The sun always shines on Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh - Your guide on where to sleep, eat and visit
It's a 10-minute drive from Sharm el Sheikh's gleaming new airport to the beach. Add five hours' flying time, then a few minutes at hotel check-in and you're there - swimsuit on, beach towel draped over lounger, ordering your first drink.
The allure of Egypt's Red Sea resorts lies in guaranteed sunshine - the last serious rainfall was seven years ago. They also offer high-quality hotels, good food and friendly service. They're relatively, cheap, too: a week at a five-star hotel starts at less than £500pp, including flights. It's twice that in Dubai.
You can fly and flop without feeling guilty - no cars to hire, no quaint villages to discover, just sun, sea and hundreds of miles of barren, beautiful desert. Once you've recharged your batteries, take a day trip to Mount Sinai to visit St Catherine's monastery, home to 8,000 years of history. And you could get up at 4am and flyto Cairo for the day - but do youreally want to?
One of Egypt's greatest attractions is the Red Sea itself, the clear blue water teeming with coral gardens just yards from the shore. Stroll to the beach, grab a snorkel and you're swimming with parrotfish, lionfish, rays and reef sharks. There - sight-seeing done, time for a drink.
The most stressful part of holidaying here is choosing where to stay. The western coast of the Red Sea, where you'll find the busy resort of Hurghada and the smaller centres of Port Ghalib and Marsa Alam, has beautiful beaches and spectacular diving, but is lashed by constant winds in winter - okay for kitesurfing, less for sunbathing.
That leaves the Sinai coast. At the northern end is Taba Heights, a new, purpose-built resort. It has excellent hotels, a golf course and a beautiful location, but feels a bit soulless. Further south is Nuweiba, an ugly port town, and Dahab, which is a big hit with back-packers but has just one good hotel, Le Meridien.
Which is why you should head straight for Sharm el Sheikh, but not necessarily Na'ama Bay, the long crescent of sandy beach lined with hotels, restaurants, shops, bars and nightclubs. It's a good option for a night out, but one of the classy resort hotels dotted along the coastline might be more suitable. Most run free shuttle buses into Na'ama Bay.
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