Playtime on the Red Sea coast at Egypt’s Soma Bay Red Sea resort

By JENNY BENNETT

A river runs through it: The lazy river at Egypt's Soma Bay Red Sea resort


They say it is named after the hallucinogenic drug that kept Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in a state of blissful complicity.

But the truth is that you don’t need anything stronger to relax in Soma Bay than a swimming costume, a good book and Factor 40 sun cream. And we had our (terrifyingly energetic) six-month-old baby boy in tow.

At first glance, it’s a strange place for a family-friendly holiday: a pimple of ferociously hot desert jutting out into the Red Sea, 30 miles south of the more established Egyptian resort of Hurghada.

Once upon a time, it would have been the type of place you’d have been exiled to for botching up the brickwork on the pharaoh’s latest pyramid.

Not so today. The 10 million square metre peninsula is privately owned and features five swanky hotels, a spa, diving centre and lush - they make their own fresh water in a vast desalination plant — golf course.

Indeed, if you were staggering through the desert and stumbled upon Soma Bay, you’d dismiss it as a mirage.

It certainly gets plenty of sun. In November, temperatures hover in the mid to low 30s and when a solitary cloud floated overhead on the last day of our holiday, it was headline news. Perhaps it was evidence of climate change.

We stayed at the Kempinski hotel, a vast and extremely luxurious confection of exotic Middle Eastern architecture, surrounding a turquoise necklace of pools and man-made rivers.

If Kubla Khan were a hotelier, this would be Xanadu.

It’s certainly not ‘authentic’ Egypt. There are no ruins, hustle or bustle. But our baby loved it. Back home, he attends Aquatots, a swimming club for babies and toddlers, and is never happier than when splashing around.


Spa sensation: The Soma Bay Red Sea resort has an extensive range of treatments including underwater massages


Day after day, he sloshed about in the children’s pool, floated down the lazy river and flapped his arms in glee under the ornamental waterfalls. He even kicked back in the Jacuzzi.

Not that you really need a pool. The Red Sea is brilliantly clear, shallow and so calm you can only assume they iron it every morning.

But it is also one of the most thrilling stretches of water on the planet. With a relatively feisty and predictable prevailing wind crossing the bay, it is a haven for windsurfers, kite surfers and sailors.

In the early morning, when the breeze is strongest, the big sweep of blue in front of the hotel is a galaxy of colourful sails. It’s a daily regatta.

And below the surface, things are even better. The surrounding mountains may be barren, but just a yard or two under the water you will find the most spectacular and brightly painted coral gardens.

Nearby, the Orca Dive Club caters for anyone keen to explore them — whether by snorkel or scuba. And you don’t need to go on an expensive boat trip to see the best of it.


Building boom: Soma Bay provides the perfect escape for little ones build their own sand empire


Step off your sunlounger, collect your gear, stroll down the 440-yard-long jetty opposite the dive club’s bar and you can drop straight into the water beside a half-mile stretch of pristine reef.

Blowing bubbles among blue-spotted rays and clouds of clownfish 60ft below the surface is beyond the abilities of the keenest Aquatot, but once a day we left the little one with the hotel babysitter and made our own splash.

Bathwater warm, gin clear, it was like floating through an aquarium. Indeed, the only reminder that we were on Planet Earth was a territorial triggerfish — the ocean’s equivalent of the argumentative little man at the bar — that threatened to nip off our flippers when we strayed too close to his nest.

However, even he was happy to pose for a photograph.

Of course, it’s not all plain sailing with a small baby. Even on holiday there are sleepless nights, and the routine that is the fine line between reason and madness at home must be stuck to abroad.

But this is an oasis for young parents. There’s a children’s club, babysitting facilities and every member of staff seems to double as a children’s entertainer. For him, it was like holidaying at Sesame Street-on-Sea.

Hysterics in the restaurant? No problem. Spilled food all over the marble floor of the lobby? Pah!

And when baby’s shenanigans did force us to abandon dinner early one night, it was promptly delivered to our balcony. With a carafe of wine.

Besides, there’s always the spa if the bags under your eyes get too big. As well as the Kempinski’s treatment rooms, the nearby Les Thermes Marins Spa and Thalasso Centre is more than capable of bringing a frazzled mum or dad back from the dead.

Upstairs, you can opt for a conventional Thai massage in a fug of scented oils and soothing music, while downstairs you will find a buffet lunch of weird and wonderful seawater treatments, including wraps and underwater massages.

In one room, you grip tightly on to two wall-mounted handles while you are sprayed down with a fireman’s high-pressure hose.

This particular treatment, we were told, is best avoided by those with varicose veins. Or a nervous disposition.

I’ve rarely seen a baby look so sad as on the day we packed up and left Soma Bay.
Even though I don’t suppose he knew we were heading home, he did appear to know that wherever we were going just wouldn’t be as bright and beautiful.

We never did find any Soma in this heavenly corner of Egypt, but we did find everything it promised in Huxley’s Brave New World.

‘The warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of Soma holiday. How kind, how good-looking, how delightfully amusing everyone was,’ he wrote. We couldn’t agree more


Travel Facts

ITC Classics (01244 355 527, itcclassics.co.uk) has seven nights B&B from £969pp in a garden-view room, including London flights and transfers.


source :dailymail