Marsa Matrouh
The Clearest Water In Egypt: A Limestone Lagoon That Turns The Mediterranean A Turquoise Nobody Expects On This Coast, With Cleopatra'S Beach, The Agiba Cove, Rommel'S Command Cave Now A Small Museum, And A Town That Fills With Egyptian Families In July And Shuts Almost Completely By November · Marsa Matrouh, Matrouh
Egypt's Mediterranean coast is mostly a flat grey-green line, and then at Marsa Matrouh it turns turquoise - a limestone lagoon almost closed off by a reef bar, with water so clear and so pale that photographs of it are routinely mistaken for the Caribbean. The capes either side hold the famous beaches: Cleopatra's Beach, where a rock pool is sold as her bath on no evidence whatsoever, and Agiba, a small cove under a cliff that is genuinely one of the best beaches in the country. The town itself is a plain mid-century grid that exists for the summer, and this is the thing to understand before booking: from June to September it is packed with Egyptian families, conservative in beachwear and very lively, and by November half of it is shuttered and the sea is cold and grey. Rommel used a cave here as a command post and it is now a small museum. Four hours from Alexandria by road or rail. Four hours from Alexandria by rail, and the Siwa road turns south from here.
Mediterranean lagoon town 290 km west of Alexandria, with Cleopatra's Beach and Agiba on the capes either side, Marsa Matrouh, Matrouh, Egypt
A seasonal town rather than a site. The season runs roughly June to September, when hotels, restaurants and beach services all work long hours and the corniche is busy into the small hours; outside it, a great deal of the town closes and some hotels shut entirely, so confirm what is open before travelling in winter. Rommel's cave museum keeps daytime hours and is sometimes shut out of season. Agiba and the cape beaches are open ground reached by road, with informal parking charges and sunbed hire in summer. Trains and buses from Alexandria take about four hours, and there is an airport with seasonal flights. Ramadan shifts the town's rhythm entirely to after sunset, which in high summer makes the beaches quiet in the day.