Hurghada all inclusive, what you really get and how to pick the right resort zone
Hurghada all inclusive, what you really get and how to pick the right resort zone
An all inclusive stay in Hurghada covers your room, three buffet meals a day, snacks between them, and unlimited local drinks at the pool and lobby bars. Some resorts add a house reef, a kids club and non-motorized water sports. It almost never covers the a la carte restaurants beyond a set number of visits, imported spirits, motorized water sports, excursions or tips. Where you stay matters more than the label: Hurghada city, Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Bay, Soma Bay and El Gouna are five different vacations. Pick the zone first, then the resort, then add the Luxor day trip or the Nile cruise by road that turns a beach week into an Egypt trip.
What all inclusive really means in a Hurghada resort
The phrase sounds absolute, and on the Red Sea it is generous, but it still has edges. Here is what the wristband reliably buys you.
- Meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner in the main buffet, usually with a live cooking station, a grill and a dessert table, plus an afternoon snack service near the pool.
- Local drinks. Egyptian beer and wine, locally bottled spirits, soft drinks, juices from concentrate, tea and coffee, served at the pool, beach and lobby bars during their hours. Bottled water is normally included.
- Pools and beach. Loungers, umbrellas and towels at both the pool and the beach, plus the heated pool in winter where the resort has one.
- Some activities. A daily animation program, an evening show, and often a kids club with set hours. Non-motorized water sports such as pedal boats and kayaks are included at many properties.
- Snorkeling from the shore. If the resort has a house reef or a jetty over coral, access is free. The mask and fins usually are not, unless you bring your own.
Quality varies by resort tier more than by zone. What does not vary is the ease: your wallet stays in the safe all day.
What it usually does not include
This is the part that surprises first-time visitors.
- A la carte restaurants. Most resorts have an Italian, an Asian and a seafood restaurant beside the buffet. All inclusive normally gives you one or two a la carte dinners per week, reservations required. Beyond that you pay a supplement.
- Imported drinks. Branded spirits, imported wine, and cocktails made with premium spirits or fresh-squeezed juice are almost always extra. Ask for the local equivalent and it is included.
- Motorized water sports. Jet skis, parasailing, banana boats. These are run by an outside concession on the beach and are never in the package.
- Diving. Dive centers inside resorts are independent businesses. A try dive, a course or a boat dive is always paid separately.
- Excursions. The desert safari, the snorkeling boat to the islands, the Luxor day trip, the Cairo flight. The hotel's tour desk sells these at a markup, or you book them with a local agency like us.
- Tips. Not compulsory, but tipping is part of life in Egypt and the staff who clean your room rely on it. Bring small notes in the local currency.
The honest summary: all inclusive removes the daily spending on food and drink. It does not remove the decisions, and the ones that remain, the zone and the excursions, decide whether you come home with a tan or with Egypt.
The resort zones of Hurghada and how they differ
People say Hurghada when they mean a stretch of coast from El Gouna in the north to Soma Bay in the south, with the city and the airport in the middle. Each zone has a different beach, transfer time and feeling outside the gate.
| Zone | Beach and reef | Airport transfer | Outside the gate | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hurghada city | Narrow beaches, some reef off the jetty, water sports everywhere | Short, often under half an hour | A real Egyptian town, the marina, cafes, souks, nightlife | Divers, anyone who wants a town to walk in |
| Sahl Hasheesh | Long sandy bay, calm shallow water, reef further out or off the jetties | Around half an hour south | A planned promenade with a few restaurants, quiet | Families with small kids, couples who want calm sea |
| Makadi Bay | Sandy coves, good house reefs at several resorts, sheltered | Roughly forty minutes south | Almost nothing, a small commercial strip | Snorkelers, families who stay inside the resort |
| Soma Bay | Peninsula with a long jetty over a superb reef, steady wind | Close to an hour south | Other resorts, a golf course and a kite center | Divers, kitesurfers, golfers, couples |
| El Gouna | Lagoons and man-made beaches, reef only by boat | Around half an hour north | A resort town with a downtown, a marina and restaurants | Couples, groups, anyone who hates being confined |
A few opinions to go with the table. Sahl Hasheesh is the safest choice for a family that wants to walk into the water off sand; our Sahl Hasheesh travel guide covers the beaches and the promenade. Makadi Bay is where we send people who want to snorkel off the beach every morning. Soma Bay is the serious water choice and feels far from everything. El Gouna is the one zone where all inclusive makes less sense, because the town is the attraction; our El Gouna guide explains the lagoon layout. Hurghada city is underrated: smaller beaches, but a living town and the marina down the road.
House reef versus boat snorkeling
This decides what you do every day, so understand it before you book.
House reef
A house reef is coral that starts at the resort's own shoreline: you walk down a jetty, climb a ladder, and you are over coral within a minute. Makadi Bay, parts of Soma Bay and a few properties in Hurghada city have this. The fish are smaller than on the outer reefs, but you can go in three times a day without organizing anything.
Boat snorkeling
Everywhere else, the good reef is a boat ride away. A full-day boat leaves the marina in the morning, stops at two or three reefs or an island, serves lunch on board, and returns by mid-afternoon. The water is clearer and the drop-offs more dramatic than off any jetty, but it is an excursion and takes a day out of the beach schedule.
How to decide
- If you want to snorkel daily with no planning, book a resort with a real house reef and a jetty over it, not a sandy lagoon.
- If one or two boat days is enough, the lagoon resorts are fine and the town or the promenade is a bonus.
- Ask whether the reef is reached by jetty or by wading. Wading over coral is unpleasant and damages it.
Our guide to excursions from Hurghada lists the island and reef boat trips we run.
Families, couples and divers want different resorts
The same stamp covers three different products. Match the resort to who is traveling and most complaints disappear.
Families
Look for a sandy, gradual beach with no coral at the waterline, a shaded kids pool, a kids club that runs morning and afternoon, and a buffet with plain food for picky eaters. Sahl Hasheesh and Makadi Bay lead here. A transfer under an hour matters when a toddler has been awake since dawn. Our family travel guide to Egypt covers the rest of the country with children.
Couples
Adults-only resorts exist in Hurghada and most of them sit in Sahl Hasheesh, Soma Bay and the southern edge of the city. Quiet pools, a good a la carte selection and a jetty for sunset. El Gouna suits couples who would rather eat in town.
Divers
Choose the dive center first and the resort second. The northern sites and the islands are reached from the marina; the southern sites from Soma Bay and Safaga. A house reef for check dives is a plus. Dive packages sit outside the all inclusive, so plan the diving separately.
If you are still choosing between this coast and the Sinai side, read Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh first. The short version: Hurghada wins for families and for combining with Luxor, Sharm wins for divers who only want the sea.
Combining an all inclusive week with Luxor or a Nile cruise by road
This is the argument for Hurghada over any other beach in the region. Luxor, the largest concentration of ancient monuments on earth, is a drive through the Eastern Desert, about four hours each way from most zones, a little more from Soma Bay. No other Red Sea resort has that.
The Luxor day trip
You leave before dawn with a private driver and a licensed Egyptologist guide, cross the mountains at sunrise, and spend the day at the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon and Karnak. You are back at the buffet for a late dinner. Our Luxor excursions page shows the variants, including an overnight version that lets you see the temples at a gentler pace and add a sunrise balloon flight.
The Nile cruise by road
The better option, if you can spare the days, is to split the week: four or five nights on the beach and three or four nights on a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan. We drive you from the resort to the boat in Luxor, you sail south past Edfu and Kom Ombo, and we bring you back from Aswan. It works in either direction. The timing and the road are in our guide to a Nile cruise from Hurghada.
Cairo is also reachable by a domestic flight of about an hour. Two days with a night in Cairo beats a one-day dash and lets you add the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Wind and seasons, in plain terms
The beach season runs all year, but January and August are not the same beach, and the difference is mostly the wind.
- Winter, roughly December to February. Daytime highs in the low 70s F, around 22 C, with sunshine most days. The sea is cool but swimmable. A northerly wind on many days makes the loungers feel cooler than the thermometer says; sheltered bays like Sahl Hasheesh and Makadi feel it less. This is the best season to combine with Luxor.
- Spring and fall, March to May and October to November. The sweet spot. Highs in the 80s F, high 20s C, warm sea, lighter wind, long evenings on the terrace. Spring occasionally brings a dusty day.
- Summer, June to September. Highs above 95 F, mid 30s C and beyond, with very low humidity on the coast. The sea is bath warm and reef visibility is at its best. You live in the water before eleven and after four. Luxor in summer is a dawn-only proposition.
The wind that annoys sunbathers makes El Gouna and Soma Bay two of the best kitesurfing spots anywhere. For a month-by-month view of the whole country, see our best time to visit Egypt guide.
Questions to ask before you book
Ask these of the hotel or of us. They decide the week more than the star rating does.
- What is the beach made of? Sand you walk into, sand with a coral shelf at the waterline, or a man-made lagoon. Each suits a different traveler.
- Is there a jetty over the reef, and how long is it? A short jetty into shallow water is not the same as a long one reaching the drop-off.
- How far is the airport in minutes, at the hour your flight lands? A late-night arrival to Soma Bay is a very different first evening from one in Hurghada city.
- What are the kids club hours and the minimum age? Many clubs close for lunch and do not take children under four.
- Is there a house reef, and is it reached by jetty or by wading? The answer tells you whether you will snorkel daily or once.
- What is the policy on outside excursions? Almost every resort lets an agency collect you at the lobby; a few try to route everything through their own desk.
The classic mistake: never leaving the resort
We see it every week. A couple flies a long way, spends seven nights on a beach that could be anywhere warm, and goes home having seen a buffet and a reef. Nothing wrong with rest. But Hurghada is a beach next to Luxor, a desert of Bedouin villages, a coral coast reached only by boat, and a real Egyptian city.
All inclusive quietly encourages staying put. Every meal is paid for, so leaving feels like waste. By day five, a pre-dawn drive to the Valley of the Kings sounds like work.
Decide before you go which two or three days you will spend away from the beach, and book them in advance. A pattern that works for a week:
- Days one and two: settle in, sleep, learn the beach.
- Day three: a full-day boat to the islands or a reef, lunch on board.
- Day four: recover by the pool.
- Day five: Luxor for the day, back for dinner.
- Day six: a desert afternoon with a Bedouin dinner, or a walk through Hurghada's old town.
- Day seven: pack, one last swim.
You still spend most of the week under an umbrella. You just come home with a story.
How a local agency adds land excursions to a resort stay
The hotel is the easy part. What we do is everything outside the gate, differently from the hotel tour desk.
- Private, not shared. The desk sells seats on a bus that stops at ten hotels before it leaves the coast. We send our own vehicle and driver to your lobby at the time you choose, with an Egyptologist guide for the monument days.
- Timing built around your resort. If the Luxor day means missing dinner, we tell you to ask the buffet for a packed dinner, which most resorts will prepare if asked in the morning.
- Combinations the desk cannot sell. Beach plus Nile cruise, beach plus two days in Cairo by domestic flight, a Luxor overnight with a balloon flight.
- Tickets and logistics handled. Monument entrances, the boat, the guide, the road permits. You carry nothing but water and a hat.
- One conversation. Tell us the resort, the dates and who is traveling. We reply with a plan for the off-beach days and send you the quote.
Frequently asked questions
Is all inclusive in Hurghada worth it, or is half board enough?
For most beach weeks in Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Bay or Soma Bay, yes, because there is nowhere to eat outside the resort anyway and you will drink more by the pool than you expect. In El Gouna and Hurghada city, half board can make more sense, since the town has restaurants worth walking to. If you plan three or more excursion days, remember you will miss several included lunches.
Are drinks really unlimited, and what does local mean?
Unlimited within bar hours, yes, and staff rarely count. Local means Egyptian beer, Egyptian wine and locally bottled spirits, plus soft drinks and juices from concentrate. Imported brands, cocktails with premium spirits and fresh juice usually appear on a separate list at the bar. The local beer is fine; the local spirits are an acquired taste.
Which Hurghada zone has the best snorkeling from the beach?
Makadi Bay and Soma Bay, in that order for convenience. Several Makadi resorts have coral starting at the end of a short jetty, sheltered from the wind. Soma Bay has a long jetty over a large, healthy reef with real drop-offs. Sahl Hasheesh is sandy, so the reef is by boat or off specific jetties. El Gouna's lagoons have no reef at all. Always ask whether reef access is by jetty rather than by wading.
Can you do Luxor as a day trip from an all inclusive resort in Hurghada?
Yes, and it is the most common excursion we run from the coast. Expect a departure before sunrise, about four hours on the road each way through the desert mountains, a full guided day at the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon and Karnak, and a return in time for a late dinner. From Soma Bay the drive is a little longer. An overnight version is gentler and adds a balloon flight at dawn.
Is Hurghada windy, and will it spoil a beach vacation?
A northerly wind blows on many days, strongest in winter and spring. On a summer afternoon it is a relief. On a January morning it makes the loungers feel cooler than the air temperature suggests, and it puts chop on boat trips. Bays protected by a headland, like Sahl Hasheesh and parts of Makadi, feel it less. El Gouna and Soma Bay get the most, which is why they are kitesurfing centers.
Do I need to tip in an all inclusive resort in Egypt?
Nothing is compulsory, but tipping is part of everyday life in Egypt and resort staff earn modest wages. Guests commonly leave something for the room attendant every few days, for a waiter who looks after them at dinner, and for the beach staff who set up loungers. Small notes in the local currency are appreciated more than coins in a foreign one.
Planning an all inclusive week in Hurghada? Write to us
Tell us the zone or resort you are considering, your dates and who is traveling. We are a local agency in Egypt with our own guides and vehicles, and we will tell you plainly whether the resort fits, suggest the days worth spending off the beach, and send you the quote for the excursions or Nile cruise you want to add.
