Four Seasons Sharm el Sheikh – My Birthday Treat

Posted by winesleuth in All, Hotels and Spas, Travel | 0 comments

As we touched down in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, I was full of anticipation for the next few days and my stay at the Four Seasons Sharm el Sheikh and not only because it was my birthday that week 😉

I’ve stayed at a few other Four Seasons resorts around the world but I’d never been to the Red Sea and couldn’t wait to get out into the sun and onto the beach. I had been looking for a warm and sunny place to spend my birthday and when Four Seasons suggested I stay with them, I jumped at the chance.

I love the Four Seasons resorts. Although they are a luxury hotel chain, all of them have a distinct charm and each one has it’s own boutique experience. The entire experience begins at the airport where we were greeted by our driver and car and whisked to the resort. The car had wifi which meant we didn’t waste anytime waiting to tweet about our holiday 🙂

The Sharm el Sheikh property is set on a hill which slopes down to the Red Sea. There are 4 pools at the resort along with with a long stretch of sandy beach and a jetty that juts out over the reef to where it is safe to swim without getting yourself cut by the coral. The Waha Pool Bar and Restaurant is situated beside the main pool and serves European style cuisine.

The first night we arrived, it was the bi-weekly Fish Market night at Waha. The resort offers different themed cuisine nights at each of it’s restaurants. The restaurants take it in turns to host the themed evenings. The Fish Market had an array of fresh fish and shellfish to choose from and it was then grilled or prepared to our specifications.

As well as the themed cuisines in the restaurants, the hotel also features Bedouin Night where we dine under the stars on a beachfront sandy outlook by the sea. The food was terrific. I love Middle Eastern food and Four Seasons doesn’t disappoint. We ate in open front tents with the other guests and watched the local entertainment with lots of guest interaction involved.

They had belly dancing, fire throwers, and a daredevil fellow who jumped around on broken glass and not only lay on a bed of nails but had guests – including yours truly, stand on him while he was laying on the nails – scary! He survived and the show very impressive.

One of the things that I appreciate is that Four Seasons has a great wine list in all their restaurants and that they do their best to support local wine producers. They list a number of wines made in Egypt and we tried 2 whites and 1 red. The staff are very knowledgeable and our server told us that the grapes for the wines come from near Alexandria and the wine is made in Egypt. Their house wine is called Shahrazade of which they have a red and white. The white 2012 Shahrazade is a chardonnay/vermentino blend and was fresh and fruity and very good with our fish dinner. We also tried the red Shahrazade at the Bedouin dinner but I forgot to take notes!

The other wine we tried was called 2012 Jardin du Nil and was a vermentino/chardonnay blend. This one was quite different being richer and more tropical in flavour along with having a silkier body. I liked it very much and was impressed by Egyptian wines. I wonder though if it’s a case of love the wine when your on holiday but once you get home….I didn’t have room to bring a bottle home but I would definitely be interested to try others.

There’s no shortage of things to do at the resort. Besides laying by the pool all day -which is pretty much what we did everyday – they also have a dive centre and can arrange cruises, trips to Tiran Island which is just off the coast and of course snorkeling just off the beach. If you’d like to get out into the desert, the resort can pretty much arrange all sorts of adventure tours for you.

The hotel certainly did make my birthday memorable. Starting with a special chocolate brownie at breakfast. Throughout the day, all the staff wished me a happy birthday and brought me several birthday drinks while I was lounging by the sea.

When we came back from our afternoon beach session, there was a beautiful birthday meringue cookie topped with the freshest strawberries and peaches waiting for me in our room.  I had brought a bottle of Krug with me so we sat on our terrace and had a lovely afternoon snack 🙂

This being my birthday, of course we had to visit the Nafoura Lounge, which is the shisha lounge. That night they had a belly dancer and of course, I was pulled up out of my chair to show off my (non-existent) belly dancing skills.

We were there for 6 days and all in all, it was a memorable birthday. Staying at the Four Seasons is like being in your own perfect little desert oasis. All too soon we had to go but I will definitely not hesitate to go back the next time I need a bit of winter sun.

 

I stayed as a guest of the Four Seasons the first 3 days and the remainder was on my dime.