I am going to Egypt on April 17 for 10 days. I am thinking about going to Cairo, Luxor and then i want to have some quality beach time on the red sea. So i am debating between hurgada and Sharm. Does anyone have any thoughts on the two. And since i would be going from Luxor, i was wondering if i could just drive to Hurgada or do you need a convoy?

Thanks for any helpful thoughts or comments

Just my personal opinion....I don't like Hurghada and Sharm isn't my fav either, but if I had to chose I would chose Sharm. The beaches really aren't "pretty" in either place, but I think Sharm is better.

Oh - and I would recommend flying.

How were you planning on going by car? I certainly don't recommend renting cars in Egypt. Way too stressful an experience for a visitor.

There are public buses, too, between Luxor and Hurghada (which our tour advisor advised against!!).

Our group flew from Luxor to Sharm. They were diving, so the beaches themselves weren't that important to them. In general, they thought Sharm was great for diving, not so great as a beach resort (crowded, "cheap" (and I don't mean the prices))

Here’s what my husband said: (he was with three 20-somethings): The “new” part of Sharm I would call tacky. Restaurants were “not cheap” but not expensive for decent (not great) ethnic food. Lots of outdoor seating which can be fun, but you pay for the ambiance, not the food.

“Old port” was more street markety, fun for one night, bargain for t shirts and stuff. Several outdoor seafood restaurants, fresh fish, but definitely touristy. Of course we ate in a NY style pizza place, which was decent and reasonably priced, but definitely not go out of your way.

Beaches were nice in the sense of clean, blue warm water. Not as in wide stretches of sand.

Great diving, very nice hotels on beach, tacky and expensive restaurants, traffic, expensive cabs, hard to walk between places (distance). Decent nightlife (of course we didn’t partake)

We never stayed in the Na'ama Bay part of Sharm (the boardwalk area). We preferred to stay away from all that - at either the big Hyatt or the Movenpick Golf. A lot of people liked the Four Seasons and the Sheraton. We would go to the boardwalk for an evening or so but that was about it. Mainly stayed and relaxed at the hotel. The Hyatt has (presumably still has) a wonderful Thai restaurant (reservations recommended).

The Hyatt and Four Seasons look absolutely gorgeous on their respective websites. If I were going, we likely would have ended up at one or the other. But the group stayed at the Sofitel, and thought it was quite nice (and the company they were diving with was headquartered there, which was very convenient).