The road from Cairo to Ain Sukhna cuts east through desert – not the romantic fantasy of wind-sculpted sand-dunes, but brutally bare rock-and-dirt desert. The only things to look at are the breezeblock shells of half-built luxury estates abandoned by bankrupt Dubai developers. After an hour, mountains loom from the desert, and then end abruptly at a strip of swaying date palms, white sand and clear green-blue sea: Ain Sukhna.
The nearest seaside to Cairo, Ain Sukhna, around an hour and a half away, is a string of holiday resorts and private villas, and a smattering of cafes and shops stretching about 60km along the Gulf of Suez, that first developed as a place where rich Egyptians built their holiday homes.
Unlike package favourites such as Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab, it caters almost exclusively for Cairenes taking a breather from the city heat. At least until now. Last year Planet Holidays launched the destination to the British market, followed by the tour operator Discover Egypt this spring, giving holidaymakers the option of a relaxing beach destination as an add-on to a break in Cairo.
The pyramids, of course, are awesome, and I spent a few hot days happily pounding around Cairo's monuments, and enjoying the wonderfully ramshackle Egyptian Museum with its dusty glass cabinets, scribbled biro notes replacing missing objects; sarcophagi, statues, ancient games, tools, furniture and other amazing antiquities piled up like bric-a-brac. I loved staying at the wonderfully opulent Mena House Oberoi with its absurdly stagey-looking view of a pyramid and the unbeatable address of "Pyramids Rd, Giza".
But I felt as though I was constantly ducking out of other people's snaps and being hassled by vendors hustling postcards, horse rides, camel rides, "genuine" Pharoanic keyrings and other King Tut tat, and after a couple of days in the megalopolis, I began to experience sensory overload. After the noisy, grid-locked capital, the peace and isolation of Ain Sukhna was like a long, cold drink of water.
When I strolled along the beach shortly after I arrived, the loudest sound was a sun umbrella flapping in the wind. Families played in the sand, and there were one or two weathered sunbathers. Offshore a pod of dolphins dipped past, and under the water, pink coral and blue fish made a paradise for snorkelling – this is the Red Sea after all.
At my hotel, the Mövenpick, Ain Sukhna's most stylish option, the infinity pool was gloriously empty and the hotel less than half full, with gardeners appearing to outnumber guests.
In the hotel's beachside El Gezirah restaurant, a Syrian chef made mezze, kofta, steak and a seafood Caesar salad studded with fat, fresh prawns. Afterwards I tried a lemon-flavoured shisha pipe – a popular choice for first-timers, the waiter told me – the equivalent, I suppose, of smoking menthol cigarettes.
Although part of a chain and keen to attract more international guests, the hotel had a laid-back Egyptian atmosphere. Controversially, though, at the pool, there was a sign telling female guests who wear the veil that they must strip down to a costume to swim.
Beyond the hotel gates and the beaches lies the Gulf of Suez. Tankers hiss and trundle by on their way to the Suez canal and the industrial plant across the bay, and though this is visible from the hotel's beach, it doesn't spoil the view.
With more time, you could take a day trip to visit the canal easily from here, and also take a tour of the monasteries of the Eastern Desert, and the hot springs in the Gebal Ataqa mountains, after which Ain Sukhna, meaning hot springs, is named.
But really, the resort is a retreat in itself, and after all the sightseeing in Cairo its main appeal is that it affords the opportunity to flop and sunbathe, to have the stress knots massaged away in the health suite, before floating out to drink mint tea and watch the sun set over the mountains.
• Discover Egypt (0844 880 0462) offers a six-day package to Egypt, including flights from Heathrow to Cairo, transfers, three nights' half board at the Mövenpick Resort & Spa in Ain Sukhna, and three nights' B&B at the Mena House Oberoi in Cairo from £699 per person.
