Dahabدهب

Dahab's greatest attraction may simply be its atmosphere. The seafront promenade in the Assalah district is lined with easy-going cafés, dive shops, and small hotels, where local Mzeina Bedouin, long-term expats, and travellers from around the world share mint tea and watch the sun set over the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the gulf. It is affordable, safe, and refreshingly authentic — a place so welcoming that many visitors arrive for a few days and end up staying for months or years. For those seeking the real, unhurried Red Sea, there is nowhere quite like it.

Dahab is one of the world's great diving and snorkelling destinations. Its most famous site is the Blue Hole, a spectacular underwater sinkhole around 120 metres deep, ringed by coral and beloved by divers, freedivers, and even snorkellers exploring its shallow edges. Because most sites are shore dives, the diving here is wonderfully easy and accessible — from the beginner-friendly Lighthouse reef in the heart of town to the Eel Garden and the Canyon, where turtles, moray eels, and swaying garden eels are a common sight. Dahab is also a celebrated freediving capital, drawing apnea enthusiasts from across the globe.

With over 280 windy days a year and a sheltered, flat-water lagoon, Dahab is widely considered the best place in Egypt to windsurf and kitesurf, with schools all along the bay for beginners and experts alike. North of town lies the Ras Abu Galum Nature Reserve and the idyllic Blue Lagoon — a shallow, turquoise bay reachable by boat, camel, or a scenic coastal hike, and one of the loveliest snorkelling and relaxing spots in the whole region, often capped with a fresh lunch cooked by a Bedouin host.

Dahab is also a gateway to the wonders of the Sinai interior. Bedouin guides lead jeep and camel safaris through palm-fringed oases such as Ain Khudra and into narrow slot canyons streaked in white, red, and ochre. And from Dahab it is an easy day trip to one of the most sacred sites on Earth: Mount Sinai, where tradition holds that Moses received the Ten Commandments, and the ancient St Catherine's Monastery at its foot, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world.

• What it is: a laid-back, bohemian Red Sea town on the Gulf of Aqaba.
• Arabic name: دهب (Dahab), meaning "gold."
• Where: South Sinai, about an hour north of Sharm El-Sheikh.
• Signature site: the Blue Hole, a ~120-metre underwater sinkhole.
• Diving: easy shore dives — Lighthouse, Eel Garden, the Canyon — and a world freediving hub.
• Watersports: among the best windsurfing and kitesurfing in Egypt, plus the Blue Lagoon.
• Adventures: Bedouin desert safaris, and day trips to Mount Sinai and St Catherine's Monastery.
• Vibe: affordable, safe, authentic, and famously relaxed.

Sources include various Egyptian and Red Sea travel guides. Travel details are approximate.