If you are not familiar with the whereabouts of the Red Sea, you can pretty well say it runs down the eastern border of Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula on the Israel border, where you will find the Taba Hotels complex, down through Sharm el Sheikh, onto Hurghada, and then Soma Bay and beyond. These are the names of the best known hotel and resort areas. It is a part of the world that has been a must for scuba divers almost for ever.

The question here is, when is the best time to visit, because Egypt and the Red Sea have classically been a winter sun destination for European Holidaymakers. I have visited  Taba, and Sharm in the early Spring, when the weather was pleasant, but it became very cool in the evenings, and Soma Bay in July when the temperature was consistently 45 degrees, but with no humidity, and a good breeze, it was more than bearable!!

The main difference between the two visits was the fact that at Taba it was relatively busy, Sharm was packed, whereas at Soma Bay there was only 10% occupancy in a superb hotel called Les Residence des Cascades!!

Having said that there is increasing evidence that tour operators are now concentrating on the Egypt Red Sea area in the summer months, believing it to be more profitable for them than Spain or the Meditteranean in Euroland.

This means prices that were low in the summer months are now rising with demand.

School holidays are now expensive, but the season as in Europe now runs from May until October. This means the Tour Operators have their capacity geared to these months. In other words if you can travel in September, when incidentally the water is warm for scuba divers, or May and June, then you may well find some real bargains.

One piece of advice is don’t book early. If you can wait until late April or early May before booking June, it is likely the Operators will not have sold their allotment of beds, so prices can tumble dramatically.

So when is the best time to go to the Red Sea, the answer is probably June.