Things to Do in Marsa Alam (2026): Dolphins, Turtles & Reefs

Marsa Alam is the Red Sea's quieter, wilder south — a diving and snorkelling destination on Egypt's south-eastern coast, about 220 km below Hurghada, where the headline acts are wild dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs rather than crowds. Long one of the country's least-developed stretches of coast, it has grown up around the marina town of Port Ghalib and its own international airport, and the reefs here remain among the healthiest and most pristine in Egypt. Across nearly 500 bookable experiences the typical price is about 6,075 EGP (~$124) per person — higher than the northern resorts, because many trips are longer boat days out to offshore reefs — and 76% offer free cancellation. Here is what to do.

Swim with dolphins at Dolphin House (Sha'ab Samadai)

Marsa Alam's signature trip is a boat out to Sha'ab Samadai — a sheltered 1.4 km horseshoe lagoon about 11 km south-east of town, known as "Dolphin House" for the resident pod of spinner dolphins that rests here by day. Because the site is a protected area, daily visitor numbers and boat access are capped and you snorkel only in a designated outer zone, leaving the inner lagoon to the dolphins. Sightings are frequent but never guaranteed — for a quieter alternative, boats also run further south to Sataya Reef in the Fury Shoals, a remote lagoon that can gather pods of 60–80 spinner dolphins. These are wild animals in their own home, not a show.

Snorkel with turtles & dugongs at Abu Dabbab and Marsa Mubarak

This coast is one of the very few places on earth where you can reliably snorkel with a dugong — the shy, seagrass-grazing "sea cow", a distant relative of the manatee. Abu Dabbab ("Turtle Bay") is a calm horseshoe bay of sandy seagrass meadows a short drive north, a superb beginner and family snorkelling spot where resident green turtles graze in the shallows and, with luck, a dugong drifts through; nearby Marsa Mubarak offers the same easy, wade-in snorkelling over seagrass, with turtles, guitarfish, rays and seahorses. Both are managed as protected sites with strict distance rules to keep the animals wild.

Dive the southern reefs — Elphinstone and beyond

Marsa Alam is a serious dive base. Elphinstone Reef (Sha'ab Abu Hamra), a standalone reef about 30 km north of town, is the headline site: a roughly 700-metre wall dropping past 40 m, cloaked in the soft corals that thrive in its strong currents. It is a drift dive for experienced divers only, and one of the likeliest places in Egypt to meet oceanic whitetip and scalloped hammerhead sharks. Closer in, coral-rich house reefs offer easy, colourful dives for everyone, while liveaboards run from here to the untouched deep-south reefs of Fury Shoals and St John's, and to the Brothers Islands (El Akhawein) — a pair of protected islets some 140 km offshore with sheer soft-coral walls, gorgonian forests, two historic wrecks (the Numidia and Aida) and frequent big pelagics.

Port Ghalib — the marina base

Many trips begin at Port Ghalib, the purpose-built marina resort just north of Marsa Alam Airport. Its harbour of shops, restaurants and cafés, with a long jetty reaching out over the reef, is the embarkation point for most dive boats and dolphin cruises, and a relaxed place to base yourself between days on the water.

Wadi el Gemal & the Eastern Desert

Behind the coast lies Wadi el Gemal National Park — "the Valley of the Camels" — a vast protected wilderness where the mountains of the Eastern Desert meet the sea. Its shoreline holds the largest mangrove forest on the Egyptian Red Sea, a nursery for fish and a haven for herons, ospreys and migrating flamingos, while the interior shelters the Ababda Bedouin, whose families have lived here for centuries, alongside Dorcas gazelle, Nubian ibex and desert foxes. In the hills lie the only emerald mines ever worked in the Roman Empire — the ancient Mons Smaragdus — near the ruins of Berenice, a Ptolemaic-Roman port that once traded with India and Arabia. Quad-bike and camel safaris run out to Ababda camps for grilled dinners, sweet tea and some of the darkest, most star-filled skies in Egypt.

Snorkel straight from the beach

One of Marsa Alam's quiet pleasures is that you often need no boat at all. Many resorts sit on their own house reefs, and sheltered bays such as Abu Dabbab and Marsa Egla drop into living coral and seagrass within a few fin-kicks of the shore. It makes Marsa Alam one of the easiest places in Egypt to snorkel on your own schedule — turtles, rays and reef fish, straight off the sand.

What a Marsa Alam experience costs

	Per person
Typical price (median)	6,075 EGP (~$124)
Usual range	3,320–16,342 EGP
Free cancellation	76% of experiences

The top-rated experiences travellers book

• Airport transfer from Hurghada to Marsa alam — 4.9★ · 208 reviews · from 4,108 EGP (~$84).
• Quad with Camel Ride & Bedouin village, Dinner From Marsa Alam — 4.5★ · 73 reviews · from 1,726 EGP (~$35).
• Quad sunset with barbecue and camel riding in Marsa Alam — 4.09★ · 96 reviews · from 3,470 EGP (~$71).
• Quad Biking and Camel Ride with Dinner — 4.0★ · 89 reviews · from 3,439 EGP (~$70).
• Quad experience with camel ride in the desert of Marsa Alam — 4.23★ · 63 reviews · from 2,891 EGP (~$59).
• Ancient Luxor deluxe tour with temple visits from Marsa Alam by coach — 4.33★ · 51 reviews · from 9,252 EGP (~$189).

Browse all things to do in Marsa Alam, read our Marsa Alam travel guide, or compare activity prices in the Egypt activity price guide.

When to go

Marsa Alam is year-round, with the Red Sea at 22–28°C. Spring and autumn are ideal; summer is hot but the sea is the point. Turtles and dugongs are resident, so sightings are good in any season, though calm mornings give the clearest water. Oceanic whitetips at Elphinstone are most likely October–December.

Getting there & practical notes

Marsa Alam has its own international airport (many charter flights land here directly), and visitors also arrive by road transfer from Hurghada, about 3–4 hours up the coast. Trips include hotel pickup; the marine-life bays are protected areas, so guides enforce strict no-touch, no-chase rules — bring reef-safe sunscreen, keep your distance from the dugongs and turtles, and never block their path to the surface. Sightings of wild dolphins, turtles and dugongs are frequent but never guaranteed.

Where Marsa Alam fits in your trip

Marsa Alam suits travellers who want the Red Sea at its most natural, and it pairs well with Luxor (a few hours' drive to the Nile Valley temples). For a livelier base with more nightlife, compare things to do in Hurghada.

How we built this guide

This guide combines the live prices and details of nearly 500 bookable Marsa Alam experiences (June 2026) from our marketplace with Egypt's official Red Sea & Sinai tourism guide and operator descriptions for the site-level detail on Sha'ab Samadai, Abu Dabbab, Marsa Mubarak, Elphinstone and Wadi el Gemal. Prices are per person in Egyptian pounds at about 49 EGP to the dollar; we use the median. Updated as prices and availability change.