Makadi Bay: Private Hurghada City Tour and Turkish Hammam Combo

Most people staying in Makadi Bay book the city tour and the spa on different days. That means two drives into Hurghada, two half-days spent and a fair amount of waiting in hotel lobbies. This puts them back to back, in the order that makes sense: the walking first, the heat afterwards, and one transfer covering both.

The Drive, Half an Hour

You are collected from your hotel in Makadi Bay in an air-conditioned vehicle with your own guide and driver — your party only, nobody else's schedule. Hurghada is about thirty minutes up the coast road, and both legs of that drive are already in the price on this page. There is no separate transfer to buy.

The City, Three Hours

The route starts in El Dahar, the old town, where single-storey houses and a working shipyard still do what they have always done. You will see fishermen bringing boats in for repair by hand, walk through the fish market and the fruit and spice market, and go into El Mina Mosque, the largest in the city, and the oldest Coptic church in Hurghada — two buildings a few minutes apart that explain most of what there is to know about how the town lives. The souks come last, and the shopping stops are entirely optional; tell your guide if you would rather keep moving.

The Hammam, Two Hours

From the old town your driver takes you to Soul Spa Wellness Club, inside the TK Royal in the InterContinental district — you are already across the city, so there is nothing more to pay to get there.

Every program begins the same way, with heat. You sit in the hammam and let the warm steam work until your skin stops resisting it. Then comes the glove: a brisk, thorough full-body scrub, and a foam or mask worked in on the heated marble — milk, coconut, coffee or chocolate, depending on which of the five programs you chose. The dry sauna, the herbal steam room and the jacuzzi are yours to use at your own pace in between. The program closes with a full-body massage, an hour of it on the 120-minute rituals and seventy-five minutes on the two long ones, with the style and the pressure agreed with your therapist when you arrive.

Afterwards there is herbal tea in the relaxation lounge and nobody hurrying you out of the chair. Your driver takes you back to Makadi Bay when you are ready, rather slower than you left it.

Which Program to Choose

Turkish is the plain, traditional sequence and the best value. Cleopatra swaps milk for coconut and adds a face mask. Moroccan uses coffee, the coarsest of the scrubs, for skin that wants a firm hand. Ramses Royal puts you through two hammams instead of one and gives seventy-five minutes of massage. Chocolate is cocoa and coconut, the most indulgent of the five. Every one of them ends with a full-body massage.