What is the water temperature in the Red Sea?

22-24°C in January-February (a 5mm wetsuit is comfortable), rising to 26-28°C in June-October (a 3mm shorty or swimsuit is sufficient). The water is comfortably warm for swimming year-round.

Is Sharm el-Sheikh safe in 2026?

South Sinai, including Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, and Nuweiba, is in a different governorate from the North Sinai region which has FCO/State Dept advisories. Sharm is generally considered safe for tourists. Check current FCO/State Dept guidance before travel — a tourist attack in 2015 remains in the advisory language.

How much does learning to dive in the Red Sea cost?

PADI Open Water course: USD 250-320 (4-5 days). This is significantly cheaper than equivalent courses in the UK, Australia, or the Caribbean. Several Dahab dive centres have excellent reputations for entry-level instruction.

Can non-divers enjoy Sharm el-Sheikh or Dahab?

Yes — both have beach facilities, snorkelling tours, glass-bottom boat trips, quad biking in the Sinai desert, and the Red Sea snorkelling from the shore at Dahab and the National Park is some of the best accessible snorkelling in the world.

Egypt's Red Sea and Sinai — The Coral Reefs the Mediterranean Cannot Match

The Red Sea has 30m+ visibility, 22-28°C year-round, coral that survived the Indo-Pacific bleaching events relatively intact, and Napoleon wrasse the size of Labradors. And it's a 4-hour direct flight from London.

The Red Sea is the world's most accessible serious dive destination — this is not a marketing claim, it is a factual summary of the combination of factors that make it exceptional: direct flights from most European cities to Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada (3-5 hours), water at 22-28°C year-round, visibility regularly 25-30 metres, a coral reef system that largely survived the 2015-2016 Indo-Pacific bleaching events, and price points for dive courses, accommodation, and food that remain a fraction of equivalent sites in the Maldives or Palau.

Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm is the most developed Red Sea resort town — a purpose-built tourism city with direct flights from across Europe and a well-organised dive industry. The best dive sites in the Sharm area: Ras Mohammed National Park (the coral wall at Shark and Jolanda Reef is the reference Red Sea dive — hundreds of anthias, Napoleon wrasse, the occasional hammerhead); SS Thistlegorm (65m long WWII transport ship, sunk 1941, the hold contains Army vehicles, motorcycles, railway locomotive, and ammunition crates — one of the world's great wreck dives; requires a boat from Sharm, 2 hours each way); The Alternatives (the Dunraven wreck, Gordon Reef, and the miles of wall diving accessible from Sharm Na'ama Bay).

Dahab

Dahab (1.5 hours north of Sharm by bus) has an entirely different character — a small Bedouin fishing village that became a backpacker and diver destination, retaining its low-rise, cafe-lined seafront while Sharm was becoming a resort city. The dive sites are walk-in from the shore in many cases: The Canyon (a swim-through underwater gorge, 30m maximum depth, genuinely beautiful and accessible for Open Water divers); The Blue Hole (a 130m-deep sinkhole in the reef — snorkelling the rim is extraordinary and safe; the Arch at 52m is for advanced technical divers only, not beginners despite what some local operators suggest). Dahab is the better choice for a dive holiday with atmosphere over a package resort with infrastructure.

The Sinai Interior

Mount Sinai (Jebel Musa, 2,285m): The mountain where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments. The summit is reached by the Camel Path (2 hours from St Catherine's Monastery) or the Steps of Repentance (3,750 stone steps). Most visitors climb in the dark (departing midnight-1am) to reach the summit at dawn — the sunrise from the top, over the pink and ochre Sinai mountains, is extraordinary. The small chapel at the summit has a resident monk. Entry to the Sinai Protected Area: EGP 200. A guide is required for night ascents. St Catherine's Monastery at the base (565 CE) is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monasteries and contains one of the world's most significant early manuscript libraries.