Seven nights in Hurghada is the best fit for most visitors. It gives you roughly three beach days, one boat day, one Luxor day, a desert safari and a half-day town tour, with room to rest between them. With five nights, drop the safari and the town tour; with ten nights, you can swap the Luxor day for the two-day overnight trip.
The principle is simple: alternate big days with easy ones. Hurghada is a beach destination first, and the trips are best used as punctuation rather than as a program that fills every day. Below is a week laid out day by day, followed by variations for shorter and longer stays.
A sample week
- Day 1: arrive, settle in and walk the beach or the resort. If you land in the morning, the half-day city tour is an easy first outing.
- Day 2: beach and pool, adjust to the heat.
- Day 3: the Dolphin House boat day or a Paradise Island beach day, early in the week while weather is flexible.
- Day 4: rest day at the hotel.
- Day 5: the Luxor day trip, leaving at 04:30 and back around 20:00.
- Day 6: late start, then the afternoon desert safari with dinner at the camp.
- Day 7: beach, packing and a relaxed last evening.
That order keeps your early starts apart. The boat day sits early, so a rough-weather cancellation can be moved. The Luxor day sits in the middle, when you are settled and rested, and the lighter evening safari comes later, with no alarm waiting the next morning.
Pacing: the rule of two
A useful rule is never to book more than two outings in three days. The reason is practical. Sun, sea and early alarms add up, and travelers who stack trips often spend the following day asleep by the pool. Spacing the days costs you nothing and means you enjoy each outing more.
Where the beach days fit
The beach is the reason most people come, and it deserves real time. Beach days are the base of the week, and the trips are the extras. Hurghada's resorts have good house reefs or sandy shores, depending on the area, and a day of doing very little is often the most valuable thing in the week. Put beach days before and after the trips to recover, and keep the last full day free of anything with an alarm attached.
The boat day
The Dolphin House trip is an eight-hour day with a pick-up at 08:00, about 90 minutes of sailing north, two or three snorkeling stops and lunch on board. Dolphins are often seen but never guaranteed. Book it early in your stay, so that if wind stops sailings you still have days left to move it.
The Luxor day
The Luxor day trip is the longest of the usual outings: a 04:30 pick-up, about four hours of driving each way, the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, Karnak and lunch, with a return at about 20:00. It is a rewarding day but a tiring one. Put a rest day after it, and never on the morning of a flight.
If your week stretches to ten nights, consider the two-day overnight version instead. It costs a night away from the beach and removes most of the rush. Choose it if you are visiting in summer, when the valley is far more comfortable at 07:15 than at midday.
The desert safari and the town tour
The quad bike safari starts at 14:00 and ends at about 19:00, so it takes up an afternoon and evening but leaves the morning free. It suits a day when you have already had a lie-in. The Hurghada city tour is four hours, at 09:00 or 15:00, and visits the mosque, the fish market, a Coptic church, the souk and the marina.
Shorter and longer stays
- Five nights: two beach days, one boat day, one Luxor day, one flexible day.
- Seven nights: the sample week above.
- Ten nights: add the overnight Luxor trip, the city tour and a second boat day or a dive day.
- Fourteen nights: add a Cairo day by flight and a long run of unscheduled beach days.
On shared trips children under 2 travel free, ages 2 to 11 pay half the adult price and 12 and over pay the adult price. Most trips can be booked online up to 48 hours ahead, and the current price is on each trip page. Our Hurghada office can adjust the order of days around your flights.
Plan with us
How many days in Hurghada? Splitting a week between beach and trips
Plan five, seven or ten days in Hurghada: how many beach days, boat trips, a Luxor day, a desert safari and a town tour to fit into your stay.