Operations
The marina, the crossing, and the road to it.
The unglamorous half of the business, and the half a partner asks about first. This is how a day runs.
On board
The crossing
Out of Hurghada, and an hour and a half to the sand.
Both venues sit on Big Giftun, the larger of the two islands in Giftun Islands National Park. One island, one marina, two different days out.
Schematic. Not to scale, and not a navigational chart
- Under way
- 1 h 30
- Each direction, by yacht
- Leaves from
- Hurghada
- Or collected from your hotel
- Lands at
- Big Giftun
- Inside Giftun Islands National Park
Departures
Yacht crossings
- 09:30
- 11:30
Back About 16:30 and 17:30
About an hour and a half under way in each direction.
Speedboat crossings
- 09:00
- 13:00
- 16:00
Hotel collection one hour before the boat leaves.
Exact collection times are confirmed the day before
A day with us
The night before
Your collection time
Confirmed per hotel, by message or email.
09:30
The first yacht leaves
The second follows at 11:30. Guests meeting the boat come to the marina at Hurghada.
1 h 30
Under way
Out of Hurghada and across to Big Giftun.
On the island
Your day
Beach, lunch and the water. Snorkelling equipment and a guide come with the tour.
16:30 and 17:30
Back alongside
The later yacht returns after the first.
09:00 · 13:00 · 16:00
Or by speedboat
Hotel collection one hour before the boat leaves.
Times as the company publishes them against its own tours
Collection areas
We collect guests from hotels across the Red Sea resort areas, or they make their own way to the marina.
- Hurghada
- El Gouna
- Sahl Hasheesh
- Al Ahyaa
- Makadi Bay
- Soma Bay
- Safaga
- Meet at the marina
Guests meeting the boat at the marina are told plainly, before they pay, that a late arrival misses the departure.
Paradise Island
Alongside at the island, where the day actually starts.
- 01
The marina
We built our own marina between 2007 and 2010, because guests could not get off the boats and onto the sand comfortably. It is the point at which we started running our own boats instead of chartering them.
Everything leaves from Hurghada. Guests who make their own way there meet the boat at the marina, and we say plainly before they pay that a late arrival misses the departure.
- 02
Crossings
Two kinds of crossing run out to the island. The yachts leave mid-morning and late morning and are back in the late afternoon. The speedboats run three times a day and collect guests an hour before they sail.
- 03
Ground transport
We run our own buses and vans and collect guests from hotels across the Red Sea resort areas. Collection times are set per hotel and confirmed the day before, by message or email.
- 04
Inside a national park
Both venues sit inside Giftun Islands National Park. The site was chosen on engineering and environmental advice so the work would not damage the marine life around it, and beach and environmental protection were built as part of the marina programme.
Park fees are collected separately from the tour price and shown as an exclusion when guests book. We ask them not to touch the coral or the sea urchins.