Sea and Much More

A week on the Red Sea with the family: my wife and three children. Destination Dahab, 100 km north of Sharm in the Gulf of Aqaba. We book online with Last Minute: the goal being not to spend too much! Once we arrive at Sharm airport, a minibus is waiting for us and takes us to our destination in a couple of hours. The village (Oasis Dahab Hotel) is lovely and hardly crowded, to the disappointment of my teenage children: the guests are essentially Egyptian families; the advantages are having the beach all to ourselves, while the downsides are an impossible local cuisine (garlic, onion, peppers in everything!!). But the sea makes up for it all: we are only snorkellers, yet it is still a spectacle. I'd single out the excursions to the Blue Hole and to a spot south of Dahab that's a paradise for divers.

The reef in front of the village is beautiful anyway, and about a hundred metres from the village there's a beach with a very easy, sandy entrance into the sea. In the evening a free shuttle provided by the hotel takes you to the little town of Dahab in 10 minutes; the seafront is very lively, with bars, restaurants and small shops. Worth mentioning too is the night excursion to Mount Sinai, which I did with my son Nicola: the others preferred to rest. Departure from Dahab at midnight: arrival at St Catherine's Monastery at 2.00, then on foot to the summit, reached in two hours in the dark with electric torches: the river of people climbing the path, each with their own light, seen from above is quite a sight. Once at the top you refuel with something hot (it's rather cold at that hour and at about 2,400 m of altitude) and wait for dawn.

After the obligatory photos of the sunrise, you start the descent before it gets too hot, then wait for St Catherine's Monastery to open for the visit, also obligatory, before setting off on the return journey through the mountain desert of the area (very beautiful) and a restorative nap after a sleepless night. On arrival, straight into a lovely swim among the colourful fish. We return on Saturday after 7 days of incredible sea and an incredible diet too, but in the negative sense! Once home we'll have time and chance to make up for it.