We opted for a budget package deal to Hurghada, arriving there for the last week of April.
Our hotel was the Royal Lagoons Resort, a 5-star hotel that is not too far from a mediocre beach. The hotel is fine, the food is great, the rooms and staff are fine. I couldn’t fault the place really for the price we paid: under £400 each for 2 adults, booked through TUI.
The temperatures were in the mid-30s degrees C. These temperatures are great for sitting around the pool, but I found it a bit hot to go off exploring during the daytime.
I have previously visited Sharm El Sheikh, and that was in November. November temperatures are much nicer if you like to go off exploring during the day.
April is the month of Ramadan, so tourists aren’t allowed to visit the main mosque in central Hurghada during this period.
Luxor Excursion:
Luxor is a must-see place, and tours are arranged from anywhere in Hurghada. It is a long day: You leave at 5 am and return after dark. The coaches travel in an armed convoy through the desert due to historic banditry in the low-lying hills.
A day trip will include the main sights of Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Hapchetsup’s Temple, Colossus of Memnon, Valley of the Kings, and a short boat trip across the river. These ancient monuments are mind-blowingly awesome.
The trips are all very hurried though: you don’t get to spend much time in each of the locations. And it’s way too touristy. You hardly even have time to get hassled by the trinket-sellers. But it is what it is.
I’d like to spend more time in Luxor and have a proper look around the monuments. I’d also prefer to be there at a cooler time of year. Luxor is inland and well away from the nice cooling sea breeze. There was a bit of a heat wave when we went, so it is not normally that hot at the end of April. But the temperature hit 45 degrees C.
When the temperature is that high it can distract you from the amazing sights. You tend to skip between areas of shade, knowing that the shade doesn’t shelter you from the searing heat of the desert winds. It feels like standing in front of an oven! Hatchetsup’s Temple has no shade on the walk from the car park, and very little shade in the temple.
So my advice for visiting Luxor: Go in winter, and spend several days there. A box-ticking rushed tour doesn’t do the monuments justice.
Boat trips: snorkeling and scuba-diving
There is a fleet of large luxury liveaboard dive boats based out of the Hurghada Marina. They offer world-class diving experiences on remote pristine reefs and atolls. This post is not about them.
A large fleet of smaller boats leaves every morning from the marina and heads over to nearby Giftun Island. These are the budget snorkeling trips everybody goes on. And they are fantastic value for money. It is unhurried; you spend some time relaxing on the beach and snorkel on a beautiful coral reef. Lunch is served on the boat. It is a great day trip, and most people who visit Hurghada will do this.
Hurghada: The good:
It is a cheap winter sun holiday.
There are some nice beaches.
Good boat trips (snorkeling & scuba). All the boat trips are the same though. The coral is great.
The pedestrianised marina is very nice, you don’t get harassed there. There are some great restaurants. The Shisha bar on the breakwater is an excellent place to chill out bedouin-style, drinking coffee and smoking shisha. Its a really nice area to spend the evening.
Hotel staff are very friendly and attentive
Taxis are generally good, and trustworthy if you negotiate the price beforehand. Every single taxi driver has a ‘cousin’ who will organise an excursion for you.
Egypt is a lot cheaper than anywhere in Europe.
Hurghada: The bad:
Now I’m not going to sugar-coat this. I’d rather be honest about my experiences so people know what to expect if they are planning on going to Egypt. As the saying goes: forewarned is forearmed. We had some great experiences, but also there was an ever-present feeling of being harassed, and that overshadowed everything.
The Egyptians (the ones you meet outside your hotel) are all in-your-face salesmen. Now we all understand that as a tourist going to touristy places, you can expect to be met with all sorts of ways to be parted from your cash. From the lucky-lucky men to excursion sellers, to restaurant hawkers, etc. I get it. People have to earn, and tourists have money. In Egypt, this is turned up to 11.
I have been to many countries in the developing world, and I have never been anywhere where you get so persistently and aggressively hassled everywhere you go. Step outside the sanctuary of your hotel, and you will be harassed. Now I can’t sit around a pool all day, so we have to go out and put up with this shit.
There is no such thing as ‘browsing in a shop’. If you walk in, they will warmly greet you, show you their products, tell you about them, and you are expected to buy something. They get aggressive and rude if you dare walk out of the shop without buying anything. Expect to get cursed at. Don’t ever go into a ‘perfume shop’.
There is no such thing as “No thank you mate, I’m not interested”. It just doesn’t work. They will follow you down the street, exploiting your polite European manners until they read that you are getting pretty annoyed. Then they leave you alone and repeat the process on somebody else. It’s just unpleasant.
Using a public (free) toilet: Somebody will watch you wee, then insist on turning the tap on for you. You need to pay a tip for this privilege, or you will be chased down the street. Even at Hurghada International Airport, the guy responsible for cleaning the (free-to-use) toilet stands there with his hands out begging for cash.
This nonsense isn’t just confined to Hurghada. I visited Sharm El Sheikh many years ago and it was the same there.
In conclusion, Egypt has the most fabulous ancient ruins in the world, and the Red Sea is one of the world’s top scuba-diving locations. The experience of visiting this spectacular place is just ruined by the locals.
Everybody should visit Egypt once in their lives though.
