Sharm El Sheikh General Tips by FletteMette

Favorite Thing: The camels of Egypt are actually (almost) all dromedaries (one hump) - when you do a trip into the Sinai desert you'll get to see *loads* of these cool animals... :o) You'll see some camels walking about on their own in the desert, there are many in bedouin settlements along the road - and if you visit Mount Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery or any other places where tourists gather, there will be plenty of camels all saddled up and ready to go - the bedouins hanging around the area will more or less constantly be offering you camel rides.. :o)

I'm quite fascinated by camels - you've just *got* to love their looong, thick, curly eye-lashes (which help keeping desert sand and dust out of the camel's eyes) and the huge, sharp funny-looking teeth (which along with the sturdy lining of its mouth enables the camel to eat thorny desert bushes). The camels are chewing more or less constantly, slowly moving its jaw from side to side, the big yellow teeth protruding - occasionally you'll hear a loud gurgling noise as one of 'em regurgitates yet another load of food to chew on... :o)

The camel is known as the "ship of the desert" - and it does sway quite notably from side to side when it's walking, as it always moves both legs on the same side together - this, along with the wide cushioned feet, prevents the animal from sinking into the desert sand.

Beautiful animals - and so well adapted to their harsh desert environment! (Oh, and they're photogenic too!;o)


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Favorite Thing: This tip doesn't fit well at all with the VT-template, the crazy Egyptian traffic is definitely not among my "favourite things"... :o)

You'll notice that most road signs in the Sharm area are in both Arabic and English - but when you travel a bit outside the most touristy areas they're often in Arabic only. (Might give you some difficulties trying to figure out where you are, if your map is in English;o)

You'll need an international driver's license to rent a car in Egypt - but I don't think I'd ever want to drive here, the traffic is *pretty* wild... ;o) Egypt has one of the world's highest rates of traffic fatalities per mile driven, and after seeing the way many Egyptians drive it's not very hard to understand why... (We wanted to go from Sharm to Dahab - and were told that it would take roughly 45 minutes to drive the 100 km - and the roads certainly aren't *that* good... ;o)

Buses, minibuses, taxis and organised tours are in my opinion a much better choice than renting a car and hitting the road - the traffic here is just *way* too insane for an unexperienced tourist.


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Favorite Thing: The traffic in Egypt is pretty crazy, and for most tourists it's really not advisable to rent a car - so organised day trips are often a good, cheap option when you want to see a bit of southern Sinai.

There's a huge number of travel agents and tour operators in Sharm, most offering seemingly identical day trips by car and boat. There are many different trips available, the most popular seem to be the ones to Ras Mohamed (by car or boat), the Coloured Canyon, St. Catherine's monastery, Mount Sinai - as well as the quad trips in the desert, the camel rides and the bedouin dinners... We went to Ras Mohamed by car and by boat, and to St. Catherine's monastery.

The cost of the trips varies quite a bit, and it is always a good idea to check with several tour operators before booking a trip.

Checklist: questions you might want to ask the tour operator:
* Approx. how many tourists will be on the trip - many of the tours seemed to be *very* crowded.
* What kind of car / minibus do you use, and how long does it take to reach the destination - some of the minibuses were pretty uncomfortable & crowded
* For how long will we actually be snorkelling / riding the camel / whatever the trip is about;o) - this seemed to vary *a lot* with the different companies
* Is snorkelling gear / entrance fees included - some tour operators will quote you a price that includes everything, others won't.

Be aware that schedules & such usually seem to change a bit after you've booked your trip - take what your tour operator tells you, and assume that things will be ...perhaps 25% worse than what he says... ;o) (Snorkelling for a shorter time, the Russian guide you were promised might not be all that fluent in the language after all, more people in the bus etc...;o)

We are usually not the "group tour"-kind of tourists, but the trips we went on were quite ok and well worth it.


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Favorite Thing: ...for my digital camera charger, mobile phone charger, camcorder charger, laptop and all the other gadgets I can't live without?;o)

Egypt uses 220V and the two-pronged plug (type C) used in most European countries, many Asian countries etc. (Two round pins - see the picture). Appliances using the EU standard of 230V will also work on 220V.

A plug adapter and a voltage converter must be used with most North American appliances, which are 110V.


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