The timings, in order
Departures are on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday nights only, so your holiday dates decide whether this is even possible. Pickup from your hotel is around 20:00, with the exact time depending on where you are staying. The drive to the St Catherine area takes about three hours in a minibus, with a rest stop of around fifteen minutes.
At the foot of the mountain you meet your local Bedouin mountain guide and the climb begins after midnight. We provide a torch. You reach the summit before dawn, wait for the sunrise, then descend, visit the monastery, and drive back to Sharm, arriving at your hotel around 14:00 the following day.
- Departs Sunday, Wednesday and Friday · 20:00 hotel pickup
- About 3 hours by minibus each way, with one rest stop
- Climb starts after midnight, torch provided, Bedouin guide included
- Summit 2,285 m · sunrise · descent · St Catherine's Monastery
- Back at your hotel around 14:00 · €50 per adult
The climb: the camel, and then the 700 steps
The ascent splits into two parts. For roughly the first two-thirds there is a camel path, and you can ride a camel instead of walking it. That is an extra, paid on site to the Bedouin owners, and it is not included in the €50. Many guests take it; some regret taking it, because a camel in the dark on a mountain path is not a relaxing way to travel.
The final third cannot be ridden. It is about 700 rock-cut steps, uneven, in the dark, and everybody walks them. This is the part people underestimate. If you have knee problems, if stairs in your hotel are an effort, or if you have no head for heights in poor light, this is the honest point at which to choose a different trip.
The Bedouin guides set a slow, manageable pace and nobody is rushed. There are small tea huts along the way where you can stop, buy sweet tea and rent a blanket. The money goes to local families, and we encourage guests to use them rather than carrying every comfort up themselves.
It is genuinely cold at the top
The summit is at 2,285 metres and you arrive in the hour before dawn, which is the coldest hour of the night. People who have spent the week in 35-degree heat in Sharm do not believe this and turn up in a t-shirt. We have watched them shiver through the sunrise in a rented blanket.
Dress in layers you can carry: a warm fleece or jacket, long trousers, something for your head, and proper closed walking shoes rather than trainers with no grip. A small rucksack with water and the breakfast box most hotels will give you free the night before is all you need. Blankets can be rented at the top, which helps, but they are not a substitute for a jacket.
St Catherine's Monastery, after the mountain
You come down the mountain in daylight, which is its own reward, because you finally see the landscape you climbed through in the dark. Then you visit St Catherine's Monastery, a Greek Orthodox foundation built around 550 AD, the oldest continuously working Christian monastery in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Chapel of the Burning Bush and Moses' Well are inside the walls, as is one of the great collections of icons and manuscripts anywhere.
Entrance and an Italian-speaking guide are included in the price. Dress modestly, which means covered shoulders and knees for everyone, and be aware that the monastery is a working religious community with its own opening hours. Occasionally they close to visitors at short notice for liturgical reasons, which is nobody's fault and not something we can override.
Who should not book this
The minimum age is 8, because of the night climb and the effort involved. Even at 8 we would hesitate unless the child is a confident walker. If you are travelling with younger children, do not book this one; our guide to Sharm El Sheikh with kids sets out what works instead.
We would also steer away anyone with heart or breathing conditions, anyone who has had recent knee or hip surgery, and anyone whose honest answer to 'can you climb 700 steps slowly in the dark' is no. There is no shame in it and there is no refund for having tried and turned back.
If you want the Sinai mountains without the night climb, take the Canyon Salama and Dahab snorkelling safari at €50, which treks a narrow canyon in daylight, or the full-day Super Safari to the White Canyon, Abu Galum and the Blue Hole at €85. Both give you real desert and real mountains, and both let you sleep at night.
Planning it into your week
Treat this as two days, not one. You lose the night and you will be good for nothing but a sunbed on the afternoon you return. Do not book a boat trip or a long inland day on either side of it, and never book it for the night before you fly home.
Guests who do Mount Sinai and one of our big cultural days in the same week should leave at least one clear day between them. If you are weighing it against Petra at €230, which also departs around midnight, pick one. Doing both inside a week is a mistake we have watched people make, and our pillar guide to Sharm explains how we space the big days out.
Why we still recommend it
For all of the above, this is the excursion our guests write to us about months later. The mountain is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, you climb it in silence with torchlight strung out above and below you, and the sun comes up over the Sinai peaks while a few hundred strangers sit wrapped in blankets saying nothing at all.
If you are reasonably fit, book it early in your stay, bring the warm layer, take the steps slowly and let the Bedouin guides set the pace. We have never had a fit guest regret it.
Good to know
How fit do I need to be?
Is the camel ride included?
Can children come?
What should I bring?
What happens if I cannot make it to the top?
Useful official sources
- Saint Catherine Area — UNESCO World Heritage — official listing for Mount Sinai and the monastery
- Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities — official site information for Egyptian monuments
- Egypt travel advice — UK Foreign Office — current guidance for South Sinai travel
