The town of Hurghada has a small market street for tourists, but otherwise doesn't offer much for visitors to the Red Sea resorts--except for a taste of the way typical Egyptians live. Most of the hotels along the Red Sea are self-contained resorts, ideal for families who don't mind being isolated from authentic Egyptian culture for the duration of their trip. Some resorts connect, so it is possible to visit the shops and restaurants of other resorts if you tire of the same buffet dinners offered by your hotel night after night.
Get in
By plane
Hurghada can be reached from Cairo in an hour by air for about $230 round trip (Egypt Air). There are also direct charters from Europe in the winter high season. From the airport in Hurghada, you will probably take a shuttle provided by your hotel.
By boat
International Fast Ferries
runs fast boats to Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula, currently running four times weekly. The ride takes 1.5 hours
and costs 250/450 LE one-way/return for foreigners. Warning: this ride is notoriously bumpy and prone to cancellations.
By bus
Your hotel or a travel agency associated with your hotel will be able to arrange excursions to nearby attractions, including Luxor. Luxor is about 4 to 5 hours by bus, and your tour operator will be required to leave and return at designated times in order to travel in a police escorted convoy (of approximately 150 other tour buses.)
See
Of course, the main reason to visit Hurghada is for the beautiful Red Sea, which is excellent for diving or snorkeling. If you aren't licenced to dive, it is often possible to snorkel and see incredible coral reefs and hundreds of varieties of tropical fish just 10 meters from the beach. Again, either your hotel will have dive escorts on site, or they can arrange a scuba diving expedition with guides. In late March, the water is still quite cold (21 Celsius), so a wet suit is necessary, and even snorkeling in a bathing suit is too cold after about 10 minutes. It is also windy in late March; sustained 20 MPH are common. Make sure your Beach resort Hotel provides wind screens on the Beach.
Do
Hurghada offers many activities not to be found anywhere else on Earth. Quad-biking hundreds of miles into the Sahara desert for tea with a Bedoin tribe, then camel-riding across Biblical plains to see remote and ancient wonders; diving and snorkeling around a vibrant and colourful coral reef; boat trips to the unpopulated Big and Little Gifton islands; swimming in the warmest and saltiest sea in the world (the Red Sea is more saline than even the Dead Sea); good shopping; excellent and varied cuisine from across the world... if you WERE to choose to stay in your hotel complex for the duration of your break, you'd miss out on so much more than you bargained for.
Maybe Majorca would be a better option for a hotel-based break?!
Those new to Egypt will find Karkaday (a drink made from an infusion of hibiscus, served hot or cold and reputed to have many health benefits) and Chi (local version of tea, usually served in a glass) offered everywhere. Both are delicious, and will usually come replete with a smoke on a "sheesha" pipe, known in the West as a "Hookah".
Sheesha's are used for smoking molasses tobacco in various flavours, with the smoke passing through water before inhalation through a long tube attached to the bowl. Although they may resemble a device used to smoke illicit substances in the west, (i.e, a bong), sheesha contains nothing illegal.
Visits to Cairo and Luxor, and indeed multi-stop breaks, are popular from Hurghada, and Sharm-El-Sheikh and the Sinai peninsular (containing two of the oldest Christian temples in the world, St Catherine's and St Anthony's) is but a short hop away.
Hurghada (ar.: Al Ghardaqah, الغردقة) is an Egyptian city and a tourist center on the Red Sea.
The city was founded in the early 20th century, and since the 1980s has been continually enlarged by American, European and Arab investors to become the leading bathing resort on the Red Sea. Holiday villages and first class hotels provide excellent aquatic sport facilities for sail boarders, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorklers.
Hurghada stretches for about 40 km along the seashore, and it doesn't reach far into the surrounding desert. The resort is a destination for package holiday tourists from Europe, notably Russians, Czechs and Germans. Until a few years ago it remained a small fishing village. Today Hurghada counts 40,000 inhabitants and is divided into three parts: Downtown (El Dahar) is the old part; Sekalla is the modern part, and El Korra Road is the most modern part. Sakkala is the relatively modest hotel quarter. Dahar is where the town's largest bazaar, the post office and the long-distance bus station are situated. Many restaurants, bars and shops, small pubs and internet cafes are available all over Hurghada.
The city is served by the Hurghada International Airport with scheduled passenger traffic to and from Cairo and direct connections with several cities in Europe.
Hurghada is known as a party town, and with its many clubs, life could be said to begin there at night. Nearly every hotel has its own disco. The most famous ones at the moment are "Calypso" and "Papas Beach". Renowned for belly dancing, Arabic and Nubian folklore, is "Alf Leila Wa Leila" ("One thousand and one nights"). It is a big open-air area, which offers a bit of everything.
Hurghada has become an international center for aquatic sports like windsurfing, sailing, deep-sea fishing, swimming, and above all snorkeling and diving. The unique underwater gardens offshore are some of the finest in the world, justifiably famous amongst divers. The warm waters here are ideal for many varieties of rare fish and coral reefs, which may also be observed through glass bottom boats.
The city provides a gateway to prime diving sites throughout the Red Sea. Its central location provides favorable access to very famous dive sites. In addition, Hurghada is known for providing access to many uninhabited offshore reefs and islands.
Notable places in proximity of Hurghada
