Hurghada and El Gouna

The Red Sea'S Package Holiday Capital And The Coast Most Europeans See First: Reef Walls And The Giftun Islands Offshore, Kitesurfing In The Shallows, A Purpose Built Lagoon Resort At El Gouna, And An Airport That Flies Direct To Half Of Europe · Hurghada, Red Sea

Hurghada was a fishing village until the 1980s and is now the Red Sea's package-holiday capital: thirty kilometres of hotels along a coast that has reef within swimming distance of the beach and an airport that flies direct to half of Europe. It is not a beautiful town and nobody comes for the architecture. What it has is the water - visibility past thirty metres, coral in good condition once you are offshore, the Giftun islands an hour out by boat, wrecks including the Thistlegorm within reach of a long day, and shallow flat lagoons that have made this one of the best kitesurfing coasts in the world. Twenty-five kilometres north, El Gouna is a purpose-built resort town of lagoons and bridges with its own marina, golf and restaurants, which is either the sensible alternative to a big hotel or a sanitised bubble depending on your temperament. Both are cheap by European standards and both are busiest from October to April.

Red Sea coast either side of Hurghada, with El Gouna 25 km north and the Giftun islands offshore, Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt

A resort coast rather than a site: hotels, dive centres and marinas work daily through the year, with dive and snorkel day boats leaving the marinas early in the morning and returning mid-afternoon. Marine-park rules govern which reefs boats may moor on and the arrangements change, so the itinerary your operator offers is the live answer. Giftun island landings have carried a separate fee at times. Kitesurfing centres run through the day with the afternoon wind. El Gouna's restaurants and marina run late in the evening. Ramadan changes service hours in town though rarely inside the hotels. Hurghada airport is ten minutes from the strip with direct flights across Europe, and buses and shared vans run along the coast road to Marsa Alam and up to Suez and Cairo.

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