For those looking to escape the winter blues, Hurghada, Egypt, might be just the ticket. Visiting Egypt during the colder months is not only an opportunity to see Egypt without its scorching heat, but it’s also a welcome break from the dreary central European winter.

Hurghada is a resort community on the Red Sea. Like its counterpart on the Sinai Peninsula, Sharm-el-Sheikh, it has been developing at a breakneck pace in response to burgeoning tourist interest and bargain prices.

Hurghada has a well-deserved reputation as a paradise for scuba divers and snorkelers, with amazing sea life and underwater formations. And while traditional Egyptian culture is hard to find near the tourist hotels, the ancient sites at Luxor and Cairo are a day trip away.

We visited Hurghada recently with the assistance of one of a number of European tour operators who offer all-inclusive packages at prices that are hard to beat. Our package included a charter flight from Brussels directly to Hurghada, bus transportation to the resort hotel and all meals and drinks (including beer and wine) during our stay. Not included were a number of day trips offered by the same tour operator, as well as independent operators working from the hotel.

The Hurghada area consists of a small city center flanked by miles and miles of resorts. Many of the hotels have access to the protected bays that line the coast. Here you can snorkel and see an amazing variety of coral and fish life, rent windsurfing equipment or hire a boat to take you scuba diving.

Tour operators in the hotels and area offer a variety of options for one- to four-day scuba excursions leading to a diving certificate.

For those of you who have attempted to learn to scuba-dive in a pool, or are thinking of it, doing so surrounded by fish might be a welcome alternative.

Other tour operators offered day trips to nearby Giftun and Mahmya islands. On these tours, you can snorkel around the islands, lounge under umbrellas on white sandy beaches and join the occasional boat trip to the vast coral reefs surrounding the islands. All snorkeling equipment was provided. We are told that at the right time of year and location, it’s not uncommon to see dolphins, turtles and even sharks. We do admit to being somewhat relieved at not having seen any sharks.

A trip to Egypt wouldn’t be complete without visiting its world-famous pyramids. From Hurghada, a bus trip to either Luxor or Cairo is possible. However, both require departing in the wee hours of the morning and returning late at night to make the trip worthwhile.

If you’re in Egypt for only a week and intend to do some serious relaxing, the bus trip to Cairo can take a big chunk out of your time. In our case we opted instead to take a flight to Cairo, in order to leave our hotel at a “reasonable” 5 a.m. When we arrived in Cairo we were grouped according to language, assigned a tour guide, put onto an air-conditioned bus and we were off.

Our guide was an Egyptologist who was passionate about his subject. We started with a drive through Cairo to the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. While this mosque is neither the most ancient nor the most historic in the city, it is extremely popular among tourists, possibly because of its imposing location. Sometimes referred to as the Alabaster Mosque, its setting in the Citadel offers an impressive view of the city. We received an extensive tour of the mosque’s outer and inner areas, and our guide went to great lengths to explain the basic tenets of the Islamic faith.

From there, we headed to the Egyptian Museum. The home of some of Egypt’s most famous artifacts, the museum exhibits more than 120,000 objects. The enormity of the museum — and the futility of gaining an appreciation of it in a few hours — was pointed out by our guide, who remarked that if we spent one minute looking at each piece, it would take 83 days to get through the museum. Thankfully, he was able to take us to the most interesting exhibits, including the famous articles from Tutankhamen’s tomb, and on what he called a “slow day,” did his best to shout explanations above the din.

Finally, we were taken to the pyramids at Giza. The only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the largest, so-called Great Pyramid, or Pyramid of Khufu, was the largest man-made structure for 3,800 years. Having seen pictures of these amazing structures all of our lives, it was somewhat surreal to view them in person. What was most surprising, however, was their location, basically in a Cairo suburb. If you were to stand in front of the Sphinx, also at Giza, and gaze in the same direction of this mighty statue, you would find yourself looking at the Sphinx Hotel — right next to a Pizza Hut. However, we tried to suspend reality and focus in the other direction, where the expanse of sand behind the six pyramids contributed to the illusion.

For monuments of such importance, there were surprisingly few tourists. This did not deter the camel herders on the hill overlooking the pyramids, who competed to convince tourists to take a $7, five-minute ride, to get that "once-in-a-lifetime" photo with all six pyramids in the background.

In addition, for about $25 per person, it is possible to climb inside the Great Pyramid — which, incidentally, requires a lot of bending and climbing and ends in an empty chamber. But the idea of standing at the center of 2.3 million blocks of stone that have been in place for 4½ millennia is well worth the price. There is a "no cameras" policy inside the pyramids, but we were told that the security guards would be willing to look the other way for a small price.

If the weather cooperates and you time it right, you can get some great sunset shots from the hill alongside the Sphinx. Don’t dawdle, though. Between 4 and 5 p.m., the so-called "tourist police" start to chase out the tourists, and they take their jobs seriously. The nighttime laser light show was recommended, but you have to leave and pay admission again. We, however, had a plane to catch.

Know and go ...

Our eight-day package, booked through Neckermann.nl, cost 750 euros (about $995) for adults and 500 euros for children 12 and younger. It included airfare, a four-star hotel, food, beer and wine. The price drops in the cooler months (highs are 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit in January) and rises to around 1,000 euros in August during European vacation time. Most travel agencies and last-minute Web sites offer a variety of packages.

In Hurghada, it pays to research the kind of resort you are looking for. We chose a resort without immediate beach access (five minutes by hotel shuttle or a 15-minute walk), trading this off for an extensive water park, with about 15 water slides, a wave pool, river rapids and pools that kids (and even adults!) never tire of. The buffets offered for all meals were superb, including a series of theme nights with international food, a variety of local foods, and a special section for kid-friendly foods. The resort staff was extremely friendly and helpful.

On the negative side, there does seem to be a tendency for the hotels to be overbooked. In our case, we arrived near midnight, and while the hotel relocated us by bus to a sister hotel, it delayed the start of our vacation a bit. The next day, we tried to stay at our "new" hotel, but were told we had to return to our originally booked one, because the hotel we had been moved to was now overbooked.To lower your odds of this happening, we recommend choosing a flight that arrives in Hurghada in the afternoon. A colleague who arrived at 3 p.m. had no problem, while those of us who arrived late at night or early in the morning were disappointed to find that our rooms had been given away.

If this does happen to you, be sure to bring it up with your tour operator during your "welcome brief." As compensation, our tour operator offered each of us a trip to Luxor or Cairo — and allowed us to "convert" this 280-euro-per-person credit to a couple of smaller day trips nearby — a great value for the initial inconvenience.

The resort was primarily populated by clientele from Russia and eastern Europe, along with a number of German, Dutch and British tourists. However, English is widely spoken by a number of nationalities such as the Dutch, so we never had a problem being understood. Every vendor and staff member we met wanted to strike up a conversation, and in order to establish the language spoken, invariably led off with "Where are you from?" We were continually surprised by the positive reaction when we cautiously said we were Americans. In particular, young Egyptians were universally enthusiastic about our nationality. We were met everywhere with friendly smiles and the occasional "Aaaahhh … we love America!"

Egyptians are quite friendly to outsiders, and as an American you’re more likely to have cultural misunderstandings with your fellow tourists than with your hosts. This being said, a little bit of courtesy and a smile will go a long way with the hotel and tourist industry employees. Take money (dollar bills or euro coins are fine) for tipping, or "baksheesh," for those in the service business.

Egyptians are surprisingly tolerant of tourists, but it’s smart to wear conservative clothing, as well as clothing that doesn’t scream "I’m an American," when you’re out and about. Carry contact numbers for the Embassy in case of emergency.

In terms of buying souvenirs, the best rule of thumb is somewhat counterintuitive. We were told when we arrived that we should wait to buy all our souvenirs at the Hurghada airport — for much less money. Unfortunately we forgot all about this until we got to the airport on the way home and realized how true it was. There are truly some great deals to be had and we laughed as we thought of all the other tourists like us, who realized on their way home just how much they had unnecessarily spent on souvenirs. Call it Tutankhamun’s revenge.

Finally, give a thought to Tutankhamun’s other revenge. Drink only bottled liquids and avoid uncooked vegetables and fruits without peels. You might wish to bring over-the-counter diarrhea medicine, but if you forget, there are pharmacies every few blocks that are used to dealing with this common tourist malady. Most larger hotels have doctors on staff, and they are quite adept at getting tourists back on the beach. Don’t forget the sunscreen.

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