Dahab

What sprang up during the 1960’s as a hippie hangout along the Red Sea has grown into a thriving beach community that offers easy access to some of the best diving location in the world.

Dahab, a coastal village in the middle of the eastern shore of Sinai, is now a booming diving community. It offers a range of accommodations from hostels for budget travelers to luxurious full service resorts. All of this is located right on the water, tucked between the purple mountains of Sinai’s interior and the crystal waters of the Gulf of Aqaba with the shadowy mountains of Saudi Arabia visible across the water in the distance.

In the central part of Dahab there is a well-established strip of restaurants and hotels the allow travelers to lounge by the water while enjoying the full restaurant service. Further north the vibe is more relaxed and less developed and a few miles out of town in either direction are resorts offering more exclusive privacy. All of these places organize trips to the many impressive diving and snorkeling locations nearby.

Through any of the hotels or countless tourism shops, it is easy to organized diving trips or safari trips into Sinai’s interior. Quad bike excursions, camel rides, and day trips to St. Katherine and Mount Sinai deep in the middle of the peninsula are all popular.

About 60 kilometers north of Dahab is the town of Nuweiba, which is even more low-key. Most of the accommodations here consist of simple huts on the beach with a restaurant nearby. They provide the ultimate in relaxation and also the easiest access to excursions to Sinai’s interior.

There is also ferry that leaves from Nuweiba twice daily making the trip across to Aqaba in Jordan and back.