The Hotel was very clean and well maintained and there were plenty of helpful and friendly staff. It had 2 beautiful pools well maintained with shaded areas and sun loungers. Pool towels were freely available and could be exchanged for clean ones at any time. The beach had a large number of sun loungers with parasols and wind shields, although access to the sea was restricted due to the coral which came up as far as the shore.

The rooms were spacious and kept very clean. The restaurant offered a wide variety of food at every meal and drinks were available throughtout the day at the pool and beach bars. Alcoholic drinks were very poor quality and tasted disgusting , so buy your favourite tipple at duty free!

The down side was the location and the tummy upsets. A handful of hotels in the middle of the desert. Yes the aiport was close, tiny but adequate, for the very few flights landing there. There is no oppotunity for retail thereapy whatsoever. It costs £10 for an hours bus journey, to reach a town with shops and then you have to haggle. In the heat that we experienced you couldn't walk far. It was 46 degrees at 8:30am!

The biggest "gripe" was the stomach upsets. Very many people were ill with diahorea and vomitting including some of the Egyptian staff. There is a Dr on call 24 hrs a day and 2 surgerys a day and they need it! My son spent a whole day in bed and I almost didn't make the flight home. I was on a drip until 3 hours before we left for the airport , had 5 injections and 5 lots of medication to take orally to get me home. I had to have a wheel chair at the airport to ensure I didn't collapse in the queues. Then my son and daughter were ill for a week when we got home. I was ill and suffered dehydration for days after our return. DON'T think you will be ok with imodium it is the worst thing to take it just keeps the bug inside you and it returns with a vengence. The Thomsons rep said it was the heat, you don't get diahorea like that just with heat!

If you go be prepared take plenty to read as there is not much to do and take extra soft toilet rolls and rehydration sachets!

We stayed at this hotel for 2 weeks 21st of may till the 3rd june, there was 7 of us altogether. We arrived at the hotel which is only about 10 minutes from the airport which is always a bonus, and i can say we wasnt dissapointed when we arrived. The hotel is absolutely stunning and very big.

The rooms are spotless, with plenty of clothes space, comfortable beds and a huge walk in shower in the bathroom. We did have a little problem with the air con which we reported to reception and within ten minutes a maintence guy was there to fix it for us. The rooms were cleaned every day with a nice bath towel display on your bed for when you got back, we even got to choose what we wanted!!!

I cannot fault the staff here at all, they are all very friendly and will go out of there way to help you and the animation team are fantastic, they get the kids involved with the mini club and evening mini disco shows and also do lots of activities with the adults like archery, arabic lessons, water polo etc but are not pushy if you do not want to play, there english is also very good, these guys were great! There are also sanuas etc and a beauty spa on site.

There are day trips that you can go on by booking with the rep, a few shops on site which is worth haggling with them if you need anything. The food was plentiful with lots to choose from, a man which cooks your omlettes fresh for you in the morning and also a waffle and pancake man, there are lots of salad bits and also fresh meat or fish in the evening and a BBQ outside in the evening as well, the restaurant is huge with a smoking section, and also an out door section for you to eat in and a beach bar for during the day which does pizzas, burgers, chicken sandwiches and hot dogs etc.

The beach is very big, about a 4 minute walk to reach the bit where you can go out into the sea as they protect the coral so some bits are roped off, the sea is crystal clear and fantastic for snorkelling and scuba diving. You can have henna tatto's done here as well, there is a jetty where you can snorkel off and its great early in the morning when its quiet with no speed boats, its truly breath taking.

We did have a spout of upset tummys and stomach cramps, we put this down to drinking to much and laying in the hot sun and do not put it down to the food as it was always cooked and piping hot. and not every one we spoke to had it so couldnt be the food, it didnt spoil our holiday at all.

We would highly recommend this hotel and would def go back if we had the money, ive never seen a hotel so clean and also where the staff were so friendly towards you, just remember to take some dollars with you when you get to the airport to go home, everything is marked n dollars so if you pay by card or egypitian you lose the cheapness of the things you buy, also be prepared to cue for a while and you have to fill in a form when you get to the airport, and also make sure they dont charge you for extra baggage allowance we had 25kg each and they were trying to charge some people, other than that it was a fantastic holiday with georgeous weather and not a drop of rain or a cloud inn the sky.... pure holiday bliss!!!

Stayed for two weeks 18/06/08-02/07/08 Party of 7of us.this hotel is lovely the staff truley cannot do enought for you from the gardeners to Tareq the head chef. the hotel is being cleaned none stop. Chefs barstaff roomboys always asking if every thing is ok (not just for tips) truley nice people. pool is large and very well maintened.BUT after 3 days we hit stomach problems my wife and my sister first got it then one by one we all had our turn except our 13 year old son who 6 weeks before we went had his appendix out and due to infection from this was give loads of anti-bis while in hospital.Over there he eat and drank as only teenagers can without a single problem thank goodness.Iv been home two days now and Im still running at top speed. On the first day home I went to see my GP and he has given me anti-bis to combat it now Im no doctor but it seems to me that anti-bis are the way forward.So Im sorry but in my view the heat cold drinks and dehydration are not the course as our Thompson rep tryed to put it all down to she did however tell us that from mid June untill the end of August they have stomach problems and that May is the best month to go to masa alam.great to find this out when you are there mid june !!!.Beware of the chemist store prices to for a pack of what turned to be a cold remedy and a small bottle of calamine lotion he charged me 230EP = £23. most everyone we spoke to were having or had had problems.Has I said at the start lovely hotel and people but the stomach problems. Would I go again no thank you !

We spent a week at the Lamaya in May primarily to facilitate a week's diving in the area.

The hotel staff were very helpful and always had a smile on their faces. The facilities such as the pool and the health suite were top class. Our room was surprisingly luxurious and we were generally impressed by the standard of the hotel.

We thought the food was varied, plentiful and of a more than adequate standard for this type of hotel.

The only negative experience we had was when we came to leave. Our flight was late in the day and so we had checked out of our room and were planning to use the shower room offered by the hotel to shower and change at the end of the day. There were two flights leaving at the same time and only one room was made available. This was clearly not sufficient and despite numerous people waiting to use the shower room and the departure time getting ever closer, no additional rooms or facilities were provided. Some other guests very kindly offered for us to use their room before they handed the keys back, but this is not the sort of treatment you expect in this regard from a 5* hotel. It is not as if the hotel was even half full.

We took part in one dive in the hotel's bay guided by the German run dive school linked to the hotel. The dive school was well organised, but the diving in and around the bay was average.
Instead, we had pre-booked a four day dive package with Emperor divers and the diving out on the reefs further afield was far superior to that of El Gouna and Hurgada. We even dived with Dennis the Dugong a bit closer to home at Aba Dabbab.

The area outside the hotel complex is in the process of being developed and we can see overcrowding being a real issue in the future if this development is not carefully planned.

The hotel is only 5 mins from the airport and whilst flight noise is not really an issue at the moment due to the lack of flights, when the area has been developed, there will certainly be an increase in the flight traffic and noise.

In summary, the Lamaya is a lovely hotel with excellent facilities. The all inclusive option certainly reflected good value for money. If you like a quieter type of holiday, then visit here now before the development of the area really progresses. In a few years' time when all the hotels have been finished that are currently being built along the coast line and the flight traffic increases, this area could, unfortunately, turn into another Costa Del Sol.