Review: The Chedi El Gouna Red Sea resort, Egypt – Scotland on Sunday Travel

Lean into the hush at a luxury resort with a prime waterside location

The Chedi El Gouna Red Sea, a new luxury resort with a prime waterside location on Egypt's Red Sea.Pic: Christos Drazos

They form an almost-constant backdrop to my visit to the Egyptian destination of El Gouna, kitesurfers and their brightly coloured, billowing sails rapidly criss-crossing the electric turquoise of the Red Sea.

They can be seen from several vantage points at my base for the trip, The Chedi El Gouna Red Sea, a new luxury resort with a prime waterside location.

Crossing its threshold after a 40-minute road journey from Hurghada Airport, we head up the grand driveway after sundown and into its reception where the calming atmosphere and white and latte-coloured decor very much align with the resort’s “lean into the hush” tagline.

The Chedi hotel is located at El Gouna, a manmade resort built on 36 interlocked islands, and whose name means “lagoon” in Arabic. Pic: Contributed

My beachfront room has a clean, classic design, and scores major brownie points for the high-end coffee machine and I’m also impressed to find that housekeeping have fashioned an excellent towel swan, given pride of place on the bed facing patio doors that enable the bright sunshine to stream in the following morning. Outside on my own small, private terrace, a table and chairs overlook the beach dotted with sunloungers and their coffee-coloured beach umbrellas.

Time for breakfast, and over the course of the trip I sample several options, including oblongs of French toast with berry compote and whipped cream with mint, and pastries that pair very well with a butter board decorated with the likes of slices of raw fig and walnuts. The breakfast venue, known as The Restaurant, also serves more local and traditional dishes like Egyptian sausage and jute-leaf soup known as mulukhih bialjambarii later in the day.

Amid the balmy sunshine, a virtually year-round presence, our first excursion sees us on a tour of El Gouna itself, a manmade resort built on 36 interlocked islands whose name means “lagoon” in Arabic and which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019.

After arriving at the Abu Tig Marina, we head out on a leisurely boat trip, passing flashy docked yachts and an array of ochre buildings. We stop off to ascend to a viewing platform to get a better look at El Gouna, which covers an area equivalent to 5,200 football pitches and has a population of more than 25,000.

One of the 82 rooms and suites, some of which have private terraces. Pic: Christos Drazos

Sights visible among the 360-degree views include bright white exteriors of luxe villas and the varying greens of palm trees and a golf course, all under a dazzling blue sky. I can also make out the distinctive, archway-filled outline of the Gouna Conference and Culture Centre (Festival Plaza), which has hosted the El Gouna Film Festival where guests have included actor Owen Wilson.

Far in the distance are the mountains, a quiet, timeless presence overseeing everything, into which the group will two days later head on a hike.

Returning to the Chedi, we are able to better get our bearings of the resort. It joins other Chedi hotels in locations including Andermatt, Switzerland, and its accommodation comprises 82 rooms and suites, while communal spaces include a hi-tech gym, two tropical-style swimming pools, and beach with paddleboards and kayaks; I will later head out on the latter, a fun way to take to the waves.

There is also a large Asian-inspired spa whose facilities include single and couples’ suits and two traditional hammam baths. Using Saskia Spa products from France, a nation that is no slouch when it comes to skincare, its speciality is massages, their expertise evident from a treatment that loosens every knot in my shoulders.

Chedi has various eating options, including an in-house Japanese restaurant, Nihon. Pic: Christos Drazos

Dinner that night is at the Tandoor Restaurant in El Gouna itself, and our table overlooks a large, photo-friendly, illuminated sign comprising the phase #ElGounastateofmind. Its menu includes several dishes incorporating chickpea tofu made in-house, including one with noodles, garlic and ginger, and proving highly tasty, lighter in texture than its conventional, sometimes-dense soya version. The restaurant also does a mean G&T adding in rose water, while I’m pleased when I see that Casa Cook, another high-end resort we visit for lunch, does a version of the drink named The Scotsman, including local gin, cucumber, and pepper.

As crystal-clear as gin is the water we sail across during a private boat trip that is the closest I will ever feel to being in a music video - Rio by Duran Duran springs to mind. We head out on a yacht as the sea bed drops lower and lower beneath us, past yet more kitesurfers, and when we drop anchor at our offshore spot I’m happy to jump overboard for a swim before tucking into lunch. I later learn that the Red Sea can reach depths of more than 3,000 metres, while it takes its name from algae blooms that on dying off turn the water reddish brown.

Also taking a dip that evening are the king prawns bathing in a lightly fiery Tom Yum Kung soup, part of dinner at the Chedi’s in-house Japanese restaurant Nihon, while I finish the meal with a soufflé-like yuzu cheesecake served with mango puree and passion fruit, which ticks off three of my “five a day”.

But there's “more to Gouna than boats and restaurants”, according to El Gouna Mountain Goats, a tour firm that leads the last trip - a sunset hike in the mountains.

The restaurant atThe Chedi, El Gouna, Egypt. Pic: Christos Drazos

Dutch-born guide Sytze Boomsma heads up the group which sets off in a Jeep, and then continues on foot up and over the jaw-dropping, pale grey terrain as the orange of the sunlight disappears over the horizon. With no sign of civilisation as far as the eye can see, it’s like being on a different planet - and an experience that could be taking place at any time in history. That is enhanced by the trip culminating in the Bedouin guides, so far a quiet presence, starting to sing as they prepare traditional coffee made with green beans (Starbucks eat your heart out) over a bonfire, which now lights the scene, under the inky-black sky dotted with twinkling stars and the bright light of the moon. A magical combination.

Had we been staying longer it would have been highly tempting to also visit Luxor - home to Tutankhamun's tomb - a few hours’ drive away. For now, I must lean back out of the hush and into the noisier reality of everyday life. But I cannot complain; El Gouna has shown deep blue seas and soaring mountainous peaks, and a great deal indeed in between.

The Chedi El Gouna Red Sea is available to book from £142 per night. The Chedi El Gouna Red Sea, El Gouna, 84513, Hurghada, Egypt (www.chedielgouna.com, [phone])