Orange Bay Hurghada trip: the beach island, and the three ways to reach it

Orange Bay is an island off the Hurghada coast with a developed beach on it: sand, loungers, umbrellas, somewhere to buy a drink and a long shallow shelf that you can wade into before it gets deep. That description sounds ordinary until you have seen the rest of this coastline, most of which is either hotel frontage or bare reef. An Orange Bay Hurghada trip sells the one thing this stretch of the Red Sea is short of — a proper beach you arrive at by boat.

The crossing takes roughly an hour on a big hull and much less on a speedboat. On the 8.5-hour cruise the boat anchors, you go ashore, and the middle of the day belongs to the island. On the four-hour private run the boat calls at Orange Bay and at Magawish, the neighbouring beach island, which is a different shape of morning: two landings, less time on each. Both are honest products and they are not competing for the same traveller.

The snorkelling deserves a plain sentence too. Orange Bay Hurghada snorkeling is real — there is coral within reach of the beach and boats stop over reef on the way — but nobody should book this island expecting the best reef on the coast. The routes that put coral first are the multi-island days. An Orange Bay Hurghada trip puts sand first and coral second, and the reviews reflect people who wanted exactly that.

One practical note that saves arguments on the jetty: the beach on the island is operated, so loungers, umbrellas and refreshments belong to somebody and are paid for in the usual way. What is covered by your booking is written on the listing — the boat, the crossing, the lunch where it is named — and what is not covered is settled on the sand.

The full day is the one to beat. $53 runs 8.5 hours, names lunch on board in its own title and holds 4.9 across 6,815 reviews — the best rating anywhere on this site, from the largest crowd to rate a beach day. A trip to Orange Bay Hurghada visitors describe in reviews is usually this one: a slow crossing, a long stay, and a boat that gets back in the late afternoon.

The private speedboat is a different morning. $245 is four hours, calls at Orange Bay and Magawish, carries fruit on board and is rated 4.7 across 1,610 reviews. What you are buying is the hull: it leaves when your group is ready rather than when the last seat is filled, and it goes where you ask within the route. That is the reason for the figure, and it is priced for the boat rather than per person.

The island routes call there as part of a bigger day. $46 runs eight hours around three islands with dolphin watching and lunch, rated 4.7 across 8,583 reviews. $46 does six islands by speedboat at 4.8 across 2,571 reviews. If you want an Orange Bay Hurghada day trip and also want reef and dolphins in the same eight hours, these are the listings that try to do all three.

And the slow cruises sit slightly apart. $31 is eight hours with lunch, a massage and a reef stop at 4.5 across 2,065 reviews, while $44 is the four-hour speedboat version at 4.5 across 1,579 reviews. Neither names Orange Bay on the label, so if the island is the point, book by the title rather than by the price.

For the whole day, book $53. Eight and a half hours, lunch on board and a long stay ashore, rated 4.9 across 6,815 reviews. It is the highest-rated listing on this site and the Orange Bay Hurghada trip that most of those reviews are describing.

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

For a beach stop inside a bigger day, book $46. Eight hours around three islands with dolphin watching and lunch, rated 4.7 across 8,583 reviews — the most reviewed tour on the site.

For six stops by speedboat, book $46. Eight hours at 4.8 across 2,571 reviews.

And for the slowest version of a sea day, book $31. Eight hours with lunch, a massage on board and a reef stop, rated 4.5 across 2,065 reviews.