Red Sea coast travel guide
After pacing round the hot and impressive archaeological sites of the Nile Valley, or the noisy streets of Cairo, the Red Sea coast makes a refreshing contrast. The sea breeze and sandy beaches combine with hotels and restaurants to provide a relaxing holiday.
The coast was not developed until the 1990s, but buildings now stretch all along the shoreline. The main town is Hurghada, whose small offshore islands offer exceptional diving. Although somewhat lacking in charm, it has its own airport and offers a number of good resort hotels. Other smaller resorts are Al-Gouna to the north, popular with Cairenes, and further south Marsa' Alam.
Hurghada
The largest tourist centre on Egypt’s Red Sea coast is Hurghada. Being just outside the Gulf of Suez, the corals grow well, attracting marvellous marine life. This is the fun centre of Egypt, where you sometimes have to remind yourself that you are in a Muslim country.
The development of this town in the last two decades has been incredible, and there seems to be no end to the amount of expansion both north and south. Hurghadah can now be regarded as three separate suburbs – the old downtown (known as Ad Dahar), the new downtown (now called Sakala) and the developed strip running south along the coast for over 20km (12 miles), known as New Hurghada.
The main attraction of visiting Hurghada is the incredible diving. For more on some of the world's best diving, read here.
Al Gouna
One of the most dramatic and pleasant tourist developments in the area is the huge Al Gouna project about 20km (12 miles) north of Hurghada, now one of the Red Sea’s premier destinations. The vision of an Egyptian entrepreneur, it was planned as a self-contained community served by its own little airstrip, where everything would be done at an easy pace, to a high standard.
A series of natural and man-made lagoons break up the coastline into small islands and peninsulas, whilst lush gardens and an 18-hole golf course have been skilfully landscaped out of the barren desert sands. Wealthy Egyptians, Gulf Arabs and Europeans have bought the expensive beachfront villas, whilst visitors can stay in one of the many attractive hotels ranging from three to five stars.
Marsa' Alam
The southernmost part of the Red Sea coast is just starting to be discovered. Central to this development is the new Marsa’ Alam international airport, actually 50km (30 miles) north of the town, which opened in 2006, with the majority of flights arriving from Italy. This far south almost all of the coastline has fringing reef only a few metres from the beach, so shore or beach diving is more popular here than relying on dive boats. Some European divers are put off by this, but many of the shore sites here are just as good as those you would have to get on an expensive boat to elsewhere.
The Suez Canal
At the northern tip of the Red Sea coast, where the African continent meets the Sinai peninsula, is one of the greatest feats of modern technology, the Suez Canal. This man-made passage connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Opened in 1869, it allowed a much quicker journey time from Europe to the Middle East, India and the Far East, and was a huge aid to the Western European powers in managing their empires. Today, tourists travel almost exclusively by plane, but the Suez Canal is still vital for cargo vessels. Watching a giant tanker travel through the passage is a unique experience: unless you’re standing beside the canal you can’t see the water and the vessel seems to float along on the sand.
Read more from the travel guide to Egypt
