After reading the amazing reviews from previous visitors of the hotel we booked this hotel around a year in advance. Disappointingly 2 days before we were due to fly we recieved a call from our local travel agents informing us of the continuing renovation work that was being carried out on the hotel and that if we proceeded with going to this hotel and experienced any complaints we would be unable to make any complaints to Thomas Cook as they had gave us 'fair warning'. We were given 12 hours to decide whether to change hotels or stick with sunrise hotel. After receiving numerous messages from previous visitors of the hotel we decided to go ahead with the holiday as planned and can honestly say our holida was not distrupted by the renovations despite being in the room next door to part of the hotel that was underconstruction. As can be expected we saw workmen around the hotel from time to time and heard the odd banging/drilling but not until after 9.30 ish and stopped around 4pm.

As far as the actual hotel was concerned we thought it was lovely and very clean/tidy. We travelled as a group of 4, myself and boyfriend (21yrs) and his mother and her friend and we all enjoyed our week there. The best part of the hotel has to be the animation team! They are a credit to the hotel and made our holiday! In particular Mando, kastella, Mido were amazing! Always available to come and talk with us, always smiling and joking with us, the holiday would not have been the same with out them! Their shows that they advitise throughout the day are well worth going to, they start at half 9 every night in the jungle room downstairs. The whole animation team go to the shows and are not afraid to show off their fab dancing skills! Please make time to go see at least one of their shows and you will understand what i mean!

In addition the waiters and bar staff are also brilliant and so friendly! we spent every evening after the shows at the 4th floor bar laughing with them till late. Mohamed (ie Shaun from Ireland), Abdo, Mahmoud and Mohamed were lovely and never let our glasses get empty! Even when busy they were always attentive to us and went the extra mile to make our holiday special.

When on the beach around the Lagoon you will see Ahmed Hozein, he is so friendly and helpful! If you want any sunbeds moving around hes on hand immediatly to help. The beach is like his domain and nothing is to much trouble for him, During our stay he even ended up in the lagoon fully clothed after a wind breaker flew into the water! If you do see him take some english sweeties as we did this and it seemed to make his day. The hotel also has its own beach bar that served food during the day and its bar staff were also very friendly and there to help if needed.

The hotel has 3 restaurants although we didnt use the a le carte as we were only there a week. Despite reading fab reviews regarding the food i have to say this was the only disappointing part regarding the hotel. We felt there was not a great variety of food to choose from if you are use to english food, however me and my boyfriend are really fussy. Im sure most people would deem the food to be ok. The restaurants do not serve chips at all and so if you want chips, burgers or pizza you have to get this at the beach bar during the day. On a sunday the Arabian restaurant on the 4th floor does a sunday roast which is very nice and worth a visit, this was the best meal we had during our stay. Beware of the restaurant rules and regulations regarding clothing as we didnt read this information and despite having no problems for the first 4 days, my boyfriend got told that they would not let him in wearing 3 quarter trousers even though their were clearly other men in the restaurant at the same time wearing shorts/ 3 quarter trousers. when we questioned this the womens excuse was that they had exceptional circumstances! When questioned as to what they were she said they were from the 7th floor and hungry!! We felt this was ridiculous and the manager came over to see what the problem was and said my boyfriend could eat there tonight but that in future he had to wear long trousers (problematic as he didnt have any with him!). These rules were only implemented by this one women that stands at the enterance to the restaurant and when she was not there nothing was said! Bare this in mind!

As we booked the holiday for my boyfriends 21st birthday we wanted the best and so upon arrival we requested a superior room. This cost us an additional fee of £35 pp per week. We are so glad that we did this as the views we had were central to the lagoon and absolutely breath taking! In addition the superior rooms come with huge balconys which was a must for us as the standard rooms only come with a tiny balcony. The room itself had hair dryers, kettles, fridge and the safe was free.

When on the beach we recommend that u collect a red flag from the towl centre if you dont want to be bothered all day! However be aware that when u first arrive the sales people from the hotel will request you to take the flag down so they can talk to you for '15 secs' in order to tell you what they can offer you, we did this on first day with the massage man and we couldnt get rid of him despite waving the red flag at him! luckily Ahmed from the beach was on hand to rescue us! However if you are someone that would be interested in trips there is a man that sells the boats trips which me and my boyfriend ended up doing. It was amazing and defanatly a trip to remember :) However if he tells you that you are 100% garanteed to see dolphins do not beleive him because we didnt :( but have spoke to others that have in past.

Overall the holiday was great and we met some amazing people both staff abd guests that we intend on keeping in contact with. In fact we haev all decided to try and go again tyhis year in September as we enjoyed it so much! Would defanatly recommed this hotel to family and friends. If you are the type of person that likes to venture out of the hotel there is a shop to the right of the hotel about 300m down that says no hassel shop. It is ran by Erik and Dave and they are brilliant and you do not get bothered and are free to look aorund. We chose not to venture further than this as we did not feel safe to be to far from the hotel having heard stories however some chose to. We did no feel we needed to go out the hotel as it provided a variety of shops that were free from hassel.

We hope you emjoy your stay as much as we did

Marie, Nathan, Linda and Emma
Stayed 3-10th feb 2012