Swimming with Dolphins by Private Speed Boat - Hurghada

From the start comms was a bit haphazard with our Hotel pick up time not confirmed until gone 10pm the previous night for an 8am pick up which didn’t show until nearer 8.30am. This was a little stressful as we didn’t know how to plan our day and what time to awake etc. The transfer took about 45mins and we then boarded quite a nice boat called Moonlight but private boat tour it was not. There were 34 other passengers despite the excursion being advertised as “private speedboat just for your group”. First stop they dropped us off at an over crowded and very commercial island - Orange Bay. It had a handful of bars, barely any fish (no reef), few places to sit on the beach and quite a bit of rubbish evidenced in the water (plastic cups, crisp packets and cigarette butts etc) but it was heaving with loads of other boats and visitors similarly dropped off. We loitered around with nothing to do for 2 hours and were touted overpriced drinks (€8 beer) and ice cream (€6) - cash only so remember to bring some. It was a pure tourist trap. After the 2 hours we re-boarded the boat and lunch was served- rice, pasta, kebab meat, chicken and salad. It was decent. No complaints. We were then taken to a reef where the fish were OK but not even as good as the house reef from our hotel. The second and final reef stop was fairly uneventful and when we asked about Dolphins (advertised as a “Private speedboat Dolphin excursion”) the crew seemed confused and said “no dolphins”. We had one final stop where there was the option of a banana boat ride, but much of the time was actually spent watching the crew pushing each other into the water and have their own fun rather than checking that the guests were looked after. There was the obligatory round of collection of tips by the crew where you felt compelled to say you had a wonderful time and to give generously which of course I sheepishly did. We were then taken and dropped off at some random location in central Hurghada for our Turkish bath part of the trip. The guide had no idea what was happening and simply dropped us off and told us to “go to the Mall”. So on a wing and a prayer we did. Luckily we ended up at the right place. Sonos Turkish Baths. We didn’t know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised with the steam, sauna and jacuzzi. We learned that our package didn’t include the massage so we upgraded for €15 each for the actual body scrub and 45min massage which I would highly recommend. We were then transferred back to the hotel. At this stage I must stress that you need to experience proper Egyptian driving. It’s a hair raising experience- imagine driving in near darkness with loud Egyptian music blaring, texting with one hand and weaving in and out of traffic at 130+KPH with no seat belts in a seemingly poorly maintained car overtaking in the face of on-coming cars whilst flashing them incessantly to see who will get out of the way first in a game of “chicken” and you get the idea. All in all- the 4 hour private speedboat dolphin sight-seeing and Turkish bath excursion ended up being 12hours long thanks to Typical Egyptian time keeping, not a dolphin in sight (obviously can’t be guaranteed) and really poor comms. I still felt we received good value for the time spent out but we were exhausted and would’ve happily skipped orange Bay island which was pretty naff.

it’s a very good company we book with them , we spend a beautiful time at the island after that we have two perfect stops for snorkeling and a very good lunch , we loved this company and we will come again

It was very very good day with this company, we spend a very beautiful two hours at the island and we had 2 stops for a perfect snorkeling and we eat a very good lunch .