Ain Sokhna and the Gulf of Suez

Cairo'S Nearest Sea: Ninety Minutes Down A Desert Motorway To A Gulf Coast Of Weekend Resorts, Calm Shallow Water And A Hot Spring That Gives The Place Its Name, With The Galala Mountain Road Climbing Behind It And The Zafarana Wind Farms Turning Along The Shore South · Ain Sokhna, Suez

Ain Sokhna is where Cairo goes to the sea. Ninety minutes down a desert motorway from the capital puts you on the Gulf of Suez, and the result is a near-continuous line of resorts and gated compounds along a calm, shallow, very warm coast, with the Galala mountains rising immediately behind and a road climbing up onto the plateau. The name means hot spring, and there is one. This is not a destination in the way Hurghada is - the water is less clear, the reefs are poorer, and the shore is almost entirely privately held, so public beach access is limited and worth checking before you arrive. What it is instead is extremely convenient: a swimmable sea within a morning's drive of twenty million people, the first stop on the road to the Eastern Desert monasteries, and a coastline where you can watch tankers queue for the canal while wind turbines turn at Zafarana to the south. Judged as a weekend coast for a city of twenty million it works well; judged as a holiday destination it will disappoint.

On the Gulf of Suez 120 km east of Cairo, running south past Zafarana towards the Eastern Desert monasteries, Ain Sokhna, Suez, Egypt

There are no site hours - this is a coastline of private resorts. ALMOST EVERY BEACH BELONGS TO A HOTEL OR A COMPOUND, and the practical arrangement for a day visitor is a hotel day pass bought at the gate, so ring ahead rather than assuming you can walk onto sand. The hot spring and the few public stretches are open ground. Resorts run year-round and fill from Thursday afternoon to Saturday with Cairo weekenders, and in high summer continuously. The Cairo-Ain Sokhna motorway is the fast way in and the Galala road climbs behind the coast; going south, the Zafarana junction turns inland for the monasteries of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, and the road continues to Hurghada. There is no useful public transport along the shore itself, so a car is the assumption.

Ain Sokhna and the Gulf of Suez on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos