Sharm el Sheikh

What Sharm el Sheikh actually is

Sharm el Sheikh sits on the Gulf of Aqaba near the southern tip of Sinai, a short way north of Ras Mohammed, where the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba meet. It is not an old town that turned into a resort. It is a coastline of bays built for people who came to get into the water.

There are no pharaonic temples on this stretch of coast. Behind the hotels is granite mountain desert that is Bedouin tribal country. What Sharm has instead of monuments is the reef. Its corals belong to the northern Red Sea, which researchers have found unusually tolerant of warming water. The wall drops almost immediately into deep blue. For the region beyond the resort strip, see our guide to travelling in the Sinai Peninsula.

The town lies in South Sinai Governorate and runs along roughly fifteen kilometres of coast, from the Nabq lagoons to Sharm el Maya. It is not walkable, so you move between bays by taxi or hotel shuttle.

How the resort strip is laid out

Sharm is a line, not a centre. Peace Road runs behind the coast and links the bays, and their order tells you what a stay will feel like.

Nabq is the northern end, past the airport: quiet, with large hotels along shallow lagoons and mangroves beyond. The water is sandy and shallow, which suits families, though it catches more wind than the bays south of it. Sharks Bay is small and steep sided with a good house reef. Naama Bay is the original tourist heart. Hadaba, also called Umm Sid, stands on the cliffs south of it. The reef below at Ras Um Sid drops straight from the jetty into a wall, which is why it carries so many shore dives. At the southern end, Sharm el Maya holds the Old Market and the marina where the Ras Mohammed and Thistlegorm boats leave before dawn.

Where you sleep decides how you swim. Hotels in Sharks Bay and on the Hadaba cliffs sit above a reef wall and reach it by jetty. Hotels along the Nabq lagoons sit on sand with no coral at all.

Sharm el Sheikh International Airport stands inland behind the middle of the strip, just off Peace Road. Nabq and Sharks Bay are the closest bays, usually ten to fifteen minutes by road. Naama Bay is fifteen to twenty minutes. Hadaba and Sharm el Maya sit at the far end and take closer to half an hour. We meet arrivals inside the terminal and drive you to your bay.

Naama Bay is the part of Sharm most people picture: a crescent of sand, a line of hotels, and a promenade of cafes, dive shops, shisha terraces and bazaars. In the evening it becomes a walking street.

Resort life here is mostly the all-inclusive model: large hotels, buffet dining, and pools that fill the day. It is a waste of the location. A week with two or three excursions in it is a different trip from a week spent inside the grounds. Cliff-top hotels in Hadaba reach their beaches by long stairs or a lift, which matters if anyone has limited mobility.

The diving that made Sharm famous

Sharm built its reputation on two dive areas on opposite sides of the town, and they are not the same experience. Ras Mohammed is a headland and a wall. Tiran is four reefs standing in a current.

Ras Mohammed National Park

Ras Mohammed became Egypt's first national park in 1983 and covers the tip of the peninsula and the water around it. The signature dive is Shark and Yolanda Reef, where two coral pinnacles rise from deep water near the meeting of the two gulfs. Anemone City lies beside it, and Jackfish Alley sits round on the Gulf of Suez side of the peninsula. The Yolanda ran aground here in 1980 and scattered her cargo of bathroom fittings across the reef. The hull later slid into deep water, but the cargo field is still the dive. In the warmest months the walls draw schools of barracuda and batfish. Currents can be serious, and the point is not a beginner site on every day.

The Straits of Tiran

North of Sharm the Gulf of Aqaba narrows between Sinai and Tiran island. Four reefs stand in the channel: Jackson, Woodhouse, Thomas and Gordon, said to be named after nineteenth century British surveyors. Water is forced between them, so most Tiran diving is drift diving along a moving wall of soft coral. Jackson is the most exposed. Thomas has a famous canyon. On Gordon Reef the Loullia, aground since 1981 and still visible above the surface, marks the strait, though the hull is progressively collapsing.

Wrecks and house reefs

The SS Thistlegorm is a British supply ship sunk in 1941 in the Strait of Gubal. Reaching her from Sharm is a long day with an early start. Her holds carry motorbikes, trucks and rifles, and she is widely described as one of the most dived wrecks in the world. Closer in, Near Garden, Middle Garden and Far Garden off Naama Bay, plus Temple and Ras Um Sid, carry the check dives and the courses. Diving has its own risks, so read our notes on travel insurance and medical cover for Egypt.

Snorkelling from the shore and by boat

You do not need a certificate to see the best of this coast. The reef top sits in shallow bright water, and the drop-off is often a short swim out.

Shore snorkelling here means walking along a wooden jetty and entering at the edge of the reef flat. Those jetties exist because the reef top is alive and shallow, and standing on it kills it. Ras Um Sid below Hadaba, the house reef at Sharks Bay, Near Garden from the Naama Bay hotel jetties and Temple at Sharm el Maya are the classic entries. Most jetty entries sit inside hotel beaches and carry a day-use arrangement, which we set up in advance.

Bring or rent fins. Current on this coast ranges from nothing to strong and it can run away from shore, so check conditions with the beach dive centre before you swim, and never snorkel alone off a jetty.

A boat day changes the scale rather than the quality. Boats to Ras Mohammed leave from the Sharm el Maya marina, and Tiran boats from the jetties further north at Naama Bay and Sharks Bay, closer to the strait. Our page on what to pack for Egypt covers the reef-safe basics worth bringing.

Ras Mohammed overland, not by boat

Most visitors see Ras Mohammed only from a dive boat and miss the land half of the park. The park gate is about half an hour from central Sharm on the desert road south, and longer from Nabq. There is more driving on the tracks inside.

Inside the park a track passes the Shark Observatory, a limestone cliff standing over the drop-off. There is a mangrove channel, a salt lake, and a viewpoint over the meeting of the two gulfs. At Yolanda Bay you walk in and snorkel over the reef with no boat and far fewer people.

Bring your passport, because the road south passes a checkpoint. Park access arrangements change, so we confirm them when we fix your date.

Mount Sinai and Saint Catherine's Monastery

The best excursion from Sharm has nothing to do with the sea. Mount Sinai stands inland in the high granite interior, and the climb is made at night so you reach the summit before first light.

The trip leaves Sharm in the middle of the night. From the trailhead beside Saint Catherine's Monastery there are two routes. The camel path is a steady walk that ends in a flight of steep steps. The Steps of Repentance are several thousand rough stone steps cut by monks. Almost everyone walks up the camel path. The summit stands at about 2,285 metres and carries a small chapel and a mosque. It is cold up there in every season, so a warm layer, gloves and a torch are not optional.

Reasonably fit walkers manage it, but it is a three hour ascent at altitude in the cold and the dark. It is not suitable for anyone with a heart or breathing condition or poor night vision. Climbers go with a local Bedouin guide, which we arrange.

After sunrise you descend to Saint Catherine's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox community inhabited without interruption since the sixth century. It holds an extraordinary library and the bush identified by tradition as the Burning Bush. Its opening days and access arrangements have changed at short notice in the past, so we confirm them against your dates before we commit the overnight. Our account of the night climb of Mount Sinai for sunrise explains who should attempt it.

The desert behind the coast

Sinai's interior is mountain desert, not dune desert, and it begins immediately behind the hotels. The short version is an afternoon on a quad bike across the flats inland of Nabq. It ends at a Bedouin camp for tea, dinner and a sky with no light pollution. The Nabq Protected Area to the north is quieter and stranger. Mangroves line the shoreline, desert runs down to the water, and the hull of a cargo ship sits where it grounded on the beach.

Deeper trips go towards Saint Catherine and the high valleys around it, where Bedouin guides lead walks between walled gardens and rock pools. The Coloured Canyon lies far north near Nuweiba and makes a very long day from Sharm. It suits travellers based in Dahab, and we will say so rather than sell you a bus.

Sharm, Dahab or Hurghada

Sharm el Sheikh, Dahab and Hurghada are the three Red Sea bases most travellers weigh against each other. Dahab is an hour and a half up the same gulf. Hurghada sits on the mainland side, opposite Sinai.

Choose Sharm for strong diving with comfort around it, Dahab for the same coast without the resort machinery, and Hurghada if the Nile Valley matters more. One clarification belongs with the Dahab row. The Blue Hole is a normal recreational dive on the saddle route and a good snorkel from the shore. The Arch, at around 55 metres, is a technical dive that has killed a large number of divers, and it is not part of a recreational trip. Our page on day trips from Hurghada sets out the mainland alternative.

When to go, and what the water feels like

Sharm has usable weather all year, but the seasons feel completely different. Water temperature decides what you wear in it.

Autumn, from late September to November, is the best all-round window. The air has come off its summer peak. The sea holds its warmth, generally 26 to 28 degrees, and visibility is usually excellent.

Spring, March to May, is close behind. Land temperatures are pleasant and the water climbs from the low twenties to the middle twenties. It is also the windiest season. The khamaseen, a hot dusty wind out of the desert to the south, belongs to these months. The steady northerly down the gulf builds through the day, so a rough afternoon can cancel a boat.

Summer, June to early September, is very hot on land and the sea is at its warmest, around 28 to 29 degrees. That is when the big schooling fish gather at Ras Mohammed.

Winter, December to February, brings mild sunny days, cool evenings and the coolest water of the year, usually 21 to 23 degrees, so a thicker wetsuit matters. It is also when the Mount Sinai summit is harshest, with frost before dawn and snow at Saint Catherine.

Crowding follows European holidays and the Egyptian summer break rather than the weather. For the country-level view, see our guide to the best time of year to visit Egypt.

Combining Sharm with the Nile, on domestic flights

Sinai is a long way round by road from the Nile Valley, so in practice the link is a domestic flight. The Cairo road exists, through the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel under the Suez Canal, but at six to seven hours it takes a day out of each end of the trip. Sharm el Sheikh International Airport connects with Cairo, and Cairo connects onward to Luxor and Aswan. Direct services between Sharm and Luxor have come and gone, so we check what is flying against your dates. We arrange the Egyptian domestic legs, so Sinai and the Nile Valley join up once you are in the country.

• Cairo first, Sharm last. Pyramids and the museum at the start, the Nile in the middle, Sinai at the end so the trip finishes with rest.
• Nile cruise in the middle. Fly Cairo to Luxor or Aswan, sail between them, fly back through Cairo to Sharm. Our notes on the Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan explain how the sailing directions differ.
• Diving-led trip. Base the stay in Sharm, add two nights in Cairo for Giza and Saqqara, and keep the rest for the reef.
• Families with young children. Fewer moves. Cairo and Sharm only, a lagoon hotel in Nabq, and the overland Ras Mohammed day instead of a boat.
• Leave a clear day before flying. After your last dive, allow a full day on the surface before any flight. We build that gap into the itinerary.

We run these trips ourselves from Cairo. Tell us how long you have and we will draft a tailor-made Egypt itinerary.

Common questions about Sharm el Sheikh