Egypt
Hurghada is a beach resort town stretching around 30 km along Egypt’s the Red Sea. It’s renowned for some of its scuba diving spots and has lots of cheap dive schools. There are lots of bars and restaurants in Sekalla district catering to an international crowd, while the old town El Dahar is home to traditional Egyptian with lots of souks.
I travelled to Hurghada as a beach getaway and was pleasantly surprised to find lots of beach activities which I used to cool me off from the hot 40c sun.
I found Hurghada to be a lot more slower paced compared to Sharm el Sheikh, But it is still a great place full of relaxing bars and restaurants to enjoy and a very good base if you are heading out to Cairo or Luxor.
I stayed in a very nice hotel called Steignberger aqua park which was just a short walk from the beach, where I spent most of my days relaxing and learning new water sports such as wakeboarding. The hotel had a few swimming pools as well as the aqua park with around 10 sides and a lazy river that took you around the grounds.
The hotel offered a few trips but they were very over price compared to what you could find in a tourist excursion shops just a few minutes walk down the road.
Hurghada is another great spot in Egypt for Scuba diving and as always I highly recommend you go with a certified PADI dive centre.
Some of the great dive sites in Hurghada are…
El Fanus (Dolphin Reef) where it is known to see Blue bottlenose dolphins.
Marsa Abu Galawa (Carless Reef) where you will see huge moray eels and reef sharks.
Oberoi House Reef is known for lots of turtles.
Fanadir (El Fanadeer) is a dropping ledge with Hurghada’s largest coral reef.
A few excursions I got involved in were…..
A day out at an aqua park (Jungle aqua park) which had plenty of slides, If you’re a water baby and love water parks this really is a must whilst you’re in Hurghada.
Quad biking in the Eastern (Arabian) Desert, A very fast and fun filled trip. Just be prepared to get dusty from all the back spray from the quads in front. Take sunglasses, old clothes and plenty of sun cream.
A jeep ride across the desert to the far mountain for a short camel ride and a visit to the mountain people, that still live the rural way of life.
It was in Hurghada that I learnt to wakeboard which leads me to my love of kite surfing, with a great teacher I managed to be up and riding on the wakeboard just after 1 very short hour.
Speed boat tubing, Flying fish, and lots of other water sports, they had every water spot you could think of and I did them all.
Hurghada is a great location to visit Cairo and Luxor, so if pyramids are your plan then I would say stay in Hurghada, as it’s just a short drive away and a taxi return was around £50 or bus transfer was around £19