Hurghada
The easiest Egypt — forty kilometres of hotels along the Red Sea, and Luxor four hours away if you want it
- When to go
- October 27° · 0 rainy days
- Per day
- €€price 2 of 5
- How many days
- 7days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 9 km Hurghada · 98 km Sharm El Sheikh
- Right now
Hurghada is the easiest Egypt: an airport 9 km from town as the crow flies, the visa bought on arrival, a hotel on the beach and, in the south of the coast, a reef beneath the hotel jetty. What separates a good holiday from an all-inclusive week is knowing where to snorkel, which day is for Luxor, and that the town exists outside the hotel gate.
The coast is close to forty kilometres long and the hotel is chosen by where on it it stands. El Gouna, twenty-five kilometres north, is a built resort of lagoons and canals; the centre around Sekalla and the Marina has a town behind the hotels and restaurants within walking distance; in the south, at Makadi, thirty kilometres from town, hotels have a reef off the jetty, while at Sahl Hasheesh, eighteen kilometres out, it depends on the hotel. The sea is 21–22 degrees in January and February, and the northerly builds from late morning until evening — almost daily in summer, four or five days a week in winter — which makes winter afternoons on the beach cooler than the thermometer says.
Luxor is about four hours by road and the one reason to get up at five: a day of fourteen to sixteen hours with the Valley of the Kings and Karnak, in an organised minibus or with a private driver. It is worth it, once; anyone who wants more sleeps two nights in Luxor and does not come back the same day. From June to August it is not done, because the average daily high in Luxor is then 41 °C.
Guides for Hurghada
Shorter, practical pages for one concrete question each — how many days, how much money, where to sleep, where to escape the city.
Day trips from Hurghada
→Giftun by boat, Luxor in fourteen hours, the desert with Bedouins, El Gouna for an afternoon and a Cairo not worth it…
What to see in Hurghada
Giftun island
A national park forty-five minutes by boat from the Marina, with snorkelling stops and a sandy beach. Choose a smaller boat; the big catamarans with music go to the same places. The park fee is often not in the boat price, so ask before paying.
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The house reef at Makadi
Hotels at Makadi have a jetty over the coral, so you snorkel straight from the beach, in the morning before the wind. At Sahl Hasheesh, ask before booking whether the hotel has its own reef or takes guests out by boat.
The Marina and Sekalla at night
The part of town you walk: fish restaurants, cafés on the Marina quay, and Sekalla, the oldest part of town. Agree the taxi fare before the ride.
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El Gouna
A resort of lagoons and canals twenty-five kilometres north, with restaurants on the quay. Go in the afternoon by taxi and stay for dinner — the tidy version of the same coast, for anyone sleeping in the centre or the south.
Scuba diving
The basic diving course takes two to four days and fits into a week's holiday. Choose a centre with a PADI or SSI licence, not the hotel desk.
Desert and Bedouins in the afternoon
A quad or jeep into the hills behind town, tea with Bedouins, sunset. Touristy to the end, but the hills are real and so is the sunset; go in the cooler half of the year, not in July.
Stories from Hurghada
How it actually was when we were there, and what was worth it.
Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh: where the difference really lies
→Two resorts on the same sea that look identical in a brochure. There are four differences, and all four show on the first day.
Two things you probably did not know
Hurghada was founded in the early twentieth century as a settlement beside oil fields. Tourism only began in the eighties, and in forty years the town grew from a few thousand to over two hundred thousand people.
The Red Sea is opening as two tectonic plates pull apart, widening about a centimetre a year. In a few million years it will be an ocean, with Africa and Arabia much further apart.
Ready for Hurghada?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Hurghada — day trips or weekends.
Egypt
→Two countries under one name: the Nile with its temples, which needs a plan, and the Red Sea, which needs only a charter — few people do both in one trip
Tunisia
→Ten towns in a line, from the capital to the sand at Tozeur — in the order they're actually travelled, not listed
Morocco
→The north by train, the south by road, and in July you leave Marrakech for the coast
Turkey
→Istanbul, then one direction: Cappadocia by plane, Ephesus and Pamukkale by train, or the Lycian coast by bus
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab and Luxor
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Hurghada if you have been.
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