IN THE SHARP-TOOTHED OASIS

Sharm al-Sheikh is a beautiful resort city on the Red Sea coast famous for its beautiful nature and year-round tourist season. It became a very popular destination for Azerbaijani tourists in 2023 as all leading travel agencies of the country began selling ready-made tour packages to Egypt. Two airlines—AZAL and Air Cairo—operate one charter flight a week to Sharm al-Sheikh. The proposed tour packages, including flight, hotel, full meals, insurance and transfers, are so tempting that almost all flights are filled completely. But first things first. 

To the sacred mountain

The most famous Egyptian resort Sharm al-Sheikh is located on the Sinai Peninsula. Tour guides often confuse tourists during excursions with the following favourite question: "Where are Sharm al-Sheikh and Egypt located—in Africa or Asia?". The thing is that Egypt is located in the northern part of Africa. But the Sinai Peninsula (which hosts Sharm al-Sheikh) is regarded as part of West Asia. Thus, Egypt is located in both North Africa and West Asia.

The most famous Egyptian resort Sharm al-Sheikh is located on the Sinai Peninsula. Tour guides often confuse tourists during excursions with the following favourite question: "Where are Sharm al-Sheikh and Egypt located—in Africa or Asia?". The thing is that Egypt is located in the northern part of Africa. But the Sinai Peninsula (which hosts Sharm al-Sheikh) is regarded as part of West Asia. Thus, Egypt is located in both North Africa and West Asia.

Legend has it that the Sinai Mountains are named after their shape resembling sharp teeth, or "sīn" in Arabic. In Hebrew, Sinai means a "mountain with many peaks". Mount Sinai is mentioned in the sacred books of Christians, Muslims and Jews. According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is the place where the prophet Moses (Musa) received the Ten Commandments to be followed by all peoples on earth. In the Muslim tradition, Mount Sinai is mentioned as a sacred mountain. Therefore, a mosque was built on its summit in the 9th century CE. As the locals believe, if one climbs the Sinai at dawn and offers a prayer with the first rays of the sun, the Almighty will remit all his sins, making him a renewed man. That is why one of the most popular tours among the holidaymakers in Sharm al-Sheikh is the night climbing to the highest mountain of the Sinai Peninsula.

Cousteau's underwater world

In general, the best months for holidays in Sharm al-Sheikh are September-November and February-May. At this time, the water temperature is comfortable for swimming, and the weather is good for tours (average 25-35 degrees Celsius). Even in winter, the air temperature at night does not fall below 16 degrees Celsius, while during the day it is usually 20-21 degrees. The sea in winter is comfortable mainly for Europeans, while Azerbaijanis will call the water rather cold.

In recent years, Egypt has been increasingly associated not with the pyramids, but with the underwater world of the Red Sea, teeming with fish, corals and divers. After all, there are about 1,200 varieties of fish and 250 forms of corals. Diving is the ultimate entertainment. The largest number of diving instructors per capita worldwide is now in Hurghada. There are more than forty places for diving, about a hundred diving centres. In Sharm al-Sheikh dive centres are three times less, although the service rates are slightly higher. But the plus is the proximity of coral reefs - they are even in a number of coastal hotels. It is not necessary to go out to sea on a yacht, boat or catamaran, as coral thickets are reachable almost at the shore. But sophisticated divers from Sharm al-Sheikh still go to Dahab (100 km) and Blue Hole, an underwater vertical cave. It is considered the most dangerous for divers, but also one of the most mysterious and beautiful among the reefs of the Red Sea.

And for those holidaymakers who prefer non-professional diving, it is enough to buy an underwater mask sold everywhere from $10 a piece. On many beaches of five-star hotels there are places with coral reefs and fish. You can also take a sightseeing tour to Dahab and Blue Hole ($30-35) or visit the Ras Muhammed National Reserve, where Jean-Jacques Cousteau shot his films about the underwater world of the Red Sea.

Please note that some types of coral release poison that causes burns and blisters, so it is advised not to touch them and especially not to try to tear them off the reef. An attempt to take coral out of Egypt can cost you $2,000 in fine. If coral is taken as a souvenir, it is allowed, but you will need a receipt with a stamp and certificate from the shop.

By the way, at night tourists in Sharm el Sheikh are not allowed to swim in the sea because of predatory fish hunting at that time of the day close to the shoreline. These are not necessarily sharks - in the darkness there is a risk of injury from the spines or poisonous fins of other fish, while there will be no lifeguards around.

Also, it is forbidden to drink the tap water in Sharm al-Sheikh because it is just poorly desalinated sea water. Water from the tap is not recommended for rinsing eyes, brushing teeth or washing fruit, as there is a high risk of infection. The best solution is to buy bottled drinking water. Many hotels offer bottled water for free.

Quality with a big disadvantage

There are many hotels, beaches and recreation centres along the coast of Sharm al-Sheikh. According to Internet, the resort has more than 200 hotels of different classes and price categories - about 70 five-star, 60 four-star and slightly less three-star hotels. The resort is actually divided into several main districts. The most popular among tourists is Naama Bay considered the Egyptian Las Vegas, where life is boiling round the clock. There are casinos, shops, restaurants, the best and longest pedestrian promenade, individual diving centre. And most of the hotel beaches are sandy. The weak point of Naama is its hotels built in the 1980s-1990s but not renovated ever since.

The new tourist area of the city is Nabq Bay with high-class hotels with long pontoons and a wide coral reef. The air temperature is somewhat lower than in other places due to frequent winds.

The Hadaba district is usually chosen by those who like to live in the city centre. Here you will find the famous Old Town with its shops, the shopping street Il Mercato, the most popular mosque El Sahaba, and the famous bar and restaurant Farsha. Hadaba is located on an elevated spot on a rocky coastline.

Sharks Bay and Coral Bay are full of new and old hotels, reefs and dive centres, while the Montaza area close to the airport has a good mix of coral reef and sandy beaches. However, there is no centralised infrastructure and entertainment outside the hotels, so you will have to go somewhere else.

As for the prices for holiday packages from Azerbaijan to Sharm al-Sheikh, they are quite acceptable, given the inflated costs in the tourist world right after the pandemic. Thus, an average package per person including the flight, the all-inclusive hotel accommodation, insurance and airport transfer during the tourist season costs $550-700. Tour companies also offer five-star tours for $650, which is quite cheap in comparison with the majority of offers in the tourist market. Plus, off-season tours to Egypt are significantly cheaper. In September-early October, tour packages for a holiday in five-star hotels (full board) fall to $350, and in three-star hotels even down to $155. Those who could leave Azerbaijan for Sharm al-Sheikh at the end of the tourist season could enjoy these offers thanks to their cheapness.

However, there is one big and serious problem to note about the hotels in Sharm el Sheikh. Those of you who have visited Dubai know that most of the hotels there offer services a class or two above their rating. For example, three-star hotels in Dubai are actually four-star hotels, while four-star hotels offer services usually offered by five-star hotels. That is, they provide more quality services for a lower price. But in Sharm al-Sheikh everything is exactly the opposite. On their websites, you can see beautiful three-star hotels which look much better than what they actually are. Therefore, do not rush to take the proposed tour package just judging by the pictures. You can be very disappointed if you fail to carefully study the reviews of the hotel and buy a tour on the spot...

Often most of the cheap tour packages include hotels with old infrastructure that have not been renovated. For example, in Sharm al-Sheikh there are quite a lot of similar hotels built in the 1980s. This goes in contrast with the heavily edited pictures of hotels on their websites. You will be disappointed with dilapidated furniture, plumbing, poor sanitary services, mosquitoes and other unpleasant insects, poor food, rude and rather intrusive staff. The list can go on, and all these drawbacks you can easily find in the reviews published in social networks. Keep also in mind that not all reviews on popular hotel booking sites are reliable. There are many fake reviews fully praising the hotels and giving them the highest available scores. In addition, many hotel employees require their guests to leave positive feedback in return for additional services. Therefore, read reviews more carefully and listen to some recommendations of travel agencies in Baku when buying tours. They know many details, but do not always talk about them in order to increase sales.

Also, there are a lot of tourists from Armenia in Sharm al-Sheikh. Daily flights during the tourist season and inexpensive tours do their job, and Armenian vernacular can be heard in most average hotels, shops and restaurants here.

Visa, sightseeing and gifts

In Sharm al-Sheikh you will have many opportunities to visit the sights of Egypt and neighbouring countries. But it is necessary to decide at the airport whether to buy a visa to Egypt for $25 or not. If you plan to stay in Sharm al-Sheikh for up to 14 days, you do not need a visa at all. In this case, you need to fill out a migration card on the plane or at the airport counters and to get your so-called Sinai stamp at the passport control desk. With this stamp you can stay within the Sinai Peninsula without a visa. Thus, in addition to Sharm al-Sheikh, you can visit Taba, Noorweib, Dahab, Ras Mohammed Reserve, the mountain of Moses, Bethlehem and St Catherine's Monastery. If you plan to go beyond Sinai, that is, to Cairo, Israel, Jordan, then with a completed application form and passport at the airport's visa counter you need to pay $25.

In general, there is a large number of excursions tour bureaus for all tastes and ages in Sharm al-Sheikh. You don't need a tour to visit such sights of the resort as the Old Town with its shops and the main Sahaba Mosque, Soho and Naama Bay squares, the new Coptic church Heavenly Cathedral, the so-called presidential mosque – you can visit them by taxi for as less as $5 per ride. You can also visit the Sharm al-Sheikh Museum inaugurated by the Egyptian president in 2020. It has some 5,200 original artefacts revealing various aspects of Egyptian civilisation. It is not to be confused with the Tutankhamun Museum located in the basement of the Genena City shopping centre, where only replicas of the artefacts are on display.

Nature lovers should definitely take a tour to protected natural areas. The most interesting among them is the Ras Mohammed Reserve 25 kilometres from the city with five ecosystems: marine, lagoon, desert, coastal and coral. It is a marvellous spot for diving, with the richest marine life, most diverse in the whole country. Here you can take a leisurely stroll along the seashore, enjoy rare fish, see coral reefs and mangroves. The reserve covers an area of over 260,000 hectares and is included in a number of tour packages for $15-35.

As mentioned above, one of the main tourist destinations in the vicinity of Sharm al-Sheikh is the Sinai Desert. It hosts the Mount Moses, St Catherine's Monastery with its sixth-century temple not far from the city of Dahab, etc. This is where the pilgrims ascend Mount Sinai early in the morning to observe the sunrise. Tours with breakfast or lunch included cost $30-35. Safaris to the Blue Lagoon or Colour Canyon will also cost $30-35. Tours with diving (depending on the place and method of travel) will cost $15-50. Families with children will be interested in a glass-bottom boat ($10) or a submarine ($20-25). These boat trips will show from inside the rich underwater world of the Red Sea. In general, there are a lot of inexpensive tours for water activities, and everyone will find something interesting.

Certainly one of the most popular tours from Sharm al-Sheikh is a trip to Cairo. Bus tour ($45-55) will span 24-26 hours and involves a visit to the pyramids at Giza, the Sphinx statue, the National Museum of Egypt, a walk along the Nile, as well as visits to the papyrus factory and souvenir shops. There are also two-day tours ($170-180) to Cairo and Alexandria. By plane, you can get to the ancient city of Luxor ($220-250).

In Sharm al-Sheikh, you have a unique opportunity to visit Jerusalem and the Dead Sea by bus ($125), as well as the famous Petra site in Jordan ($215). These tours require special visas, so decisions must be made immediately upon arrival, without delay.

Be sure to bargain at tourist bureaus - the first quotations will always be overpriced.

As for shopping in Sharm al-Sheikh, there are many of them where you can buy anything from ordinary souvenirs to natural healing oils (black cumin, jojoba, argan, arugula seeds, and so on). In specialised branded shops selling oils, the prices offered will be 10 times (!) higher than those you can find in pharmacies and ordinary shops. By the way, you can enjoy very delicious mango ($1-1,5/kg) fruits, natural mango juice, and many varieties of sweets with dates in Sharm al-Sheikh. But the most appropriate spot for shopping and souvenirs is the Mango chain of shops. Welcome to the Sinai Peninsula!