Hurghada
You can be here in January for about €365, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Prime time in January: 22°C days, dry, sea 23°C.
Autumn and spring give warm sea and bearable air; winter is sunny but windy, with sea temperatures that call for a wetsuit, and midsummer is hot enough to keep people in the water or indoors. Divers should watch for the trade-wind season, when boats stay in port on rough days.
Best months here: October, November, December. January is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Hurghada is a resort strip forty kilometres long with a fishing village, El Dahar, at one end and the marina-and-mall town of El Gouna at the other; the reason for all of it is the reef offshore and the desert behind. The town itself is not the point. It suits divers, families who want a guaranteed pool and sun, and anyone using the Red Sea as a base for the day to Luxor.
What you can do
- 01Dive or snorkel Giftun Island's reefs on a day boat, or the Abu Nuhas wrecks if you are certified.
- 02Walk El Dahar's old souk and eat grilled fish at a harbour restaurant, away from the hotel buffets.
- 03Kitesurf at Soma Bay or Safaga, where the lagoons are shallow and the wind reliable.
- 04Ride out to a Bedouin village in the Eastern Desert hills at sunset, by quad or jeep.
- 05Take the long day to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and Karnak, leaving before dawn.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Stay near the Marina or in El Gouna if you want to leave the hotel in the evening; the all-inclusives south of town are best for people who intend to stay put.
Unusual things
- ◦The Roman quarries and fort at Mons Claudianus in the Eastern Desert, where columns for the Pantheon were cut.
- ◦Sharm El Naga's house reef south of Hurghada, one of the few shore snorkelling sites that rivals the boat trips.
- ◦The Hurghada Grand Aquarium's Red Sea tanks and the museum's Egyptological collection for a windy day.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Egypt visa on arrival US$25 (or e-visa online). Not valid for all nationalities.
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Taxi, 15 min, ~€8
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- The airport is 15 to 30 minutes from most hotels; taxis and Uber cover the strip, with microbuses on the main road for the brave. Dive centres and tour operators pick up from hotels, which is how most people move.
- Clock
- 1 hour ahead of Milan (Africa/Cairo) derived
- Daylight
- 10.6 hours of daylight in January · sunrise 06:36, sunset 17:11 derived
- Currency
- EGP
Good to know
The Red Sea resorts are generally considered safe, though the wider Egyptian advisories apply; check the sea conditions and the shark and jellyfish notices before swimming outside the hotel reef.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Milan in January, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Marrakech
Cairo
Sharm El Sheikh
Fez
Sofia
Tunis