Underrated seaside town just 50 miles from popular resort loved by Brits

This beautiful seaside town is just an hour’s drive away from one of the country’s most popular tourist resorts.

Budget airlines including TUI and EasyJet run direct flights to Sharm El Sheikh, which is just 50 miles away from the beautiful seaside town, a significant centre for tourism in Egypt.

Dahab – or “gold” – in Egyptian Arabic – is a small Egyptian town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Its name is said to reference the fact that gold washed down from the desert mountains may have accumulated on the alluvial flood plain where the town was built. But, it could also simply a reference to the colour of the town’s beautiful sand.

The town is divided into three parts; Masbat, including the Bedouin village of Asalah to the north, Mashraba, the more touristic area with a great many hotels to the south and Medina, which includes the Laguna area to the southwest, which is most famous for its shallow-water kite and windsurfing.

Most people who visited Dahab in the past were backpackers with a desire to dive and snorkel in the Red Sea. However, thanks to its now good connection with the airport town and the development of hotels in the Medina area, it’s more accessible than ever.

The town is also hailed for its windsurfing. Reliable winds provide fantastic flat-water conditions inside its sand spit, with stronger winds for those more experienced further out to sea. In recent years, two kitesurfing schools have opened on the beach. Scuba diving, free-diving and snorkelling are also popular activities, thanks to the many reefs adjacent to the waterfront hotels.

The “world’s most dangerous diving site” is also found nearby – the Blue Hole and Canyon – which is an internationally acclaimed dive spot.

However, as appears to be the case in many tourist diving locations, the increased destruction of coral by reckless divers is causing concern and sparking the need to regulate dive centres more thoroughly. Currently, divers are being taken out in large, uncontrollable groups.

For those not so taken by sea-related activities, one can parktake in rock climbing, camel or horse riding, mountain biking, jeep and quad bike trips.

The town has many tourist attractions, including a nature reserve and the remains of a historical fortress built by the Crusaders found south of Taba.

The main neighbourhood of the city starts with Al Farnar Street and Masabt Bay. Here, a great number of shops, cafes, diving clubs and hotels can be found. The town also has a great many goats wandering the streets, so be sure to shut any gates behind you.

Like the rest of Egypt, Dahab has a hot desert climate, with temperatures often in the mid-to high-30s during the summer months, with it remaining hot at night. Rain is rare, even during the winter months, when it remains warm and mild.

Every five or six years, larger than average seasonal storms cause extensive flooding, which actually divides the town in two. The bay is stirred up, with the sand turning it golden yellow. Today, locals know when such a storm is approaching thanks to the clouds over the mountains.

Reviews of Dahab on Tripadvisor attest to the tourist resort’s success. One described snorkelling at the Blue Hole as “truly a memorable experience”, while another described the town’s coral reefs as “the most beautiful dive sites ever in the whole world”. Concerns were raised as to the extent of coral destruction, with one reviewer who visited in the 90s saying “something must be done quickly”.