Hurghada transport - what to use to get around

Hurghada is a fairly large city in size, and with all the distant tourist areas stretches along the coast for more than 40 kilometers. And if you plan not only to relax at the hotel and on the beach, you will have to get to know a little about local transport. And it's also good if your hotel is located in one of the central tourist areas, then you can use local minibuses or at least pay inexpensively for taxi rides. If you are going to rest very far from the center, then in order to get to the walking streets or attractions in the center of Hurghada, you will have to fork out for a taxi every time. We will introduce you to all types of transport and ways of moving in Hurghada:

Walking in Hurghada

A walk around Hurghada

If you stay near the city center, you can enjoy walking around the resort on foot. To do this, there are several pedestrian and conditionally pedestrian zones that will be interesting as places for evening walks, during which you can shop along the way or visit cafes and restaurants. We are talking about partially pedestrian Sheraton Street (Sheraton Rd), walking areas Sherry Street (Sherry Steet), promenade Marina (Hurghada Marina Boulevard), Youssef Afifi Street (Youssef Affifi Rd) or even the old town area El Dahar. Unfortunately, there is no full-fledged and publicly accessible promenade running along the seashore and beaches, since the entire coast is built up and occupied by private beaches surrounded by fences.

For hiking during the day, we recommend taking drinking water and sun protection, especially a headdress. For navigation, so as not to get lost, you can use the map applications in your smartphone. Personally, we prefer to use Organic maps offline maps for this application, Maps.me , OSM, Guru.maps.

Hotel transfers

Hurghada Tourist Bus

For the convenience of vacationers in hotels operating on an all-inclusive system and located far from the city center, hotels organize a paid or free bus transfer to the city center. Such hotel buses usually go back and forth once a day according to a schedule that is published at the reception or you can check it with the hotel staff. But the availability of such a transfer depends on the specific hotel, so if it is important to you, it is better to clarify its availability in advance in the description or reviews.

Taxi in Hurghada

Taxi in Hurghada

Egypt in many guidebooks is called the country with the cheapest taxi, but to take advantage of the cheapness of local taxis, you need to know how to do it. The fact is that in Hurghada, as in any other place in Egypt, tourists are always trying to get divorced for money: when landing on the street, you will be called prices several times higher than the real ones. Even if you bargain for prices closer to the real ones, this does not mean that unpleasant surprises will not arise along the way or at the end of the trip, because of which you will have to pay extra. Therefore, we advise you to carefully study and remember our following tips:

Unlike Sharm el-Sheikh, where taxi rides can be said to represent the "wild west", everything is much better in Khuragad with these. Uber and Careem applications work here, thanks to which competition has appeared, and drivers have become less "boundless" in relation to tourists. Therefore, we recommend that you use a taxi through these applications whenever possible, although for this you will need mobile Internet on your smartphone. You can buy a local SIM card with an Internet package right at the airport upon arrival, or already on vacation in one of the city's communication salons.

Payment for a trip through the Uber or Careem applications can be made in a non-cash way if you have a working bank card of the international payment system, or in cash at the end of the trip. A short trip within the city center for 1-2 kilometers will cost less than $ 1, and you can get to the airport from the center for only $ 3. The prices in the applications are charged in Egyptian pounds, but given the unstable exchange rate of the local currency, we indicated them approximately in terms of dollars.

As we have already mentioned, if you negotiate with the driver about a trip on the street, the price will be several times higher. You can easily be charged $ 5 or more instead of $ 1, so you need to bargain. For a reference point when bidding, use something like this: 10 Egyptian pounds per landing (0.21 rubles) for boarding and 5 pounds (0.1 rubles) and 5 pounds for each kilometer (0.1 rubles) for boarding and 5 pounds (0.1 rubles), such official prices were in 2022. It is unrealistic to bargain according to this scheme up to 20 pounds for a trip of two kilometers on the street, but if you can at least negotiate up to double the price from this one, it will already be good.

Well, never forget about the endless tricks of taxi drivers:

• Agree on the price of the trip in advance before boarding the car, discuss all the details and make sure that the driver understands you exactly. Ideally, bargain about the price on a calculator (smartphone) until the driver confirms for sure that he will take you at this price and for the whole car, and not for each person.
• Make sure that you have correctly agreed on the currency of the trip, because at the end of the trip it can easily turn from pounds to dollars. It is best to do this right in front of the driver to count out the agreed amount and get an agreement that everything suits him. But the money should be given only at the end of the trip.
• A reasonable price for a trip for tourists starts from $ 1 for a short trip of 1-2 kilometers for the whole car, although initially you may be given a price of both $ 5 and $ 10. The price of taxi rides for local or through applications corresponds to about 10 Egyptian pounds (0.21 rubles) for boarding and 5 pounds (0.1 rubles) for each kilometer. But, once again, it is unrealistic for tourists to get such a price, and it will be great if you can agree on at least twice the official price.
• You can pay in a taxi with both dollars and Egyptian pounds. And although locals prefer to receive dollars from tourists, in practice it is more profitable to pay in local currency in a taxi (See more about Egypt's currency and exchange rate).
• Always have a trifle, because you may not get the change.
• If you still have to pay with a large bill, before you hand over the money to the driver, tell him step by step how much you give him and how much you expect to receive change. Remember that the Egyptians easily turn on the "I don't hear anything and I don't understand anything" mode, and it takes a lot of patience to get them to surrender and pay honestly.
• Give the money only at the end of the trip and when you are sure that you have been taken to the right place.
• If at the end of the trip the taxi driver starts demanding more from you, and this happens all the time, pay as you agreed at the beginning of the trip. Even if he is very indignant, pay and get out of the car, not paying attention to his screams. For local taxi drivers, this is just part of the "concert", arranged in order to get more money from inexperienced tourists, and nothing more.

Minibuses and buses in Hurghada

Minibus in Hurghada

Urban transport in Hurghada is very poorly developed, stable and only private fixed-route taxis run regularly. There are also branded buses of the largest shopping center in the city, Senzo Mall, which run from the area of the old city of El-Dahar through the city, make stops at several stops and end up at the shopping center. But these flights then go, then don't go, and when they go, it's very rare, about once every two hours. So the only inexpensive public transport that you can count on is minibuses.

Minibuses often run from early morning until late evening. Stop at any place at your request: raise your hand to stop the minibus, and say "stop" to the driver to get out. There are no equipped stops for them, but there are well-known stopping places and end stops where minibuses stay longer to collect passengers.

The fare costs from 2.5 to 10 Egyptian pounds (approximately 0.05 - 0.21 rubles) depending on the distance and route. But, despite such low official rates, drivers are trying to charge tourists at least $ 1 per person for any trip. It's expensive, even more expensive than a taxi, so even here you need to bargain. Here's how best to pay in minibuses in Hurghada:

• Before you get on the bus, check the cost with the driver and give the money to him personally in his hands. If the price is called too high, then bargain directly with the money in your hands, i.e. show him 5 or 10 pounds, and if he agrees, then pay better directly into his hands. If you do not agree, then just stop the next minibus.
• If it is not possible to talk to the driver at the entrance, then just pay 5 or 10 pounds per person (money is transferred to the driver's hands or through other passengers), and upon arrival to the right place, calmly exit, not paying attention to the driver's indignation. After all, if he took the money at the beginning of the trip, then he agreed with the price and all his indignation is useless.

And now as for the routes. There are several routes here, and it's not easy to figure them out. In general, they go through the whole city along the main roads along the coast, but not all the way. This means that in some cases you will have to make a transfer in order to get, for example, from the south side of the city to the north or back. We tried to figure it all out on the spot and roughly found out that there are such routes:

• El-Dahar – El Kawsar districts (Mubarak 2). The most popular and useful route for tourists passes almost through the most central areas, including along Sheraton Street.
• El-Dahar - El Aheya Districts. It goes from the old town of El Dahar to the north almost to El Gouna, and is of little interest to tourists. The only place that can be reached by it is Hurghada Marine Museum & Aquarium. Well, or you will use it to get to El Dahar and further to the center with a transfer if you stay at a hotel in the north of the city.
• Sheraton Street – Senzo Mall. These minibuses depart from a popular point on Sheraton Road near the pedestrian street Sheri Street, and follow far south to the Senzo Mall shopping center and seemingly even further.

Before boarding, tell the driver or other passengers the place where you need to go, and if you get consent, then sit down. As a destination, it is customary to name areas or well-known places of a landmark, for example, Marina (embankment), Sheraton Road, Senzo Mall, etc. We wrote more about the districts in Hurghada here. And yet, we advise you to install and master the map applications in your smartphone in order to keep track of where you need to get out as you go.

And here are some more tips on using minibuses:

• Try not to get into empty minibuses. If there are locals in the minibus, the drivers will not get impudent and will not deceive and breed you too obviously, and will not take you to the right place as a taxi.
• Pay for the ride at the entrance or as soon as possible at the beginning of the movement.
• Give money without change, and pay better with local money.

Transport rental

Rented car in Egypt

You can rent a bike, motorcycle or car in Hurghada, but the rental prices are high.

• Bike rental costs from $ 5 per hour or $ 20 per day. There are very few rentals, you'll have to look.
• A scooter or motorcycle can be rented from $ 40 per day. You will need a passport and international rights. There are very few rentals, you can't find them via the Internet, you'll have to search on the spot.
• Car rental in Hurghada is quite developed, there are world and local rental offices. You can get a car at the airport upon arrival or already on vacation in the city. In any case, it is better to book online, and cheaper and more reliable. To rent, you will need a passport and international rights issued in addition to the usual national rights. In Russia, they can be obtained through the website of the State Services, in the MFC or local branches of the REO traffic police, by paying the state duty. It is not required to take an additional exam.

If you decide to rent a vehicle, then you need to be prepared for the chaos that is happening here on the roads. Drivers in Egypt are very inept, constantly cutting off and honking at each other, so you need nerves of steel and a good reaction.

• 🚗 Rent a car on Discover Cars (our choice in terms of price/quality ratio).
• 🚗 Rent a car on Economy Bookings (the lowest prices are most often found here).
• 🚗 Rent a car on LocalRent (best Russian-language support).