I'VE NEVER had an entire new luxury hotel complex all to myself before. It's a
strange and slightly overwhelming experience.
The labyrinth of marble corridors echo to my feet alone. A dozen smiling
hyper-attentive white-suited waiters watch the man from The Times eat in an
empty restaurant.
The head chef asks how I'm enjoying my food before I've finished chewing it.
My room phone calls half-hourly to check that my every need is being met.
Slightly embarrassed by all the fuss, I go for a walk along the deserted beach
to clear my mind and stare at the white-flecked waves.
Unlike the hotel, the water below is anything but empty. The Red Sea is
famously populated with abundant and exotic marine life from hammerhead
sharks to the tiny polyps of more than 500 species of coral, attracting
divers from all over the world.
Its latest hotel complex, Port Ghalib, has just opened for business and I'm
here for a sneak preview before it gets busy. Once officially opened in
April, the hotel's 948 rooms will begin to fill up with European and Russian
guests here for the sun, sea and scuba.
The rapid development of Egypt's Red Sea coastline was driven by divers who,
ironically, often now lament how much resorts such as Hurghada and Sharm
el-Sheikh have changed for the worse. Sharm has lost its charm, they say,
becoming an overcrowded Margate of the Middle East where environmentally
unenlightened overseas divers ride terrified sea turtles for fun. Meanwhile,
sprawling concrete and dwindling marine life have put the “urgh” into
Hurghada.
Built from scratch on a 20km (12 mile) stretch of Southern Red Sea coastline
five minutes' drive from Marsa Alam International airport with its charter
flights from Gatwick, Port Ghalib is a new alternative with upmarket
ambitions.
Conceived as a self-contained town in the middle of the desert, it is a full
hour's drive from its nearest neighbour. But within a few months Port Ghalib
will have its own harbour, restaurants, shops and nightclubs, health spas,
18-hole golf course, 1,500-seat conference centre, casino - and important
for divers - a modern hospital equipped with a decompression chamber.
The $1.2 billion project has been privately bankrolled by one extremely
wealthy man, Kuwaiti Nasser al- Kharafi, who has hired the people behind
South Africa's Sun City casino resort to run the whole show. Although it
will grow very big, very quickly, with 23 hotels due by 2014, its
development should at least be properly planned.
Designed to attract the very rich - the international marina has berths for
1,000 super-yachts - the resort's half-mile long “Corniche” waterfront will
be a mix of posh restaurants and fast-food outlets, nightclubs and designer
boutiques. Where YSL meets KFC, if you like. The casino will be here, too,
although Sun International insists that gambling won't be the resort's major
draw.
Port Ghalib's current trio of five-star hotels surrounds a lagoon; an
artificial oasis filled with filtered seawater and finished with 3,000
trucked-in and recently planted 5m-tall palm trees. It's all completely
man-made, of course, not that the white sea eagle perched outside my window
every morning seems to care.
The flagship Palace hotel is at least as good as any other five-star hotel in
which I've had the good fortune to rest my head. This grand, fort-like
building is designed to suggest a desert citadel, complete with fake
battlements and drawbridge, which is not as tacky as it sounds.
The Sahara Sun Sands has an upmarket beach village feel with its mud-coloured
exteriors and bedroom walls hung with Beduin rugs. The family-orientated
Sahara Sun Oasis is the least expensive with the most conventional decor.
Egypt is apparently quite liberal with its stars, so it's probably fair to
think of the Oasis, Sands and Palace as five, six and seven stars,
respectively.
Divers, of course, tend to be more interested in what's under the water than
above it. A manta ray beats a manicure every time. So what does Port Ghalib
have to offer in the way of underwater attractions? Scuba divers have been
coming here for two years already, staying at the four-star Coral Beach
Diving Hotel across the bay.
The dive centre here is run by Emperor Divers, a respected, well-established
outfit with 15 years' Red Sea experience, signed up as Port Ghalib's
official operator. Emperor sails weekly live aboard safari boats from here
to world-class but less accessible Red Sea dive sites such as Daedalus Reef
and the Brothers Islands. But other famous sites are within range of a day
trip. If you want to see schooling hammerheads, for instance, the
Elphinstone Reef is a two-hour boat trip and 6am start away and, for a
cuddlier encounter, Dolphin House is even nearer.
But this being a so far unspoilt corner of the Red Sea, local reefs have
plenty to offer, too. I joined one of Emperor's day boats, Rachel, for five
dives at two sites - Marsa Shouni Kebier and Marsa Mubarak, both within half
an hour of the dive centre.
While I wasn't lucky enough to meet the whale shark that dropped by last week,
or even the dugong or sea cow spotted by one couple, the reefs were teeming
with life. Large octopus, muscular moray eels, blue-spotted stingrays,
batfish like psychedelic dinnerplates and scowling grouper fish the size of
well-fed rottweilers put in obliging appearances, along with several giant
sea turtles. And all in less than 20m of warm, clear, almost current-free
water.
It was like diving in an expensively stocked private aquarium. I half expected
a smiling waiter in a white suit to come finning through the seagrass to ask
if the reef was meeting my expectations.
Need to know
The Palace at Port Ghalib (00 20 65 336 0000, www.discover
portghalib.com) has double deluxe garden rooms from £158 a night,
including breakfast.
Getting there Thomson (0870 5502555, www.thomson.co.uk)
has weekly charter flights from Gatwick to Marsa Alam starting in April,
from £209 return.
Further information Sun International Resorts and Hotels (01491 419600).
