Sahl Hasheesh Hammam and Full Spa Program with Massage

Overview

By the middle of the week the bay has done its job a little too well. Long mornings on a lounger, an afternoon on a reef, a walk along the promenade that turned into three, and a back that has begun to make its opinion known. Soul Spa Wellness Club sits inside the TK Royal in the InterContinental district of Hurghada, twenty-five minutes up the road from Sahl Hasheesh, and the driving is part of what you book: someone collects you at your hotel and brings you back again. Every program on this page starts in the same room, with heat.

You settle into the hammam and let warm steam do the slow work until your skin stops holding on. Then the glove: a full body scrub, brisk and thorough and slightly startling the first time, and a rinse afterwards that leaves you lighter by several layers. The dry sauna, the herbal steam room and the jacuzzi wait between treatments, used in whatever order and for however long you like. And every program ends in the same place, a quiet room, with a full-body massage.

What sets the five programs apart is largely what is worked into your skin, and how long the whole thing runs. The Turkish hammam is the plain original, milk mask and foam, roughly two hours. Cleopatra swaps coconut soap for the milk and throws in a face mask; the Moroccan reaches for coffee soap and a coffee scrub, which smells precisely as good as you would hope. Above them are two rituals of two and a half hours, halved between bathing and massage: the Ramses, which runs you through a second hammam as well as the first, and the Chocolate, whose scrub is cocoa and coconut.

Sahl Hasheesh is the closest of the outlying bays to the spa, which makes this the easiest version of the afternoon to arrange. Twenty-five minutes each way is barely a journey, and the day gives up less than you expect: leave after a late breakfast and you are back before the light goes, or take the last appointment and let dinner wait. The transfer is arranged either way, so the coast road never becomes your problem.

None of this was invented recently. The hammam is how this corner of the world has bathed for centuries, heat first, then the scrub, then the long rest, and the order has survived because it works. What a hammam program really hands you is not an inventory of treatments but a change of speed: two hours or more with an empty schedule, the phone left elsewhere, and one decision remaining, which is how much pressure you want.

Highlights

• ✦Five hammam programs running 120 to 150 minutes, all of them closing with a full-body massage
• ✦Steam before scrub, the order the hammam has kept for centuries
• ✦Dry sauna, herbal steam room and jacuzzi between treatments, used at whatever pace you like
• ✦The two longest rituals give over 75 minutes to massage rather than the usual hour
• ✦The difference between the programs is mostly the material: milk, coconut, coffee or chocolate
• ✦Return hotel transfers from Sahl Hasheesh included, and herbal tea in the lounge before you go

Included

• ✓A hammam program of 120 or 150 minutes at Soul Spa Wellness Club, inside the TK Royal
• ✓Warm hammam time before any treatment begins
• ✓Whole body exfoliation and peeling with the traditional glove
• ✓Foam or soap worked in on the hammam table, in milk, coconut, coffee or chocolate depending which program you pick
• ✓A full-body massage to finish, with the style agreed between you and your therapist when you arrive
• ✓Unlimited use of the dry sauna, herbal steam room and jacuzzi during your visit
• ✓Robe, slippers, towels and toiletries provided on site
• ✓A cup of herbal tea in the relaxation lounge afterwards
• ✓Return hotel pickup and drop-off from your Sahl Hasheesh hotel
• ✓Women treated by female therapists and men by male therapists, on every treatment

Not included

• −The hot stones upgrade and the 30-minute foot massage, both offered separately as add-ons
• −Swimwear, which the hammam, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi all call for
• −Anything to eat or drink beyond the herbal tea served in the relaxation lounge

Good to know

• iChild price: ages 12-17 · Infants not permitted
• iA full-body massage ends every program, and you agree the style with your therapist on arrival without paying extra for it. Say what the week has done to you and how much pressure suits you. Hot stones falls outside that free choice, and can be added to the booking for EUR 5.
• iFemale therapists treat women and male therapists treat men, on every program and every treatment. The policy is fixed, so no request is needed from you.
• iGuests must be 12 or older to be treated. Under-18s need an adult with them. Infants and younger children cannot be treated at all.
• iAppointments start on the hour, at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00 and 18:00. Count on roughly two hours for the shorter programs, arrival to final cup of tea, and roughly two and a half for the longest two, plus about twenty-five minutes on the road each way. Book the 18:00 slot and you are back in Sahl Hasheesh not far past half past eight.
• iBring swimwear for the hammam, the sauna, the steam room and the jacuzzi. Robe, slippers, towels and toiletries are all provided.
• iSomething light beforehand is wiser than a full meal, and it helps to arrive hydrated. A large lunch and a hot steam room do not sit well together.
• iDo tell us when booking if you are pregnant, have an allergy, are carrying an injury or have a medical condition of any kind, so the therapist can adjust what they do or advise you first.
• iSoul Spa Wellness Club is inside the TK Royal in the InterContinental district of Hurghada, twenty-five minutes north of Sahl Hasheesh and the shortest transfer of any bay we collect from. Return transfers from anywhere in Sahl Hasheesh are covered by the price; you are picked up at the lobby and returned to it.
• iReserve now and pay later. Cancellation costs nothing, and neither does the booking until the day arrives.