Sinai holiday travel informationBuy air tickets to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and you'll enjoy a spectacular holiday destination best suited to tourists who enjoy adventure travel. It's easy to find cheap tickets into the Sinai, whether you be looking for discount air tickets or a bus journey across Egypt to travel to one of the peninsula's many holiday resorts. |
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Sinai tourist information
If you're planning travel through Egypt and want to visit the Sinai Peninsula, take a backpack and expect your holiday travel to be an adventure rather than a vacation. Tiny settlements can be found along the Sinai coastlines offering fairly cheap beach huts or similar travel accommodation. For example, you can set up a tent at Nuweiba for less than US$5 per night. As a general information guide, primary activities for tourists in the Sinai are diving, swimming, camel trips, windsurfing and sunbaking (or sunburning). In fact, there's not much else to do in this part of Egypt. It's possible to find a cheap hotel reservation in Sharm el-Sheikh for about US$20 per night, although most accommodation is above US$30 per night. Most tourists travel to the Sinai by land for their holiday but Egypt air services are available. Much of northern Sinai is a huge desert sand plain running away from the Mediterranean and slowly rising into steep granite hills. The northern capital of El-Arish (345km east of Cairo) has a long Mediterranean coastline with palm-shaded beaches and ideal conditions for wind surfers. Olive plantations are everywhere. The southern half of the Sinai Peninsula has its own arid charm and boasts various sulphuric springs, shrines, fortresses, jagged mountains and popular diving spots including Sharm El-Maya, Ras Mohammed, Ras Om-El Sayed, Mersa ElAyat, Dahab and Nuweiba. Diving is prohibited from sunset to sunrise and tourists must observe various environmentally-friendly regulations. Sinai travel information The Sinai is mostly hot and dry throughout the year. As is the case in many parts of Egypt, temperatures can vary by as much as 30 degrees Celsius between night and day, and it can be dangerously hot to travel in desert areas at the wrong time of year. The Sinai climate varies from very hot in summer to warm in winter, when it can be advisable to travel with at least a jumper or wind jacket for the chilly nights and winds. Daytime in winter is usually warm enough to go for a swim. A hat or head cloth might be advisable to avoid heat stroke during the hot months.
It hardly ever rains in the Sinai. The best time to buy plane tickets is between March and May when there is some vegetation and water in the oases. Sensible dress for travel on any day of the year is a T shirt and shorts. Mt Catherine is the highest peak in Egypt at 2,637 metres and nearby Mt Sinai is believed to be where the Old Testament says Moses received the Ten Commandments. It's well worth travelling east from Cairo across the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula, where you can find a Red Sea coastal holiday retreat such as Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheik and divers can enjoy an underwater world of technicolor corals. Visit the harsh Sinai inland and you'll meet the nomadic bedouins who still wander the deserts with their camel trains. Tourists can even climb the mountain where Moses is believed to have received the Commandments from God. Sinai holiday information The Sinai has seen many famous figures dot its history including Moses, Alexander the Great, Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. The Sinai has also been a battleground for various wars, including clashes between Egypt and Israel from 1948 till the peace agreements of 1979. The Sinai slopes up to the peaks of Mt Sinai and Mt Katherine which, at 2,642 metres, is the highest point in all of Egypt. Within a total Sinai population around 500,000, about 80,000 bedouins live on the peninsula, along with about 40,000 army staff and plenty of people employed in the tourism industry. Tourists usually outnumber locals. Since the overthrow of the Mubarak government in early 2011, Egyptian state control of the Sinai has faltered with an increase in lawlessness. In August 2011, militants crossed the Sinai from Gaza and launched assaults against several targets including a civilian bus near the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, killing eight people. It is worth monitoring the political situation and media reports to determine whether travel in the Sinai has become more risky. Most people on the Sinai coasts speak English, French or German but inland bedouins are more likely to only speak Arabic. Before you buy your plane tickets and begin your travel to the Sinai, be mindful that it's mostly an arid and inhospitable peninsula, albeit beautiful, and you shouldn't expect all the mod cons of life. For example, take a dozen or so rolls of film because they cost a lot more in the Sinai and the extreme heat means the quality of the film might be questionable if it's been stored too long. It's also wise to take and wear a pair of sunglasses or glasses as the dust in the Sinai can be terrible and you need to protect your eyes. Major cities, towns and sites worth visiting during your holiday travel in the Sinai include:
Ras Mohammed Dahab Nuweiba Taba Rafah Sheikh Zoueid Rommana El-Tor Ras Sudr St Catherine Sudr fortress built in 1187AD Nuweiba fortress built by the Turks in the 18th century El-Tor fortress built in 1520AD El-Arish Fortress Nakhl Fortress built in 1516AD Hammam Pharaohs - hot sulphuric spring used to cure rheumatic and skin ailments Djebel "Hammam Moussa" - seven hot sulphuric springs north of El-Tor Wadi Ferran - historic religious centre known for its vegetable and fruit crops The Temple of Serabit El-Khadem built by the pharaohs north-west of Ferran The shrine of Prophet Haron near E1-Safsafa Mountain The shrine of Prophet Saleh 10km from St Catherine Ras Mohammed nature reserve in southern Sinai Felluca cruise on the Nile River To book cheap Sinai air tickets, hotels, holiday packages, etc. for cities around the world, visit our Travel Shop. |
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