El Quseir

Quseir is one of the oldest ports on the Red Sea, used in Pharaonic times for the expeditions to Punt from a harbour nearby, then by the Romans, and through the Islamic centuries as the main crossing point for Egyptian pilgrims to Mecca and for the spice trade from India. That history left a small town of coral-block and mud houses with wooden balconies, a few restored, and an Ottoman fortress built in the sixteenth century and rebuilt several times, now a museum on the town's trade and pilgrim history. The old quarter is compact and walkable, unusual on a coast where almost everything is either resort or industrial. Diving from the town and the coast just south of it is good, with reef close in and far fewer boats than Hurghada.

What you actually see

• The Ottoman fortress - a restored fort with a museum on the pilgrim trade.
• Coral-block houses - old town fabric with wooden balconies.
• The old harbour - the anchorage used for the crossing to Arabia.
• Quiet house reefs - coral close inshore with little boat traffic.

When to go

October to May. A day for the town and the fort, longer if diving. Mornings for walking the old quarter before the heat. The town is quiet at all times and never crowded.

Honest expectations

The old town is small and partly derelict, and restoration has been patchy. There is little in the way of restaurants or nightlife. Most accommodation is in resorts outside town. The museum is modest and sometimes closed outside posted hours.

Nearby

Safaga is north; Marsa Alam and its reefs lie south.