The Sinai Peninsula and Red Sea Coast: Places to Explore

The waters of Ain Sukhna (the name means "hot spring") originate at Jabal Ataka, a mountain on the Red Sea Coast. The turquoise water is clear and warm year-round. There is little to do here in the way... Read more

Like other cities on the Red Sea, this commercial town has been undergoing a transformation, slowly metamorphosing into a holiday resort. Like other cities on the Red Sea, the commercial port town sits... Read more

Seaside Bur Said is a charming and lively town with a decidedly European feel—and fading glamour from the era of the big ocean liners. Much of the architecture is French colonial in style, giving... Read more

The drive from Sharm to Dahab snakes through the mountains of south Sinai offering you a peek at the precipitous peaks of the interior. Dahab itself is another world, still half stuck in the 1960s, with... Read more

El Gouna is the dream of an Egyptian businessman who has utterly transformed a secluded bay and its surrounding resources. In 10 years, this virgin seacoast has been transformed into an established resort... Read more

Until the completion of the Suez Canal, el-Quseir was a crucial port, principally because of the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and Middle East trade. With the canal in place, the port of el-Quseir was no... Read more

Hurghada is an old fishing town that became a popular base for diving in the 1960s. As a result of the 1967 war between Egypt and Israel, Hurghada was closed to tourism and did not reopen until 1976. By... Read more

Halfway between Bur Said and Suez, this quaint city on Lake Timsah was founded by and named after Khedive Ismail for those working on the canal. The director of the Suez Canal Company, Ferdinand de Lesseps... Read more

The far southern enclave of the Egyptian Red Sea Coast, Marsa Alam, has flourished since the opening of an international airport in 2001. The Port Ghalib project plans a living community of nine Arabian... Read more

Egypt's oldest monasteries stand at the forefront of Christian monastic history. Isolated in the mountains near the Red Sea, they have spectacular settings and views of the coast. Getting to the monasteries... Read more

Nuweiba serves as both a crucial Gulf of Aqaba port and a resort with a couple of hotel areas and a quaint town center. Its name means "bubbling springs," and Nuweiba has long been an important oasis for... Read more

In the mid-1980s, Sharm El-Sheikh, at the Sinai's southern tip, had one hotel, two dive centers, and a snack bar. Today this bustling little town has more than 160 hotels, with respective dive centers... Read more

Taba borders Israel and is a sister city of the Israeli resort town of Eilat. It has been important since biblical times as a stopover for travelers entering or leaving Egypt.... Read more