Overview
Once a small fishing village, Hurghada has grown into a resort town running for kilometres along the Red Sea coast, its bays lined with hotels and marinas. The draw is the sea: warm and calm for most of the year, with reefs and islands close offshore that make it one of the world’s steady favourites for diving. The desert climate is hot in summer and mild in winter, and the town works as a base for reef trips and desert excursions.
Highlights
The house reefs and offshore islands offer diving and snorkelling over coral, rays and reef fish, with dive schools throughout the town. Boat trips reach Giftun Island and its beaches, and glass-bottom or liveaboard boats extend the range south. Back on land, the old harbour quarter of El Dahar and a desert safari by quad or jeep fill the hours between swims.