Marsa Alam

Introduction

Marsa Alam is a small seaside resort town in the south of Egypt, located along the beautiful coastline of the Red Sea.

Neighbourhoods

Sights and Activities

Red Sea Scuba Diving

The famous Elephinstone is a few hours boat ride away. It is only for Advanced Scuba Divers upwards and is the place to see the man-eating Oceanic White Tip Shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) - its name means long arms. They are very curious of divers and can bump into you. The Elephinstone itself is a steep wall with powerful currents full of turtles, remoras, soft/hard corals and eels. More on diving near Marsa Alam.

Events and Festivals

Weather

Windy and sunny. Despite the wind, sand is not usually a problem. Temperatures are high from June to September, generally around 35 °C. Winters from December to February are mostly well above 20 °C, but the best times are probably March-May and October/November, when it's warm, sunny and dry.

Getting There

By Plane

Numerous airlines currently fly to Marsa Alam International Airport (RMF), including Thomson Airways to/from Birmingham, London and Manchester. Many other airlines serve Marsa Alam, with destinations being Amsterdam, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hanover, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Vilnius, Bologna, Milan, Verona, Kuwait, Cairo, Luxor, Sharm el-Sheikh, Nuremberg, Basel and Zürich.

By Train

By Car

By Bus

It is a 3-hour busride come from Hurghada.

By Boat

Live-aboard diving boats call into Marsa Alam.

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

• Coral Reef Diving Hotel was the first hotel in Marsa Alam primarily catering for tourists/divers. It is 4-star hotel.

Budget

Mid-Range

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is available from the Coral Reef Diving Hotel.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Egypt Post is the national postal service in Egypt. Services are generally reliable, affordable though pretty slow, even if you send post domestically. International letters and postcards take days, if not weeks if send to the US or Australia. They do have express mail services though, but these are relatively expensive. Opening hours of post officies are mostly from 8:30am to 2:00pm or 3:00pm daily except Friday, when all of them are closed. The central ones might keep longer hours, generally until 8:00pm. You can buy stamps here, or at certain newspaper kiosks. In touristic areas, these are available at many shops as well. For parcels, it's much better to use international courier services such as DHL, TNT or UPS.