It’s always difficult to decide where to go for a short break to the Winter sun as a single traveller, but I recently found the solution at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
Sharm?ticks all the boxes for short flight, no jet lag and guaranteed sun.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Club rooms and suites offer privacy, comfort, fantastic personal service and security which is especially important to myself as a single female traveller.
Be sure to also request the Hotel’s airport meet and greet service when you book (a supplement) but this VIP service whisks you through customs and passport control quicker than you can say “Sharm El Sheikh”!
The Club rooms and suites at the Hotel all have sea view and access to the Club Lounge which is overseen by the Refky, the charming and super-efficient Club Lounge manager of 15 years.
The Club lounge becomes your daily destination for social interaction, free internet access and breakfast, lunch and pre-dinner canapes with unlimited drinks. This exclusive facility enables you to feel not-so-on- your-own, as it is such a friendly small place. By the end of a week you will have made friends (if you choose to do so) with most of the Club guests! or at least to say Hello to them. I can only describe my stay as a Hotel Club guest similar to turning left on a plane instead of right.
I flew EasyJet from Gatwick to Sharm, so there was no turning left on the plane, but I did book Speedy boarding and my reserved seat made the approx 5 hour flights quite painless.
The Club Lounge has 4 sessions a day where delicious canapes/small bites are served. Breakfast is a Continental selection with the addition of eggs cooked to request by the chef on hand.
Lunch is sandwiches and canape-style small bites and salads and a daily soup.
All guests turned up for tea regularly each day as scones, cream and jam, yummy small cakes, sandwiches and savoury canapes in the shade gave us a break from our suntanning routines.
Pre-dinner canapes again were often enough to not have a dinner as well, although I did road test dinners at the Italian restaurant-La Luna, The Arabian restaurant-Fayrouz and Blue Ginger- Japanese.
Apart from lying on my sunbed on the beach each day overlooking the reef…
My daily ritual was a morning length’s swim in the huge pools- heated and non-heated (still warm), breakfast, sun-bathe, lunch with rose wine, nap in shade, tea, then gym and a Spa treatment.
I treated myself to a daily massage with Wael who was the Spa manager who was excellent and a reflexology with Moon, a Thai lady. I also had a 20 minute massage on the beach listening to the waves breaking. Bliss…..
The best thing about this trip was that all the treatments were not so expensive to be unaffordable- the 20 minute beach massage was on special offer at approx ?20 whilst the Spa hour massages were around ?50 for 50 minutes and ?25 for 25 minutes reflexology.
Unaccustomed to holidaying on my own, I was anxious that I could feel awkward, but this trip was so good. Rarely can one say it was a perfect holiday – but it was. There wasn’t even a single cloud in the sky for the whole week. Looking forward to re-visiting next year.
