The quietest stretch of the Egyptian Red Sea — house reefs, dugongs and turtles, and very little else.
Marsa Alam is on the Red Sea coast well south of Hurghada, roughly three to four hours by road, with its own airport. Development is spread thinly along a long, mostly empty coastline.
It is the quietest of Egypt's Red Sea destinations, and the one divers pick when they want the water rather than the town.
The house reefs are the best in Egypt. Many hotels here sit directly on their own coral, and you can snorkel or dive straight off the beach without a boat at all — which is unusual anywhere in the world and rare in Egypt.
The wildlife is the specific draw. Marsa Mubarak and Abu Dabbab are known for dugongs and green turtles feeding on seagrass in shallow water, and Samadai Reef — often called Dolphin House — has a resident spinner dolphin population with a protected resting area.
Elphinstone Reef, offshore, is a serious drift dive with a reputation for oceanic whitetip sharks in season.
And it is empty. If your objection to Hurghada is that it is a city, this is the answer to it.
Marsa Alam was a small fishing and mining settlement until an international airport opened in the early 2000s, which is when tourism began in earnest.
Wadi el-Gemal National Park, south of the town, protects a large area of coast, islands and desert, including Ababda Bedouin lands and Roman-era emerald mines at Sikait.
The coast south of here carried serious traffic long before tourism. Berenice, an ancient harbour further down the coast, was one of Egypt's main Red Sea ports under the Ptolemies and Romans — cargo from India and Arabia landed there and crossed the desert to the Nile by caravan, through the same wadis the dive lodges now sit beside.
The name itself is plain Arabic: a marsa is an anchorage or bay, and this coast is a long series of them — which is exactly why the modern hotels each sit on their own cove with their own reef.
Development here has been deliberately more limited than further north, partly through protected-area designation.
Year round. Summer is hot but this is the warmest water; winter brings the best visibility and the Elphinstone shark season.
Opening hours: Not applicable — a coastal area rather than a site.
Opening hours and ticket prices may change. Please confirm the latest details before visiting.
A low-key town on the Gulf of Aqaba where the diving is world class and nobody is in a hurry.
The southern tip of Sinai — the best shore diving in Egypt, with desert mountains directly behind the beach.
The Red Sea's largest resort town, and the easiest place in Egypt to add a beach week to a Nile itinerary.
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