Kitesurfing in El Gouna, Egypt

When thinking about Egypt, we all have in mind Pyramids, Deserts and Camels. There are all there, making Egypt a super attractive destination for History & Adventure Lovers.

But, apart from that, Egypt is considered to be a world class Scuba Diving & Kite Surfing destination. With excellent wind statistics, sandy beaches, shallow waters and great Kite Surfing Schools, Egypt attracts even experienced and pro riders. These, paired with inexpensive flights and accommodation, make Egypt an attractive destination even to beginner riders, who want to learn new moves or to those who just want to try Kite Surfing for the first time.

We, being a gang of 6 persons, including both pro riders and beginners, chose to visit El Gouna, a self-contained town on Red Sea coast – since we were a bit worried about safety-, for 1 week in April.

El Gouna is a tourist resort, developed and owned by Sawiris’ Family and Orascom Hotels and Development, self-contained in every way, which specializes in watersports -including scuba diving, kitesurfing, windsurfing, waterskiing, parasailing, wake boarding and snorkeling- , only 20km north of the airport and the city of Hurghada. (www.elgouna.com).

Once you land, you get a private transfer from the Airport to your Hotel in El Gouna. The first thing to catch your eye there is found, even before you step your foot inside the Resort, at the Huge Resort Entrance: Multiple armed guards perform security checks to everybody moving it or out El Gouna, making it impossible for somebody «suspicious» to enter the gates.

When you enter the Resort, you begin to realize its size: we are not talking about a hotel-sized resort, but about a whole town, entirely self-contained, including a town centre with restaurants, bars, taverns & shops, a beautiful marina, multiple luxury hotels -starting from 3stars to 5stars hotels-, golf courts, football courts, amazing sandy beaches and even small islands.

We chose to stay at Mosaique Hotel- the Kite&Surf Hotel, which was only 5-min walking away from the sandy beach of El Gouna and the Kite Surfing School and which we booked via Booking.com (www.booking.com). The rooms were great and the total hotel experience was totally worth it. The breakfast was very rich, offering a vast variety of cooking styles, the room service was exceptional and the personnel was more than willing to help you with anything. Every night you would find the updated wind statistics for the following days in multiple screens in the Reception Area, as well as printed copies of them, while they had safe storage rooms for all your Kite Surfing Equipment.

We used to start our days with a strong breakfast and then hit the beach until the early afternoon, when the wind stopped. Most days we used to have lunch and dinner at the hotel, so we pretty much tried every dish of the menu, which I totally recommend! With an average of 2 dishes per day (including salad, soup, main dish and drinks) we paid only 60 euros per person for 5 days..! That was unbelievable.

On the no-wind days the hotel can arrange any kind of activity for you, from Kite Surfing lessons, to excursions, scuba diving trips or sports. Some of us chose to go for a whole day excursion trip, while others went for a scuba diving trip.

You can always decide to practice your skills at the Sliders Cable Park, the newest addition to El Gouna’s watersport scene and one the the largest wake parks in the world.

Things to do:

-Kite Surfing at El Gouna’s amazing sandy beach and the great shallow «lagunas».

-Have a wakeboard or a waterski session at the Sliders Cable Park. It is great for practicing your board skills if you are at the «Water Start» level at Kite Surfing.

-Meet «Lucky» the Camel at El Gouna’s Beach!

-Have an ice-cream next to El Gouna’s Marina during the sunset.

-Go for a scuba diving trip on your no-wind days. The Red Sea is one of the best places in the world for diving and you will feel like you are diving inside a huge aquarium. You can see hundreds of tropical fish of many colors, sizes and shapes from 0,5 meters depth, while you can admire «Nemo» and «Doris» at their natural habitat! We booked our Diving Trip directly from the Kite School two days in advance-since we already knew the wind statistics. The next day, we had a private transfer from our hotel to the city of Hurghada, where the diving school was. We stopped there to choose our wetsuits and diving gear and then we headed to the marina. There, we boarded on the Scuba Cruise Ship with other divers. The Boat was spacious enough for all of us and the Divemasters and Instructors were very professional and full of positive energy and smiles. We were divided into small groups of divers according to our diving experience and we were assigned to different Divemasters & Instructos, who would lead the dives. We did 2 boat dives in 2 different reef spots. The water visibility was excellent (actually the best visibility I have experienced until now), the Instructors were flawless and the underwater life was simply amazing. We saw almost every kind of tropical fish, octopus, sea snails, starfish and stingrays. Between the dives you could go for snorkeling above the shallow parts of the reef, while the cook was preparing lunch for everybody, which was included in the price. For all these we paid just 50 euros per person! At the end we wished we had more days to repeat the trip! I totally recommend this one!

-Get a «toc-toc» to transfer you around!

-Go for a Boat trip for snorkeling or Dolphin watching. The rate is really cheap and you will be provided with the following: Pick up from your Hotel in the morning & return service in the afternoon, snorkeling equipment & wetsuits, on Board lunch, water and beverages, 2 stops for snorkeling, in amazing reef locations, guide during every dive, and the highlight: You get to see dolphins two times, one in the beginning of your trip: the captain tells you to whistle and clap, and then the dolphins appear like they actually heard you calling them!- and second: after your snorkeling, the captain secretly moves towards the «dolphin» spot and then he warns you: «Anybody who wish to swim with dolphins, dive now!», and yeap, you dive and wild dolphins are swimming exactly under you. This gives you such an amazing feeling, which is really hard to describe! You are actually swimming with wild dolphins, in their natural environment, while they are wild and free, causing absolutely no harm to them. This is a must, I can tell you!

-Wander around the markets and smell the variety of spices!

-Take a short trip outside El Gouna, even to the closest city, Hurghada. Despite how much you may like living in El Gouna, the true, original and authentic Egypt is out there. You have to experience a true vision of the daily life there, the way of living itself and the difficulties..

-Try to avoid the coffee.!

Here are some pics from our trip (taken with iPhone 4). Enjoy!

Desert in El Gouna: