Hurghada: City Tour and Sunset Quad Bike Desert Safari

Overview

You are already in Hurghada. You have seen the beach, the buffet and the road between them — and about two kilometres inland there is a town most visitors never walk into, with a desert behind it that starts where the last building stops. This afternoon you go and look at both.

You start in the old quarter, where the minaret of El Mina Mosque and the Coptic church stand within a few streets of each other, and the market sells spices by the scoop to people who actually cook with them. Then the road runs out of tarmac. There is a helmet, a practice lap, and a machine that does precisely what you ask of it. The first minutes go on the throttle; after that you stop managing the thing and simply ride it, and the only things left are the track ahead, the dust of whoever is in front, and the light coming in low across the hills.

That emptiness is not a backdrop. It is the Eastern Desert, and the Bedouin families still living at its edge were crossing it long before Hurghada was a town at all, when the coast was a handful of fishing huts. The glass of sweet tea someone hands you at the village is not a performance; it is what has always been offered to anyone who arrives in off that desert.

You will be back at your hotel with sand in your shoes and one photograph you actually keep. But the part that stays is quieter: you will have stood in the ordinary town your resort sits beside, ridden out to somewhere with no address, and drunk tea with people who were not selling you anything. You came for the beach. You leave having been somewhere.

Highlights

• ✦The town your resort sits beside, and the desert behind it, in one afternoon
• ✦El Mina Mosque, St Mary's Coptic church and a viewpoint over the Red Sea
• ✦A working spice market, not a souvenir arcade
• ✦Briefing and practice lap first, so no riding experience is needed
• ✦Bedouin tea and a short camel ride at the desert's edge
• ✦Air-conditioned hotel pickup and drop-off anywhere in Hurghada

Included

• ✓Hotel pickup and drop-off in Hurghada
• ✓Air-conditioned vehicle throughout
• ✓English-, German-, Russian- or Arabic-speaking guide
• ✓Entrance fees to every site visited on the city tour
• ✓Quad bike hire, helmet and safety briefing
• ✓Short camel ride at the Bedouin village
• ✓Bedouin tea
• ✓Bottled water

Not included

• −Government tourist tax – approx. 1 USD per person, collected locally
• −Extra-zone transfers from Makadi Bay & Sahl Hasheesh (available at checkout – approx. 5 USD / 250 EGP per person round trip)
• −Transfers from Safaga & Soma Bay (available at checkout – approx. 10 USD / 500 EGP per person round trip)
• −Bedouin scarf – available as an add-on (€4)
• −Protective goggles – available as an add-on (€6)
• −Lunch and drinks beyond the bottled water and Bedouin tea
• −Gratuities (optional)

Good to know

• iChild price: ages 5-11 · Infants under 2
• iPregnant women
• iTravellers with mobility impairments
• iChildren under 5 years
• iMinimum 2 travellers per booking
• iModest dress is required for the mosque visit: shoulders and knees covered, and women are asked to cover their hair
• iThe desert leg is dusty — a scarf and goggles make a real difference, and both are available as add-ons
• iSunset time shifts through the year, so your guide will confirm the return time on the day
• iFree cancellation, and you can reserve now and pay later
• iComfortable clothes and closed shoes
• iSunglasses
• iSunscreen
• iCamera or smartphone
• iSome cash for the market and the local tourist tax