Mediterranean costs have soared and winter sunshine is much from assured. Egypt gives dependable heat the place the luxury-per-pound is difficult to beat.
Pool Villa Rixos Premium Suites Magawish (Picture: Rixos Premium Suites Magawish)
The very first thing you discover are the rabbits.
White and sandy-brown, dozens of them, grazing freely on immaculate inexperienced lawns beneath fairy-lit timber. They barely lookup as British households glide previous in electrical buggies, ferried quietly from reception to rooms.
That is Rixos Premium Magawish Suites and Villas on Egypt’s Crimson Beach – a five-star mega-resort the place the main points are simply sudden sufficient to make you pause, and the place the arrival is designed to sluggish you down earlier than you’ve even checked in.
You don’t a lot arrive as get absorbed.
Rixos Premium Magawish Suites & Villas (Picture: Rixos Premium Magawish Suites & Villas)
Rixos Premium Magawish Suites & Villas (Picture: Rixos Premium Magawish Suites & Villas)
Waiters on line skates (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
The lengthy, palm-fringed drive ends at a glass-walled reception the place workers greet visitors with cool towels and a welcome drink. From there, electrical buggies fan out throughout the huge web site, whisking households and suitcases away in close to silence. By the point you attain your room, the skin world already feels distant.
It’s straightforward to see why extra British holidaymakers are swapping Spain, Italy or Greece for the Crimson Beach. Mediterranean costs have soared whereas winter sunshine is much from assured. In distinction, Egypt gives dependable heat, eye-popping worth, and huge all-inclusive resorts the place the luxury-per-pound is difficult to beat.
I started my keep within the model new Rixos Premium Magawish Bay View – a separate resort with entry to shared amenities throughout each websites. Modern and modern, Bay View gives high-spec tech and tranquil fashionable design. Curtains sweep open routinely as you enter your room, revealing soft-toned interiors and huge swimming pools past. Waiters skate between loungers delivering drinks to order.
Later, I moved to the unique Rixos Premium Magawish Suites and Villas – extra intimate, tropical and garden-like. My villa opened straight right into a heated swim-up pool, and one morning, a floating breakfast arrived: a heart-shaped tray bobbing beside me with smoked salmon, pastries, fruit, eggs and juice, all served proper within the water.
Within the quiet morning mild, it felt hushed and hidden – a breath of desert stillness wrapped in greenery and water.
For much more luxurious, Bay View’s Skyline Suites provide non-public plunge swimming pools, Crimson Sea views and ethereal lounges perched above the shoreline.
Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas)
Set between the dazzling turquoise of the Crimson Sea and lengthy stretches of white-gold sand, the resort unfolds in layers. Over 30 swimming swimming pools are scattered throughout the grounds, alongside a personal seashore with luxurious cabanas, a diving and surf centre, tennis and seashore volleyball courts, and every day health courses from yoga to aqua Zumba.
Households are particularly effectively catered for: the Rixy Children Membership is huge, safe and full of actions, from arts and crafts to treasure hunts and discos. It’s a godsend for folks needing actual downtime.
Multi colored bread within the eating corridor (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
As lunchtime nears, stay harp or violin music floats by the foyer or backyard terraces. Later, it’s samba, retro disco or open-air DJs underneath the celebs.
And should you’re hungry – you’ll be, usually – meals choices are infinite.
Individuals’s Restaurant is the 24-hour, beachfront buffet spot: breakfast, burgers, grilled fish, salads, pasta, late-night snacks – no reserving, no stress.
At Grill Nook, scorching lamb, hen and prawns fill the air with smoke and spice. At Salt, the seafood restaurant, I ate grilled seabass so recent it appeared to have bypassed the kitchen.
There’s a teppanyaki restaurant on the seashore, wealthy Turkish stews served underneath ruby lights, Mykonos-style Greek dishes in whitewashed courtyards, and an Asian fusion menu. A brand new Peruvian restaurant can be set to open quickly.
Dolphins within the Crimson Sea (Picture: Mohamed Selim)
The Shallows Crimson Sea Hurghada (Picture: Mohamed Selim)
Velocity Boats within the Shallows Hurghada (Picture: Mohamed Selim)
Past the resort, the ocean places by itself present.
I joined a glass-bottom boat tour the place parrotfish, butterflyfish and Moorish idols clustered beneath us, feeding off the vessel’s underside. “This boat is a restaurant for the fish now,” the captain laughed.
Later, I joined a ship journey to Bianca Island – a chalk-white sandbank dubbed the “Egyptian Maldives”. The shallow water was the color of turquoise glass, fading slowly into deeper navy as we drifted offshore.
We noticed no fish within the shallows, solely sand and silence. However in open water, dolphins appeared in pairs, then threes, surfacing collectively like dancers. Just a few slipped into the ocean and swam beside them, following the arcs of their backs as they vanished into blue.
Bianca Island Hurghada (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
Distant nook of Bianca Island Hurghada (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
Bianca Island Hurghada at nightfall (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
Again on land, the leisure ramps up at evening.
Every night brings one thing new – samba dancers, hearth reveals, DJs. Probably the most memorable is Scary Night time.
Each two weeks, big spiders cling to partitions, masked monsters emerge from behind pillars and dancers in ghoulish costumes take over a strobe-lit stage. What started as a Halloween particular is now everlasting. “Visitors saved asking for it,” one animator advised me. “So we carry the monsters again.”
And when the evening winds down? Individuals’s Bar remains to be open, nonetheless serving, nonetheless alive with late-night laughter.
‘Scary Night time’ Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
DJ Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
‘Scary Night time’ Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
I had one cloudy day – only one – and spent it properly.
The spa is a haven of low lighting, delicate wooden and heat oils. After a steam, sauna and almond-oil therapeutic massage, I emerged recharged. Tika, my therapist, delivered a hand therapeutic massage that undid years of typing stress.
There are surprises in all places: an natural backyard with figs, mangoes and mint; an equestrian centre providing sundown seashore rides for youngsters and adults. Along with the rabbits on the garden, they converse to a imaginative and prescient of leisure that’s just a bit softer, greener, slower.
From waiters to spa workers, cooks to cleaners, the temper is heat and evenly easy. Names are remembered. Tea arrives earlier than you ask. Children are handled like royalty.
“They make you’re feeling like they need you right here,” a British mom advised me by the pool. “It’s not like that in all places anymore.”
One of many many rabbits at Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
Dancers (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
Almost 19 million worldwide vacationers visited Egypt in 2025 – a file excessive. The nation is concentrating on 30 million a yr by the late 2020s.
And if Rixos Premium Magawish is something to go by, it’s not exhausting to see why.
You would possibly see rabbits grazing quietly at nightfall, monsters dancing previous you after darkish, and dolphins breaking the floor by morning – presumably all throughout the identical 24 hours.
Someplace between the spectacle and the stillness, you keep in mind what holidays are supposed to really feel like.
Rixos-Premium-Magawish-Suites-Villas (Picture: Daniel Spiller)
IF YOU GO
The place: Rixos Premium Magawish Suites & Villas and Rixos Premium Magawish Bay View, Hurghada, Egypt
Flights: Direct UK flights to Hurghada take simply over 5 hours
Packages: From £980pp for every week all-inclusive in off-season, rising to ~£1,400+ in peak. That’s usually £300–£500 cheaper than related 5-star packages in Spain or Greece.
Climate: Winter highs common 21–28°C; summer time >35°C. Solar shines 10–12 hours every day.
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Visa: British passport holders can apply on-line for a vacationer eVisa (~£20)
Foreign money: Egyptian Pound (EGP); Euros and {Dollars} accepted in resorts
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