Hurghada: the resort strip, the islands and the reef

Hurghada is Egypt’s seaside in the simplest sense: a city of about 214,000 people on the Red Sea coast, the capital of the Red Sea Governorate, and the end of a road that runs east from Luxor. It began as a fishing village in 1905 and became a resort because the reef offshore is close and the water is clear; today the built strip runs close to forty kilometres along the coast, with the old town in the middle and purpose-built resorts scattered north and south of it.

The geography is easy to hold in the head. The Red Sea is to the east, with a chain of islands just offshore. The Red Sea Mountains run along the west, bare and pink at sunset. Between them is one road, one airport and a line of hotels, which is why getting around is straightforward and why the address you book decides your holiday.

The islands and the reef

The islands offshore are the reason the boats go out: Giftun, Umm Qamar, Magawish, Abu Ramada, Abu Minqar, Fanadir and Shadwan, each with a different mix of coral, sand and shelter. The standard day trip is a boat to one or two of them with lunch, a snorkelling stop and a beach landing, and for many visitors it is the whole reason for coming.

Divers have more: a long chain of reefs running north and south of the city, with drop-offs, coral gardens, a few wrecks and the sandy shallow site known as Dolphin House, where the boats gather in hope of the animals rather than the guarantee of them. The Red Sea is warm enough to dive all year, and the local operators are well organised: two dives, food between them, and a strict word about depth.

The shape of the city

El Dahar is the old town, with the market, the mosque and the ordinary life of a working city. El Saqqala and El Ahyaa sit between it and the hotel strip, which is where most of the tourism happens. South and north of that are the settlements with their own names and their own characters: El Gouna, built around lagoons and a wind that kitesurfers travel for; Sahl Hasheesh, with large hotels and a promenade; Makadi Bay, quiet and family-shaped; Soma Bay, further out and more expensive.

The old town is worth an evening even if you are staying an hour away. The fish market and the restaurants around it are where Hurghada eats, the produce market is a normal Egyptian market rather than a tourist one, and the street running down to the water has the shisha cafés and the shops. It is the only part of the city that existed before the hotels, and it shows.

The distances matter more than the map suggests. A hotel in Makadi Bay is not a walk from the old town, and a cheap rate in a remote resort can cost you the whole holiday in taxi fares. If you want to leave the hotel, stay near the centre.

Getting there, and the road to Luxor

Hurghada International Airport handles direct flights from a long list of European cities, which makes the coast the easy half of many Egyptian holidays. The trip to the Nile is by road: roughly four to five hours to Luxor, by private transfer or bus, and it is the standard way to put the beach and the tombs in one trip. Cairo is much further, but the road is good and the buses run.

There is no useful passenger railway on this coast and no ferry worth relying on, so the road is the answer for everything inland. If you are combining Hurghada with Luxor, Aswan or Cairo, decide the direction before you book, because the transfers are the largest single cost after the hotel.

Wind, sun and when to go

The coast has two things in common with the rest of the Red Sea: very little rain and a lot of sun. Winter days are mild and pleasant, which is why the season peaks from October to April, and summer is hot above the water rather than in it, which is why dives happen at dawn and the afternoons are spent horizontal.

The wind is the local speciality, and it is not a small detail. El Gouna and Soma Bay are kitesurfing and windsurfing destinations for that reason, and the same wind that fills a kite can cancel a boat or turn a snorkelling trip into a short, choppy morning. A stay with two water days rather than one is the sensible plan, whichever month you come.

Hurghada is not a place of monuments and does not pretend to be. It is a warm sea, a reef, islands within sight of the shore and a road that reaches the Nile, which is exactly what makes it fit so neatly onto the end of an Egyptian itinerary.