If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD312.50), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
You’ll find a little bit of everything at La Maison Bleue, a pastel-hued hideaway tucked between El Gouna’s dunes and lagoons. Decadent interiors were expertly matched by local interior designer Amr Khalil, who drew on travels from Europe and North Africa to bring period pieces and Minoan murals into the mix. And as arresting as Khalil’s choices are, scenes only get dreamier outside: a marble-lined pool lulls to the beat of birdsong, the spacious spa plays into Roman influences for serene soaks, mosaiced columns – inspired by Barcelona’s Palace of Catalan Music – sit pretty against the blooming herb gardens, a private lagoon and beach hosting thrill-seeking kitesurfers. Coat it all in one of the Red Sea’s storied sunsets and you’re unlikely to stray too far from the sand.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A bottle of sparkling wine on arrival and a 30 minutes added for free to one 60-minute spa treatment
Noon; check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £320.31 ($400), including tax at 28 per cent.
More details
Rates usually include breakfast, which is served anytime, anywhere.
Also
Communal areas are fitted with ramps and there’s a lift up to the first floor, but rooms haven’t been specially adapted for wheelchair users.
At the hotel
Private beach and lagoon onsite, kitesurfing club, yoga and personal trainers, free laundry service, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, Bose speakers, air-conditioning, tea-making kit, Nespresso coffee machine, free minibar, free bottled water, pillow menu, and organic bath products.
Our favourite rooms
All suites are spacious and finessed with opulent furnishings, high domed ceilings and calming pastel tones. If you’re after something extra special, the Tower Suite sits up its own spiral staircase and has a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the Red Sea, El Gouna and the Eastern Desert mountains.
Poolside
Ideally set between the beach and spa, the heated outdoor pool (open from 9am till 6pm) is a vision in marble, flanked with sun loungers and a red-columned bar that shakes up poolside concoctions daily. You’ll also find a row of loungers on the bordering beach, a few steps from the hotel’s private lagoon and kitesurfing club.
Spa
The hotel’s sprawling spa is a wellness wonderland, which houses two treatment rooms, a sauna, steam room, Turkish bath, and two plunge pools (one cold, one hot). Masseurs blend traditional Thai and Ayurvedic methods with natural herbs and oils to help de-knot and release tension. Weekly yoga and personal training sessions are available to book as well – just ask at the front desk.
Packing tips
Pack your finest fins and snorkelling masks for underwater explorations – don’t worry if you don’t have your own, El Gouna is brimming with snorkelling stores.
Children
Leave the little Smiths home for this one – La Maison Bleue is strictly over-16s.
Sustainability efforts
Being a Green Star hotel comes with plenty of environmental responsibilities, which La Maison Bleue has taken in its stride: all power is sourced from its widespread solar panels that cover 16 per cent of the town’s electricity needs, water irrigation and saving methods are used to limit waste, food not picked from the onsite greenhouse is sourced locally and sustainably, bath products are all organic, and you won’t find any single-use plastic. It’s a signatory of Unesco’s Sustainable Travel Pledge, which ensures hotels are not only protecting and preserving their surroundings, but also supporting local communities.
Scenic spots aren’t tough to come by here, but we’d suggest dining on the terrace for starlit suppers.
Dress Code
Don the vintage threads to fit in with Le Restaurant’s art deco decor.
Hotel restaurant
All-day dining Le Restaurant is set in an opulent art deco dining room, decked out in pastel blue hues, period furnishings and a curated collection of antique artwork. French-spun Egyptian fare fills the menu, and its seasonal dishes (homemade gnocchi with tomato and basil, and American prawns with rosemary risotto to name a few) are embellished with freshly picked vegetables and herbs from the hotel’s greenhouse. Just beyond the French doors, the alfresco dining area sits under regally domed arches, overlooking the Pool Bar, where Mezze-style light bites are dished up throughout the day.
Hotel bar
Tipples are poured wherever you please – craft cocktails (with herbs from the gardens) are the main player at the Pool Bar while Le Restaurant specialises in sommelier-selected wine pairings.
Last orders
Breakfast is served anytime, anywhere. At Le Restaurant, lunch is noon to 4pm, and dinner is between 6pm and 11pm. The Pool Bar serves from 10am till 11pm.
Room service
Le Restaurant’s all-day menu can be delivered to your door round-the-clock.
La Maison Bleue is along the northern tip of Egypt’s coastal Hurghada district, in the resort town of El Gouna on the Red Sea.
Planes
Hurghada International Airport is the closest, a 45-minute drive from the hotel. Two-person transfers can be arranged for EGP525, or EGP1,015 for four people. There’s also a private airport in El Gouna, a shorter (15-minute) drive away.
Automobiles
We’d suggest sticking to the passenger seat and hiring a driver for the day. But if you’re feeling confident about navigating the roads, there are plenty of rental booths at the airport and there’s free car parking at the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
El Gouna may have once had nothing more than a small marina from which local fishermen cast their nets, but once billionaire-entrepreneur Samih Sawairis stepped in to reform this Red Sea stretch back in the late Nineties it became the holidaying hotspot that stands today. Beach bums have their lay of the land here, and if you tire of paddling in La Maison Bleue’s private lagoon, there are regular boats out to the neighbouring Zeytouna Beach Island. Otherwise, head for Buzzha Beach and Mangroovy Beach for water-skiing and surfing sessions in all forms, or Abu Dabbab Beach to snorkel among the coral reefs and giant turtles. Adrenaline-seekers can find their fix at the Sliders Cable Park – where wakeboarders from around the world come to carve – or diving among the shipwrecks at the Sha’ab Abu Nuhas ship graveyard.
If you’d rather stay above ground, there are plenty of guided hiking trails through the Abu Sha’ar Mountains, which are especially scenic at sunset. For something a little less taxing, visit the Tamr Henna Square in Downtown El Gouna and learn more about the region’s culture with a wander round the El Gouna Museum.
Local restaurants
You’ll find some of the island’s freshest seafood a 10-minute walk away at El Bahr Restaurant, where you’re welcome to pick your cut from the counter before chefs season and sauté with locally sourced ingredients. If you’re in Downtown El Gouna, stop by bohemian Chicha Restaurant & Bar for tacos and margaritas.
Local bars
For something a little more lively, head to Zouni Lounge Bar, where live music is paired with classic cocktails for an upbeat evening.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this striking Red Sea stay in El Gouna and unpacked their artefacts and antiques, a full account of their sky-blue break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside La Maison Bleue in Egypt…
The scenes make themselves when you’re flitting between sand and sea in Hurghada’s Red Sea resort town, but the owners of La Maison Bleue have managed to make the sights even more spectacular. Set along a private stretch of Mangroovy Beach, in eastern Egypt, this eye-catching retreat impresses from the start with a sky-blending blue façade, emboldened with climbing frangipanis, mosaiced Catalan columns and wavey roofs that cleverly mimic the surrounding desert’s dunes. There’s plenty to gaze at inside, too, as interior-design extraordinaire Amr Khalil has meticulously merged European, Syrian and North African influences to create 13 grand suites and a lobby that feels more like an antique collector’s living room than a hotel reception. Just past the entrance frescoed walls replicate the Greek paintings of Thera and the Cretan Minoan murals; the foyer's Venetian-style tiling was inspired by St Mark’s Basilica, and the hallway’s Sphinx-inspired sculptures bring things back to Egypt’s artistic roots.
