Hurghada City Tour: Old Town, El Mina Mosque & Markets

You have seen the pool, the beach and the buffet. Today you are going to see the town. A driver and a local guide collect you from your hotel, and within a short drive the resort strip gives way to Sakkala and El Dahar, the quarters where Hurghada goes about its ordinary day.

The route moves at walking pace. It starts by the water: a stroll along Hurghada Marina, then El Mina Mosque beside the harbour, white marble, twin 40-metre minarets and a cool, quiet interior your guide explains room by room. At the old harbour, boatbuilders shape wooden fishing boats by hand at the shipyard while the fish market sells the day's catch a few steps away. A short drive on, the Coptic church of St Shenouda, the oldest in the city, is the quiet counterpart. By the time you reach the fruit and vegetable market, with its shouted prices and crates of dates, limes and whatever is in season, you have stopped checking the time.

Why does any of this matter? Because until oil was found in 1913, and until the hotels arrived in the 1980s, Hurghada was a fishing village. Almost everything you can see from your balcony was built in the last few decades; El Dahar is what was here before. Standing in a mosque and a church a short walk apart, watching people shop for dinner, you get the thing no resort can give you: a sense of where you actually are.

The last stop is yours: free time in the souks of El Dahar for spices, cotton and handicrafts, with your guide on hand to keep prices honest and hawkers polite. Then the car takes you back to the hotel in time for lunch or dinner, depending on your start. The pool will still be there. But now, so is the city.