Things to do in Dahab

Dahab is an hour up the coast from Sharm el-Sheikh and deliberately unlike it. It grew out of a Bedouin village and a backpacker camp. The seafront is still low, cheap and walkable.

The diving

Most of it is from the shore, which is unusual and why divers come. You walk in with your kit. No boat, no schedule.

• The Blue Hole. A submarine sinkhole just north of town, famous, deep, and treated seriously by every good operator.
• The Canyon and the Islands. The other two named shore sites, both entered from the road.
• Courses. Open-water certification and try-dives are the town's steady trade, run over one to four days.

Wind and desert

The lagoon at the north end is shallow and reliably windy. That makes it a teaching ground for windsurfing and kitesurfing. Beginners stand up in waist-deep water.

Behind the town the Sinai mountains start at once. Camel and jeep trips go into the wadis with Bedouin guides. St Catherine and Mount Sinai are within reach for a night climb.

The town

Everything happens on one strip of seafront. Restaurants put cushions on the sand and serve all day. Prices are a fraction of the resort towns.

Assalah is the old Bedouin quarter behind the front. The market there sells to residents as much as visitors. Nothing in town is more than a walk away.

Practical

• Season. Year-round diving. Winter evenings are genuinely cold, and the wind blows hardest in spring.
• The Blue Hole. Recreational depth limits exist for a reason here. Dive it within your certification, with a guide.
• Shoes. Shore entries are over rock and urchins. Bring hard-soled boots.
• Pace. The town has no resort infrastructure and does not want any. Come for the water, not the pool.