Your First Massage: What Actually Happens, Start to Finish

The short answer

You arrive, you are asked a few questions, you undress to your comfort level in private and lie under a towel, and a therapist works on your back, shoulders, arms, legs and neck for the time you booked. You are covered the whole way through except for the part being worked on. At the end you are left alone to get dressed, and you drink some water.

That is the entire process. A 60-minute full-body massage is EUR 15 in our studio; 90 minutes is EUR 20.

Nothing is asked of you except to say if the pressure is wrong.

Before it starts

You will be asked about injuries, recent surgery, blood pressure, pregnancy and any areas to avoid. Answer honestly even if it feels like a detour - it changes how the session is run, and a good therapist would rather adapt than guess.

You will be asked your pressure preference: light, medium or firm. If you have no idea, say medium. It is adjusted during the session anyway.

Then you are shown to the room and left alone to undress. Undress to your comfort level - most guests keep underwear on, and that is completely normal. You lie face-down under a towel or sheet, and the therapist knocks before coming back in.

During the hour

Only the area being worked on is uncovered; everything else stays under the towel. The sequence is usually back and shoulders first, then the backs of the legs, then you turn over for the fronts of the legs, arms, and finally neck and scalp.

Oil is used. It comes off in the shower and does not stain.

You do not have to talk. Some guests chat, most go quiet after ten minutes, and both are fine. The one thing worth speaking up about is pressure: if it hurts, say so immediately, and if it feels like nothing, say that too. Adjusting is expected, not a complaint - and "it should hurt to work" is a myth.

If you fall asleep, nothing bad happens. It happens constantly.

60 or 90 minutes?

Sixty minutes is a full-body massage with the time divided fairly evenly. It is the right first booking and the right repeat booking, and at EUR 15 it is the treatment guests book more than once in a week.

Ninety minutes is what to choose when you have specific problem areas that need real time - a locked shoulder, a lower back that has taken a long flight, hips stiff from sitting. The extra half hour goes into depth rather than into covering more ground.

The strongest single argument for the 90-minute session is the day after you arrive. A long or overnight flight compresses the spine and stiffens the hips, and clearing that in the first 48 hours changes the rest of the trip. The second-best moment is after two or three diving days, when the shoulders have carried the load.

Hot stone massage, 60 minutes from EUR 25, is a different axis rather than a longer version: warm basalt stones hold heat into the muscle, which suits deep stiffness and cold-weather aches better than pressure alone.

Afterwards

Drink water. Avoid a heavy meal for about an hour. Do not book anything strenuous or anything that needs concentration for a couple of hours - you will be slower than usual, and that is the point.

Mild soreness the next day is normal after firm pressure, in the same way it is after exercise. Sharp pain is not, and is worth telling us about.

Do not go straight from a massage into strong midday sun. Late afternoon or early evening is the better slot for this reason, and booking it after a beach day rather than before one gets more out of it.

Booking it

We are on the 2nd floor of Panorama Mall in Hurghada, open daily 09:00 to 22:00, and every massage is given by our own therapists at that address.

Hotel pickup and drop-off is free anywhere inside Hurghada, which is the ideal end to a massage - you go straight back to your room. Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh and El Gouna are EUR 10 per person return; Soma Bay and Safaga on request.

If you are booking as a couple, request the same time slot and we will run the treatments in parallel where the rooms are free. Prices are fixed in euros and paid in cash on arrival.