What to wear in Hurghada

The hotel, the pool and the hotel beach

Wear: Bikinis and swim shorts are normal at hotel pools and resort beaches. Put on a cover-up or T-shirt before going into restaurants, reception or shops, and check the hotel’s own restaurant dress code.

What causes friction: Topless sunbathing is not done and is prohibited at most hotels, including ones where the rest of the beach could be anywhere in Europe. Nude is not a category that exists here.

El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh, the marinas and the tourist strips

Wear: Shorts, dresses, vest tops, sandals. These are purpose-built tourist areas and they dress like it, all year. A cover-up over swimwear is enough to walk to a beach bar.

What causes friction: Swimwear alone in a restaurant or a shop, even a tourist one, reads as bad manners rather than as offence — the same way it would in Nice. Take a t-shirt.

Downtown Hurghada, Dahar, the bazaars, any local street

Wear: For Dahar, local markets and residential streets, loose clothing covering shoulders and knees is a practical choice for women and men. Pack light trousers or a longer skirt and a breathable top; swimwear belongs at the pool or beach.

What causes friction: Modest clothing fits local expectations, but it is not a guarantee against unwanted attention. Individual venues can have their own rules; ask at the entrance if you are unsure.

Inside a mosque

Wear: Long trousers or a long skirt, covered shoulders, and a headscarf for women. Shoes come off at the door and there is always a shelf or a bag for them. Loose clothing rather than tight, for everyone.

What causes friction: Visiting hours are outside prayer times, and Friday midday is the one time to stay away. If nobody is around to ask, the answer is not now.

A Luxor or Cairo day trip

Wear: Cover shoulders and knees, and add long sleeves you can put on. This is a churches-mosques-and-tombs day, some of it in genuinely conservative places, and it is also six hours of sun with no shade in the ruins.

What causes friction: Closed shoes. Every guide on this coast has watched somebody try Karnak in flip-flops on hot uneven stone, and they will not say anything until afterwards.

A dive or snorkel boat

Wear: Swimwear on deck, a rash vest or t-shirt in the water, and something with sleeves for the ride back. Crews see swimwear all day and have no opinion about it.

What causes friction: The Egyptian crew will be dressed for work, not for the beach, and the deck is not a private space. Change in the cabin, not on the ladder.

It is legal, and easier than people expect

Alcohol is legal in licensed bars and restaurants, private homes and certain tourist resorts. Not every hotel or restaurant serves it, and an all-inclusive label does not confirm which drinks are included. Check your booking’s drinks policy.

Where it is not

Do not assume a public beach, street or café permits drinking. Use a licensed venue and check its rules; local cafés often serve tea, coffee and karkade instead.

The counterfeit-spirits problem is real

Egypt taxes imported spirits heavily, which has created a genuine market in refilled bottles — a familiar label with something else inside. Methanol poisoning from counterfeit spirits has killed tourists in Egypt and in several other countries with the same tax structure. The practical answer: stick to beer, wine and spirits poured in reputable hotels and licensed bars, be suspicious of a bottle sold cheaply from a back room, and treat "imported vodka" at an implausible price as the warning it is.

The duty-free allowance is worth knowing

Arriving passengers may buy a limited quantity of duty-free alcohol, and there are duty-free shops airside on arrival at Hurghada as well as in town, where purchases are usually possible within a short window after landing — currently 48 hours — with your passport and entry stamp. Rules and quantities change; check the current allowance before you count on it.

Inside the resort, almost nothing changes

Hotels on this coast run normally through Ramadan: restaurants open, bars serving, beaches full. Some hotels move a bar indoors or trim live entertainment. If you booked a package and never leave the resort, you may barely notice it — which is worth knowing both ways, because people cancel trips over this and then meet a completely normal holiday.

Outside it, the whole day is reshaped

Shops and offices keep short and strange hours. Traffic in the hour before sunset is genuinely dangerous, because everybody is driving home to break the fast and nobody is patient. Then the streets empty completely for about an hour — the quietest hour of the Egyptian year — and afterwards the town comes alive and stays that way until very late. Plan around iftar rather than through it.

What is actually asked of a visitor

Not fasting. Just not eating, drinking or smoking conspicuously in the street in front of people who are — which mostly means finishing your water bottle indoors. Nobody expects a tourist to fast and nobody will ask you to. Egyptians are used to visitors and are, in practice, far more relaxed about this than the guidance suggests.

The part nobody puts in the warnings

Ramadan evenings on this coast are the best atmosphere of the year: lanterns up, families out, restaurants full at midnight, everyone in a good mood. If you are invited to an iftar, go. It is the most generous thing that will happen to you in Egypt and refusing it is the only real mistake available.

Photographing people: permission matters

For personal photography in public places, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says photographing Egyptian citizens requires their written consent and photographs of children are prohibited. Asking politely is not a substitute for written consent. Choose another subject if permission is unclear.

Sometimes it is a transaction, and that is fine

An adult performer or camel handler may charge for a posed photograph. Agree the price beforehand, but payment does not replace permission. Follow the same photography rules as elsewhere.

What not to photograph, at all

Military installations, police, checkpoints, the airport apron, bridges and port infrastructure. This is not a cultural nicety — it is enforced, and it can mean your phone is examined and a long, unpleasant conversation. The road between Hurghada and Safaga has checkpoints. Put the camera down for them.

Drones are the one that ruins holidays

Bringing a drone into Egypt requires prior authorisation, and drones are routinely confiscated at customs on arrival — sometimes returned on departure, sometimes not. Flying one without a permit, particularly near coastline, ports or anything official, is a serious matter rather than a fine. Leave it at home unless you have written permission in hand, and check the current position before you travel.

You assume: Everyone who talks to me wants to sell me something.

Actually: On Sheraton Road, often yes. Anywhere that is not a tourist strip, usually not — Egyptian street sociability is genuine, unusually warm by European standards, and being met with suspicion is the thing visitors here find rudest. The tell is simple: a seller opens with a question about you and steers; someone being friendly opens with a question about you and listens to the answer.

You assume: Those two men holding hands are a couple.

Actually: They are friends. Male friends in Egypt hold hands, link arms and walk close together, and it carries no romantic meaning whatsoever — it is a friendship gesture that European men mostly gave up a century ago. Reading it the other way, out loud, is the misunderstanding, not the gesture.

You assume: "My friend" means we have a rapport now.

Actually: It is a form of address, roughly equivalent to "mate" shouted across a street, and it commits neither of you to anything. It is also the standard opening of a sales approach. Nothing has been established, and you can walk on without having been rude.

You assume: People are staring at me because something is wrong.

Actually: Direct looking is not impolite here the way it is in northern Europe, and a visibly foreign visitor away from the resorts is simply interesting. It is curiosity, not judgement, and a smile and a nod ends it every time — which is the opposite of what avoiding eye contact does.

You assume: "Inshallah" means yes.

Actually: It means "God willing", and depending on the tone it spans anything from a firm yes to a polite no that avoids the flat refusal. For anything that matters — a pickup time, a delivery, a booking — get the specific: what time, and whose phone number. This is not evasiveness, it is a different convention about how certainty gets expressed.

You assume: They are being generous because they want a tip.

Actually: Sometimes both are true at once and that is not a contradiction. Egyptian hospitality to guests is a deep social obligation and it is real; tipping is also woven through every service transaction here. Accepting the first graciously and handling the second separately is the move. Treating the generosity as purely instrumental is both wrong and visible.