Dolphin House

Dolphin House is the most misunderstood name on the Hurghada tour board. Most travelers think it's a single fixed reef. It's not. Dolphin House is a type of boat trip, named after the wild spinner dolphins it's built around. The exact reef the boat heads for is decided each morning by the captain.

Why the location changes

Wild spinner dolphins follow their own routine. They feed offshore at night and rest in shallow, sheltered reefs during the day. The pod's preferred resting spot depends on wind direction, water temperature, recent disturbance, and how the pod itself has moved over the previous week. There is no scheduled "appointment" with the dolphins, because they are wild.

That's why our captain decides the exact reef each morning, using:

• Radio updates from crews already on the water at dawn
• Wind direction and sea state at the marina
• The pod's last-known location from the previous day
• His own years of reading the same patterns

Only the captain can make this call. It's the difference between a fake "guaranteed dolphin" tourist trip and a real wild-dolphin experience.

Where we go

There is no single fixed spot. Some days the pod is at a sheltered Hurghada-area reef, a horseshoe-shaped reef about an hour from Hurghada whose sheltered inner lagoon the pod likes to rest inside; other days the captain routes to a different sheltered reef in the Hurghada area. He decides each morning from the wind and the latest sightings.

What we never do

We do not feed the dolphins. We do not chase them. We do not touch them. We do not enter the inner lagoon when the pod is resting. We snorkel on the outer reef edge, where dolphins regularly choose to swim past in their own time. If the pod isn't there on a given day, we tell you. Most days they are. A few days a year they aren't, and we make the day great anyway with snorkeling and lunch.

What you'll see when the pod is there

Spinner dolphins are small (1.5-2 meters), social, and curious. They surface in pods of 10 to 50 individuals. From the boat you'll see their spinning leaps as they communicate. In the water you'll hear their clicks and whistles. They typically swim past snorkelers calmly and at their own pace, sometimes coming within a few meters before moving on.

Important: this is not Marsa Alam's a sheltered Hurghada-area reef

The famous "Dolphin House" in tourism brochures is sometimes confused with a sheltered Hurghada-area reef, a different reef about 6 hours south of Hurghada near Marsa Alam. That's a separate trip from a different city. The Hurghada Dolphin House trip uses Hurghada-area reefs only, most commonly a sheltered Hurghada-area reef.

The Hurghada Dolphin House trip

Our Dolphin House Reef boat trip from Hurghada leaves the marina at 08:30 to give you the best chance of meeting the pod before tourist traffic builds. It includes free hotel transfer, snorkeling gear, lunch on board and a bilingual marine guide who briefs you on dolphin etiquette before you enter the water.