The Red Sea in April
Arguably the best all-round month: hot enough to want the sea, warm enough to swim in it, not yet hot enough to hide from the afternoon.
Air, daytime
29–31°C
Air, night
17–19°C
Sea
around 24°C
April is when everything lines up. The sea has warmed past the point of hesitation, the air is hot without being oppressive, and the wind is consistent enough for the surf schools to run every day.
It is also when the coast feels most alive without feeling overrun — the season is properly open, the restaurants are all trading, and it has not yet reached the volume of high summer.
The El Gouna squash open falls in April, and Sham El Nessim — the Egyptian spring festival — fills the public beaches with families having an extremely good time.
Wind, crowds and prices
- Wind
- Reliable northerly building — prime kitesurfing begins.
- Crowds
- Busy, especially around Easter and Sham El Nessim.
- Prices
- Higher than March, well below the summer school holidays.
Good for
- Almost everything
- Kitesurfing
- Diving in comfortable water
- A first trip
In the water
The water finally catches up: 24°C is comfortable in a 3mm suit and fine for snorkelling in a rash vest. Visibility is still very good, though the first plankton of the year can soften it in the far south. This is when the reef starts feeling busy with fish rather than merely full of them.
How long the days are
Nearly thirteen hours of light. Long enough that a boat day and an evening out stop competing with each other, and the first month where the sun is high enough at midday to make shade a decision rather than an accident.
The catch
It is no longer cheap, and it is no longer quiet. If you were hoping for the empty beaches of February at April temperatures, that combination does not exist.
Or the month either side
May is hotter in the air by three degrees and warmer in the sea by two, with better wind — the trade is afternoons you have to plan around. If you want April's air with a warmer sea, October and November are the mirror months and the sea is four degrees up on both.
Typical Hurghada figures, rounded. Marsa Alam runs a couple of degrees warmer. Last reviewed 26 July 2026. Something off?