Egypt is one of the countries in the world hosting the most charming views surrounding golf courses. Nowhere else in the world can one play golf in the shadows of the Great Pyramids – home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World, or play 18 holes golf in the morning and then visit the mountain where Moses passed down the Ten Commandments in the afternoon.

In Egypt, it seldom rains, so the weather is almost certain to fulfill ones desire to play golf along with promising varieties of site seeing, shopping and other activities for your spouse, who will certainly enjoy every moment of her trip to Egypt.
Beyond golf, Egypt also has a hidden gem of a resort on the Red Sea that I have just discovered called El Gouna that has the quality and facilities to rival any warm weather destination in the world.

El Gouna is a seaside resort located just 30-minutes’ drive from Hurghada International Airport, and only a few half hours direct flight from East Africa. So you can fly in the morning and be on the course by the afternoon!  This sparkling seaside resort is built around a series of manmade lagoons that feed off the crystal clear waters of the Red Sea. It is modern and clean and has the feel of a gated community, like somewhere you would visit in the USA. There are 17 hotels within the resort, dozens of restaurants, duty free shops, a marina and beaches – all presented in immaculate condition.

Because El Gouna is controlled by one up-market development company (Orascom Development) everything is done to a very high standard. The Egyptians who work here are polite and well educated and you won’t get a single street seller hassling you.

The golf course at El Gouna acts a centrepiece to the resort, surrounded by lagoons. It is an 18-hole championship course designed by US PGA Tour star Freddy Couples and Gene Bates, which maximises the use of the lagoon landscape and has a spectacular backdrop of the distant desert mountains. The course is great fun to play, presented in first-class condition, and is typical of a resort course in that it has been designed to appeal to all standards of golfer, with six teeing grounds to choose from to make the challenge as easy or as difficult as you like.

Even if you are not a keen golfer, you will enjoy hitting balls here because the driving range is so unique. From a wide teeing ground, you hit out to one of four island green targets in the lagoon. Missing the greens is as much fun as hitting them as you get to watch your ball splash into the water and then bob up and down and wait to be collected by a man wearing a hard hat in a little fishing boat. Even though the range balls are ‘floaters’, they still feel and perform just like real range balls.

The golf course has recently enlisted the help of world-renowned course management group Troon Golf to help raise the standards of the running operation. So whereas in the past visiting golfers here may have complained about slow play behind groups of Germans with no official handicaps, I have no doubt that by your next visit, this will be a thing of the past.

There are plenty of hotels to choose from in El Gouna, ranging from 5-star down to self-catering apartments (in fact there’s even a six star exclusive hotel!) 5-star Steigenberger Golf Resort, located right on the golf course is one of the best hotels for your stay.

The Steigenberger is every bit the 5-star hotel with large and lavish hotel rooms, the service is exemplary as every member of staff always has a polite smile on their faces, and the Egyptians speak excellent English and are friendly. The food is fresh and tasty and the facilities, including several large outdoor heated pools, a Jacuzzi and a huge spa are modern and clean. Upgrade to a suite and you’ll have a room with a wonderful private terrace with views over the course and lagoons. The Steigenberger Golf Resort really does make that extra effort to ensure that your holiday is perfect. Every week the hotel manager chats with his guests at a welcome cocktail reception. He makes sure that his key staff are on hand that evening, including the head chef, to chat with the guests and they really do listen to your feedback.

On the subject of food and drink, Steigenberger guests staying on the half board or full board basis have the option of dining in the hotel’s main restaurant, which offers a lavish buffet with different themes every evening and live cooking stations, or you can book into the hotel’s fine dining French restaurant La Rotisserie, with its enviable location at the top of a viewing tower in the centre of the golf course, and eat for free off a set menu every evening. If you enjoy the variety of eating out and exploring different places, then you’ll be in heaven here.

The Steigenberger is one of a host of hotels in El Gouna that share a programme called ‘Dine Around’ which gives you a generous credit to go and eat in one of various different restaurants owned and run by different hotels.

Aside from the golf, El Gouna has lots to offer visitors. It is actually one of the kite surfing capitals of the world and they regularly host championships on the sandy, windswept shores here. That’s not to say that a day at the beach is ruined by winds, as many of the hotels have their own private beaches positioned on the edges of the shallow lagoon waters, which are sheltered from the wind.

Perhaps the most famous attraction to this part of Egypt is the diving on offer in the Red Sea. There are diving schools galore and a great set-up in El Gouna where you learn in the shallow waters of the lagoons before they take you out to dive down deep and see the wonders that await in the depths of the Red Sea.

For a less exhilarating experience you can take the leisurely cruise around the lagoons on one of the many boat trips that depart daily from the hotel jetties. Most of the lagoon trips make a stop in the marina at El Gouna, where you’ll find dozens of impressive white speed boats and yachts have dropped anchor.

They play golf four times a week and on the days they don’t golf, they wander around the lagoons. They told me that the Steigenberger is one of the best hotels they have stayed in anywhere in the world and that they come here because it’s the closest place to home that they can fly to with a guarantee of warm weather in the middle of our winter. They look like they could live forever here. That for me is proof enough that this place is safe. El Gouna has left a lasting impression on me, so much so that I’m already planning to come out here again next winter.