A pristine white sandy beach with striped parasols overlooking the turquoise Mediterranean Sea on Egypt’s North Coast.

Sidi Abdel Rahman · Mediterranean

The North Coast (Sahel)

Typical visit: 5 h

Period: 1990 · Modern

Egypt's Mediterranean summer coast — white sand, water the colour of a swimming pool, and a beach-club season that runs June to September.

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Photos

Crystal-clear turquoise water and luxury coastal resorts along Egypt’s North Coast.

A stylish beachfront area with white cabanas and panoramic Mediterranean Sea views on the North Coast.

A woman enjoying the clear turquoise water and sandy beach on Egypt’s North Coast.

Crystal-clear Mediterranean water meeting a white sandy beach under a bright blue sky on Egypt’s North Coast.

Aerial view of a luxury North Coast resort featuring a turquoise lagoon, sandy beach, and Mediterranean Sea.

A luxury beachfront resort with white sand, palm trees, and turquoise Mediterranean water on Egypt’s North Coast.

A lively beach bar illuminated at night with decorative lights and palm trees on Egypt’s North Coast.

An elegant North Coast resort glowing at sunset with illuminated fountains, palm trees, and luxury architecture.

Stylish beach loungers and fringed parasols overlooking the turquoise Mediterranean Sea on Egypt’s North Coast.

A belly dancer performing at a lively evening entertainment venue on Egypt’s North Coast.

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About

Egyptians call it el-Sahel, and for three months a year it is where Cairo and Alexandria go. The strip runs west from Alexandria past El Alamein toward Marsa Matruh, and the water is the thing: a pale, startling turquoise over white sand, calmer and cooler than the Red Sea.

What it actually is

A chain of gated resort compounds — Marassi, Hacienda, Marina — rather than a town you wander
Beach clubs with day passes, restaurants and a night scene that starts late and runs later
Sidi Abdel Rahman has the best-known bay; El Alamein, with its war cemeteries, is twenty minutes east

Season matters more here than anywhere else in Egypt. From June to early September it is busy, loud and at its best. Out of season most of it is shuttered, and the drive is not worth it for the beach alone — though El Alamein's museum and cemeteries are open year-round and make the trip stand up on their own.

About three hours from Cairo and ninety minutes from Alexandria.

History & background

Until the 1980s this was empty coast with a few fishing villages and the battlefields of 1942 — the two Alamein engagements were fought across the desert immediately south of it, and the Commonwealth, German and Italian cemeteries are still the reason many visitors come.

The resort strip is a deliberate creation of the last four decades: Marina in the late 1980s, then a chain of compounds west along the coast road, most of them second homes owned in Cairo and used for eight weeks a year. It is the one part of Egypt built for Egyptians on holiday rather than for foreign tourists, which is exactly what makes it interesting to visit.

Rommel's cave at Marsa Matruh, further west, and the Alamein war museum anchor the other half of the coast's story — the half that was here first.