Best Time To Visit Hurghada

December to February is a real winter-sun window rather than a compromise. Days run twenty-two to twenty-four degrees, the sea holds at twenty-one to twenty-three, and there is effectively no rain.

The water is swimmable for anyone arriving from a northern winter, though at twenty-one degrees repeated diving wants a thicker wetsuit rather than a shorty.

March looks better than it swims. The air reaches twenty-six degrees, but the sea is at its coldest of the whole year, tied with February at about twenty-one.

That is the trap on this page. October gives you six degrees more air and five degrees more water than March, so if you can take only one shoulder month, take October.

April warms to about thirty degrees and May to thirty-four, with the sea climbing to twenty-two and then twenty-four.

April is the better half. By late May the heat is heading for its summer level and the nights stop cooling down.

June and July run thirty-six to thirty-seven degrees, while the sea climbs to twenty-six and then twenty-seven.

The water is near its best and the air is near its worst. If your dates are fixed, treat it as an early-morning and late-afternoon trip and stay out of the middle of the day.

August is the hottest month at about thirty-seven and a half degrees, with September only slightly behind at thirty-five.

The nights are the real problem. August averages twenty-eight degrees overnight, so there is no point in the day when you cool down. That, rather than the daytime figure, is why these are the months to skip.

Hurghada gets almost no rain at all, with six months of the year recording none. Naming a wettest month is a formality, so rainfall should play no part in choosing your dates.

Heat and sea temperature are the only two variables, which simplifies the decision. Take October or November for the best of both, or December to February for warm-enough water at winter prices. Sharm El Sheikh has warmer water in every month, and Alexandria is far cooler in summer.