JamesBrien

I’ve just got back from a week in Sharm el Sheikh, it was fantastic. We decided that we didn’t want to travel to Giza or the Valley of the Kings as we wanted to chill out. We stayed at the Hilton Sharks Bay hotel which was good but it was the excusions that made it great.

Ras Mohammand National Park was breath taking, the coral dropped away up to 25 metres and we were surrounded by fish of all colours and sizes. Apparently its the 2nd best diving in the world after the Great Barrier Reef.

We also went (via camels) to a Bendouin camp in the desert at night where they talked about their culture, cooked us food and then invited us for a dance!

The best though was the Quad Biking through the desert, the scenery was magical.

The people were generally great, friendly and genuine. The odd person offered to buy my wife but other than that we had no problems.

I would highly recommend a visit, we are definately going to go back, probably on the west coast of the red sea so we can get easy access to the pyramids.

when i went we went to the beach made famous from the film of the same name. it certainly wasn’t paradise – it was full of boats kicking shit up off the ocean bed.

on top of that it was full of dodgy bastards spun out on drugs

in my opinion if you want a real bit of thailand stay in bangkok, it may be polluted but the people are much more genuine

The first time i went here was in the summer of 1989 when I was 17. Some friends had told me about it from a visit the previous summer and it lived up to my expectations.

The entry fee was high and the drinks higher still, you got one free drink on entry and i think i could only afford one more, they were both what they called Coco Loco’s – we were convinced they contained mescaline.

The night we went was the famous form party. On the dance floor the foam came up to your shoulders, it was madness and i’d never witnessed anything like it. There were very few brits, just loads of rich spanish and italians and it made the place seem very exotic – in fact at that time it certainly was the most exotic place i’d been to.

The sun rose in the morning and shone in on the dance floor, i remember one of the last records being played was 808 States Cubic a big favourite of mine at the time, i went mental.

Newquay has two sides – the brash drunken one is the town centre and the beautiful one out on the cliff tops. Running along the cliffs is some of the best running in the country. The pub/club scene in the town is pretty basic and certainly not ground breaking but it does the job.

Its was better than i imagined. It might be £10 but its pretty cool to get whatever you like added to the sign post. It is a bit amusement parkish but the end to enders exhibition was pretty cool showing the weird and wonderful ways people have made the john o’ groats to land end trip.

In addition to that land end is a pretty place, take a walk left away from the sign post along the cliffs.

Bring a coat though, its windy down there.

my home town, a bit rough around the edges but the people have one of the best sense of humours in the world

did a half marathon here in 2004. what ever you do make sure you pay on the tram – you’ll get caught if you don’t!

its true what they say, ibiza has magical properties and this isn’t just drug fuelled nonsense. i’m lucky enough to have been many times from the late 80’s and 90’s to recent years and it just gets better. chilling out outside cafe del mar around the sunset is absolutely fantastic – it should be on everyones 43things

i have a very good friend here, i go as often as i can and we always have a wild time. if you want a good club night or see a live band go to melkweg. they also have an electronic music festival in june called 5 days off which is bonkers…

i was here for my birthday in march, it was wet but once we got into the pubs we had a great time!