Hurghada boat trips: the eight boats, the hours and what changes with the hull

Every marina in town sells the same photograph: turquoise water, a white hull, a sandbar somewhere in the distance. What the photograph does not tell you is how long you are on the water, and that single number is what separates Hurghada boat trips from one another far more than the price does. Hurghada boat tours are listed by the hour, and the hour is the number to read first: a Red Sea boat trip Hurghada crews run from breakfast to late afternoon is a different holiday from one that is back by lunch. The eight sea listings on this site split cleanly into three groups, and once you see the split the choice more or less makes itself.

The yachts. $53, $46, $46 and $31 are all eight to eight and a half hours. They leave in the morning, cross slowly, stop two or three times, serve lunch on board and come back in the late afternoon. Slow is the point: on a big deck there is shade, there is room to lie down, and nobody is shouting over an engine. These are the Hurghada boat trips that swallow the whole day and give you a tan you did not plan for.

The speedboats. $38, $44 and $245 run four hours. A speedboat reaches the same islands in a fraction of the crossing time, which means more minutes in the water and fewer on the way to it. The trade is comfort: less shade, a harder ride, and a deck you do not wander around on. For anyone who finds a long day at sea tiring, these are the boat trips from Hurghada worth reading first.

And the Royal Seascope. $22 is two hours and sits in a category of its own. It is a boat with a glass-sided viewing deck built below the waterline: you sit down there and the reef goes past the windows. Calling it a submarine is the operator's shorthand, and we would rather say plainly that the hull stays on the surface the whole time. There is a snorkel stop as well, but the reason people book it is the hour of looking at reef without getting wet.

The full day with lunch and a beach. $53 is the listing this site leads with: 8.5 hours, a cruise out to Orange Bay, lunch on board and a long stop on the sand. Rated 4.9 across 6,815 reviews, it holds the best score of the whole fleet here. If somebody asks for the best boat trips Hurghada sells and wants one answer rather than a lecture, this is it.

The island route with the most feedback. $46 runs eight hours on a yacht around three islands, with dolphin watching and lunch, rated 4.7 across 8,583 reviews. That is the largest review count anywhere on this site. $46 does the same idea on a speedboat with six islands in the title and holds a slightly higher 4.8 across 2,571 reviews. A Hurghada island boat trip on either of them is the same water and a different hull.

The half day. $38 is four hours, two islands, dolphin watching and snorkelling, rated 4.6 across 4,181 reviews — the busiest of the short ones. $44 is the Hula Hula speedboat with optional snorkelling and lunch, four hours at 4.5 across 1,579 reviews. Both give the morning or the afternoon back, which matters more than people expect on a week with other plans in it.

The private hull. $245 is the private boat trip Hurghada operators run out to Orange Bay and Magawish, four hours with fruit on board, rated 4.7 across 1,610 reviews. It is the highest number on this page by a wide margin, and it buys one specific thing: the boat is yours, so it leaves when you are ready and stops where you ask. Private boat trips in Hurghada are priced per boat rather than per seat, which is why the figure looks the way it does beside a shared deck.

And the quiet one. $31 is eight hours with lunch, a massage on board and a reef stop, rated 4.5 across 2,065 reviews — the only listing here that puts a massage in its own title. It is the slowest day of the eight and it is sold that way.

For the day most people picture, book $53. Eight and a half hours to Orange Bay with lunch on board, rated 4.9 across 6,815 reviews — the best-rated of all the Hurghada boat trips on this site.

For the island route with the most feedback, book $46. Eight hours on a yacht around three islands with dolphin watching and lunch, rated 4.7 across 8,583 reviews. A daily boat diving trip in Hurghada it is not — the stops here are snorkel stops — but for time in the water it is the busiest booking on the site.

For six islands instead of three, book $46. Eight hours by speedboat with dolphin watching, rated 4.8 across 2,571 reviews.

For half a day, book $38. Four hours, two islands and a snorkel stop, rated 4.6 across 4,181 reviews — the most booked of the short outings.

For two hours without swimming, book $22. The Royal Seascope with its underwater viewing deck, rated 4.4 across 5,499 reviews.

And for the boat to yourselves, book $245. Four hours out to Orange Bay and Magawish on a private speedboat with fruit on board, rated 4.7 across 1,610 reviews.