HURGHADA Red Sea Egypt

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Yesterday evening I came back from Hurghada at the Red Sea in Egypt where I had spent 2 weeks. This was the 4th time. Hurghada is nothing special, it was founded in the early 20th century, and since the 1980s has been continually enlarged by Egyptian and foreign investors to become the leading seashore resort on the Red Sea.

Holiday villages and hotels provide aquatic sport facilities for sailboarders, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorkelers.Hurghada stretches for about 36 kilometres (22 mi) along the seashore, and it does not reach far into the surrounding desert. It is for Egyptian tourists from Cairo, the Delta and Upper Egypt, as well as package holiday tourists from Europe, lots of people from the Eastern countries like Hungarians, Poles, Bulgarians etc and also a lot of Russian speaking people. There were languages I had never heard ! The rest were guests from western countries like the UK, Holland, Italy and Germany.

Until a few years ago it was a small fishing village. Today Hurghada counts 248,000 inhabitants and is divided into three parts: Downtown (El Dahar) is the old part; Sekalla is the city center, and El Memsha (Village road) is the modern part. Sakkala is the relatively modest hotel quarter.

It's the ideal place for spending real holidays not for visiting the Egyptian tresors. Sunshine is guaranteed the whole year, the cooler months are January and February with sometimes thunderstorms.

I stayed in the Hotel Sunrise Holidays Resort, which is a very nice hotel and would suit for all ages from 0 to 90 ! The only problem I had was that they didn't have free Internet Connection and I had to pay 50 € for a week using my own laptop ! One hour was 5 € ! Exhorbitant prices for a 5* hotel and not very customer friendly ! This was the first time it happened to me in a hotel ! 5* in Egypt is not the same as 5* in European countries. They are real palaces, but of course you don't have the same service, for only 1200 € flight included and all inclusive you can't expect miracles. But the rooms are clean and there is everything you need. I really have spent very nice holidays.

Hurghada by night ! Lots of tourists, lots of shops and a lot of animation

The hotel entrance

around the beach

Inside of the hotel

A belly dancer show

and that's what I see outside today ! That's my world again !