Beach paradise undiscovered by Brits (El Gouna)

Member Name: DancingCopper

Product:	El Gouna
Date:	13/10/08 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, exclusive, affordable

Disadvantages: Pharoah's revenge still found me, even here!

El Gouna has it's own website (www.elgouna.com), and I cannot introduce this Egyptian resort as succinctly as they do themselves:

"A self-contained town on the beautiful Red Sea coast, El Gouna offers an unrivaled lifestyle. Built on 10 km of beach, the town of 10,000 residents spreads across islands and lagoons. Boasting a superb infrastructure and excellent services, the destination is a short flight from Europe. At El Gouna sandy beaches and the ideal temperatures welcome visitors all year round. "

What I can give you is a recent (August 08), British spin on the resort. This is not a resort frequented by Brits, so I hope you find my write up useful and honest. Personally, I loved the place. But keep it quiet, it's mostly visited by europeans and I rarely heard an English accent, which was great :)

Background?
El Gouna is located 10 miles north of the sprawling and expanding tourist town of Hurghada. Driving through Hurghada my heart fell as, despite its location on the Red Sea, it seemed overcrowded, dirty and tacky. Given its proximity, I couldn't see how El Gouna could escape this.

A twenty minute, twilight drive through a sandy landscape with mountains on the left, a sprawling windfarm and the Red Sea coast on the right, brought me to a checkpoint, manned by white-uniformed tourist police with guns. This was initially sinister but ultimately welcome as it meant only people who had a reason to be in El Gouna could get in (Tourists, residents and employees). What makes this possible is the whole of El Gouna is owned by one man - he also owns Mobinil, one of Egypts biggest phone providers. This means there is a control over the resort and its surroundings, similar to DisneyWorld in Florida. How ever much Hurghada expanded, it would have to stop at the perimeter of this estate - excellent!

Where to stay?
There are twelve hotels in the resort, between three and five stars in quality. If you want absolute luxury, there is the Sheraton Miramar, although personally I found it lacked character.

I stayed at the Sultan Bey hotel and couldn't fault it. The rooms were clean and clutter-free with ensuite facilities, television, minibar and air conditioning. The food was excellent, with buffet-style breakfast and evening dining in european and asian styles.

TIP: Sultan Bey, along with several of the other hotels and restaurants, operated a dining plan where, even if you were on half-board at a particular hotel, you could dine at one of the partner venues. The hotel concierge will advise you, if asked.

One of the best features of the Sultan Bey was the quiet at night. Having stayed in places where music and noise from discos, clubs and general party-going destroys a night's sleep, I loved the peace I got here.
Sultan Bey has its own island, which can be reached by bridge (after a 20 minute walk) or by a half-hourly ferry boat, taking ten minutes. As a resident of the hotel, you are free to use the facilities free of charge, with others there is a small fee. The island has a bar /restaurant (but the food comes out very slowly), and a variety of shops and beach sports. Kite Sailing is a particular favourite in El Gouna.

What is there to do?
I was using El Gouna as a base from which to scuba dive in the Red Sea. My tour operator, Kuoni, had a deal with one of the dive schools in Hurghada and, while their discount was very good, the quality of service was not. I would recommend using one of the schools in El Gouna itself. You will pay more, but you will be better looked after and have a much more pleasant time.

I went with Dive Trek, located just outside the Sultan Bey hotel. For sixty pounds sterling per person, you got collected by bus and taken to the dive boat, guided by a skilled dive instructor around two seperate sites, and had time for lunch (provided at extra cost), when you could swim with dolphins.

For those who can't dive and don't want to learn, there are many other activities available. The sandy lagoon is spattered with umbrellas and loungers, and because of the shear size of coastline available it never feels crowded. If you want to have a paddle in the sea, the water is as warm as you would put in your bath, and there is a multitude of marine life even at the water's edge.

For the more energetic, there are a range of beach activities available such as parasailing, kite surfing and team sports, such as volley ball. There are also facilities for paint balling and go-carting, but I never saw them in use - not surprising given the temperatures during the day. Further afield, you can book trips to Luxor and Cairo, or spend the evening in a Bedouinn camp.

Getting around
Unless you are planning to do lots of driving (which is crazy in Egypt - they don't put their lights on at night!) you can get around effectively by taxi and tuc-tuc. When using taxis, establish how much the fare will be before you travel. Otherwise you may be asked for more (yes, you've paid for the taxi, but not the driver, his wife, his petrol etc - don't fall for it or stand for it!). The Tuc-tucs are operated by two companies and you can get anywhere in El Gouna for less than two pounds sterling.

Things you MUST do
1. Have a drink in the Smugglar's Rest
Run by a brit who has been in El Gouna for the last decade, this is what a pub would look like if you built it in your lounge. Brilliant!

2. Go Parasailing
Takes place at the marina end of El Gouna, by the Ocean View hotel. You will spend ten minutes high over the coastline of El Gouna where you can appreciate the eccentricity of the resort and look across the Red Sea to the mountains on the other side.

3. Eat at Kiki's
With the dining plan, I ate out at this Italian restaurant twice. Located in the Downtown region, there were never more than five other people there, but the food was excellent. It must have been good, because after the second time I proposed to my fiancee!

4. Ride in a Tuc Tuc
They'll come and get you from your hotel and take you to anywhere else in El Gouna. Wonderfully eccentric and you'll feel like you're going about 200 miles an hour, when you're actually doing about 10!

5. Dive
Even if you can't scuba, get out on a boat and appreciate one of the finest dive sites in the world. There are dolphins, turtles, rays and fish of all colours of the rainbow.

6. Walk from Downtown to the Marina
You might not like this one, especially in the heat of the day, but I loved the thirty minute trek down the dusty roads. It gives you a chance to see some of the bits of El Gouna you wouldn't otherwise see.

7. See the Aquarium
In the downtown region there's a small aquarium which is worth a look. It has a variety of interesting sealife, although the cramped conditions the moray eel was housed in, left me a little sad.

8. Shopping
There are a range of tourist shops and boutiques scattered throughout the resort. Be prepared to haggle - it's expected, and they'll always do you a deal. Even places you feel should be fair - like the shops in resorts - will have ludicrous face-value mark ups.

9. Enjoy some evening entertainment
Each hotel offers a variety of evening events, you might describe very loosely as 'cultural'. These usually include you meal in a picturesque setting with a performance. Sultan Bey hosted an egyptian barbeque on its island with traditional dance. Whereas the Sheraton occupied the whole of the marina for its belly dancing and concert while guests were served grilled seafood.

10. Pamper yourself
There are several spas in the resort for a multitude of treatments. There is also a professional standard golf course, should you want to play a few holes.

TIP: Many hotels have a policy where you don't tip individual staff. Rather, at the end of your holiday you give an envelope with your appreciations at the end of the holiday which is then divided among the staff. Budget five pounds sterlind per day for this as a rough guide.

This was a great resort. It was NOT classical Egypt, I'd already had that on a tour of the temples down the Nile. It was relaxing, calm and I felt very well treated by the staff throughout the resort. There are tourist police at most of the hotels and you have to walk through metal detector archways, but these don't play on your mind, you feel very safe, and after talking to a couple of Egyptians you realise how much they want you there. Hopefully, if you've stuck with this to the end, you'll realise how much I still want to be there!! ;)

Summary: Awesome place - like Disney in the desert. Still small enough to feel special.