Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada are two beautiful resorts on the shores of Egypt's magnificent sea, a favorite for swimming, snorkeling and diving lovers. If you had a single shot lead Best option to go to Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada? In this article, I examine both holiday resorts, item by item, and compare them according to nine criteria.
Before we start, would you like to take a look at my Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada travel articles? Sharm El Sheikh Travel Guide & Hurghada Travel Guide
1. Visa Applications
To go to Sharm El Sheikh; From April 2022, the Egyptian Government allows Turkish Citizens to enter the Sinai Region only with a gate visa for 15 days. Don't mind when I say a door visa, you just fill out a form at the door, that's all, there is no need for another procedure. The cities of Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab and Katherina are located in the Sinai region.
To go to Hurghada; You need to apply for an Egypt visa, the standard procedure applies here. If you have a green passport, you can enter without a visa. If you are younger than 20 or older than 45, you can enter Egypt with a gate visa.
There are statements by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism that it will be possible to enter the gate visa application to all Egypt for Turkish citizens in 2023, but no official statement has been made by Turkey yet.
For more information about Egypt visa How to Get Egypt Visa? You can check my post.
2. Accommodation Options
Sharm El Sheikhis a project designed and developed by Hosni Mubarak for the purpose of improving Egyptian tourism, entirely for tourists. Therefore, Sharm El Sheikh is a resort town in Turkey with many large resort hotels along the coast, such as Belek-Kemer. There are not only big hotels, of course, you can find accommodation options for every budget, from boutique hotels to hostels. tourism infrastructure in Sharm; It is quite developed in every sense such as transportation, accommodation and tour options.
Click for available hotel options in Sharm El Sheikh
Hurghada, is not a holiday destination as planned and designed as Sharm. Although there are many accommodation options, Sharm is one step ahead in terms of the abundance of alternatives. However, you can find more suitable options for accommodation in Hurghada.
Click for available hotel options in Hurghada.
Hotels in both regions can be a bit old and neglected, so it is worth paying attention to their comments.
3. Prices
I won't go into too much detail on this item. Since Sharm is more touristic, accommodation, food and beverage, daily expenditure figures may be slightly higher, but I cannot make a 6% comparison since I went to two cities on very different dates (there is XNUMX years between the two, there is inflation in Egypt).
4. The Beauty of the Sea
Every point of the Red Sea is beautiful, thousands of colorful fish swimming in the corals that you can see as soon as you enter the sea, the sea is sparkling like glass, you will fall in love with it and want to go many times when you enter the sea in Hurghada and Sharm directly from the beach or by boat. Both cities are very convenient for not only swimming, but also all kinds of water sports such as sailing, surfing, diving and snorkeling. It's hard to choose!
5. Underwater – Dive Spots
Three of the 10 best diving spots in the world are located in Egypt, in the Red Sea. By staying in Sharm, it is possible to reach these diving spots for the day.
- Shark and Yolanda, Ras Mohammmed National Park
- Thistlegorm Shipwreck
- Blue Hole, Dahab
Of course, there are diving spots you can reach from Hurghada, but unfortunately it is not possible to compete with three of the world's top 10 spots.
6. Getting to Cairo and the Pyramids
From Sharm El Sheikh to Cairo; You can go by bus, plane and tour. The bus journey takes about 8 hours during the day and 10 hours at night. Tours offer options by plane and bus so you can see Cairo and the pyramids. The plane takes about 1 hour, but every time I looked, the plane prices were quite high, I preferred to go by bus.
Hurghada to Cairo; you can also go by bus, plane and tour. The bus journey takes about 8 hours during the day and 10 hours at night. Tours offer options by plane and bus so you can see Cairo and the pyramids. The plane takes about 1 hour, but every time I look at it, the plane prices are quite high.
You can visit Cairo and the pyramids in similar conditions from both cities.
There used to be a working ferry between Sharm and Hurghada, but it was stopped for a while for security reasons and is still not running.
7. Transportation to Luxor and Aswan
Luxor and Aswan are a region that I think should be seen as much as Cairo and the pyramids in Egypt. The magnificent artifacts left by the kings in the fertile lands of the Nile are another cultural gem of Egypt.
To get from Sharm El Sheikh to Luxor; If you are going by road, you have to travel around the entire Gulf of Suez because the Hurghada ferry does not run, which means a 14-hour vehicle journey, it may take a little longer by bus. The roads in Egypt are quite difficult. Another option is to fly from Sharm to Luxor. You can go to Cairo and reach Luxor by cruises on the Nile from Cairo, or you can go to Luxor from Cairo by train. All of the options other than the plane will take quite a long time.
How to get from Hurghada to Luxor; The distance between Hurghada and Luxor is 310 km, with a 4-hour drive. The road, which takes 4-5 hours by bus, may take a little shorter by taxi. I rented a chauffeured and guided vehicle from Hurghada and went to Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel. There were three of us and it was pretty convenient when we split the costs. Our trip from Hurghada to Luxor
8. Tourist Traps
If you ask what is your worst nightmare in Egypt, definitely tourist traps. I've been to many cities in Egypt, and I can guarantee that in almost every place except Dahab and Alexandria, there will be hunters who try to rip you off, talk, chase you, and tire you out of life.
Sharm El Sheikh; Since it is a somewhat liberated area, there are fewer tourist traps than elsewhere in Egypt. But whatever you buy, no matter tours, hotels, souvenirs, bargain to the death.
Hurghada; I must say that it is a tourist trap busy place as well as touristy. Especially in the tour we arranged for Luxor, they drove us so crazy that we had to fight all the way through. Since we predicted that there would be such a problem, we wrote down everything to do day in day out at the place where we took the tour. “Where is the lunch?” that seems to be included in the package we bought on the first day. When we asked them, they gave an illogical answer such as "it's past meal time, restaurants are closed". We had ourselves taken to a fight-fight dinner. We had a similar battle for dinner on the day of our return. They say "not including dinner", we say "no included" with paper in our hands, we had dinner again by fight. In between, they ate our boat tour in Aswan, although we had a fight, we were not successful. The list goes on, go here ready to get on your nerves.
9. Nightlife
I have been repeating the same thing since the beginning of the article, but since Sharm is very touristic, you can find everything that may attract tourists, including nightlife. Nightlife in Sharm is quite lively, from the Hard Rock Cafe to the very popular Farsha Cafe in recent years, from the karaoke bars loved by the British to the hookah cafes loved by the Arabs.
Nightlife in Hurghada is mostly limited to the Marina area, although there are not as many options as Sharm, you can find places to have fun here as well.
I compared Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada in nine items, I hope it gave you an idea. My first Egypt trip was to Hurghada, but now that I look at it, Sharm El Sheikh would be a more suitable destination for the first Egypt trip, to make a smoother entry into Egypt.