Marsa Alam
Marsa Alam (Arabic :مرسى علم, Marsā ʿAlam) is a resort town on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt.
Most read about in August, least in April. That is when people look it up, which tends to run a month or two ahead of when they go.
Before you book
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office publishes the UK’s official travel advice for Egypt. It changes without notice and travelling against it usually invalidates your insurance, so read it at the source rather than anywhere else — including here.
FCDO travel adviceUnderstand
The development of Marsa Alam began in 1995. Due to its crystal clear waters and its white sandy beaches, it is known as the "Egyptian Maldives". In 2021, 9,000 residents lived in the town.
Getting there
Marsā ʿAlam is on the Egyptian or African coast of the Red Sea, about 275 km south of Hurghada and 215 km south of Safāgā. The town sits at the intersection of Coastal Highway 24 and the road to Edfu.
By car
The trunk road 24 runs directly through the city. The hotels are also close to this road. North of Marsā ʿAlam, the river branches off to the west Highway 212 to Edfu, the Edfu–Marsa Alam Road (Arabic :طريق إدفو مرسى علم, Ṭarīq Idfū Marsā ʿAlam).
By bus
The bus station is in the northwest of town. Buses run five times a day between Cairo via El Quseir and Hurghada, twice in the morning to Edfu, and twice a day to Shalateen.
Getting around
Due to the town's small size, almost everything can be reached on foot.
See
Apart from the mosques and the local market, there are no sights in the town.
1 Mosque of the Islamic community (مسجد المركز الإسلامي Masǧid al-Markaz al-Islāmī). (updated Nov 2023) 2 Suq Mosque (مسجد السوق التجاري Masǧid as-Sūq at-Tiǧārī, Mosque of the Trading Market). (updated Nov 2023)
Do
Water sports
As in other Red Sea resorts, the main activities are of course swimming, diving, snorkeling and kiting. Other water sports activities such as banana boat rides are also available.
Swimming
Almost everywhere there are reefs off the coast of the Red Sea that have to be overcome before you can swim. In many cases, footbridges have been created for this purpose. Avoid entering the coral reefs to protect them. In any case, you need suitable footwear to avoid injury. Many hotels are located near bays. At the western end of these bays there are sandy beaches without offshore reefs. These bays slope slowly and can ultimately reach a depth of 20 meters.
1 Public beach (in the north of the city). Many hotels have private beaches. (updated Nov 2023)
Go next
Port Ghalib Hurghada
More pictures of Marsa Alam
From this destination's category on Wikimedia Commons. Each photograph is credited to its own author under its own licence.
The guide text on this page is from the Wikivoyage article Marsa Alam, written by Wikivoyage contributors and published under CC BY-SA 4.0. The authors are listed in the article’s edit history. It has been shortened and re-laid-out for this page; that adapted text is available under the same licence. Nothing else on this page is.
Wikivoyage is written by travellers, not by us. Opening hours, prices and whether a place still exists are exactly the details that go out of date, so check anything you are relying on.
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