Sensatori Resort Egypt.

An overview of the main part of the resort - dreamy!

Over the summer, Alex and I went for a 2 week holiday in one of the most amazing hotels either of us have ever stayed in. We booked it through Thomson, and it was unreal.

The view from our balcony at 5am.

When we booked our holiday, we decided to go all out and book a jacuzzi room with our terrace overlooking the beach. Perfect choice. We also booked extra space seats, extra luggage allowance and late checkout - also very good choices for us. I still struggled getting my luggage down to 25kgs!

Can't beat a jacuzzi :)

When we arrived in Egypt, we got through customs pretty quickly and got to the hotel after a short transfer. We checked in, were given a cool refreshing drink, and were taken to our room on a little golf caddy - the chosen method of transport of the staff there. Loved it!

Our room was amazing, so beautiful, and really big. Big enough for us to live comfortably for 2 weeks. It was the first holiday that I made a real effort to unpack properly.  Our bathroom had mood lighting, speakers to listen to the TV while you were having a bath (or music while in the shower), and of course, the most amazing terrace. We were overlooked by the gym, but that was only really used in the mornings, so we never felt uncomfortable or like people were watching us.

The night we arrived, we went and had some dinner in the buffet restaurant, before going back to our room and filling up our jacuzzi. Alex didn't discover the bubbles until later on in our holiday, thank God. But either way, it was so relaxing. Sitting in the warm water, overlooking the waves of the sea, drinking cocktails and eating chocolate was just perfect.

Ahhhh it's just so pretty!

Thomson offer loads of excursions, but we didn't go on a single one. We thought that we would rather explore when we wanted to go, not when they had booked. Nothing worse than having to rush to stick to a schedule when you're on holiday!

Dreaming of a Tutti Fruitti!

Our resort was just so stunning we never wanted to leave. By day it was hot, bright, vibrant, with pool activities if you wanted, games, sports, yoga, trips, everything. But all we wanted to do was relax. Alex had been working so hard in his new job, I had been working and had also been at uni, so we both deserved a break - that's what we told ourselves anyway, haha!

On our first morning, we sat down by the pool in a quiet spot, right near the bar. We were surprised that the pool staff came over to take our drinks order - this carried on the whole holiday, but instead of taking our order they got to know what we liked and at what kind of time we would like certain drinks. Milkshakes in the morning, soft drinks in the afternoon, and cocktails in the evenings. These were all in-between endless bottles of ice cold water, packets of crisps, fruit pots, and frozen flannels at around 2pm to help keep you cool. Literally a man would walk around with a tray full of frozen rolled flannels, with ice all over them. When you're sitting in 42 degree heat, it's very necessary. We got to know the staff really well - and also a lovely couple called Steve and Sandra, who have inspired us to go to places in the world we had thought about but weren't 100% sure of. We ended up sitting with them both every single day, and spoke about places to try for dinner, what trips we thought about doing (but never did), and even enjoyed drinks with them one evening. We were lucky to meet such a lovely couple, and they will always remain a big part of our holiday memories.

         

Can't beat it.

The hotel had such a good mix of restaurant types, but our favourites were the Italian restaurant, the American restaurant, and the Stone Grill restaurant - yum. You have to book your time slot at little machines in reception, which you can book for the next 3 days. I think it worked well, personally, but for some people I guess eating after 9pm would be a bit too late. For us, this wasn't a problem as we had no babies to cater for, no young children to get to bed, and nothing to rush back to the room for. Apart from Animal Planet documentaries and random films we'd never seen but ended up engrossed in.

Our hotel's private beach - ideal.

The hotel boasted a private beach, and my goodness - it was beautiful. The sand was beautiful, almost white, with loungers and parasols everywhere - it was a bit rocky as you went in to the sea (take sea shoes - I wore jellies and they were just as good), but when you get past the rocks, the floor is pure sand again. You can't really swim unless you go out quite far because the water is shallow, but tropical fish are swimming around you like you're in the making of Finding Nemo - even down to swimming alongside Dory. We took an underwater camera, which was amazing. We've recently made an album of all our holiday photos, and the underwater ones came out really well.

The hotel also has a jetty, which is 100m long. If you walk to the end of it, there's a viewing platform which you can get off of, and swim in the sea with all the coral reef and even more types of tropical fish. I'm not a huge fan of the sea - sharks aren't my idea of fun - so I only did it once, but it really was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I did it. I saw some amazing stuff that I never thought I'd ever see, but now I have - yay for me. Alex is a bit of a lover of the sea and all that stuff, so he went a few times and I just sat on the jetty watching him and other people get excited about the new stuff they'd seen. Good for them!

We decided to use a private company to go on a trip - it was 2 hours, on a speed boat, and I believed, to see dolphins. Well. What a mistake that was! We saw no dolphins, ended up snorkelling in the Red Sea (that bit is pretty cool), but at the end of our trip, we were removed from the water pretty quickly, after the instructor noticed SHARKS swimming underneath us. Wow. So, not only have I swum with Dory, I've also swum with sharks. Lucky me - or unlucky, really.

Our holiday was very shortly after the crazy gunman attack in Tunisia, so of course, naturally, we were worried. Our hotel had brought in extra security - even down to sniffer dogs around the coach as we drove in to the grounds of the hotel. We never once felt threatened or on edge throughout our whole stay, which I'm so pleased about. A day or two before we came home, there were a couple of bombings in Cairo, and Egypt were talking of declaring war on another country, so luckily we were home before anything like that escalated.

My happy place. Kindle, bubbles, view.

Booking that holiday was so exciting for us, as it was our first break away just the two of us (we've been on family holidays with each of our families before, but never alone together). We had so much fun, it was like a crazy adventure. The staff at the hotel really could not do enough for us, and they really made our experience so special. We left some of our favourite members of staff a tip, which turned out to be a lot of money to them, compared to what they work for. They earn something like 350 Egyptian pounds a month, so for us to give them a 200 Egyptian Pound tip meant a lot to them.
We're just waiting for Alex to have his holiday from work to be confirmed, and then we want to book up to go again next year. I can't wait!

I'd love to know where any of you are going away next year, or anywhere nice you've been? I'm always looking for destination inspiration.

With love, Georgie x