Nuts and Bolts: Travel Tips for Visiting Dahab, Egypt
- Rand Blimes
- Jun 8
- 12 min read
Nuts and Bolts posts give you the practical information you need, but without stripping away the humor, mishaps, and little victories that make real travel what it is. These aren’t just guides. They’re how we actually did it—mistakes, triumphs, and all.
This page has some travel tips for visiting Dahab to aid in planning your own trip. I travel mainly with my wife, and we love to simply wander and eat when we explore a new place. However, we went to Dahab mostly to dive in the Red Sea. We were in Dahab in August, 2023. If your trip to Dahab is significantly longer/shorter/with a different focus, you may have a very different experience.
Backpacker towns are a strange and wonderful breed.
These are places—sometimes whole towns, sometimes just a few condensed blocks—built almost entirely around the needs of a certain kind of traveler: young, drifting, somewhere between dirt broke and modestly budgeted, looking not for luxury, but for vibe. Some of these towns become legends. Luang Prabang. Siem Reap. Hoi An. Huacachina. Others become cautionary tales. Khao San Road. Pai. Uluwatu.
But maybe labels like “great” and “awful”—aren’t fair. Maybe what I really mean is some I loved, and some I couldn’t wait to leave. It’s all deeply subjective. For every person like me who detests Khao San Road, there is another who can’t wait to go back.
It is really just personal taste, love it or hate it.
And Dahab? I loved Dahab.
It’s got the backpacker bones—cheap rooms, relaxed cafés, Wi-Fi strong enough for digital nomads and post-diving Netflix binges. There’s a long strip of beachside restaurants where you can get anything from slow-cooked lamb and molokhia to spaghetti and meatballs. The water is electric blue, with Saudi Arabia visible across the Gulf like a mirage. And best of all, the diving is spectacular—and often walk-in-from-the-shore easy.
It’s not a secret. But it still feels like one.
Dahab gets under your skin in the best kind of way.
But watch out for the army of poisonous lionfish chilling in the shallows once the sun goes down. Seriously. Those things are EVERYWHERE!
Travel Tips for Visiting Dahab: Weather and Condition
Dahab is basically a desert dropped beside the sea, which means you get two main seasons: hot, and hotter. But thanks to the Red Sea breezes and dry air, it never feels as brutally sticky as Cairo or Luxor. That said, timing still matters, especially if you want to dive, hike, or just avoid becoming part of the pavement.
High Season: March–May and October–November
These shoulder seasons are the goldilocks months—warm days, cool nights, and water temperatures that are still inviting. You can dive comfortably, hike in the desert, or sit on the beach without melting into the cushions. Unsurprisingly, this is when everyone else wants to visit too, so book ahead.
Summer: June–September
It gets hot. Like, oven-door-in-the-face hot. Daytime highs often climb into the 100s F (40s C). But if you can handle heat—or if you’re a diver who spends most of the day underwater anyway—summer has its perks. Prices drop. Crowds thin. And as long as your hotel has decent A/C and you avoid hiking at high noon, it’s doable.
We were there in summer, and honestly? It wasn’t bad. Mornings were great. Evenings were breezy. And the Red Sea has a funny way of forgiving a lot.
Winter: December–February
This is Dahab’s coolest stretch, but don’t expect snowmen. Daytime temps hover in the 60s–70s F (15–25 C), and nights can get chilly enough to justify a jacket. It’s still good diving weather (you’ll just want a thicker wetsuit), and it’s arguably the best time for land-based adventures—like hiking in the Sinai or stargazing in the desert.
Bonus Tip: Wind!
Dahab is famous for wind sports, and with good reason. Kite surfers and windsurfers flock here from spring through fall, especially to the north of town where the lagoon turns into a wind tunnel. It’s great if you're into it—but know that wind can kick up sand and make certain beaches less lounge-worthy, especially in the afternoons.
Bottom line? There’s no truly bad time to go to Dahab. Just pick your season based on your tolerance for heat, your plans for the water, and whether you enjoy sleeping with or without the hum of an air conditioner.
Getting to Dahab
Getting to Dahab takes a little effort. There’s no airport in town, no train station, and no teleportation device (yet). But once you’re there, it rewards the journey.
Flying In
Your closest airport is Sharm el-Sheikh International (SSH), about 85 kilometers (a little over 50 miles) south of Dahab. Most visitors fly into Sharm from Cairo or from abroad (many European charter flights go direct). From there, you’ve got a few options:
Private Transfer – Easiest, fastest, and of course, most expensive. Most hotels in Dahab can arrange a pickup for you. We booked ours through Welcome Pickups. It was about a 1.5-hour drive through the mountains, and honestly kind of beautiful in a desolate, Mad Max kind of way. There are also taxis waiting at the airport, but they will likely cost you at least as much as a private transfer arranged in advance.
Uber doesn’t work well on the Sinai (at least not when we were there in 2023). We have heard that there is a rideshare app called InDrive that maybe works. Maybe. InDrive is a bidding system, so you can ask for a ride at a given price, and drivers can counter.
Bus – In theory, Go Bus runs a service between Sharm and Dahab. You will need to get yourself into Sharm for the pickup point, but if you are willing to do so (or if you are going from Sharm, rather than from the airport), Go Bus is a cheaper option. There is a regular public bus that runs from Sharm to Dahab, but luggage space is limited so it isn’t great for foreign travelers.
Alternative: Fly into Cairo and Bus It
You can also fly into Cairo, spend a few days there (highly recommended), and then take a bus or private car across the Sinai. But be warned: the road to Dahab is long—8 to 10 hours, depending on stops and checkpoints. The East Delta or Go Bus are your main options. Buses are reasonably comfortable, but the route crosses multiple military checkpoints, so bring your passport, and prepare for the ride to take longer than you hoped.
Note also that this route can close down from time to time depending on the security situation.
Note on Checkpoints
Whether you’re coming by land or being driven up from Sharm, expect multiple security checkpoints along the way. Foreigners usually breeze through, but your driver will be asked to log your name and passport number. It’s routine. It’s slow. It’s Egypt.
Bottom line: Fly into Sharm if you can. Book a transfer. Get picked up. Sip warm water from your bottle while watching the barren, heat-blasted mountains roll past. And then, just like that, you arrive in this quiet little town on the edge of the Red Sea—where the stress of getting there suddenly feels very far away.
Getting Around Dahab
Let’s keep this one simple: you walk.
Dahab is small, flat, and built for strolling. The main drag runs along the water, and everything you could possibly want—cafés, dive shops, shawarma joints, ATMs, gear rental—is strung along it like beads on a thread. No taxis, no traffic lights, no Uber. Just flip-flops and a vague sense of direction.
Make sure your hotel is along the main drag, and walk everywhere. Our longest walks were maybe 15 minutes. Most were under five. You can walk the entire length of the town’s waterfront easily, assuming you’re not constantly stopping for mango juice or chatting with a shopkeeper’s cat.
When You Don’t Walk
The only times we got into a vehicle were for diving trips—and even then, only for the sites that required it. Most of Dahab’s famous dive spots are right offshore, but a few (like the Blue Hole or Canyon) require a short drive north. Your dive shop will handle the transport, usually in a dusty pickup or minivan that’s older than most of the gear inside.
They’ll also try to sell you on camel diving trips, where you ride a camel through the desert to reach more remote dive sites. Yes, this is a real thing. No, we didn’t do it. Camel is the most uncomfortable ride in the business in our experience.
Bottom line: don’t worry about transport. If your legs work, you’re golden. And if they don’t, your dive shop has a truck. Or a camel.
Sleeping in Dahab for the Budget Conscious Traveler
If you're coming to Dahab, you're probably coming to dive. And that means you’ve got a decision to make: stay at a dive “resort” and dive with them, or book your hotel and dive shop separately.
We went with the all-in-one approach and stayed at Club Red Dahab, which also handled all our dives. This was the right call for us. When you're doing multiple dives a day, there’s a lot of gear, a lot of logistics, and not a lot of energy left over. Staying where you dive just makes things simpler.
Club Red is located toward the southern end of the main strip, still within easy walking distance of everything—restaurants, shops, the water. The setup was basic but solid: rooms were clean, the A/C worked (critical), and the staff were kind and helpful without being pushy. The vibe was laid-back in a way that matched the town perfectly. We’d absolutely stay again.
That said, if you’re only doing a dive or two and want something a little fancier or quirkier, you can definitely mix and match. There are plenty of accommodation options along the water—from shoestring hostels to more upscale boutique hotels—and dive shops that are happy to work with outside guests. But if diving is your main reason for coming, it’s hard to beat the convenience of having your gear, your room, and your post-dive shower all within a few sandy steps of each other.
What to eat in Dahab
Dahab does what backpacker towns do best when it comes to food: a little bit of everything, mostly affordable, and rarely fussy. You’ll find pizza, Thai, falafel, pasta, Egyptian comfort food, seafood laid out on ice, and the occasional surprise—usually discovered by walking past it when you're already hungry.
We didn’t come with a must-eat list. Most days, we just strolled the main strip and followed our noses. Sometimes you want falafel. Sometimes you want spaghetti. Sometimes you want a stuffed duck so good you’ll still be thinking about it weeks later.
Here are a few places we tried—and really liked:
This was the standout. It’s slow-cooked, home-style Egyptian food, and it’s excellent. But here’s the catch: you have to order dinner in advance (by noon) via WhatsApp (+20 1096992699) or on their website. The guy that runs the place speaks excellent English so no communication issues. After ordering, show up hungry between 6–9 p.m. and prepare to leave full and happy.
We got the stuffed roasted duck, and it was honestly one of the best meals we had anywhere in Egypt. Rich, tender, and deeply satisfying. If you want something that feels both special and homemade, this is it.
Just down the street from Zanooba. Solid pizza, great crust, real cheese. Sometimes you just need a pizza that hits the spot—and this one does.
Quick, cheap, delicious falafel. Nothing fancy, just the kind of local spot that gets it right.
They serve Chinese food, and it's surprisingly decent for being tucked into a Red Sea dive town. If you’re craving stir-fried noodles or dumplings after one too many bowls of lentil soup, this place will fix it. A cat or two will almost certainly join you for any meal here.
Seafood Along the Strip
There are several seafood restaurants right on the main drag that display their catch on ice out front. Walk by, see what looks fresh, and pick your dinner. Prices and quality can vary, but the fish is usually grilled to order and served with rice, and bread. Ali Baba and Sharks are both popular.
A Few Other Places:
Red Cat – Eastern European comfort food with great borscht, dumplings, and hearty mains.
Hell’s Kitchen – Burgers, tacos, wraps, and other Western comfort food. Gets consistent reviews from travelers needing a familiar bite.
Yum Yum – Local-style Egyptian food at street-level prices. Basic, filling, and recommended by dive instructors and budget travelers.
Bottom Line: Dahab doesn’t have a trendy food scene—it does have a satisfying one. Whether you're after shawarma, shakshuka, or shrimp, you’ll find something tasty without having to walk far or wait long.
And if all else fails? Just keep going back to Zanooba.
What To Do in Dahab
Like most backpacker towns, Dahab offers a buffet of things to do, most of which involve sand, saltwater, or sitting on cushions under colored lights. You can book an ATV trip into the desert. You can ride camels. You can eat dinner with “the Bedouins” under a sky full of stars (quotes intentional—some experiences are more authentic than others).
But all of that is just background noise to the main event: diving.
Diving in Dahab
Dahab is one of the best shore-diving destinations in the world. No boats. No drama. Just gear up, walk into the water, and descend into the blue. The reef system here is vibrant and shockingly accessible, and the dive community is chill, welcoming, and relatively unpretentious.
There are dive shops everywhere—some attached to hotels, some independent, most more than happy to take you out whether you're a first-timer or a seasoned diver working through your logbook. Many instructors here are expats who came to Dahab on vacation and just never left. Once you dive the sites, you’ll understand why.
Here are some of the main dive sites:
Blue Hole
Probably the most famous dive in Dahab—and one of the most misunderstood. The Blue Hole is a vertical sinkhole, not far from shore, that drops down over 100 meters. It has a bit of a reputation due to past diving accidents (mostly related to deep diving beyond recreational limits), but the standard dive route is perfectly safe when done with a qualified guide. You enter at the “Bells” (a narrow chimney) and drift along a coral wall before entering the Blue Hole itself for a slow, circular ascent. It is a dramatic, beautiful dive, but it feels like any other dive on a nice reef—you can’t necessarily tell you are in a “hole.”
Canyon
Another classic, just north of the Blue Hole. This dive takes you through a long, narrow crack in the reef that forms an underwater canyon. You swim through it surrounded by towering coral walls on both sides. There’s something cinematic about it—like being inside a collapsed cathedral made of rock and sea.
Lighthouse Reef
Right in the middle of town and often used for training and check dives, Lighthouse is more than just a beginner site. It’s got sandy entry, easy access, and a mix of coral gardens, drop-offs, and marine life that rewards a slow, careful dive. Great place to spot octopus, rays, and the occasional turtle.
Eel Garden
Named for the field of garden eels swaying like underwater wheat in the current. This site is calmer and shallower, and especially beautiful in the morning when the light slants just right. There’s a mix of reef life and sand patches, and it’s the kind of place you can just drift and daydream.
The Islands
A more complex dive site with coral labyrinths—think twisting swim-throughs and coral corridors. A good dive master will guide you through like it’s a living maze. This is one of those spots where good buoyancy really pays off, as you thread through tight passages surrounded by vivid coral.
Night Dive
Like anywhere, the diving gets even better at night, and a night dive in Dahab is highly recommended.
But be warned: just before we staggered from the shore into the shallows to start our dive, our guide told us to make sure to use our light to spot the lionfish that would be lurking on the sandy bottom. Lionfish are covered in poisonous spines. Stepping on one—not recommended.
I turned my light onto the water in front of me . . . and they were everywhere. More lionfish than I have ever seen in one place before. Just hanging out on the bottom in a few feet of water, waiting for someone to step on them. It would have been difficult to make one’s way through the lionfish gauntlet without heavy diving tanks strapped to our backs. With the tanks . . . well . . . we made it, but not gracefully.
Still, the diving was great.
Diving is what anchors Dahab—everything else kind of spins around it. But if you're not diving (or just need a day off to dry out), you can:
Snorkel many of the same sites. My wife snorkeled Blue Hole and Canyon while my daughter and I were scuba diving. She head a great experience.
Hike or jeep through the Sinai desert. Check with your hotel, or sites like Get Your Guide for the available trips. Sunrise trips to Mt. Sinai (which start about 2-3 AM) and often include a trip to St. Catherine’s Monastery. We thought about doing this, but between the blistering hot weather and our packed diving schedule, we opted out.
Book a sunset dinner in the mountains, with food cooked over open fires and goats eyeing you suspiciously from behind the rocks.
Sit. Read. Swim. Repeat. Dahab is a rare place where doing very little somehow still feels like doing it right.
Dahab is one of those backpacker towns that just works—not because it’s polished or perfect, but because it doesn’t try too hard. You walk, you dive, you eat something slow-cooked and stuffed with herbs, and you watch the sky shift colors over Saudi Arabia in the distance. It’s the kind of place where time stretches out, where doing less starts to feel like doing it right. But be warned: serenity does not equal safety. There are lionfish out there, perfectly camouflaged, fully loaded, and hiding in the dark. But that is just part of the surprising adventure here in Dahab. That’s how you find the places that stay with you—not because of something you planned, but because travel.
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