Makadi Bay Adventure Sports, Ranked
Makadi Bay Adventure Sports, Ranked
Not everything sold as an “adventure sport” in Makadi Bay actually gets your heart rate up. A camel ride is a nice photo. A wall dive at Ras Disha is an adventure sport. Here is what is worth booking and what is just marketing.
Worth it: wall diving and drift dives
Extra Divers Makadi Bay runs boat dives to Abu Ramada, Ras Disha, and Carless Reef, and these are the real deal: drop-offs, current, and a genuine sense of exposure that snorkeling off the jetty does not deliver. Abu Ramada, nicknamed “The Aquarium,” is the easier of the three, dense with snapper and bannerfish. Ras Disha’s drop-off and cavern system is the one to save for after you have a few Red Sea dives under your weight belt. Whichever you pick, respect the 24-hour no-fly rule before your return flight out of Hurghada Airport; getting bent because you booked a dive the morning of your flight home is not the kind of adventure anyone wants.
Worth it: kitesurfing and windsurfing
Steady thermal winds make the bay genuinely good for this, not just adequate. Rental gear and lessons are available at beachfront watersports centers, and the shallow sandbars give beginners room to fail safely before graduating to open water. This is the one adventure sport here that rewards actually practicing over a few days rather than a single one-off session.
Worth it, with caveats: desert ATV and dune buggy runs
Fast, loud, and genuinely fun across the sand dunes and rocky wadis of the Eastern Desert. The caveat is that “off-road adventure” gets stretched to cover some fairly tame convoy rides, so ask specifically about the terrain before booking if you want an actual challenge rather than a scenic cruise.
Overhyped: jet skiing, wakeboarding, and banana boats
Fun for twenty minutes, forgettable after. These are resort pool-party activities dressed up as adventure sports, fine as a between-dives break but not worth building a day around.
Skip entirely: anything billed as a “safari” that is really a drive-by
If a tour promises wildlife spotting from an air-conditioned vehicle at low speed, that is a scenic drive, not adventure sports. Egypt’s Eastern Desert wildlife does not perform on cue for tour buses.
Verdict
Spend your adventure budget on diving and kitesurfing first; treat the ATV run as a fun bonus, not the highlight. For the version of this coast that swaps adrenaline for calm water and a golf club, see our outdoor activities guide . Book dives for the start of your trip, never the last morning before a flight.