My wife and I stayed at this hotel at the beginning of May 2008. We booked 7 nights on a B&B basis with flights from london. It's true what most of the other reviewers say about the food at breakfast - it is edible but most definitely not what you would expect from a 4 star hotel. The experience of the food at dinner is similar. The exception to this is the onsite fish restaurant, which is paid for separately (not included on a half board basis). The quality of the food at this restaurant is, in my view, of exceptional quality. I have absolutely no idea why this restaurant was empty most of the time.

The hotel and its rooms are clean, the staff are reasonably friendly and the hotel has a good vibe about it generally. The towel sculptures left in the rooms daily are interesting and a nice touch. The hotel taxis were pretty good also, and these guys will take you to, for example, Cairo or Mount Sinai for a reasonable price. We did the Mount Sinai trek this way - very convenient as we were able to fix the time etc as compared to going in a big group. The hotel is a short taxi ride away from the old town (£2) and also from Naama Bay (£2.50).

I really have only a few minor problems with the trip. But these are not problems with the hotel per se, but more issues that I have with Sharm in general. The first is that prices in this part of Egypt are almost the same as European prices. Even if you are good at haggling, you will likely pay no less than 70% of european prices in most places. This seems odd to me since Egypt is overall a very poor country. I was not expecting this at all, having travelled in places like South America before. Another gripe I have is the general attitude of many Egyptians that we came into contact with. It was obvious that the only aim of most was to extract as much money from the tourists as possible. For example, when you go to Naama Bay and Old Sharm, you will be hassled endlessly to buy purfumes, shisha pipes, papyrus and many other bits and pieces at massively overinflated prices. Its entertaining at first but eventually the desperation became overwhelming and uncomfortable for me. If you dont buy something or leave a big enough tip in restaurant, you may well hear insults muttered in arabic under the breath of the vendor/waiter - the person that only 2 minutes ago was treating you like you were his very best friend. They dont care about tourists - its ALL about the money. Its an odd way to behave I feel - the word is already spreading about this behaviour and the tourist flow may reduce substantially over time as a result of this.

The best thing about sharm is the number of interesting things to do around here and the ease with which it can be organised through the various tours. The diving and snorkelling is truly first class, the mount sinai trek is spectacular, as is the bedouin dinner and star gazing in the desert. Things like the quad biking and the glass bottomed boat are fun to do also, as well as visiting the aqua park and the beach etc etc. Cairo (and its pyramids) are easily accessible in a day trip by plane or bus which is a massive added bonus. We did all of this in the week we were there and had the best time.

Overall I would recommend Sharm and the Sharminn Amarein hotel but I feel that Sharm is let down slightly because of the hustling, greedy attitude of a large proportion of the people that work there.