What to do on the Red Sea coast, ranked honestly
Not fifteen must-dos in no particular order. What this coast is genuinely world-class at, what is very good and under-taken, what is worth one day of a fortnight, and what is sold far harder than it deserves.
Why this list is in a strange order
This coast is world-class at a small number of things and perfectly ordinary at the rest — and almost everything sold hard to you will come from the ordinary list, because that is where the margin is. Nobody earns a commission on a reef you can swim to from your own towel, so nobody puts it first. This page is ordered by how good the thing actually is, which produces a very different list from the one at the excursions desk.
Genuinely world-class
Among the best anywhere, not merely good for the region. If you do nothing else here, do these.
Putting your face in the water
Genuinely world-classDeliberately first. A fringing reef that starts at the shoreline, water at bath temperature for half the year, no tide and almost no surf inside the reef — a ten-year-old with a mask sees more here in twenty minutes than a diver sees in a week almost anywhere else. It costs nothing, it is available every day of your holiday, and it is the single best thing on this coast. It appears on no excursion list for exactly that reason.
Diving the reef
Genuinely world-classThe Red Sea is on every serious diver’s list and deserves to be: high visibility, warm water year-round, walls and pinnacles and coral gardens within an hour of shore, and enough competition between centres that standards at the good end are high. It is also among the best places on earth to learn, because the conditions forgive a beginner in a way cold, dark, tidal water does not.
The wrecks
Genuinely world-classNot simply "diving, but on a ship". This stretch of sea has a density and quality of wrecks that very few places match — a wartime cargo ship with its holds still full, a ferry, a freighter on a reef — and several of them are shallow enough to be genuinely good rather than merely deep. This is the thing that brings divers back rather than through.
Kitesurfing and windsurfing
Genuinely world-classA thermal wind that turns up on schedule for most of the year, flat shallow lagoons you can stand up in while you learn, and a season that runs when northern Europe has none. Beginners progress here in a week in a way they do not in gusty coastal wind at home, and the good spots are genuinely world-ranked rather than locally enthusiastic.
A liveaboard week
Genuinely world-classA format this sea did more than any other to define: sleep on the boat, dive the sites that day boats cannot reach, three or four dives a day for a week. If you dive and you have the time, it is a different holiday from a hotel with a dive centre attached, and the routes here are the reference against which liveaboards elsewhere are judged.
Very good, and under-taken
Real highlights that most visitors miss, usually because nobody is selling them at the desk.
Meeting something large
Very good, and under-takenDugongs grazing seagrass in a handful of bays, green turtles that are genuinely habituated to snorkellers, spinner dolphins resting in the lagoons, and — at the right time of year — a whale shark. These are wild animals and no day can promise them, which is precisely why the sites that host them are worth understanding before you book a trip that says otherwise.
The Eastern Desert
Very good, and under-takenImmediately behind the hotels is real desert — mountains, wadis, quiet on a scale that surprises people — and almost no visitor sees it except through a dust cloud on a quad convoy. The landscape is very good. The standard product built on top of it is average, and the difference between the two is entirely the operator and the group size.
Doing very little, warmly, in January
Very good, and under-takenWorth saying plainly because it is what most visitors actually want and few pages will admit is a legitimate answer. Reliable mid-twenties sun in the European midwinter, a short flight, a sea you can swim in, and no obligation to see anything. That is a real product and this coast delivers it about as well as anywhere in reach.
Worth a day of a fortnight
Good things that are not why you came. Do them once, with the right expectations.
Luxor, in a day
Worth a day of a fortnightEmphatically worth doing, and worth knowing what it is: fifteen to seventeen hours door to door, eight of them in a coach, wrapped around three of the most significant archaeological sites on earth. Doing it once, tiredly, beats not doing it. Whether it is a great day or a forced march depends almost entirely on the guide.
A boat day to the islands
Worth a day of a fortnightReliably pleasant and reliably busy. The Giftun islands deliver white sand and clear shallow water exactly as pictured, and every boat arrives at midday. Worth a day of a fortnight rather than a highlight, and better with an operator that leaves early or moors somewhere quieter.
Actually going into town
Worth a day of a fortnightThe most under-taken thing on this coast. Dahar — old Hurghada — is a working Egyptian town with a fish market, coffee houses and a bazaar, twenty minutes and almost no money from a resort gate, and the majority of visitors never leave the compound. It is not a manicured experience and that is the entire point.
Sold harder than it deserves
Not bad, and in some cases genuinely enjoyable — just not the thing the marketing says it is.
"Swim with dolphins"
Sold harder than it deservesThe reef it happens on is a genuinely good snorkel and the boats are pleasant. The problem is the promise: the pod is resting there during the day, no operator can guarantee an encounter, and a boat that chases the animals to produce one is doing harm on your behalf. Book it as a reef day and let the dolphins be a bonus.
Cairo as a road day trip
Sold harder than it deservesNot Cairo — Cairo by coach from here. Eighteen to twenty hours door to door with about twelve of them in a vehicle, for a few hours at Giza. Flown, it is a genuinely good day and the one place on this coast where paying more changes the experience rather than the packaging. Driven, people do it and people regret it.
Nightlife, as a reason to come
Sold harder than it deservesIt exists, some of it is fun, and none of it is a reason to choose this coast over anywhere else. Judged against a European city it is unremarkable and, relative to everything else here, expensive. Choose your town for the water and treat the evenings as a bonus rather than the other way round.
Shopping, as an attraction
Sold harder than it deservesThe bazaar is worth an afternoon and bargaining is a genuinely enjoyable social form once you understand it. But nobody should fly here to shop, the "factory" stops on excursions are commission arrangements rather than itinerary, and a great deal of what is sold as alabaster, papyrus or saffron is not.
The boat is cancelled. Now what? →
Wind stops boats here from December to February. What is still on today, what is genuinely off, and why a cancellation is the right call.
If you do one thing
Get a mask that fits, walk into the sea at your own hotel before breakfast on the first morning, and put your face in the water. Everything else on this page is optional; that is the thing you came for whether or not you knew it, and it is free.
Elsewhere in the guide
Last reviewed 26 July 2026. Something out of date? Tell us