City tour of Hurghada
We rested in Hurghada together with my daughter at the Grand Hotel in August. The way from the airport is 15 minutes, and if you count from the plane to the hotel, including customs clearance, then 45 minutes.
We were warmly welcomed at the reception, and in order to avoid unnecessary hassle, we put a few dollars in our passports and quickly settled into a room overlooking a wonderful garden. And so we are on vacation!
The hotel is excellent, it has always been famous for worthy service. The staff is courteous and friendly, the animation, however, as always in Egypt, is rather mediocre, but this is not the main thing.
The main thing is a wonderful beach and the extraordinary Red Sea!
The hotel has several restaurants and very decent food.
From excursions they took; Coral Islands, as always a delight! ; Jeep safari "Badaveya" - good service from the company, had a great time! ; City tour of Hurghada - that's another story! We returned from there with the understanding that this whole undertaking sets itself the main task of diluting tourists for money. We passed the so-called sights of Hurghada quickly and the stories about them were unintelligible, and the emphasis was placed on the acquisition of real estate, prices for it, etc. And then they began to take us shopping at a fast pace, trying to explain directly and indirectly that “this is the last opportunity to purchase” something!!!
First we were brought to the papyrus gallery, and, confusing the Egyptian gods, they tried to sell the papyri.
Then our path lay in a perfume factory shop, where not only dubious perfume was poured from incomprehensible bottles, but also some kind of “singed” oils that can be used supposedly for the treatment of various diseases, taking them inside or making applications. At what all this was called an incomprehensible word of Essence. But, in fairness, it must be said that a large number of tourists, falling under the massive processing of personnel, make purchases! And already on the bus, they themselves do not understand HOW they fell for these cheap tricks. Yes, even at prices three times more expensive than the same "perfumes" in the shops on the streets of Hurghada!
Next in our program was the Akhenaten Gallery, which "mows down" as a state-owned store with low prices, in fact, being the same bazaar, only bigger, with higher prices and dubious service. And if you consider that there are practically no state-owned stores in Egypt, then all these “state-owned” stores on City Tours are nothing more than fooling tourists under the guise of a city tour, the main purpose of which is to visit tourists with lured stores and then receive a fairly high commissions from them!
Summary: you should not waste your precious vacation time on trips to dubious shops with stops at all hotels in order to bring in and breed the same poor fellows as we are!!!
A heavenly place for walking is Hurghada Marina Boulevard! Thank God that the tourists from our hotel told us about this new place for the most pleasant pastime of tourists. This place is in the center of the city, in Sakkale, which is very easy to get to. Hurghada Marina is a wide promenade along the sea, where all the berths are occupied by the most beautiful yachts and sightseeing boats. An amazing place for leisurely walks with amazing restaurants, cafes and all kinds of shops. Bars that are especially worth a visit are NICE bar, PAPAS bar and the trendy disco on the seashore HED KANDI. For children, there are fun rides on the waterfront.
Next to the "NICE bar", a little in the depths, we found oriental shops (SOUK Area). It was here that we especially liked the store "MOROCCO".
A charming place with a true oriental charm, fixed prices, and quite moderate (which is also very nice for tourists who are sick of the endless bargaining). We have become regulars of this store, having bought charming souvenirs for friends, scarves and pareos for ourselves and various pleasant oriental trifles that you will not find in other stores in Hurghada.
We also bought there at very affordable prices mixed oils from Morocco for face and dé colleté skin care for my mother, who is a real fan of natural oils. There is a large selection of all kinds of natural cosmetics and you can find all the care lines with endless options for adding pure essential oils from Morocco. So we will definitely visit this shop when we come to Hurghada again.
In general, Hurghada Marina brightened up our leisure time very much and we were there every evening, either walking, sitting in a bar and listening to live music, or looking at the bellydanc dancers.
After that, especially, you ask yourself the question, why don’t the organizers of City tours show this “pearl” of Hurghada on city tours? And, in fact, they don't even mention it?
We did not find answers to this question. And it's a pity, because a huge number of Russian tourists are not even aware of the presence of a charming and romantic place in a European way for walking, nightlife and decent shopping?