Beach and Beduin culture on the Sinai Peninsula

We arrived at the border in Taba from Israel early in the morning. crossing the Israeli side was pretty fast (30 minutes ) we changed some money there and continued to the Egyptian side of the border, which is a completely different story. it took us 2 hours to cross it and there was no air conditioner. after you go out of the border crossing, you are n Sinai, Beduin and dessert land. there were many taxi drivers all around us trying to convince us to go with them. it is highly recommended to book a place in advance and ask them to arrange transportation for you so you don't need to bargain with the drivers. oh yeh, get ready, in Sinai you need to bargain for everything.

Our trip begins in Dahab, a touristic coastal town, about 2 hours drive from Taba border crossing. Dahab is very touristic and is full of restaurants, bars and hotels.

We arrived at about 2pm and had lunch in a restaurant near our hotel.

We found a big range of international dishes but I recommend the Beduin food and also fresh seafood.

We settled down at our nice and clean hotel Nesima resort-Dahab and spent the rest of the day on the beach until sunset. we had dinner at our hotel's restaurant and hung out at the hotel's bar with fellow travelers.

The next day we explored the different hotels and restaurants on the beach, went snorkeling at the amazing corral reef (you can just reach it from the beach). we made sure to eat each meal at a different restaurant.

The nightlife is very lively, you can find plenty of Europeans but mostly Israelis and Egyptians from Cairo.

On the 3rd day, after a late breakfast at our hotel, we went to the Blue hole, a world-famous diving site. our hotel arranged us for transportation to get there (about 20 min drive) the blue hole is a 130m deep hole in a coral reef near the beach it is an amazing natural site. even though you can go diving we decided to just snorkel this time. we could see plenty of colorful fishes and corals of all shapes and sizes. I can imagine, that diving must be incredible. we arrived back to Dahab and had lunch, we spent the rest of the day in the restaurant by the beach casually ordering treats and dipping in the red sea.

The 4th day was another chill out day by the beach (it is so hot, so it's best to stay in the shade and close to the water. we ordered Nargilas (waterpipes) with fruit-flavored tobacco, played backgammon and made friends with the other restaurant guests who whereas lazy as us.

On the 5th day, we got a taxi to Ras el satan, a much smaller beach village further south along the coast. no tall building or fancy hotels there, mostly wood, palm leafs and bamboo structures. we stayed at a hotel called Bedouin star, at the northern part of the beach. we stayed at a "husha" a very basic palm structure near the sea line. it's basically a hut with mattresses on the floor and a small balcony with pillows on the floor. the hotel had a swimming pool and restaurant service. we spent the afternoon walking along the beach. we bought an inflatable sea matres and spent some time sun tanning and swimming.

Day 6- we went on a snorkeling expedition. we took our sea mat and snorkeling gear and went along the coastline, exploring the amazing coral reef that extends there until we've reached the southern part of the beach where the reef was the biggest and most colorful. we had lunch at a restaurant near the big reef. and headed back after the sun went down. after dinner, there were some Egyptian tourists playing music at the restaurant of our hotel and we stayed to listen.

Day-7 the riddim in the dessert is very different then what I'm used to. everything is slower and you don't feel like moving much if it is not necessary. we had a delicious shakshouka for a late breakfast and slowly made our way towards the water. as the sun climbed higher in the sky, we went in the shade. the restaurant has a section jus y the beach, where you can lay on pillows in the shade and order food and drinks from there.

After the sun went down we showered and headed to the main restaurant space and had a lovely dinner with some new friends we've made early on that day. we had a late-night celebration.

Day 8- after a late breakfast we've packed and left back to Israel. the hotel arranged for us for transportation. crossing the border was a bit faster going out.