Day trips from Hurghada

From Hurghada two trips are worth it and two more are pleasant: the boat to Giftun and a day in Luxor are what you get up early for, the desert and El Gouna are afternoons. Cairo from Hurghada — twelve hours of driving for two hours of pyramids — is what the hotel sells because it can, and the trip we would most easily skip.

Giftun island — a full day, by boat

A boat from the Marina or the hotel jetty, an hour to the island with two or three snorkelling stops over the reef, an hour on the reserve's sandy beach and lunch on board. Choose a smaller boat with fewer people — the big catamarans with music go to the same places with a hundred passengers. Reserve entry is paid separately, in cash on board. This is the best eight hours on the coast, and the one trip we would do twice.

Where to stayWhich zone of the coast the boat leaves from without a transfer:Where to stay in Hurghada →

Luxor — 14 hours, once

Leave at five, four to five hours by road through the desert, the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, lunch, Karnak, back at nine at night. With a private driver you choose what to see and when; with a group you see everything in order and stand in an alabaster shop. Worth it, once — anyone wanting more sleeps two nights in Luxor and sees it properly. From June to September it is not done: Luxor is forty-five then.

GuideLuxor once — but how?Luxor →

When to goIn which month Luxor from Hurghada makes sense, and in which it does not:The best time to visit Hurghada →

The desert and Bedouins — an afternoon

A quad or jeep into the hills behind town, a stop at a Bedouin village with tea and bread baked in the sand, a camel if you want, sunset from a hill and stars. Four hours, touristy to the end, and pleasant — the hills are real, the sunset is real, the bread is real. Done in the cool season when the afternoon is mild; in July the desert at five in the afternoon is an oven.

El Gouna — an afternoon and evening

Half an hour north by taxi: a resort of lagoons and canals, two quays with restaurants, tuk-tuks and a calm the centre lacks. Go in the afternoon, walk the Marina and Downtown, dinner on the quay, taxi back. For anyone staying in the centre or the south, this is the easiest way to see what the tidy version of the same coast looks like.

What not to do

• Cairo from Hurghada in a day. Six hours each way, two hours on the plateau at noon, six hours back; anyone wanting the pyramids flies to Cairo or leaves them for another time.
• Dolphin House and 'swimming with dolphins'. The dolphins are there by chance, the boats with hundreds of people are not; when they appear, twenty people jump in after them. Giftun gives the same sea without that.
• A trip from the hotel desk. The same tour, the same boat, three times the price; agencies in Sekalla and online sell the same departures.

GuideCairo with a night, instead of a day trip?Cairo →