Taba Heights Golf Resort

Few golf destinations anywhere in the world sit in a setting quite like this one. Taba Heights Golf Resort occupies the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where the desert mountains of Egypt plunge toward the Red Sea and the borders of Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia converge on the horizon across the water. The course was designed by José María Olazábal — the two-time Masters champion — and opened in 2003 as the centrepiece of a large integrated resort complex. It plays through a dramatic landscape of rust-red rock and imported turf, with the Gulf of Aqaba providing a constant visual backdrop that makes the experience genuinely unlike most desert layouts elsewhere in the world.

Olazábal's design works with the natural contours of the terrain rather than flattening them, meaning elevation changes and rocky outcroppings are active parts of the strategy rather than decoration. The course rewards precise ball-striking and course management, as errant shots frequently find punishing desert waste areas.

The surrounding region is best known internationally for the ancient monastery of St. Catherine and the diving waters of the Red Sea coast. Nuweiba and Taba draw a mix of European resort travelers and regional golfers, and the course remains one of the most architecturally serious resort layouts in North Africa or the Middle East.