, had bad stomach pains, sickness and diarrohea for the rest of the holiday. Good job there is a pharmacy just outside the hotel gate. Anything that you bring from the UK to treat this kind of thing will have no effect. This proves that even in the a-la-carte restaurants, the food is not freshly cooked.

Finally, a couple of points on the Nabq area in general. We wanted to hire a bicycle and cycle outside of the hotel. The Egyptian government have invested in making a good cycle path all the way along the Nabq area however, there is nowhere outside of the hotel in the immediate 2 mile vicinity where you can hire a bike (mopeds and scooters only). Down on the beach at the hotel next door, there is somewhere you can hire bicycles (40 Egyptian pounds per hour) but, this only allows you to cycle along the beach side cycle path in front of all of the hotels that have been built in this area - you cannot get out of the front gate as security guards at all the hotels stop you. This is like being in a prison camp and totally pointless if you want to get out and about and see the area and use the lovely cycle path. Madness!

This is the first time we have stayed in Nabq and we would definitely return (to a different hotel). In our opinion, it is one of the best areas of Sharm. Naama bay hotels are generally very noisy as most of them are on Peace Road (which is a busy dual carriageway). As has also been mentioned by previous guests, there are restaurant options outside of the hotel in Nabq bay and there are lots of shops and bazaars where you can go and barter for spices, clothes, handbags, gifts, sunglasses etc. We ate at the Peking Chinese restaurant (a short 3-4 minute walk from the Grand Azure) and to a new restaurant called No-Fish (which actually has lots of fish!) based at the La Strada complex about 7 minutes walk away. Both absolutely excellent in fact the Chinese restaurant put UK Chinese food to shame (all freshly cooked and no mono-sodium glutimate here!) We also ate some really great meals down at the Old Market (less that £30 for 4 of us) accompanied by our Egyptian friends. There will also shortly be a TFI Friday's and a Hard Rock Cafe along with other American type diners and individual restaurants that are within walking distance of the Grand Azure (at the La Strada complex there is also an English Bar that has 2 huge Sky TV screens for Premier Football fans like my husband).

Would I recommend the hotel to anyone ? Very difficult to answer that one - I guess if you are a family and willing to risk it on the food, it’s a great place to go. But, it’s our last and final experience of All Inclusive. We have vowed, never again. It wasn’t worth it even for the alcohol. It is expensive to drink in Egypt but you don’t get branded drinks so the Brandy, Bacardi, Gin etc tastes disgusting anyway. Back to the B&B option next time for us. If you like a drink in the evening, bring a couple of bootles from UK Duty Free with you!.

When we arrived at the LTI Grand Azure we were struck by the size but you soon find your way around. The lobby is fantastic and we spent many a night drinking and chatting with new friends. The place is very clean and the staff are very friendly. The restaurants were of a good standard, you never had an empty glass the waiters knew your order and as soon as you finished a full glass appeared. We spent a lot of time on the beach & there was always sunbeds & sunshades. The fish at the end of the jetty are out of this world. We also went to Ras Mohammed, the snorkelling was fantastic. We also took the trip to Petra this was a very long day but the sight of the Treasury made up for this, but one of the best trips was the quad bikes in the desert. My husband & myself are both 50+ and we had the time of our lives. All in all this was a fantastic holiday and we shall definately be going back.

1st step in and you get the wow factor of the lobby area, it is fantastic. Got wrist bands and towel cards, then the bell boy carried our bags and showed us to our rooms.We could have had a upgrade for an extra £600 for 4 persons, but we thought we had paid enough. Anyway rooms were fine,with digi safe a good size bathroom, air con and large comfy beds.1st night ate at buffet resturant, it was ok but very busy.However a la carte was far better food was great and a much more relaxed feel. Italian and chinese the best , did not try the fish resturant..
Get to the lobby about 9;50 to book a la carte for that night and the next night at the same time. We went every night bar one of the 14 ..

Pools,The large one just outside the lobby is the quietest and we thought the best.
The sea is fantastic and accessible via a mile ling jetty,its worth the walk,when you do get to the end if you look round its the only hotel with ajetty right into the sea.You will need pool shoes.If your legs are tired at the end of a hard day at the beach there is a train [ Tuff Tuff ] that will take you to front of lobby.

Entertainment well we spent many a evening in the lobby area, playing cards and chatting with friends we met. We never went to the bar as the waiter looked after us all the time, [El Sayed ],
Just outside the lobby area there are things on every night, the ampi theatre was good but more for the young ones.
Visa s if you not going to Cairo do not get one, even if you going on boat trips.
Namma Bay was full of tat we got the free shuttle bus there and a taxi back, pay no more than £5 arrange that price before you get in.
Over all the holiday was fantastic temp was about 44 everday topping 49.9 at one point. Rooms were maybe 4 star, but remember you hardly in them. The staff were fantastic. If there was one thing that spoilt our time there it was people smoking in the lobby.