In nearly a decade of traveling around Egypt, I’ve experienced what I thought was the gamut of leisure lodging, from a sleeping bag under the desert stars to a suite overlooking the Red Sea. I had not, however, experienced the ‘boutique hotel,’ mainly because the concept has been largely missing here. The newly opened Jaz Little Venice Golf Resort, Ain Sokhna’s first boutique hotel, is looking to fill that gap.

The boutique concept itself is a bit vague. My idea of a ‘boutique hotel’ included a teeny little place with a handful of rooms and impossibly cute décor, frequented by celebrities who carry full-grown dogs around in designer handbags. I clearly had no idea what I was talking about.

Soft launched in June, Jaz Little Venice is a 60-room hotel with three swimming pools, a gym, tennis court, a beach and nary a teacup poodle in sight.

The hotel, located inside the Little Venice residential compound, was bigger than I expected but still quite cozy. The rooms are distributed over 10 three-story chalets that form a horseshoe around a landscaped pool area. Jaz Little Venice has recognized that we as a culture travel in packs. A ground-floor room with a king-sized bed connects to another room with twin beds so parents have their privacy while still having access to the children next door. The suites include a pullout sofa bed, and the hotel provides an extra bed or infant cot upon request.

One-third of the resort is given to suites. The Deluxe Suite, on the first floor of each chalet, follows the traditional plan, with a door between the bedroom and sitting area. Covering the entire top floor, the Executive Suite combines an open plan with privacy. There are no doors between the dining area, sitting area and bedroom, but the judicious arrangement of walls creates semi-private spaces.

The three Superior rooms on the ground floor have shaded patios with walk-out access to the pool area; the Deluxe and Executive suites on the upper floors have spacious terraces — not balconies, terraces — with chaise lounges, chairs and coffee tables. A suite sleeps up to four adults but with these terraces can entertain many more.

All the rooms have the standard amenities, including flat-screen plasma TVs, safes and hairdryers. In the suites, an espresso maker stands in for the expected drip coffeemaker. But if you’re thinking of working for the weekend, think again. Even in the Executive Suite, I had to search for an available plug to recharge my phone — there’s one in the dining area and another in the bathroom, but little else.

In terms of décor, Jaz avoids the ‘impossibly cute’ tag by not having individual themes for rooms and public areas. The aesthetics are anchored by an ecru base and dark hardwood accessories with strong, clean lines and textures. The result is a soothing space with ever-so-subtle hints of the Far East. The curve of a katana sword is echoed in the legs of the chairs, for example, and the slatted grids of the terrace sun shades invoke a dojo’s screen walls. It plays on the meditative rather than the martial arts: tai chi is not on offer, but a yoga instructor is lined up to hold weekend classes starting around the eid.

Guest rooms follow the main design scheme accented with one of four themes — water, forest, sun or desert — reflected in area rugs, bed runners and artwork.

Whatever your idea is of ‘boutique,’ it seems the concept is not so much about size as it is about service and exclusivity. Part of Jaz Little Venice’s VIP service, which is standard for suite guests, includes a continental breakfast on your terrace, delivered by three men bearing platters of pastries, cheeses and meats, coffee and juices. Wear sunglasses, lest you hurt your eyes from the sun reflecting off the spotlessly polished silverware. (Now there’s a problem I’d like to have every day.)

The VIP service also includes a dedicated butler who can shuttle you around in a golf cart, bring you towels and drinks by the pool or beach, and accommodate every imaginable request. I tend to lack imagination for putting a butler through his paces, but that just leaves room for the butler to come up with good ideas. The soft-spoken, always smiling Ahmed quickly noticed that I like spending time in the water, so he made sure to have a cool, scented washcloth ready each time I emerged from the pool or ocean.

About 250 meters from the front entrance of the hotel, a beach serves both guests and compound residents. The hotel shuttles guests there by golf cart and provides chaise lounges. Bounded by two piers, the beach itself is a reef-free stretch of soft sand and calm, pastel turquoise waters. At low tide, you can wade out over gentle sand bars for a few hundred meters before the depth reaches a meter.

The beach is already set up with a beverage bar. Winter will also see a new deck at the beach for al fresco dining.

My August visit was set up as a sneak peak, and the hotel was still tweaking bits of décor and signage in the public areas. Hotel General Manager Vivek Sharma says all the detail work will be done by the eid, which kicks off the Ain Sokhna season.

It’s actually quite appropriate for Jaz to ramp up after a month of fasting, for the food is fantastic. The resort offers bed-and-breakfast accommodation, with the dining outlets offering à la carte service for lunch and dinner. This visit was a departure from my standard hotel review procedures, where my companions and I order from the menu or sample the buffet. Chef Ibrahim Okasha was given carte blanche to ‘go crazy,’ and he responded with samplings of his favorite dishes.

The chef has a special passion for seafood, and I definitely recommend you let him follow that passion. Among his creations were a shrimp tempura paired with pina colada mousse, scallops on watercress pate, and a column of minced salmon and tabouleh. The menu also features Oriental dishes, pasta and at lunchtime, comfort food such as hamburgers and chicken quesadillas.

Because the hotel is predominantly à la carte, special attention is given to presentation, and all the dishes arrive artfully arranged. And it is fresh. I’m fussy about pastries. I love them, but all too often hotel pastries are cold and dry. In the continental breakfast, the mini croissants were still warm when the room service staff arrived to lay out the dishes on my terrace table. The rest of the bite-sized pastries were equally soft and tasty.

Your dining options include Mangiamo, the main restaurant with indoor and terrace seating, and the pool restaurant Gondola, which offers comfort food such as burgers and pizza during the afternoon. The Terrazina Lounge has an extensive selection of beverages and light snacks. On the weekends, the resort hosts a barbecue by the pool.

Jaz Little Venice is family friendly in that it has a children’s pool and a modest-sized playground, but you won’t find an animation team or loud bounce-around music to keep the little ones occupied. Neither of the two adult pools, one air temperature and the other heated during winter, exceed 150 centimeters in depth, so they are suitable for the older kids. The beach is sand castle heaven, and if you need to get everyone out to stretch their legs, Porto Sokhna — a twin of the North Coast’s Porto Marina, right down to the canal — is just a half-hour drive away.

The resort also offers day use packages from 10am to 6pm that include use of a room and full access to the hotel services, including beach, pool, gym and other recreation outlets. The package includes up to two adults and two children.

An interesting side note is that Jaz Little Venice is a completely local venture. Often, five-star hotel properties are owned by a Gulf investor and managed by an international brand. Jaz is the luxury brand for the hotel arm of local tourism group Travco, while the Little Venice is the first tourism venture for Hassan Allam Group, a contracting company better known for its large-scale infrastructure projects. The contractors used only local materials and suppliers, incorporating subtle Egyptian design elements such as alabaster light covers in the lounge and Islamic geometric prints on the lobby chandelier. It’s one of the better trends to emerge of late: the realization that ‘King Louis Farouk’ is not synonymous with luxury.

While the resort is ready for guests, it is not quite ready for golfers. Little Venice’s nine-hole course and driving range, designed by Sandford Golf Designs, is still being sodded. It is expected to be open for play by June 2010. Phase two of the resort will add an additional 90 rooms, a spa and a conference center all due to be open by Christmas 2010; the bulk of building construction is planned for off-season to minimize disruption to guests.

The golf course and spa are definitely something to look forward to, but in the meantime, Jaz Little Venice is quite prepared to make your weekend escape a lesson in luxury.  et