Egypt

• The Pleasure Domes - Abu Dhabi
• The butler did it - Bahrain
• Dazzled by Dubai - Dubai
• Dubai’s must-do half dozen - Dubai
• The Day Chris tried to swap me for a camel - Egypt
• Ten great wonders - Egypt
• Keeping up with the Joneses - Jordan
• You CAN afford star treatment… - Middle East
• The hippy haunts of Hendrix - Morocco
• Souks you, sir! - Morocco
• Travelling in the sands of time - Oman
• OMAN! What a desert oasis - Oman
• Floating in a Red Sea bubble - Egypt
• Desert delights - Oman
• Our very own luxury oasis - UAE
• Escape to Egypt - Egypt

IT ALL started so badly. After finally getting our three boys (all under five), my wife, about eight bags and myself into the car, we filled up at the petrol station to head to Gatwick. Two miles later I wondered why blue smoke was pouring out of the back and we were juddering to a halt… on a double red line just as it was getting dark, with three hours until our flight took off.

That would be the unleaded petrol I’ve just put in my diesel car, then! Two very stressful hours later, we’re on the plane and about to take off when the captain announces there’s a ‘baggage anomaly’ and we’re heading back to the stand.

All in all, not the most relaxing start to a holiday. Miraculously, however, two of the three children have fallen asleep and once we get moving, there’s hardly time to watch a film before we’re on the ground just four hours later.

Immediately enveloped in a peaceful calm

Sharm El Sheikh airport looks like a giant rugby ball plonked down in the arid desert surrounded by mountains and bordered by the glittering blue Red Sea - but we didn’t come to admire the airport.

We’re whisked through customs, and ten minutes later we cruise up the verdant tree and blossom-lined drive of the Four Seasons Resort. Behind us is the scorched desert and scrubland that makes up southern Egypt, but we’re immediately enveloped in a peaceful calm that lasts for our whole stay.

This is our third trip to the resort, a record for an adventurous family who have never previously been to any hotel twice, but there’s something magical and, most importantly, deeply relaxing about this place. The hotel itself is a gleaming white citadel, looking like some Arabic castle, sitting above a natural small cove and coral reef.

The main hotel building houses the reception, restaurants and bars while the accommodation fans out on either side in sympathetically designed square villas that make the resort resemble a small Mediterranean town.

There’s no whim or fancy left unsatisfied

A funicular train glides noiselessly up and down the centre of it all for anyone feeling the heat or, like us, with children who just love riding their ‘own train’. The many staff magically appear whenever needed and disappear at other times, always smiling and attentive.

From delivering fresh towels and little sticks of fresh fruit direct to your lounger, to the sunglasses man who polishes your lenses, there’s no whim or fancy left unsatisfied… but unlike many high-end hotels, the staff leave you alone when you don’t need anything. Our children, aged four, three and ten months, have an amazing amount of fun.

They build boats out of cereal boxes for an organised but chaotic race across the pool; they splash about endlessly in one of the four swimming pools; they smear the free tea-time ice creams across their faces and swimsuits. It’s non-stop action until bedtime every day.

Staying at the hotel during halfterm, we thought it might be busy, but it never felt crowded. In the three times we’ve been to Sharm, we have ventured out of the hotel grounds into the town - but only rarely because there is so much to do in the resort, our own mini-paradise.

What I really mean is, so much relaxing to be done! On a previous trip, I’d completed my basic diving course at the Sinai Blues Diving Centre in the crystal clear waters at the hotel beach. I was expertly coached for a few hours each day for three days and ended up loving the experience of swimming among the tropical fish of the coral reef.

The beach is small but beautiful, with crystalline sand. The only downside is that you can’t walk straight out to sea as the coral reef comes almost up to the beach. However, there is a plethora of pools on site, so we never worried about it.

The hotel will happily arrange anything

Other activities included a trip to an island to feed the rays, where the children were able to merrily toss tiny fish down the rays’ throats until they swam off full.

The hotel will happily arrange anything from parasailing right in front of the hotel to a day trip to the Pyramids. Overall, we couldn’t fault the level of service, plentiful food and drink on offer and, most importantly, the attention to detail for children and teenagers.