We are planning a holiday in Sinai from our home in Turkey, where we now live after moving from the UK nine years ago.

Although we enjoy beach holidays with snorkelling, etc. (together with a bit of culture, flora and fauna, of course), we like to stay clear of the commercialised, busy resorts, avoiding the major resort hotels. We prefer the smaller hotels - clean with private bathrooms and where you can really relax and feel comfortable.

Any advice would be most welcome. We would probbaly spend about three weeks in Egypt and would prefer to move about a bit, perhaps staying in maybe three places during our stay.

Help with accommdation, travelling, must sees in Sinai (MAYBE further afield!) would be useful.

Thanks.

David

David, I would definitely recommend Dahab, which I'm sure you've come across on your internet surfing on Sinai. I'm a big fan of the Sinai and over the last few years I've stayed in Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab and Nuweiba in different classes of hotels. But I always end up going back to Dahab because of it's laid back nature and also much less commercialised than Sharm (although that's also changing). The diving there is great and everything is much cheaper than Sharm, plus excursion into the desert and St Katherines/Mount Sinai are cheaper and also much closer to get to. It takes about 45 min from Sharm Airport to Dahab by taxi. There are plenty of good value small hotels and cheap camps. One of my favourites is the Coral Coast hotel www.thecoralcoast.com (site doesn't seem to be active at the moment). Or look at www.trav.com/wri/property.php?HostelNumber=7728
It's a really nice clean bedouin-run hotel right next to the sea with great diving/snorkelling, plus very friendly staff.
Good luck with your travels...

Hello,

Regarding Dahab, I agree with Patcha (he gave me useful advice for Kenya). I was there a year and a half ago after spending the first week doing the Indiana Jones stuff around the temples and pyramids, spent the second half relaxing and diving by the Red Sea. We flew from Luxor to Sharm and stayed a night there and didn't like it at all; big hotels, concrete bar complexes and beach access by hotel tokens! - horrible. Got a taxi to Dahab and is so much more relax. Don't worry, there are ATMs and accommodation from big hotels to camp sites. Food is great and relatively stress free though some restaurantuers do give it the big sell but do respect your 'no thanks'.

things to do;
diving: scuba or snorkel. The bay is good with a coral wall about 10m out (depth about 20m). Safe for kids and you can see fish such as large maori wrasp (circa 1.3m long) as well as all kinds of coral fish.

camel safari - if you like sitting on such creatures
climb Mount Sinai - where Moses apparently got his commandments. A nice and very early walk up the mountain (though you can sit on a camel once more)in time for sunrise (rather breezy though can hire a rug at the top). You can also visit the monastery there with the legendary burning bush.

I really liked Dahab as it has the feel of the far east beaches.

rhubarb.

On hotels, we stayed at the New Sphinx just south of the bay but on the beach - we also dived with them. There is a Hilton there which is further south but other plush ones with pools. Our room had air con, fridge, private bathroom, and didn't cost much either!

We were in the Sinai last summer and would like to recommend this little bedouion cap owned and run by a beautiful Bedouin who is set on running his little place by bedouin hospitality customes
we had a little hut righ on the water line of this white sandy beach. the hut is very simple and made in the tradirional bedouin fishermsn's way: made of bamboo with palm leaves as the roof.
toilets and kitchen are very basic and very very clean. food is mixed: continental breakfase with an omlett and the traditional bedouin Pita bread baked on the spot.
for lunch and dinner you can have traditional bedouin dishes of fish and rice or lamb and rice , spaghetti and great fresh salads from locally grown organic vegetables.
Harby, the owner, took us on trip to the mopuntains: when we got there we a camal treck and then a bedouin dinner by teh camp fire with soem of his friend who play the oud, darbouka and singing..all under the beautiful desert sky and the unbelivable quiet of the desert.
the cost is redicules and it cam to 20$ a day per person including accomedations, food, water and trip to the mountain
this is the site for the beach (banana beach):
hyyp://www.bananabeach-sinai.com
we made the reservations through this number:
+972-52-3847550

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