Hurghada family tours: which days work with children, and which are simply too long

Parents who have done it will recognise the list. A day out with children fails for four reasons: there is nowhere to sit, there is nothing to eat, there is nothing to look at for long stretches, and there is no way to leave. A boat day out of Hurghada quietly answers all four, which is why the best Hurghada family tours on this shelf are the ones on the water.

There is always somewhere to sit. A deck has shade, a rail, cushions and a flat surface, and a child who is finished with an activity has somewhere to be that is not your lap. On $53 that extends to a massage for the adults while the day carries on around them.

Lunch is part of the deal. Most of the sea listings here name a meal on board, and it matters more than it sounds: nobody has to find a restaurant, queue, or negotiate a menu with a tired seven-year-old. $46 names a seafood lunch, $53 a buffet, $44 lunch on a four-hour speedboat run.

Something changes every hour. The boat moves, stops, anchors, somebody snorkels, the sandbank appears, dolphins are spotted or they are not. $46 calls at six islands and the Juzur Abu Minqar sandbank across eight hours, which for a child is six separate arrivals rather than one long afternoon. That rhythm is what separates the Hurghada family tours that work from the ones that only look good on paper.

The water is shallow where it counts. The island stops on these listings are sand and clear shallows, not a drop into open sea, and that is the difference between swimming and standing up in the Red Sea holding a mask. On the reef stops everybody wears a jacket, and the crews are used to children who change their minds.

A word about dolphins, because it comes up in every family conversation and the listings are careful about it. $46, $46 and $38 all build dolphin watching into the route. They are wild animals in open water and they are often seen rather than guaranteed. Tell children that in the minibus, not on the boat, and the day is a delight either way.

Not every child wants to snorkel, and there is no reason to build the week around pretending otherwise. Three listings here are genuinely calm, and they are among the most useful Hurghada family tours on the whole shelf.

$22. Two hours aboard the Royal Seascope. It is worth being precise about what this is, because the word submarine sets an expectation: it is a boat with an underwater observation deck built into the hull, so you sit at a window below the waterline and the reef goes past. The listing calls it a semi-submarine and so do we. Nobody has to get wet, nobody has to swim, and there is a snorkelling stop for anyone who changes their mind. 5,499 reviews at 4.4, which makes it one of the most booked things on this site. Of the Hurghada family tours here it is the quietest and the easiest to say yes to.

$12. One hour on horseback along the Red Sea shore and into the desert, with transfers. It is the lowest fare on the site and the shortest commitment, and at 4.7 across 1,758 reviews it is also one of the better-liked. An hour is exactly the right length for a first ride.

$20. The two-hour version across desert and shore, with a swim stop on the daytime departure or dinner and a show on the evening one. 1,709 reviews at 4.4. The evening version is a gentler way to see the desert than a quad convoy, and the camp at the end is the same idea.

The desert runs themselves need one line of caution rather than a warning. $29, $41 and the rest set their own age and licence conditions for driving, on each listing page, and they are not identical. Read those conditions on the listing you are booking. $41 includes a buggy you sit in rather than on, which is often the answer when one adult and one child want to be in the same vehicle.

This part is blunt on purpose, because choosing between Hurghada family tours is mostly a question of what not to book, and this is the mistake that costs people a day of their holiday.

$76. Fifteen to twenty hours to Cairo and back by road. It is a superb day for adults and older children, with skip-the-line tickets, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, a museum and a meal, behind 7,178 reviews at 4.6. It is also most of a day and a night in a coach, and the duration is a range because of traffic. With a small child it is not one of the Hurghada family tours to book; it is the one to come back for.

$71 and $84. Fifteen and fourteen hours respectively, and Luxor is about four hours by road each way. Both are excellent: small groups, meals included, entry fees covered on $84, and 8,559 reviews at 4.8 behind it. Both also mean eight hours of road in a day that starts before dawn. Teenagers who are interested in the temples will remember it; a five-year-old will remember the minivan.

The exception at the top. $274 does the same sightseeing as the coach day and flies instead: sixteen to seventeen hours total, return flights, Giza, the Sphinx, a museum and lunch with a view of the Pyramids, on 3,707 reviews at 4.9. It is the highest fare on this site by a long way, and with children it is the only version of Cairo worth discussing, because the hours that would have been spent on the road are simply not spent.

What to take instead is consistent: a boat, a meal on board, and home by the evening. $46 first, $53 if you want the buffet and the massage, $38 or $44 if four hours is the honest limit.