Wadi Lahami Beach, Marsa Alam

Wadi Lahami is the bay you reach when the coast road has finally run out of resorts. Down here in the Deep South, past Hamata, the development thins to nothing and the shore becomes what the whole coast once was, a flat shallow lagoon the colour of glass, low desert behind, a fringe of mangrove to the north and camels picking along the sand. There is a particular quality to the light this far south, hard and clean, that makes the lagoon glow and the emptiness feel like the point rather than the absence. For a photographer or anyone tired of the sunbed grid, the composition is unbeatable, a single kite arcing over an empty turquoise sheet under a vast sky.

The honest read is the distance and the comfort. This is roughly a hundred and eighty kilometres south of Marsa Alam airport, the better part of a long drive, and what waits is a simple eco base of Bedouin style tents and domed chalets built for divers and kiters, not a five star frontage with a spa and a cocktail list. The shore itself is wild rather than groomed, the lagoon floor carries seagrass and the odd coral, and a casual sun worshipper expecting a soft resort beach will find the reality plainer than the picture suggests. What you trade comfort for is space, silence and access to the Fury Shoals, among the most pristine reefs in the Red Sea, plus a kite lagoon many riders rate as the best on this coast.

So our verdict is to come to Wadi Lahami on purpose, not on a whim. If you kite, dive, or simply crave a shore with no crowd and no noise, the long road pays you back in full, and there is little on the Egyptian coast as quietly cinematic. If you want easy comfort, a serviced sunbed and a short transfer, this is the wrong end of the map, and the resort bays at Coraya Bay or the convenient marina at Port Ghalib will suit you far better. Wadi Lahami is for travellers who treat remoteness as the luxury, and on those terms it is one of the finest bays in the south.