Quad biking, camel riding and stargazing in Sharm el Sheikh 5x1

Quad biking was absolutely incredible. Amazing scenery. First stop was Echo Valley, but no idea what was really happening there. We lined up and shouted things to show the echo. There were small children selling trinkets and bracelets and sitting on the quad bikes and fiddling with them - not sure how safe it would have been if you left anything on the quad bikes for them to take. We then went onto the tea in a tent and camel riding. PLEASE AVOID THIS!! The camels are treated so poorly, they’re yanked about and have rings through their noses. Some of the stubborn camels were hit and pulled. I did not get on them. Star gazing was rubbish, I had really high hopes but unfortunately we just looked at Venus through the telescope which in all honesty I could see better by just looking into the sky. There’s about 50+ of you using three telescopes so a lot of waiting around. Driving back through the dessert at nighttime was super cool! We were taking to the dinner & a show. Toilets were horrific!! Maybe we are super spoiled in the UK but I’ve never seen anything like it. It was extremely hot in the audience but there’s absolutely nothing to be done about that - you’re in the middle of a desert. We didn’t touch dinner as the place we were didn’t seem the cleanest and we were already both suffering with some sort of bad tummy. The show was a belly dancer first, she was okay, got a bit boring. The next part of the show was HORRIBLE. This guy brought on two cobras and was winding them up for them to strike. But he was grabbing them by the tails and whipping them about all around him - almost resembling how you would handle a lasso. I can’t imagine it’s very good for the snakes. Then they proceeded to bring a monkey out on a lead and got him to jump between people they brought out of the crowd. It was so sad to see as this monkey clearly didn’t want to be doing this but was totally forced into it. I dread to think the conditions he was kept in off stage. The fire show after was great and the guy was super talented but it was tainted by the previous horrors. They brought the monkey around for photos after and I was ashamed at how many people were having photos and paying the guy for the pleasure. Very sad. After a very dragged out evening it was time to leave… everyone from about 3-4 different hotels left the ‘arena’ at the same time but as it was pitch black we didn’t know which quad bikes belonged to which party. There was absolutely no organisation for this whatsoever and it got super stressful. I’m pleased to say that we finally found the right group and the correct quad bikes, and the journey back was awesome! If you’re going to do this trip, please avoid the 5x1 trip and just go for the quad biking part. It’s not fair on these poor animals.

Abdo e Amedeo sono guide competenti e molto gentili. È stata una esperienza meravigliosa scoprire il deserto, cenare nella tenda dei beduini e guardare le stelle e assistere alla loro danza folkloristica.

I had an amazing experience from start to finish. I mostly wanted the camel ride and the people who were in charge of the camels were amazing. I had this little girl who was 5 years old only and she was so cute, she grabbed my hand as I got off quad and helped me onto the camel. The food was delicious and the guide was amazing. Please support these people by booking with them because they really struggle to give us tourists the best experience. I wish I could add photos, but won’t allow me on the app, was probably one of the best experiences I had and I traveled in over 35 countries