Twenty-two degrees at the pyramids, a shorty wetsuit for snorkelling, and no queues anywhere.
Winter on the Red Sea is the season people underrate. Daytime air sits around 20–23°C, the sea holds at about 22°C, and the sun is out almost every day. It is not a lie-on-the-beach-all-day climate, but it is a perfect one for doing things.

The inland trips are transformed. Cairo and Luxor at 22°C rather than 40°C is a genuinely different experience — you can walk round Karnak at midday, the Valley of the Kings does not require an escape plan, and the queues are a fraction of what they are at Easter.
For the water, the honest picture: swimmable but cool, and a full day of snorkelling is much more comfortable in a shorty wetsuit, which every boat rents cheaply. Evenings genuinely need a jumper, and hotels with heated pools are worth seeking out because the unheated ones are bracing.


For the water, the honest picture: swimmable but cool, and a full day of snorkelling is much more comfortable in a shorty wetsuit, which every boat rents cheaply.
Prices are low outside Christmas, New Year and February half term. Late January is arguably the best combination of weather, price and emptiness in the whole year, and almost nobody plans a beach holiday for it.

