Arriving: the order things happen
You clear passport control, collect your bag and walk out into the arrivals hall. Before passport control there are visa and bank desks. Most visitors to South Sinai can be given a free Sinai entry stamp valid for the region, while a full Egyptian entry visa, needed if you intend to travel to Cairo or Luxor, starts from US$30. Check what applies to your nationality on the official portal before you fly, and tell us your plans so we can flag it.
Have some cash for the first day. Card acceptance is good in hotels and reasonable in shops, less so with taxi drivers and in the Old Market. There are ATMs in the terminal and in every hotel zone.
If you have booked a transfer with us, your driver is inside the arrivals hall with a name sign. We track your flight, so a delay is not a problem, and there is sixty minutes of free waiting time built in. If you have not booked anything, see the next section before you agree to anything.
Fixed prices, and what the taxis do instead
Taxis in Sharm are not metered in any meaningful sense. The fare is whatever you and the driver agree, and the opening number at the airport late at night bears little relation to the number a resident would pay. You can haggle it down, often by half, but doing that with luggage and tired children is nobody's idea of a holiday.
Our published rates are per vehicle and per leg, agreed before you travel. The airport run or a ride within Sharm is €15 in a sedan for up to three people, €30 in a minivan for four to seven, and €40 in a minibus for seven to thirteen. A child seat is €5, and there is a night surcharge of around €5 to €10 after 22:00.
Two more things worth knowing. Do not count on ride-hailing apps here, because coverage in Egypt is centred on Cairo and Alexandria rather than Sharm. And if you do take a street taxi, agree the price out loud before the doors close, in euros or Egyptian pounds, and have the exact amount ready.
- Airport to hotel, or a ride within Sharm: €15 sedan · €30 minivan · €40 minibus
- Sharm to Dahab: €60 sedan, €120 minibus (minivan on request)
- Sharm to Nuweiba: €80 sedan or minivan, €95 minibus · Sharm to Taba: €80 sedan, €140 minibus
- Sharm to Cairo and back the same day with the driver waiting: €260 sedan · €310 minivan · €370 minibus
- Child seat €5 · night surcharge after 22:00 €5–10 · 60 minutes free wait on flight delays · name sign at arrivals
Which hotel zone are you actually in?
Sharm is not one town but a string of bays spread over roughly thirty kilometres of coast, and guests regularly book a hotel assuming they can stroll into town. Nabq, at the northern end near the airport, is a chain of large all-inclusive resorts with very little within walking distance. Sharks Bay is closer in, quieter, and sits above some of the best house reefs. Naama Bay is the old centre of resort Sharm, with the promenade, restaurants and nightlife, and is the one zone where you genuinely do not need a car in the evening.
Hadaba, on the headland above Ras Umm El Sid, has superb reef access and a calmer feel, and it is a short drive rather than a walk from anywhere lively. The Old Market, at the far southern end, is the real town: spice stalls, the Al-Sahaba Mosque, fish restaurants and the least resort-like evening in Sharm.
The practical consequence is that a city ride from Nabq to the Old Market is a thirty to forty minute drive, not a stroll. If you are staying in Nabq and you want to eat in town, budget €15 each way and book the return in advance, or you will be haggling in the dark outside a restaurant.
Getting to your excursions
Almost everything we run includes hotel pickup and drop-off, so you do not need to organise transport for excursion days. Pickup times vary by zone, and that is the reason: if you are in Nabq you will be collected earlier than a guest in Hadaba for the same boat.
The exception worth remembering is the glass-bottom boat tour at €15, where hotel transfer is not included and you meet us at the marina. For the price of the trip itself, a sedan from most hotel zones solves it, and we can book both together on WhatsApp.
If you are on a flight-based day trip such as Cairo by plane, the airport transfers at both ends are already part of the package, so there is nothing extra to arrange.
Going up the coast to Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba
Dahab is about an hour and a half north and feels like a different country: low-rise, barefoot, built around dive shops rather than resorts. A private sedan is €60 one way, which makes a self-organised overnight stay perfectly affordable for two people. If you would rather have the day arranged, the Canyon Salama, Dahab and snorkelling safari at €50 per person includes transfers, a canyon trek, a camel walk, lunch, snorkelling and free time in the bazaar, and the full-day Super Safari to the White Canyon, Abu Galum and the Blue Hole at €85 goes considerably further.
Further north, Nuweiba is €80 and Taba, on the Israeli border, is €80 in a sedan. All of these roads pass through Sinai checkpoints, so carry your passport rather than a photocopy on any journey out of Sharm, including the organised excursions. The drive to Dahab in particular is spectacular, with the Gulf of Aqaba on one side and the mountains on the other.
There are also public minibuses and intercity buses along this coast. They are cheap and used by everybody, but the timetables are loose and nobody will help you with luggage, so for a group of four the private car usually wins on both comfort and price per head.
Getting around locally without a car
Within Naama Bay you can walk everywhere, and that is the only zone where that is true. Elsewhere, hotels will call a taxi for you, which is generally safer than flagging one down because the hotel knows the driver, though the price is still worth agreeing before you set off.
Hiring a car is possible but we would not bother for a beach holiday. Parking at the popular spots is awkward, local driving habits take adjustment, and the checkpoints mean paperwork every time you leave town. For the cost of a week's hire you can book a driver for every evening you actually want to go out.
The simplest approach, and the one most of our guests settle on, is to book transfers for the airport at both ends and treat individual rides as they come. If you want to see the town rather than organise it, the Sharm El Sheikh city tour at €15 covers the mosque, the Coptic cathedral, a panoramic stop and the Old Market in three and a half hours with transport included, and it is wheelchair and stroller accessible throughout.
Leaving: what to allow for
Give yourself three hours before an international departure. The terminal has multiple security checks, the queues at peak times are long, and the hand-luggage liquid limits are enforced strictly, which catches people who have bought litre bottles of duty-free perfume or sunscreen at the hotel shop.
Book your departure transfer the day before rather than the morning of, and tell us your flight number so we can set the pickup time against the actual departure. If your flight is at five in the morning, remember the night surcharge applies after 22:00.
One last piece of planning advice: do not book an excursion on your departure day, and ideally not on the day before either. Our pillar guide to things to do in Sharm explains how we space a week out, and the best time to visit covers why a free final day is the best insurance against windy weather.
Good to know
How much is a taxi from Sharm El Sheikh airport to my hotel?
Will the driver wait if my flight is delayed?
Do I need a visa to get from the airport to my hotel?
Is there a child seat available?
What is the best way to get to Dahab?
Useful official sources
- Egypt Visa Portal — Ministry of Foreign Affairs — official entry visa and Sinai stamp information
- Egypt travel advice — UK Foreign Office — road travel, checkpoints and local laws
- Egyptian Tourism Authority — official destination information for South Sinai
