El-Gouna, Egypt

Approximately 22km north of Hurghada lies the vast tourist resort of El Gouna (Web: www.elgouna.com ), already popular with the Egyptian jet-set, although its Western clientele is not quite as well heeled, being more of a package-tour crowd who get good deals by booking in advance.

Built on a series of islands linked by purpose-built bridges and canals, El Gouna covers 17,000 square kilometres of land, supports ten thousand staff and includes four power plants, an international airport and several factories. The infrastructure includes a brewery that makes Sakkara and Löwenbrau beer, a winery producing Obelisque wine, a cheese factory making mozzarella, a state-of-the-art hospital with decompression chamber (Tel:012 218-7550), plus an eighteen-hole golf course and a casino. There are two shopping centres, the main one having an open-air cinema, cafés, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, a school, banks, two travel agencies, a museum, aquarium and a post office. For those staying in Hurghada, there is a free half-hourly shuttle bus to the resort run by El Gouna Transport. Most hotels have dive centres attached and water sports, horse-riding, go-karting, tennis, squash, and even flights in a microlight plane are also on offer.