Hurghada: coral reefs and desert on the Red Sea

Narrow alleys, low houses, a wooden pier where fishermen still unload the morning catch: this is El Dahar, the original nucleus of the city before the tourist boom of the nineteen-eighties.

Descending toward the coast you reach the Marina of Hurghada, with its colorful sailboats and restaurants on the pier, the starting point for most boat excursions.

From here boats depart for the Giftun Islands, a protected marine area about an hour's navigation away, where coral reefs remain among the best preserved in the entire Red Sea.

Toward evening, a safari in a four-wheel drive through the eastern desert takes you among dunes and Bedouin villages, often concluded with a traditional dinner under the stars away from the coastal lights.

Those snorkeling for the first time at Giftun are often surprised at how close the reef is to the shore: just a few meters of swimming gets you already over the corals.

The desert that begins just kilometers from the hotels on the sea reminds you that Egypt's Red Sea tourism occupies actually a paper-thin strip between two much more arid landscapes.