The Red Sea in July
One of the two hardest months. Cheap flights, hot everything, and a sea too warm to cool you down.
Air, daytime
35–37°C
Air, night
25–27°C
Sea
around 29°C
July is when the coast is at its most demanding. Daytime temperatures sit in the mid-thirties and regularly go higher, the sea is warm enough that a swim stops being refreshing, and any activity outside the early morning is genuinely hard work.
It is not unmanageable — hundreds of thousands of people holiday here in July — but it requires planning the day around the sun rather than around the itinerary.
The compensation is the water. Diving and snorkelling in 29°C water with strong visibility is a genuine pleasure, and the wind makes the coast far more bearable than Luxor or Cairo at the same time of year.
Wind, crowds and prices
- Wind
- Strong and constant — the saving grace.
- Crowds
- European school holidays plus Egyptian summer travel. Busy.
- Prices
- High for flights and packages despite the conditions.
Good for
- Watersports and diving
- People who work around the heat
- Families tied to school holidays
In the water
29°C water and no thermal reason to wear anything, though a rash vest is worth it for the sun on your back while snorkelling. Visibility is good, occasionally softened by plankton. The wind is the only thing making the surface bearable, which is why the kitesurfers regard this as high season and everyone else regards it as an ordeal.
How long the days are
Around thirteen and three-quarter hours, barely off the peak. The heat, not the light, is what shortens the usable day — the sun is up for fourteen hours and roughly six of them are worth being outside in.
The catch
Excursions. A Luxor day trip in July is a serious undertaking — the Valley of the Kings has no shade and inland temperatures run well above the coast. If you are coming in July, do the sea and leave the monuments for another trip.
Or the month either side
August is the same month with a hotter sea and more European holidaymakers in it. September is the honest alternative — one to two degrees cooler in the air, the same warm sea, and the crowds thinning. Almost nobody who has a choice should pick July over September.
Typical Hurghada figures, rounded. Marsa Alam runs a couple of degrees warmer. Last reviewed 26 July 2026. Something off?