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A view over the port town of Safaga toward the jagged Red Sea mountains
Badics · CC BY-SA 3.0

Safaga

A working port town 53km south of Hurghada — phosphate ships, world-class wind, and prices that have not been rewritten for tourists.

Safaga is the most honest town on this coast, in the sense that it is not primarily for you. It is a working port — phosphate exports, cargo, and the pilgrim ferries to Saudi Arabia — with a modest tourism industry attached to one side of it.

What tourism there is concentrates on the water. The bay is protected by a long headland and Tobia island, producing flat, shallow, consistently windy conditions that made Safaga a windsurfing destination long before kitesurfing existed, and that still draw a devoted seasonal crowd.

The town itself is plain and functional. It has also long carried a reputation for therapeutic value — the specific combination of black sand, mineral content and low pollen has drawn people seeking relief from skin and joint conditions for decades. Treat the claims with appropriate caution and the town as what it is: cheap, real, and pointed at the sea.

Suits you if

  • Windsurfers and kitesurfers, who have known about this bay for thirty years
  • Divers on a budget — good sites, far lower prices than Hurghada
  • Travellers heading to Luxor by road who want a coastal night either side
  • Anyone who prefers a real town to a resort strip

Probably not if

  • Anyone wanting resort polish, nightlife, or a wide choice of restaurants
  • Families expecting entertainment programmes and water parks
  • Travellers who want to be insulated from an ordinary Egyptian working town

The practical shape of it

Getting there
Hurghada International (HRG), about an hour by road. It is also the coast’s main road junction for Luxor and the Nile valley.
Beach and sea
The bay is the attraction: flat water, dependable wind, and a sheltered shape that makes it forgiving to learn in. Diving is good and uncrowded, with sites reachable on short boat rides. Beaches in town are unremarkable; the good stretches belong to the handful of hotels.
Evenings
Limited and local. A few hotel restaurants, some simple places in town, and not much else. Alcohol is harder to find than in the resort towns.
What it costs
Among the cheapest on the coast for accommodation, watersports and diving. It is a genuinely different price bracket from Soma Bay, 15km up the road.
When to come
Wind is most reliable roughly April to September, which is also the hottest stretch. October to April is more comfortable on land, with less dependable wind.

The catch

It is an industrial port and it looks like one. The commercial harbour is visible and active, the town is unpretty, and the tourist infrastructure is thin and ageing in places. Come for the wind and the value; do not come expecting charm.

Nearby

  • Soma Bay, 15km north, if you want a spa day at the other end of the price range
  • Luxor, about 3 hours west — the shortest run to the Nile valley from anywhere on this coast
  • Tobia island and the wind spots along the bay

Diving from Safaga

  • Panorama Reef · Intermediate · A large reef off Safaga with sheer walls on three sides and some of the healthiest soft coral in the northern Red Sea. The best day-boat dive on this stretch of coast.
  • Salem Express · Intermediate · A ferry that sank near Safaga in December 1991 with the loss of several hundred lives. It is divable, it is a grave, and whether to dive it at all is a question worth answering before you book.

Listed in Safaga

Hotels and resorts 18Dive centres 7Restaurants 8Cafés 3Bars 3Things to do 2Local services 2

Last reviewed 25 July 2026. Transfer times and what is open change. Something out of date? Tell us.

Also near here

The rest of what this site has anchored to this town — the wrecks and spots in its bay, the trips that run from it, and how it compares to its neighbours. (The dive sites are listed above.)

Wrecks

  • Salem Express

    A ferry carrying pilgrims home from Mecca that sank in minutes a few kilometres from her home port. She is the coast’s largest grave, and whether she should be dived at all is a question worth answering before you book.

Kitesurfing

  • Safaga and Tobia islandAll levels

    The coast’s original wind destination — flat water in the lee of a long headland and Tobia island, at prices from a different decade.

Day trips from here

  • Luxor in a day

    Karnak, the Valley of the Kings and the Colossi of Memnon, reached by a four-hour drive each way. The most rewarding thing you can do from this coast, and the most exhausting.

  • Desert safari and quad biking

    Quad bikes into the Eastern Desert, usually with a Bedouin camp, a camel and a sunset. Enormous fun or a dusty conveyor belt, depending entirely on the operator.

How it compares

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