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If you have been to Hurghada before, please share your experiences, ideas and feedback (Hotel, Excursions, General Feeling,…) in the comments section below, by doing so you will help fellow travellers to plan their next trip
Hurghada is a popular beach destination in Egypt and as the local dive sites are very easy, it is a popular place to learn scuba diving. Hurghada is also a good choice if you to want to mix your holiday between the Red Sea and the Nile Valley as it is not far away.
In this page you will find practical information to plan a scuba diving trip to Hurghada:
Table of contents
Where to stay?
I usually use this website to book in advance my hotels in Hurghada as they usually have the lowest rates I find. I like it because it's free to cancel and change the dates.
Hurghada is a resort town with many hotels working with all inclusive packaged groups. Most of the hotels are on the sea shore. They range from basic “3 stars” to luxurious “6 stars” Hotels.
Most of the hotels have their own pool and “private” beach. The city is also a bit known as a party city and most of the resorts have their own Disco and there are although many bars and Night Clubs.
There is very few budget accommodation and very few people come here as independent travelling as everything is made for all Inclusive package holidays.
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcusmeissner/3035257192/
Activities and excursions in Hurghada
Tourists really like to go to Hurghada because it allows splitting their trip between the diving at the Red Sea and cultural excursions and day trips to visit the Wonders of Egypt like the Nile Valley or Egypt. Moreover there are many beach activities in Hurghada for the non-divers. You can for example:
- Go Deep Sea Fishing
- Try Windsurfing, Kite Surf or jet ski
- Go on Motorbike or Quad tour in the Desert
- Visit Luxor on a day trip or Cairo on a 2 days trip.
- Visit Islands for a Snorkelling trip
- Enjoy a Desert Safari and visit local villages
- Visit the Saint Anthony and Saint Paul Monastery
- Just relax on the beautiful beaches
Best time to visit Hurghada
The climate is subtropical-desert. The weather is sunny and dry all year round. The winter is warm and the summer as you can imagine is very hot!
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zamkov/6093264455/
Health and Safety
If you are planning an upcoming dive trip or travelling to Hurghada, it is a really good idea to invest in travel insurance for scuba diving, because you never know what could happen and when you might need it (because accidents do happen!). I recommend this diving insurance as they offer worldwide coverage and focus on providing scuba divers a quality insurance and medical assistance service.
Where is Hurghada located in the world?
Hurghada is situated 530 Km South of Cairo and about 75 km South West from the most popular scuba diving destination in Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh.
See the map below.
Hurghada Map
How to get to Hurghada?
Plane
If you are coming from Europe the only way to reach Hurghada is by flight. Hurghada has an International Airport with direct flights to the main airports in Europe and in Middle East. It takes about 4 to 5 hours.
You can also fly first to Cairo than take a 1 hour flight with Egypt Air to Hurghada. The third option is to fly to Luxor then to take a taxi for 4 hours to get to Hurghada.
Once you arrived at the Hurghada Airport, you will need to take a taxi for about 30 min to reach your hotel on the seashore.
If you are travelling on a tight budget, a cheap option could be to fly to Cairo then to take the Bus or a Taxi to Hurghada for 6 hours.
Boat
You can go by fast boat from Sharm El Sheikh to Hurghada. It takes about 1h30 min and cost around 40 US$ for one way. The company is called International Fast Ferries.
Do I need a visa for Hurghada?
Yes, you need a tourist visa. You can get your visa at your arrival at Hurghada Airport. It cost 15 US$ and is valid for 40 days.
Getting Around
You can either get around by mini bus or by Taxi. Be careful to bargain the price of the taxi before the ride as drivers usually try to make tourists pay much more than the fair price. It should be between 5 to 20 LE depending on where you are going in the city.
Mini Bus is a cheaper way to get around but you need to know where you are going!
Hurghada Photos
Scuba diving
You will find all information about sea life, best time to visit, top dive spots, etc. in our review: Hurghada Diving
Diving Reviews for this region
Hurghada
Lots of good wrecks to dive and good place for Underwater Photography. Starting Point for Liveaboards to the South Red Sea. Very Good Visibility and good place to learn scuba diving.
We can only recommend everyone to do PRIVATE TRIPS WITHOUT MASSENTOURISM, everything that is offered by the hotels and on the street is really pure rip-off, one is asked again to the cash and nobody understands our language, in the end the alleged bargain at the favorable price becomes twice as expensive and one had a crappy day to express it in good German!
After this experience we have found on the Internet the provider AT-Touren – Erleben den Ägypten, clearly the price is higher than on the road and in the hotels, but the trips just PRIVATE and WITHOUT MASSENTOURISM, we thought what soll´s let us try – we have not regretted it and therefore want our experience with other parts – Once AT-Touren – Everytime again AT-Touren
Our day with AT-Touren
Super tour away from Mass tourism. A look behind the scenes of a place that is actually only known as a bathing resort. At no time was there anything like boredom. A tour packed with information. Questions were answered to our complete satisfaction. To mention the individual stations would take too long. El Gouna was also visited. At the end we went together for a delicious dinner.
Super organized! Timo and Mohammed are a great team, always in a good mood and very friendly. One feels directly as friends.
Since we were more than completely satisfied, we decided to book the next excursion the next day.
We then made the trip with Timo and Mohammed to the Griftun Island with snorkeling stop. We were picked up in the morning and taken to the boat. Before we started we had a rich breakfast and what we didn’t think of at all – tablets against sea evil.
There were two snorkeling stops and a stop at the island. We felt in good hands the whole day, also the crew was super nice and took care of everything and us. It was a successful and relaxed day for us! When we come back, the next trip is coming!
We can only say TOP ORGANISATION and TOP TEAM and we always paid more than 150% attention to safety!
THEREFORE WE CAN ONLY RECOMMEND ALL HOLIDAYMAKERS IN EGYPT – HOLIDAY IS ONLY ONCE A YEAR AND ENJOYS THE DAYS AND MAKES PRIVATE TRIPS AND DOES NOT SAVE AT THE WRONG END IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!
Here is the link to AT-Touren
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And here’s to their Facebook page which provides many photos and videos:
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i have been there for the first time really i recommend Shehab boat and diving center we went with them diving in different places all with those amazing corals and amazing pictures we took it was a well spent holiday and very nice stuff supported us