Soma Bay

A peninsula made for staying put

Soma Bay occupies the Ras Abu Soma peninsula, between the Red Sea and the desert mountains. You arrive by the coast road: 45 km south of Hurghada airport towards Safaga, then about 8 km of road across the peninsula to the hotels. There is no town or village: hotels, residences, two golf courses, water sports centres and reefs. Abu Soma Development, the company developing the site, has announced more than 2,000 homes and several more hotels over the next two years.

What this means for the traveller: you stay in your own hotel or your neighbours', on foot or by shuttle. Evenings are spent on site. For a souk, a town restaurant or a night out, Hurghada is about three quarters of an hour away by road. Sabaro recommends Soma Bay to those for whom peace and quiet is the point of the trip.

One hotel, one kind of stay

On a peninsula with no town, your choice of hotel decides your stay. The four hotels in the Sabaro selection each have their role:

• For golf: The Cascades. The resort is built around the Gary Player course, with a thalassotherapy centre and suites of up to 340 m².
• For the spa: the Kempinski. 325 rooms, a spa and a thalassotherapy centre with an Aquatonic circuit.
• For diving or riding: The Breakers. A 173-room lodge on the reef, designed for divers and kitesurfers, with centres on site.
• For families: the Robinson Club. 348 rooms, kids' clubs from birth, diving from age 8, about 500 m of gently sloping sandy beach, and a drop-off that goes down to about 100 m offshore.

Golf in the wind

The course designed by South Africa's Gary Player opened in 1998; it is The Cascades' course. A second course, Hidden Coves, designed by the British architect Tim Lobb, takes its name from the coves carved beneath the coastal cliffs. Its back nine, holes 10 to 18, are open; the front nine are due by the end of 2026.

The wind that delights kitesurfers is also part of the game. It nearly always blows from the same direction, and Tim Lobb made it part of the strategy: the course has only eight formal bunkers, set among palms, sand and rock. Sabaro recommends early-morning tee times, before the heat.

Sea on both sides

Under water. The Ras Abu Soma house reef suits divers of all levels as well as snorkellers; the Napoleon wrasse, a large reef fish, is often seen there. By boat, centres head for Panorama Reef and the Salem Express wreck, off neighbouring Safaga, as well as Dolphin House reef, frequented by dolphins, and Utopia Island. The nearest decompression chamber is in Safaga.

On the water. Several kitesurfing and wing foil centres (a board pulled by a hand-held wing) operate on the peninsula. A two-day beginner course, levels 1 and 2, costs €340 per person at 7 Bft KiteHouse (price checked on 14 October 2026). To rent gear without lessons, centres ask for a certified level: VDWS level 4 (Verband Deutscher Wassersportschulen, the German federation of water sports schools) or IKO level 3 (International Kiteboarding Organization).

Soma Bay and Luxor

Soma Bay combines easily with Luxor: the road runs via Safaga and then Qena, and takes about 3 hours 30 minutes. The Sabaro trip idea "Nile cruise and Red Sea in 10 days" strings together three nights on the Nile, two in Luxor, then four nights in Soma Bay. The journey is made by day: driving at night outside towns should be ruled out.