Port Ghalib is the polished face of the deep south — a purpose-built marina town raised from the desert beside Marsa Alam's airport, all Arabesque arches, domes and pale stone wrapped around a sheltered harbour. Where the rest of this coast is wild and stripped-back, Port Ghalib is consciously ornamental, a comfortable staging post where you can arrive, drop your bags within minutes of landing, and ease into the rhythm of the southern Red Sea. It works as a gateway and a resort at once: refined, easy to navigate, and pointed squarely at the reefs offshore.

The heart of it is the marina promenade, a waterfront curl of cafés, shops and moored boats that fills pleasantly in the cooler evening hours. The reefs are the real draw — Shaab Marsa Alam and the surrounding sites deliver vivid coral and reef fish a short boat ride out, and day trips run south to Sataya Reef in the Fury Shoals, where spinner dolphins gather in the lagoon. With the airport only minutes away, many divers treat Port Ghalib as the first and last comfortable night of a southern trip, bookending wilder days at sea.

After dark the town leans into its strengths. The marina souk and a small gallery give an hour's browsing, the waterfront cafés set out shisha pipes and mint tea, and resorts such as the Albatros Citadel spread along the adjoining beaches for those who want a pool and a buffet between dives. It is not a place of deep local history — it was built whole, and makes no pretence otherwise — but as a calm, handsome harbour at the edge of Egypt's most exciting reefs, it knows exactly what it is.