Show your world: A waterslidingtastic holiday to Egypt

A couple of years ago we decided to take advantage of the brilliant value – not to mention pretty well guaranteed all-day sunshine – that is Egypt and booked a holiday to the resort of Hurghada. I had been to Egypt before, to dive in Dahab and a couple of days visiting Cairo. But this time, with two, active children, we decided to chose our hotel based on one thing: the number of waterslides provided!

In the end we went for Jungle Aqua Park – which had a huge waterpark attached and also offered countless swimming pools and about eight all-inclusive buffet restaurants. Sadly the quality of the food didn’t live up to the size of the water park, but nevertheless with so much choice, we always found something to eat.

One of the gorgeous pools at the resort

Fun in the pool

While we were in Hurghada, we booked a few trips out of the resort (after all, watersliding has its limits!). This included a great snorkelling trip we made to the nearby Red Sea – which involved spending most of the day on the boat or in the water. Sadly, one of my daughters is not a fan of salt water and has never really taken to snorkelling. The younger one though absolutely loved putting her head under the sea and watching the beautiful jewelled fish and waving corals.

We also took a trip out into the desert one evening – certainly a trip we weren’t going to forget! It started with a hair-raising race through the sand, over dunes and rocks….we did wonder what their health and safety level was like….

When we finally ended our initial bone-rattling drive in the dry desert heat, we were taken to an enormous sandune which we climbed from one side… and then….

…ran down the other! The tour guide took us on to meet some of the local desert bedouin living nearby, a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern, the old ways and the new. My daughters loved seeing how these ancient people still lived – and also enjoyed tasting their just-baked flat bread (stones and all!).

The next part of the trip saw us climbing a nearby hill to watch the sun set in the stilness.

While nearby, tribesmen prepared their evening meal.

The evening ended with a simple meal and then the most magical experience looking at the stars. I can’t show a photograph of this but lying on the still-warm desert ground, staring up into the velvet black punctuated by millions and millions of bright stars, the milky way so clear that it made you feel dizzy with the knowledge of what was out there…this is something that will stay with me always.

We managed another trip to a museum in the next door hotel which, we were told, was holding some of the antiquities from the Cairo museum, to keep them safe whilst there were all the problems in the capital.

But to be honest, the thing the girls loved best was…..

Anyone else holidayed in Egypt? What did you think?