Dahab and the Blue Hole

A Low Rise Bedouin Coast Town That Became The Red Sea'S Backpacker And Freediving Capital, Where The Reef Is A Few Metres From The Restaurant Cushions And The Blue Hole A Sinkhole In The Reef With A Notorious Reputation Sits Ten Kilometres Up The Road · Dahab, South Sinai

Dahab is what Sharm el-Sheikh would have been if it had stayed small: a low-rise Bedouin town on the Gulf of Aqaba where the restaurants are cushions on the sand, the reef starts a few metres off the promenade, and the mountains of Sinai come down almost to the water behind the town. It has been the Red Sea's backpacker and freediving capital for thirty years and it still feels like one, with dive centres rather than resorts and a pace that makes people stay for weeks instead of days. Ten kilometres north is the Blue Hole, a sinkhole in the reef about a hundred metres deep with an arch at around fifty-five metres leading out to open water - a world-famous site, an easy and lovely shallow snorkel, and the most dangerous recreational dive in Egypt, with a memorial plaque wall to prove it. Both things are true at once, and the difference between them is entirely a matter of what you attempt.

On the Gulf of Aqaba about 85 km north of Sharm el-Sheikh, with the Blue Hole 10 km up the coast road, Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt

A town rather than a site: dive centres open early and run two dives before lunch, the promenade restaurants serve from breakfast into the night, and the Blue Hole and the Canyon are open coastline reached by pickup or taxi in about twenty minutes. There is no gate and no opening time at either, though a small Bedouin fee is usually collected at the Blue Hole access road. Shore diving is the norm here, so the day is set by your own plan rather than a boat schedule. Wind picks up through the afternoon and the north-facing sites get choppy. Ramadan shifts the town's evening later. Sharm el-Sheikh airport is ninety minutes south by road, and buses run north to Nuweiba for the Jordan ferry and west towards Saint Catherine's.

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