Africa
Most travelers treat Hurghada as a beach stopover. Here's the firsthand case for diving it: the Giftun Islands, the Police Station wall, and why the Red Sea may be the most climate-resilient reef left on Earth.
Scenes from diving the Red Sea and the Giftun Islands off Hurghada, captured on my trip.
Egypt is a country measured in millennia. Its temples are three thousand years old and its pyramids older still. So it feels strange to stand in Hurghada, a Red Sea resort city that did not exist a hundred and twenty years ago. I came here for one reason: the water. What I found was some of the clearest, bluest diving of my life, sitting on top of a marine ecosystem that scientists now believe could outlast almost every other reef on Earth.
How do you get from Luxor to Hurghada?
We took the GoBus from Luxor, a road trip of roughly four to five hours across the Eastern Desert to the coast. The online reviews had me braced for the worst. The reality was fine. The bus had a working bathroom and stopped once, about two hours in, for food and a break. That stop was a pure tourist trap: they wanted three US dollars for a cup of instant Nescafe. Pack your own snacks and you will skip the markup entirely.
Why does a city like Hurghada exist at all?
Hurghada was founded in 1905 as a cluster of fishermen's huts along a natural harbor, settled by Ababda fishermen. The name comes from the garkad, a saltbush that once grew across the shoreline. For decades the place was so small it did not appear on world maps. Everything changed in 1913, when British surveyors found oil nearby and turned the fishing village into an industrial outpost. The tourism pivot came in the 1980s. Today Hurghada is the capital of Egypt's Red Sea Governorate, which makes it one of the youngest major cities in a country where nearly every famous landmark predates it by thousands of years.
What makes the Red Sea some of the best diving on Earth?
The Red Sea reef system evolved over roughly forty million years and holds about 346 species of hard coral, around six percent of which live nowhere else. The more remarkable fact is newer. Since 2014, researchers have documented that the northern Red Sea's corals are extraordinarily heat tolerant, surviving temperature spikes that bleach and kill reefs everywhere else on the planet. Scientists describe it as the world's only genetic bank of climate-resistant coral, and increasingly call it a potential last refuge for reefs as the oceans warm. You are not just diving a pretty reef here. You are diving one of the most resilient marine ecosystems left in the ocean.
What is the best dive in Hurghada?
The standout was the Police Station, a site off Little Giftun Island. We dropped to 40 meters and swam through a cave cut into the reef wall, then rose along a vertical coral face that plunges toward 100 meters below. Near the top a strong current caught us and carried us in a fast drift straight back toward the boat. It is a demanding dive, and the current here is famously unpredictable, but it is exactly the kind of site that reminds you why divers cross the world for this coast. We dove with Diving Around Hurghada, who ran a tight, professional operation. I recommend them without reservation.
What makes the Giftun Islands special?
The Police Station sits inside Giftun Island National Park, established in 1986 as one of Egypt's first marine protected areas. The protected zone shelters more than 196 species of coral and over 1,000 species of fish, and the water around Big and Little Giftun is the clearest, bluest I have ever put my face into. One thing caught me off guard: many of the dive boats here look more like yachts than the utilitarian dive boats you find in the Caribbean or elsewhere. It is a small detail that tells you how much money and pride Hurghada has poured into what lies beneath its surface.
Where should you eat in Hurghada?
The dining heart of the city is Sherry Street, a pedestrian walking street running off the main Sheraton Road. No cars, dozens of restaurants, and a mix of Egyptian and international food. It is where the city wakes up at night and the easiest place to eat well after a long day on the water.
When is the best time to dive Hurghada?
I visited in late August, when the air is hot and the water is at its warmest and most inviting. The Red Sea stays divable most of the year, but summer brings the calmest seas and the best visibility, at the cost of real desert heat on land. Spring and autumn are the sweet spot if you want long days underwater and a comfortable city to return to, without midday temperatures in the high thirties Celsius.
Hurghada is not ancient, and that is the whole point. The city exists because of what is underwater. After diving the Giftun walls, I understood exactly why a village of fishing huts became one of the most famous dive bases on Earth.
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