The Reef of Marsa Alam

Marsa Alam is located along the eastern coast of Egypt, about 250 km from Hurghada. It is the least touristy area of Egypt and for this reason also the most intact and wild, with a coral reef among the most beautiful in the world. My husband Roberto and I set off on 1 May 2004 from Bologna and after a 4-and-a-half-hour flight here we are, arrived at Marsa Alam airport, where a shuttle waits to take us to our chosen hotel, the Bravo Club, which is 5 km from the airport. The hotel is located on one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in the area. It has a wide beach with direct access to the sea in the central part, therefore ideal for families with children, and the coral reef extends right up to the shore. It also has a jetty that allows you to enter the water beyond the reef and from which you can admire the marvellous colours of the corals and fish of this area.

The beach is equipped with umbrellas, sun loungers and windbreaks. The structure of the Bravo Club is marvellous, made up of the very elegant reception in Nubian style furnished with beautiful little lounges. On the side there are several souvenir and typical craft shops in which you will practically be dragged inside by the owners, skilful salesmen with whom you have to haggle. On sale are beautiful hookahs in many sizes and many colours that we did not let slip away and that furnish our living room in a completely... Bedouin way!!! There is a small tower in which a Bedouin room has been created and where you can spend the evening drinking tea and smoking the hookah. The atmosphere you breathe here is truly relaxing and really lets you feel you are in Egypt. The rooms are built to the side of the reception and are spacious and clean.

The pool is large but as usual we did not give it a glance, we had better things to do! The restaurant is huge and every day offers different menus with buffet service. Excellent was the evening with Egyptian specialities, truly good. The hotel offers the All Inclusive formula which is a unique convenience and allows you to eat in the main restaurant and in the poolside pizzeria. At the edge of this pizzeria-snack bar was an Egyptian man who made bread, very similar to our piadina, truly delicious! The entertainment is very varied and we had a great time; the Bravo guys are wonderful and not pushy. They organise lots of games and dance classes that start in the morning and finish in the evening, then continue in the theatre with truly funny shows and Egyptian dances. A more than positive verdict for the Bravo Club for its organisation, cuisine, location and the construction of the hotel.

We took part in the excursion to Awlad Baraka, which is 80 km from our village. It is a beautiful bay with a splendid coral reef. They loaded us onto the dinghies from the beach and dropped us offshore, from where we began our snorkelling tour to see the wonders of the reef. Ten of us set off and after 2 hours of swimming 3 of us arrived: me, my husband and the guide. The others got picked up along the way by the dinghy. We did not want to miss a single moment of this marvel and we reached the beach on the other side exhausted from swimming. After that we had lunch in a restaurant-pension for Germans in the area where we ate fairly well. After lunch they took us to another beach at Abu Dabab, not far away, where you can spot the dugong, which for us remained only a legend. We spent the afternoon here. Another excursion we took part in was the very fun quad bike ride in the desert.

We set off in the early afternoon and returned around 11 p.m. The rocky desert is marvellous and offers glimpses of untouched landscape, giving incomparable peace. We arrived at a very poor Bedouin village where the village women cooked bread and sold spices. We took a camel ride, really fun. We climbed to the top of a hill and waited for the sunset in the desert, all in silence. The colours of the sun on the desert take on very warm tones and wrap everything in this atmosphere of other times. Night extinguished everything and the Bedouin dinner began, the tasting of tea and the round of hookahs! All surrounded by the joy of the Egyptian children and by us, truly excited to be there with them. The return in the dark was fantastic; here we understood what darkness is... at a certain point the guide stopped, made us turn off the bikes and made us look up at the sky...

incredibly starry! We stayed there a while admiring the spectacle nature offered us and then we set off again towards our hotel, where we arrived all covered in dust! This excursion is truly rich in emotions and we recommend not missing it for any reason. To conclude the story, I recommend Marsa Alam to anyone looking for peace and still untouched places where tourism is for the moment not yet mass tourism, and to anyone who does not need trendy places and nightclubs because here, outside the village, you will find only the fascinating desert! Annalisa