This hotel is in a very pretty setting, with mexican style hacienda dwellings on two floors. Bougainvillea abounds. I would only give this hotel two stars rather than its supposed four, and for the first time ever - and I love holidays - I couldn't wait to come home.

I would not recommend this hotel on, unless you go on a Bed and Breakfast basis and eat out. We arrived and I had especially asked for a room close to all amenities as my mother is an older lady, who has difficulty walking too far. We couldn't have been further from amenities and had to climb stairs to get to room. We asked to change but were told that as we'd arrived at 2am we would have to wait until the morning. We were moved on the next day, but only after the extremely helpful Wings Rep intervened.

The Bellboy doing the removal was very helpful and even suggested we leave clothes on hangers and then moved the clothes for us, so we didn't have to repack.

We had read on the internet that the food was repetitive and "samey". But we figured that the type of people who might put reviews on the internet, generally have an axe to grind and these reviews might not be balanced. We were very wrong. The food was atrocious. Breakfast considered of what we thought was a powedered egg mix which you could have turned into a four inch round paper thin omelette. You could also have a pancake. There were grilled vegetables (undercooked), mashed potatoes (lumpy), and undercooked white shredded cabbage with hot dog sausages in it. There was a selection of raw salad type vegetables, cucumber, wrinkled tomatoes, shredded red cabbage and some sort of turnip with hummous and tzatziki. There was stale/dry bread and a selection of stale or dry small pastries.

We never went for lunch so I have no idea what that was like. You could order a Pizza or Salad from the Pool Bar. I did order a tuna salad, which arrived and contained no salad leaves but was a mashed mixture of tuna with huge amounts of raw (strong) onion and green pepper. No salad leaves in sight. My mother had a steak (read shoe leather) sandwich.

Evening meal consisted of recycled salad veg and tzatziki and hummous from the morning. A soup, rice, pasta, undercooked (almost raw) vegetables or potato. For pudding we had the same every day except on one day where it was Egyptian Day and they had some lovely pastries. Otherwise it was Blancmange, Creme Caramel, Set Custard, Jelly and Chocolate Pudding. In reality it was basically just a selection of different colours blancmange. The only fruit on offer was melon or dates, occasionally sliced orange. Never any other fruit not for breakfast or dinner.

The service was good and the waiters were friendly and attentive but didn't speak much english. There were many polish people in the hotel and we wondered if the hotel was trying to cater to their tastes as it was not to an english person's taste. However, polish people we spoke to didn't like the food either.

The pool bar was good. We only drank water, so no idea what the drinks are like, although we were told that as the hotel is "all inclusive" they buy only the cheapest spirit to hand on to the customers. The waiter told us this. They were quite disaparaging of the all inclusive guests.

The grounds of the hotel are very pretty with bougainvillea and nicely tended shrubs. The cleaner worked hard and left pretty flowers on our bed. After we tipped him several times he began to leave extra things, like we suddenly acquired a box of tissues, hitherto absent and then we suddenly got new fluffy towels instead of the threadbare ones we'd been getting.

The hotel is shabby all round. The stripey beach towels are threadbare and grey. The bath towels equally are shabby and grey (except the last two days we had new ones). The tiling in the bathroom is blackened with mould and there are no complimentary soaps or shampoos provided. There's a dispenser with hand soap in the shower and by the sink.

The area where the sun beds are (for sunbeds imagine sardines in a tin, that's how close they are placed. You are rubbing elbows with your neighbour, whether you want to or not!!)

On the penultimate day we had arranged with the reception to stay in our room for £20 (or 200LE - egyptian pounds). On the morning of departure (our flight was at 2.15am), I went to reception to pay my bill and was told that it would be £25 to stay until 6pm. I explained that I had arranged to pay £20 as we didn't have much left, and wouldn't have enough left for drinks that day if we gave all our money away. This made no difference and they insisted on the £25, and then wanted the towel cards back immediately. I refused to pay either £25 or give the towel cards back, finding their attitude quite high handed and rude. I told them that I would give the towel cards back in the evening, when I'd finished with the towels and we arranged to use another guest's room to get ready.

Hugely important to note also is, that every evening at 7pm (restaurant opens at 7.30), a man went around with a machine which smoked, and left a pea-souper of parrafin flavoured smog around the hotel grounds for the evening. We presumed this was to get rid of mosquitos, but as we and others got bitten badly it didn't do much good. One evening we were stuck halfway between our room and reception when the smoke machine went off, and my mother inhaled a great deal of smoke. She then began to wheeze quite badly and we ended up having to get linctus and antibiotics as it developed into a bad chest infection. This stuff should have a health warning, especially for asthmatics. They also cook the outdoor grill food whilst this is going on, so your grilled kofta or fish would have a delicious aroma of parrafin around it!!!

My mother had never visited Sharm before, we have and stayed at the Jolie Ville which was excellent, but I have to say that this sojourn at the Mexicana was so appalling that I have no urgent wish to return to Sharm, and would never recommend this hotel to another person. In fact, on the contrary, I would warn a prospective visitor away. Strongly.

Sharm El Sheikh itself has become almost a caricature of a cheap med destination - or Southend Sea Front!! It's filled with shop after shop selling the same tatt, in front of which the sellers will stand and try to entice you into their shop with offers of their tea or hospitality. This can become quite frightening as they grab you and try to drag you off. This could be because we were two females on our own - albeit we're not youngsters!!

We went to a brilliant place called Alf Leila Wa Leila Fantasia - it's a lovely Aladdin meets Disneyland building, loads of brightly coloured Onion shaped roofs and displays of Ancient Egyptian statues etc. Yes, it's a bit tacky, but we found it quite entertaining. In the centre there's a circle of shops with a sort of ampitheatre in the centre surrounded by seats where you can enjoy drinks or food. The entertainment starts at 11pm (very late we thought) and consists of music and dancers. Very entertaining and well worth the 15LE (£1.50) it cost to get in!

The beaches we went to belonged to the hotel and were ok, there was a coral beach with lots of nice fish for the snorkellers and a sandy shelved beach, in a sort of lagoon-bay, which had lovely warm water and no (well hardly any) fish.

At time of writing I would not wish to return to Sharm, there are too many lovely places in the world left to visit and Sharm has become so overcommercialised and somewhat cutthroat. There is nothing like the sea at Sharm for snorkelling, it's warm, the fish are amazing!! It's beautiful. However I think you can get the same sea at Dahab or Taba and I think I would try these in the future. The egyptian people are really lovely, if you can get them to stop pestering you. I did find it very trying that all the way along the street you are accosted with "what's your name" "where are you from". It's not anyone's business what my name is, and I found that contrary to reports that if you politely say "No thank you" they'll go away, it's simply not the case. They don't give up and you end up being rude, and that doesn't lend itself to an enjoyable or relaxing holiday.