Hurghada, Egypt: A Complete Guide

Sparkling blue waters and endless sunshine set against a desert backdrop in Orange Bay, Hurghada, Egypt

INTRODUCTION: About Hurghada and why it’s the perfect vacation spot for your next trip

WHERE TO STAY: Hurghada, El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Bay, and The Best Hotels in Each

WHAT TO DO: The Best Activities and Excursions in and around the famous Red Sea coastline

RESTAURANTS: The Best Foods and Views

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION: How to Get to Hurghada, Getting Around Hurghada, Currency/Credit Card Availability, Best Time to Visit

INTRODUCTION TO HURGHADA

Hurghada is a beautiful resort town in Egypt along the Red Sea coastline, known for its clear blue waters, world-renowned snorkeling and scubadiving, and white sand beaches. The Hurghada region consists of a number of neighboring resort towns, including El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Bay, and Soma Bay — all known for their endless stretches of beach, luxurious hotels, and impeccable service and hospitality.

White sand beaches and clear blue waters on the Red Sea coastline in the resort town of Sahl Hasheesh, Hurghada’s neighboring town.

WHERE TO STAY

Hurghada is the main resort town in the area, but the neighboring towns of El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, and Makadi Bay all offer incredible views, hotels, and restaurants as well.

HURGHADA

If you want to be in the center of the action and want larger hotels, more activities, and more hustle and bustle, Hurghada is the place to stay. It features a downtown marina with a boardwalk, restaurants, yacht-watching, and water sports. These are our top picks for the best hotels in Hurghada (considering service, views, decor, food, and amenities):

STEIGENBERGER ALDAU BEACH HOTEL

RIXOS PREMIUM MAGAWISH SUITES & VILLAS

PICKALBATROS CITADEL RESORT

PICKALBATROS WHITE BEACH RESORT

EL GOUNA

The newest and swankiest resort area in the Hurghada region, El Gouna is very upscale and has it all - water sports, nightlife, beautiful restaurants and dock areas, and three different marinas. These are our top picks for the best hotels in Hurghada (considering service, views, decor, food, and amenities):

LA MAISON BLEUE EL GOUNA

THE CHEDI EL GOUNA

CASA COOKE EL GOUNA

SAHL HASHEESH

11 miles south of Hurghada, the beautifully secluded and calm region of Sahl Hasheesh is close enough to get to the action when you want to, but sit with a cup of tea and enjoy the sunsets on the beach with nobody else around. These are our top picks for the best hotels in Hurghada (considering service, views, decor, food, and amenities):

THE OBEROI

BARON PALACE

MAKADI BAY

Surrounded by desert mountains and sands, Makadi is another secluded resort town about 30 miles south of Hurghada. While it’s the furthest from the surrounding towns, it offers stunning unobstructed natural scenery. These are our top picks for the best hotels in Hurghada (considering service, views, decor, food, and amenities):

JAZ AQUAVIVA

JAZ MAKADI STAR & SPA

THE MAKADI SPA HOTEL

The beautiful and secluded beachfront at the Oberoi in Sahl Hasheesh

WHAT TO DO

Activities and excursions abound in the Hurghada area, as well as the neighboring regions. Although most famous for the Red Sea’s renowned scuba diving and snorkeling, in recent years, Hurghada has grown in popularity for water and wind sports - especially kite surfing in El Gouna. We’ve outlined many of the best things to do and most epic excursions below.

A VISIT TO ORANGE BAY

The unbelievable Bora Bora blue water at Orange Bay is an absolute MUST on your Hurghada itinerary. With shallow waters and white sand that stretch out far past the shoreline, you’ll find in-water swings and hammocks, calm waters, and beautiful wooden awnings where you can relax and have some ice cream in the shade on poufs under swaying palms. We took an excursion with hotel pickup included for a day at Orange Bay and snorkeling along some of the best spots in the Red Sea, and it was one of our most memorable days in Egypt. CLICK HERE TO BOOK THE EXCURSION WE TOOK and see below for THE BEST Orange Bay daytime excursions.

A day full of boats and views like this during our one-day excursion to Orange Bay, Egypt

SNORKELING AND SCUBA

The Red Sea’s fishes and corals are some of the most coveted in the world for scubas and snorkelers. Even if you haven’t scuba-ed before, you can take a PADI certification with a guided instructor to experience the Red Sea from far under the sea. We highly recommend booking an excursion ahead of time, as many of the dive shops plan their dives out at least a day in advance and can fill up quickly. We’ve included some of the best scuba and snorkel excursions below:

PARASAILING

The views in the Hurghada region are beautiful with the blue waters set against the backdrop of the desert mountains and sand, and there’s no more relaxing way to see it all than on a parasail ride. We parasailed as an addition to our Orange Bay excursion, and they took us out via jetboat right after the excursion concluded at the Hurghada marina - it was the perfect way to end the day!

CAMEL RIDES ON THE BEACH

Yep, camels aren’t just for riding at the pyramids, but along many of the sandy beaches at the hotels in Hurghada and the surrounding resort towns, you can enjoy a scenic camel ride along the water. If you’ve never been on a camel, be prepared for a relatively bumpy ride.

Camels on the beach in Sahl Hasheesh, Egypt

KITESURFING

El Gouna is fast becoming a destination for water and wind sports, and kitesurfing is at the top of the list over there. Enjoy a lesson or just sit back on the beach and watch others try their hand at the notoriously tricky sport. If you’ve never tried it out, introductory lessons are easy to book in El Gouna, and the below excursion with Nomad Kite Events is one of the best!

SUBMARINE EXCURSION

Head all the way underwater in the Red Sea without even getting wet in these epic submarine excursion — the best way to view the Red Sea from below in a relaxing environment. Perfect for families and anyone who just wants to view the underwater world without swimming or scuba, you’ll enjoy watching marine life, corals, and underwater creatures from panoramic glass windows on these submarine excursions

RESTAURANTS

Some of the best food we had in the Hurghada area included traditional Egyptian food, Greek food, and Turkish food. Our Hurghada favorites are below:

THE GREEK

Located in the Hurghada Downtown Marina boardwalk area, this was some of the freshest and best Greek food we had in Egypt. Make sure to try the gyros and Greek salad.

BREEZE RESTAURANT AND BAR

Located in the El Gouna Marina, this spot offers great views and food. The menu is pretty extensive and varied, offering options from beef carpaccio to mussels and calamari. The perfect bright, sunny spot to enjoy dinner and watch the yachts in the harbor, a favorite among locals, and good for quality cocktails and wine (which are notoriously tricky to find in Egypt)! It’s also a great spot for night owls - open ‘til midnight!

THE RESTAURANT AT THE OBEROI SAHL HASHEESH

We are picky about our hotel restaurants, because we’d rather travel outside our hotel and eat the best food than settle for convenience — but we got the best of both worlds at the The Restaurant in the Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh. With different live music every night (from a band playing classical Egyptian Um Kalthoum on the oud to a live singer doing Celine Dion classics) in the beautiful Arabian interior, to their mouthwatering Egyptian specialties, it was the best restaurant we ate at in the area — especially the lamb kebab, kunafa, and roz bel laban. Worth a reservation and drive out if you are staying elsewhere around Hurghada!

The kunafa at The Restaurant, topped with whipped cream and pistachios

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

HOW TO GET TO HURGHADA

Hurghada International Airport serves the Hurghada region, and has multiple daily flights from Cairo and Luxor. There are also many European destinations that fly directly to Hurghada - we took a Wizz Air flight directly from London to Hurghada.

GETTING AROUND HURGHADA

Uber is available and very convenient in Egypt. It’s also extremely inexpensive. However, most of the drivers can be booked on the Uber app but need to be paid in cash so make sure you have plenty of cash on hand. Drivers will accept Egyptian pounds as well as US dollars or Euros. To give you an idea of rates, we took an Uber from Sahl Hasheesh to El Gouna (a 40-minute drive) for 130 Egyptian Pounds (the equivalent of roughly 4 USD in April 2023).

CURRENCY/CREDIT CARD AVAILABILITY

In Hurghada and Egypt generally, you should definitely plan to have cash on hand. Many goods and services will not accept credit cards, and tipping culture is very prevalent in Egypt. Plan to have Egyptian pounds (in small amounts like 5s and 10s), as well as US dollars or Euros (have lots of singles).

BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT

Summer can be unbearably hot in the desert and Red Sea regions, so our favorite time to visit is between March/April and September/October, when it will still be sunny and warm, but humidity and 100+ degree temperatures are rare.