el quseir, red sea, egypt 2024

we have spent 9 late november days in the wonderful mövenpick resort El Quseir (quseer, el qoseir, al-qusair) at the red sea in egypt. here in the south was still summer time, you know? 🌞

one of the two camels for tourists out there

... COMING SOON ....

i'm just waiting at the hurghada airport for our flight back home, so it is the optimal opportunity to recapitulate our stay in EGYPT, isnt it? 😇

• well, we wanted to escape from the snowy and cold weather in munich for some time. this has functioned perfectly. in El Quseir, some 130 km and 2h to the south from the hurghada airport by car, was still summer. it means 25-28°C in the day time, but quite cold in the evenings. thus a coat and a woolen beanie were needed, especially because of the strong winds out there
• the major issue was of course the havary of the cargo ship VSG GLORY at the coral reef in front of our hotel some 30 m from the beach at our day #1. despite of outflow of the oil from its engine and environmental rescue operations with special plastic tampon like cleaning rags used to draw the oil from the water surface, not much happened ... the vsg glory sunk much deeper, but it will most likely not sink competely (WRONG! it sunk 2 days after we've returned home. the sea water is there probably 60m deep) ... of course, there was a lot of oil + plastic waste swimming in the ocean, but dont worry my dears, we could enjoy our time anyway. i especially the long walks at the beach to the next hotel (flamenco beach & resort) while collecting trash 😉 => each day one small plastic bag of waste .... and i was not alone. there was one swiss lady doing the same each morning. after few days, there was only garbage brought by wind + waves at night and no old trash at all. chakka! for some strange reason, walking from our hotel to the other side in the direction of the radisson blu hotel, there was soooooooooo much waste (plastic, broken glass, cigarettes, fishermen stuff, ...) that a professional cleaning team with trucks to transport all that waste would be needed
• our hotel mövenpick resort el quseir was not only quite expensive, but also really good despite the quite small bungallow rooms. especially the food. plus the easy access to the sea. in a coral reef area like here, is this feature not obvious, you know? our neighbour hotel flamenco had no real swimming opportunity as their footbridge over the reef was broken and the water directly at the beach much too shallow for swimming
• we have made 2 half day trips outside of our hotel
• #1 we have visited El Quseir, which is both, the oldest city at the red sea and 5,000 years old. unfortunately, you will not find much to explore here today. there is a fort from its turkish era, some mosques, but not old or at least nice in some way. there is an italian catholic church from the colonial era, which is an orthodox church for the egyptian coptic christians today. especially el quseir's port was a huge disappointment for me ... and the garbage at the beach promenade and inside the narrow streets in the historic old city as well. the local shops here are mostly for the egyptian people themselves as there is still not much tourism directly in the city. and yes, we haven't visited the new city with modern style houses and shops
• #2 jeep 'safari' trip to the desert. well, we have visited a bedouin family in the desert, tried to ride a camel for 5 to 10 minutes, have got a cup of tea + have seen a beautiful sun set and then came back to the jeep & quad center at the beach in Marsa Alam for barbecue, arabic dance performance and yes, for stars watching. heaven & hell, what a mess!  they've switched off the lights in their tourist camp, but there was still light in the street & co. ... okay, we could see many stars and the milky way .... the stars watching issue was the only reason we've booked that trip in the 1st place, you know? my wife was disappointed like a small child which didnt get its promissed sweetie. we have believed and been also told so by the travel guide before booking this trip, that the watching of the stars will be done in the desert at COMPLETE DARKNESS around us, you see? at least we have met 4 funny polish women on business holiday paid by their company in our jeep, so we could laugh most of the time 😀
• for me is also important to see how the people manage their lives. if you work with tourists and get paid or at least get tipped in euros or dollars, then probably fine. in other case you have to withstand a massive inflation. just imagine, the currency devaluation aka the twin sister of inflation between our last visit in march 2023 and now was 70%. wtf? 70% in 1.5 years sums up to 46,6% a year. of course, the average egyptian wages did not wentt 46.6% higher than 1.5 years ago

more pictures here.

last egypt visit to makadi bay / hurghada in 03-2023 here.