Egypt · Red Sea Governorate
Where to Stay in Hurghada, Red Sea Governorate
Reefs shelve off the shore at Hurghada, a Red Sea resort city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt, known for its diving and the Hurghada Museum.
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Where to stay in Hurghada
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Most visitors to Hurghada base themselves along the Red Sea shore. The resort strip stretches for close to 40 km of coast, and the choice of where to stay in Hurghada turns mostly on how near the water and the dive boats you want to be. Beaches run for miles.
Newer resorts spread south of the old town, and they line the coast in long runs of beachfront hotels, each with its own stretch of sand and its own jetty for the boats that carry divers out to the reefs, which suits a first stay built around diving and the shore. Closer to the original settlement, the older centre keeps the town's early character around the harbour that first drew fishermen to this part of the Red Sea Governorate. The Hurghada Museum and the Red Sea Aquarium sit within reach of the centre, and the Hurghada Marine Museum & Aquarium turns the same marine life divers chase offshore into a rainy-hour visit.
Stay near the old harbour for the working town rather than the resort strip. The two halves of Hurghada, the long line of newer beach resorts and the older centre by the water, sit along the same Egyptian coast a short drive apart.
About Hurghada
What is Hurghada known for?
Hurghada is known above all for diving on the reefs of the Red Sea. The clear water and the marine life along this coast draw newcomers to scuba diving, who reach the underwater reefs from a shore that runs for close to 40 km of the Red Sea Governorate. Divers set the tone here.
Between dives, the Hurghada Museum, the Red Sea Aquarium, and the Hurghada Marine Museum & Aquarium fill the hours ashore in Egypt's largest Red Sea resort city.
What are the main landmarks in Hurghada?
The main landmarks of Hurghada gather around the sea that shaped the city. The Hurghada Museum holds Egyptian heritage collections in the resort city, while the Red Sea Aquarium and the Hurghada Marine Museum & Aquarium put the reef life of the Red Sea on show for visitors between dives. Wadi Belih runs inland from the coast.
The desert valley marks the dry country that backs the Red Sea Governorate behind the resort shore.
What is the history of Hurghada?
Hurghada began as a small fishing village on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt, founded in 1905. The sheltered water and the reefs offshore had long fed the fishermen who settled the shore, and for decades the place stayed a modest harbour on the edge of the desert country of the Red Sea Governorate. The sea was its whole living.
Only later did the same clear water and reef life turn the village toward a different trade. Over the following decades Hurghada grew from that fishing village into the largest resort city on the Red Sea Coast, its hotels stretching for close to 40 km along the shore. The reefs that had fed the early settlers now drew divers instead, and the museums of the modern city record both chapters.
The Hurghada Museum keeps the wider Egyptian heritage, while the Red Sea Aquarium and the Hurghada Marine Museum & Aquarium hold the marine world that first gave the harbour its reason to exist.
Where is Hurghada?
Hurghada lies along the Red Sea coast of Egypt, where the desert meets the water. The city spreads over a low coastal strip that runs for close to 40 km, backed by the dry country of the Red Sea Governorate and cut inland by desert valleys such as Wadi Belih. Reefs fringe the shore.
It is the largest city and the capital of the Red Sea Governorate, set on the same warm sea that carries its dive boats out from the shore.
What is the climate of Hurghada?
Hurghada has a hot desert climate on the Red Sea coast. Warm, dry weather holds through most of the year on this subtropical stretch of the Red Sea Governorate, with long hot summers, mild winters, and very little rain over the desert behind the shore. Rain is rare here.
The sea keeps the coast a touch milder than the open desert inland, and the reefs stay warm enough for diving across the seasons.
How do you get to Hurghada?
Hurghada sits on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and most visitors reach the resort city by air. Its airport handles the holiday traffic that comes for the diving, while coastal roads link Hurghada north and south along the shore of the Red Sea Governorate to the rest of the country. Boats leave straight from the shore.
The dive vessels run out to the reefs offshore, the reason many travellers make the trip in the first place.
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Updated July 2026