As the UK slides into damp, grey autumn, the Arb’s golfing guru Rob Rees heads five hours south to Egypt’s Soma Bay — a Red Sea peninsula of coral reefs, Gary Player courses and poolside G&Ts…
When autumn hits and Blighty turns the colour of military grey, there are few better cures than Egypt’s Soma Bay — a Red Sea enclave of coral, calm, golf courses and poolside cocktails. I found warmth, a world-class welcome and a reinvigorated passion for golf beneath its endless skies.
There comes a point in a man’s life when “bracing autumn walks and cosy pubs” stops sounding romantic and starts feeling like a cry for help. The remedy? Five hours south of Heathrow, where the Red Sea glitters a clear blue and the only drizzle comes from a lime wedge in your mammoth G&T.
Soma Bay is a sun-drenched peninsula just south of Hurghada, designed for those who have outgrown Ibiza, are bored of Algarve golf crowds, but aren’t yet ready for a Danube river cruise. Coral reefs, desert horizons, and a Gary Player golf course perched on the sea make even my worst swing look cinematic. Who cares about your golf score when you’ve already hit the jackpot!
My base was The Kaktus Somabay, their latest lifestyle hotel opened in summer last year. Part co-working hub, part beach retreat, it’s perfect for digitally mobile travellers who want to squeeze in a round before a Zoom call or some yoga after 18 holes.
Rooms are contemporary, clean, and unpretentious. Communal cafés, an outdoor pool, and free Wi-Fi make it fuss-free, while reasonable proximity to the course and regular shuttle buses makes it ideal for a golf-focused break. It is perfect for an extended winter sun escape or a remote working ‘hideaway’.
Dinner at the Kaktus was a crisp Egyptian white wine and a buffet beneath a canopy of stars that seemed endless. Breakfasts are extensive with Levantine food almost buckling the tables — babaganoush, fresh hummus, salads of every description. Foul and beef bacon and sausages remind you that you’re in an Arabic land. What is foul, you ask? It certainly doesn’t draw you in when you first encounter a bowl of the stuff. It’s actually ful medames, or just plain ‘Egyptian foul’: a rich in-flavour dish with creamy, buttery beans and a zesty, fresh and aromatic flavour. Ful medames is Egypt’s national dish but you’ll also find it in most of the Middle Eastern countries. I got to love it.
Soma Bay’s Gary Player championship golf course is a seaside amphitheatre of fairways tumbling toward the Red Sea. Desert scrub and ochre rock frame immaculate turf, while cunning bunkers and sea breezes keep any ego in check. Precision, not power, wins here. It’s a true test and a buggy provides essential protection from the sun. The ice box stays filled with cool towels, ice and water and the drinks trolley circles regularly with beer and softies. Course attendants are courteous and friendly and are determined you’ll enjoy your round.
Three holes in particular stayed long in my memory. The 5th, nicknamed ‘The Pebbles of Soma’, is the best pure one-shotter on the entire estate — a Red Sea-framed par 3 with a green jutting into the water, protected by bunkering and exposed to shifting breeze. It’s Player channelling coastal theatre in the same spirit of Pebble’s famous par-3 seventh: tiny target, oversized visuals, huge psychological pressure. Misses are spectacular. The 14th, known as ‘Second Signature’, may be architecturally the strongest hole on the course: elevated tees play over a desert ravine to a narrow green with the sea lurking beyond, asking for a committed strike and exact yardage control, with no bailout and no soft side. A proper championship par 3. And the 15th, ‘Great Wall of Soma’, is the most complete of the three — a strategic par 4 hugging the shoreline that demands positional placement off the tee before a nervy carry across a coastal ravine into a long, slender green. It combines spectacle with decision-making: Mr Player at his sharpest.
At the Golf Academy, my instructor Ahmed offered one tip that stuck: ‘Grip like you are holding a bird — firm enough to stop it flying, but not enough to kill it.’ Suddenly my drives went further, swings felt freer, and I remembered why I fell in love with the game.
For a UK golfer, Somabay is arguably one of the smartest winter-sun golf choices if your priorities are practice quality, guaranteed sun and serious golf rather than just beach-time and nightlife.
The combination of Gary Player championship layout, a superb two-way driving range (allowing practice into/with the wind to simulate course conditions) and a genuinely world-class short-game arena positions Somabay as a perfect, comfortably warm golfing destination for October–November or January–early May.
With the floodlit par-3 course and a replica of the Sawgrass 17th island-green, it welcomes golfers of all levels and ages. A second golf course is soon opening, wider with more resort-friendly scoring opportunities to complement the sterner Gary Player test.
In total, it makes for one of the most complete warm-weather golf campuses within relatively easy reach of the Home Counties — an affordable set-up to hone your game and chill in between.
After a post-game drink, the Thalasso Spa at the Cascades Hotel provided the perfect rejuvenation. It left me floating like a poached egg in the aquatonic pool. Hydro-jets pummelled weeks of lethargy away, and I emerged pink, weightless, and briefly wondering if I could live there forever.
Soma Bay isn’t just golf. At Seven Pillars Reef, snorkelling is like falling into a Jacques Cousteau technicolour aquarium. Captain Ibrahim — a now-retired professional World Cup windsurfer — took us out on his stunning boat. His business trades as Happy Turtle Somabay. He’s handsome, calm, understated and quietly authoritative. And he knows these reefs better than anyone.
Fluorescent fish dart between coral towers; turtles drift past lazily; the water is absurdly clear. One fish just wouldn’t leave me alone … was this an Egyptian piranha in miniature? He was just being friendly! I felt like a teenager exploring and hovering over the huge mounds of coral.
For a slower pace, I rode out with Jasmine Stables across copper sands under a clear blue sky. No cars, no hawkers, no traffic — just wind, hooves, unbroken views of the Red Sea mountain ridge and quiet so profound it almost shocked me. A friendlier bunch of staff you’d struggle to find.
Sunset transforms the peninsula. Fairy lights shimmer at the marina; music drifts from SOBAR, a low-key nightlife hub. I enjoyed the music of local band ‘The Cadillacs’ who tore it up with a clever set of 50s and 60s classics reimagined in a rock & punk style. Travellers swap dive tales, golfers compare swings, the band mixes with guests, nobody checks phones, drinks flow. The Egyptians are super friendly and you could not have felt safer.
Post-golf afternoons were spent on the sun-drenched peninsula of Somabay at Wyte Beach Club, the destination’s most upscale retreat. Celebrated for its chic, minimalist aesthetic, it blends seamlessly with the sunsets and the turquoise Red Sea and offers an exquisite lounging experience with elegant sunbeds and impeccable service.
By evening, it transforms into a vibrant social hub known for sunset wellness rituals, live saxophone performances, and curated DJ sets. The Mediterranean-inspired menu and sophisticated cocktails make it the ultimate ‘place to be’ for those seeking a refined beachfront atmosphere.
The Kaktus Hotel blends work and play effortlessly. Soma Bay’s luxury is simplicity: none of that North African frenzy, just the hum of the sea, the soft whoosh of a nine iron, and the occasional kite-surfing sail.
On my last morning, the course was empty, the sea flat as glass. For a moment, all was still — just me, the desert, and a ball flying towards its watery grave!
Soma Bay isn’t loud or flashy. It’s assured and understated, offering sunshine without swagger, luxury without pretence. Coral reefs, desert horizons, and world-class sports facilities are the canvas; golf, snorkelling, horse riding, Thalasso spa therapy, enjoyable, hearty nightlife the main brushstrokes.
You have a retreat that nurtures body, mind – and your game. After three days in Egypt, I’d finally found both peace and a half-decent swing. I left lighter, tanned and reinvigorated, ready to face the long winter, but already planning my Red Sea return.
For more information about Soma Bay, including details of hotels and golf facilities, please visit www.somabay.com.
