EL-GOUNA /
Stylish playground
El-Gouna is held up to be little but an artificial town, laid out to be aa place to relax, swim, play golf and then little else. It is either mentioned as an appendix to Hurghada or omitted all together by travellers' guides.
So what a surprise it then is, at least for a few days. The thorough planning has made it into Egypt's most delightful town, with proper houses in variations over the same style and painted in either yellow, orange or dark red. Domes and vaulted arcades are themes repeated over and over again. I have no problem understanding why El-Gouna is becoming increasingly popular, both with Egyptians as well as foreigners. Another unique feature with El-Gouna are the meandering canals with provide for every mansion its own strip of beach, even hundreds of metres in from the coast. They are also artificial, but serve the above mentioned propose. Downtown small stone bridges cross the canal creating a little Venice effect. On the downside, is that when you come here out of season the number of tourists may drop to a level where El-Gouna gets a little ghost town touch. Without downtown locals, El-Gouna stops when the tourists stay in.
