Tag Archives: beach

Africa, Egypt, The Red Sea

Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh is magnificent!

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I read about a fantastic place in Egypt. The Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh.

“Located directly upon the shore of the Red Sea, a comfortable thirty minutes from the centre of Hurghada, The Oberoi, Sahl Hasheesh is a spectacular, forty eight acre, all suite hotel, with a certified PADI dive centre and a large private beach.

Inspired by traditional Arabic designs, our luxury hotel in Sahl Hasheesh has luxurious accommodations and restaurants which feature classical, domed ceilings and long corridors. They are illuminated by Arabic style lamps and framed by elegant columns decorated with the traditional Islamic eight point star.

We offer all guests complimentary access to high speed Internet for up to four devices.”

Our dream was to visit this fantastic hotel and dive into the Red Sea with our cameras.

Our dream came true in March 2018. The Oberoi is such a magnificent place, I can warmly recommend a short or a long vacation at this beautiful Five Star All Suite Hotel!

The Sahl Hasheesh sea and beach 2.jpg

If you  like a peaceful and beautiful beach, rather than a very crowded one, you will love Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh beach. The seaview is amazing. The waves touch gently the wonderful sandy beach. And there is plenty of space for all visitors to sunbathe on the beach. They have also great service also at the beach. Towels, sunchairs, water and even sunscreen. This beach is fantastic!

Red Sea Underwater World Sahl Hasheesh 2.jpg

If you like to swim in the sea, snorkel and watch the wonderful Red Sea underwater world, you can do so very easily from the pier. There is also the possibility to scubadive.

We like freediving and photographing underwater. This is one of the photos we got. The gorgeous Masked Butterflyfish, the small and beautiful damselfish and also the Orangespine Unicornfish were all right there waiting for us 🙂

Stay tuned, I will blog more about this great place later!

Have a wonderful day!

 

Italy

Beautiful Sabaudia in Italy

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A few years back we decided to rent a house south from Rome. We wanted to enjoy new areas, if possible close to the Mediterranean Sea. I googled for rental houses. After finding houses which were either too expensive or not to our liking, I saw an interesting  house in Sabaudia. We had never heard of this city, but found it interesting as it was very close to the sea and the house offered everything we wanted to a reasonable price. 

We investigated a bit more. When we realized the sandy beach next to the town was 20 kilometers long we made our decision.

Sabaudia beach_3
After arriving at Fiumicino airport in Rome, we rented a car (once in Italy, the choice was of course an Alfa Romeo) and drove 90 kilometers south. The drive was a bit longer than we are used to, but it was worth it. The house, the garden, the town and the beach – they were all fabulous. 

talon takapiha

View from Monte Circeo_2.jpg

A little bit of the town history: The architects  Gino Cancellotti, Luigi Piccinato and Alfredo Scalpelli made the city plans and the work started in August 1933. 6000 people built the city and it was ready already after a year. 

The house had a small garden in the front and on the back.

talo-sabaudiassa

Even though we like to cook ourselves, sometimes it is great to go to a nearby restaurant. We tried fish, sea food, pasta and of course pizza. We fell in love with the pizza Diavola, which is quite spicy.

pizza-diavola_2

The beach was fantastic. Hot summer days and cool Mediterranean Sea is a perfect match.

We can warmly recommend to spend a week or two in Sabaudia.

Swimming in the Med

IH ja Välimeri.jpg

Egypt, The Red Sea

Sun and underwater photography

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We are lucky to get to travel again to the Red Sea. As November is a very dark and rainy month in Finland, we look forward to the fantastic sunshine of Port Ghalib in Egypt. We also look forward to stay in our favourite hotel, formerly Intercontinental Palace, nowadays Red Sea Hotel’s The Palace Port Ghalib. The sandy beach and the coral reef in front of it are fabulous.

A great day comes to an end at ICPG

We can warmly recommend Port Ghalib, the Palace Port Ghalib hotel and to dive into the Red Sea.

To go underwater is fantastic.

A few photographs from our previous vacation:

PG 2015 Cornetfish I

Red Sea Beauty 11

Beautiful Exquisite Butterflyfish couple in the Red Sea_blog

Clownfish in the Red Sea

Chevron Butterflyfish couple closeup

Egypt, The Red Sea

Port Ghalib – still so perfect

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When visiting Port Ghalib, in Southern Egypt, you can cruise out to the sea in a catamaran. This one looked awesome.

PG 2015_Katamaraanilla merelle

The Red Sea is one of the best places in the world. You can enjoy swimming in it, sit on the sandy beach and enjoy the fabulous sea view, enjoy a catamaran cruise or go below the surface. We like to go below the surface and watch and photograph the beautiful and colorful fish and corals.

Here are a few new photos from our latest trip to Port Ghalib. I will post more Red Sea photos weekly or at least several times a month. This time we took 1400 photos 🙂

ps. click on the photos to see them enlarged

PG 2015 Exquisite Butterflyfish I

Klunzingers Wrasse
Klunzingers Wrasse
Masked Butterflyfish
Masked Butterflyfish

The staff, the service, the food, the atmosphere and the suite – everything was perfect once again at the Palace. We hope this all will continue with the new owners, the Red Sea Hotels.

The sea view from our suite was fantastic!

View from the suite
View from the suite

Breakfast and dinner in the Olive restaurant was a thrill every day. It was nice to meet familiar faces in the staff.

Olive restaurant at the Palace

Watch out for the dessert table. You might eat too much, as the Egyptians make beautiful and delicious desserts.

The Palace Olive restaurant_Dessert

PG The Palace Olive restaurant_Dessert II

The appetizers, salads and main courses were all superb. No matter if you like vegetarian food, chicken, fish or meat, you will always find something great and tasty to enjoy.

Olive restaurant_Dinner

More stories and photos to come, so stay tuned! 🙂

Egypt, The Red Sea

The Chevron Butterflyfish

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The Chevron Butterflyfish, also known as Triangulate Butterflyfish, is a species of butterflyfish found in the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Hawaiian Islands.

I got my first photos of it last week in the Red Sea!

ps. click on the photo to see it enlarged

Chevron Butterflyfish

I also got a few great photos of the Clownfish, also called the Anemonefish.

Clownfish Anemonefish II

I can warmly recommend to travel to Egypt and find a hotel close to the Red Sea and preferably a coral beach. The best one for us is the Palace at Port Ghalib, close to the Marsa Alam International Airport. Recommend you try it – you will love it!

More photos and stories to come – stay tuned 🙂

 

 

 

Jordan, The Red Sea

Adventures on the beach, in the sea and in the air – in Jordan

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Tala Bay is a perfect vacation place in Southern Jordan.  The sandy beach is perfect for sun bathing and the Red Sea offers a unique possibility to photograph exotic fish species. If you prefer swimming pools instead of the sea, you find many nice pools to swim or relax in.

Allas ja poreallas

ps. click on the photos to see them enlarged

The food is fabulous in Jordan, just like in Egypt. Baba ganoush, hummus, tabbouleh, fried fish, tasty desserts and the hot chili stuffed olives…

Baba Ganoush

We love the Red Sea. In Tala Bay we had some great adventures in the sea. We got many exciting photos of the sea life.

The Arabian Boxfish:

Arabian boxfish_Jordania
Arabian boxfish_Jordania

 

The Black Peacock Lionfish:

Black Peacock Lionfish and black sea urchin

Some funny looking corals:

Corals in the Red Sea in Jordan
Corals in the Red Sea in Jordan

 

We experienced also some adventure in the air. When I came to the surface to take a break from photographing the fish, I heard and felt a rumbling noise. I looked around. From the boarder in the south, where Jordan and Saudi Arabia meet, a huge helicopter flew towards a ship nearby.

Armeijan helikopteri

The helicopter approached the ship and commandos jumped with ropes from the helicopter to the ship.

Helicopter approaches the shiip

My husband and I did not know what was going on. Was this a training session, a show for the tourists… or? Everything happened very fast. I did not have time to switch the camera from underwater mode to normal mode, but I got a few good photos.

Ilmassa_kommandojen helikopteri_2

You can experience many things on holidays 😉

I love the adventures below surface. Watching and photographing the beautiful and interesting fish. Here is a Flagtail Halfmoon Triggerfish:

Flagtail_Halfmoon triggerfish

Stay tuned! More stories to come and many photos of the sea life in the Red Sea 🙂