18 Things to Know Before You Land in Hurghada

18 Things to Know Before You Land in Hurghada

Hurghada rewards a few specific pieces of preparation more than almost any beach destination — partly because the visa process happens in a particular order, partly because prices here have two completely different tiers depending on where you book, and partly because the Red Sea has rules that don't apply in a swimming pool.

Sort these before you fly.

Arriving

1. Buy the visa before passport control, not after. The bank kiosk in the arrivals hall sells a 30-day single-entry tourist visa for US$25 — and it sits before immigration, which catches people out. Cash only in practice (USD, EUR or GBP); cards are unreliable.

2. Or get the e-visa a week ahead. visa2egypt.gov.eg, also about $25, and it removes the kiosk step entirely.

3. The Sinai visa exemption does not apply here. That stamp covers Sharm el-Sheikh. Hurghada is a different coast and a different rule.

4. Agree your airport transfer price before the door closes. 200-400 EGP is the range. Ask your hotel what it should cost and name that number.

Money

5. Withdraw EGP from ATMs, not the hotel desk. The pound has devalued sharply since 2024, so hotels and excursions often quote in USD or EUR while shops price in pounds. ATM rates beat hotel rates meaningfully.

6. Carry small notes constantly. Baksheesh is part of daily life: 10-20 EGP for a porter or washroom attendant, 50-100 EGP a day for a dive guide, 10% in restaurants on top of any service charge. Break big notes at the hotel — "no change" is a standard way to keep the difference.

7. Book excursions off-property. This is the single biggest saving here. Hotel tour desks mark boat trips and safaris up 50-100%. A Giftun snorkelling day is $35-45 booked at the Marina against $70-90 through a resort concierge. Walk down to Marina Boulevard on your first evening and sort the whole week.

Getting around

8. There is no Uber in Hurghada. Uber and Careem run in Cairo, not here, and taxi meters are decorative.

9. Settle every fare in EGP before you get in. Short hops within the resort strip 50-150 EGP, downtown to the Marina 100-200 EGP. Negotiating on arrival never works out.

10. The city is 40 km long. El Dahar in the north, then Sekalla, the Marina, and Sahl Hasheesh and Makadi Bay to the south. Where you stay determines how much taxi you'll use, so pick with that in mind.

Water, sun and reef

11. Do not drink the tap water, including for teeth. Bottled is cheap and universal. Stomach upsets are the most common holiday complaint in Hurghada by a distance.

12. The UV index tops 11 in summer. Reef-safe sunscreen and a rash vest beat repeat applications while snorkelling — you're wet, you're horizontal, and you'll burn across the back and legs before you notice.

13. Never stand on or touch coral. It kills the reef, and fire coral and stonefish stings are serious medical events, not stories.

14. Leave 18-24 hours between your last dive and your flight. Eighteen after a single dive, twenty-four after multiple days. This is the classic Hurghada mistake — a last-morning dive before an afternoon departure. Recompression chambers are in Hurghada and El Gouna — and the seven-day plan in our Red Sea diving guide keeps the final day dry for exactly this reason.

15. Confirm your insurance covers scuba to your planned depth. Most standard travel policies do not.

Culture

16. Resort rules stop at the resort gate. Bikinis and beachwear are fine on hotel beaches and boats. In El Dahar, the souk and any mosque, cover shoulders and knees — a scarf is useful for women.

17. Alcohol is hotel and licensed-restaurant territory. Not generally served in town.

18. During Ramadan, don't eat, drink or smoke in public in daylight. Expect reduced opening hours away from the resorts, and considerably livelier evenings.

Packing essentials

• Reef-safe sunscreen, high factor. Buy it at home; the resort shop price is punitive.
• Rash vest or long-sleeve swim top. More effective than sunscreen for long snorkel sessions.
• Your own mask, if you have one. Rental gear on the cheaper boats is variable.
• A scarf. For El Dahar, for mosques, and for the dust on a quad convoy.
• Small USD or EUR notes. For the visa kiosk and the national park fees collected in cash on boats.
• Rehydration sachets. Cheap insurance against the most likely thing to go wrong.
• Modest clothes for one evening. You'll want El Dahar and the souk, and you'll want to be dressed for it.

What travellers wish they'd known

That the good food is not in the resort. All-inclusive buffets are the default here and they are fine. But dinner at Starfish or Gad on Marina Boulevard runs $12-25 a head against $40+ inside the hotels, and El Hebeny or Abu Khadega in El Dahar do koshari, taameya and grilled kofta for 100-250 EGP — a fraction of resort prices and considerably better cooking.

That the souk is worth the taxi. El Dahar is where Hurghada still functions as an Egyptian city rather than a resort strip. The covered bazaar is free to wander, liveliest from about 6PM once the heat drops, and sells spices, cotton and papyrus at a fraction of hotel-shop prices. Haggling is expected: open at around a third of the first quote and be prepared to walk away.

That small boats beat big ones. On the Giftun trip, a 100-person cruiser means queuing to get into the water at each reef stop. A small boat means actual snorkelling. Same price bracket, entirely different day.

That the desert safari should be a sunset departure. Midday quad runs are hot and dusty with nothing at the end. Sunset departures give you the Bedouin camp in decent temperatures and then the actual reason to go: forty minutes from a city of 300,000, with essentially no cloud cover all year, most camps kill the lights and the sky does the rest — the same desert-sky argument that pulls stargazers to AlUla across the water in Saudi Arabia.

That El Gouna is a genuinely good half-day. Twenty-five kilometres north, 30 minutes by taxi or the hourly shuttle bus. A purpose-built lagoon town laid out across islands linked by bridges and canals, Egypt's kitesurfing centre thanks to steady thermal wind, and the best restaurant and bar scene in the region around Abu Tig Marina. Beach club day passes run $15-30.

That Luxor deserves an overnight, not a day trip. The Valley of the Kings and Karnak are 280 km inland — four hours each way, a 4AM-to-9PM organised tour at $70-120. Karnak's Hypostyle Hall and its 134 columns are worth the punishment. But if your schedule can absorb a night in Luxor instead, take it, and bring cash in small notes for the extra-ticket tombs — we weigh the day-trip maths in our 15 questions before you book.