Field note · Egypt · South Sinai

Dahab

Dahab is reached by road from Sharm el-Sheikh in about two hours or from Cairo in six to ten, on Go Bus and East Delta coaches or shared minivans that stop at military checkpoints where everyone shows a passport; inside town people walk, cycle or take a short taxi hop, and the trips that matter – the Blue Hole, Ras Abu Galum, Mount Sinai – run on Bedouin pickups, boats, camels and one nightly minibus.

Researched: 21 September 2026
Reviewed: not yet
Ways of moving: 8, 29 sources
Not confirmed: 7
Fares seen: 2021–2026

The place

Dahab is a small town on the southeast coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, approximately 80 km (50 mi) northeast of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. The place page has what to see, do and eat, and every way there from the planner.

How transport works here

8 ways of moving, each with its rule

We confirmed seven ways of moving to, from or around Dahab: four by road, two hired or on demand and one by water, from 29 sources. One entry is not a service at all but a rule that decides whether travel happens: a permit, a closure, a border, a season or an authority's say-so. One of them runs only on demand or when the seats are full, so there is no timetable to show; the rule is written where the timetable would be. Two need a phone call or a message before you turn up.

The fares were seen in 2021 to 2026; a fare from an older year is a floor, not a price. We rate 4 of the 8 high confidence, our own judgement of the sources. The entry was checked on 21 September 2026, and ends with seven things we could not confirm.

4 ways

By road

minibus

Cairo to Dahab: Go Bus coach or shared minivan

Cairo (Turgoman/Cairo Gateway, Abbasseya, Nasr City, Tahrir, Heliopolis, 6th of October, El Tagamou El Khames) to Dahab

Go Bus coaches arrive at a dirt lot on Peace Road in the centre of Dahab, almost opposite the East Delta ticket office, at roughly 28.4954, 34.5150 – not at the municipal bus station. For departures, buy ahead online at go-bus.com, especially for night services. Shared minivans run the same route faster because fewer passengers means quicker checkpoint processing; some include hotel pick-up. Keep your passport in your hand luggage: the first checkpoint before the Suez Canal tunnel is a full stop, off the bus, bag check.

When: Regular departures throughout the day and night; Bookaway lists earliest 00:00 and latest 23:59 across five operators
Takes: Advertised 6 hours, realistically 8–10 and sometimes 12; minivans 6–8 hours
Fare 2026: Bus from US$8 to US$33 depending on operator and class; shared minivan from about US$7, with Cairo Bus averaging US$13

SeasonYear-round. Summer road travel is brutal, with July and August over 40°C; spring and autumn are the comfortable months. Bookinggo-bus.com, Bookaway, or at the operator's Cairo terminal; book night buses in advance. Run byGo Bus, East Delta, Cairo Bus, YallaGo and other minivan operators.

minibus

Sharm el-Sheikh to Dahab coach

Sharm el-Sheikh bus station to Dahab bus station

The Dahab end is the East Delta bus station in the medina, 3–4 km west of the tourist strip at about 28.4932, 34.5138 on Peace Road. Arriving there you will be surrounded by taxi drivers; the walk into town is 200 m downhill to El Nasr Road, north 200 m, then first right onto Peace Road. Tickets and current running information come from the East Delta office in the town centre on Peace Road, +20 69 3641 808, though the buses themselves do not call there. East Delta's printed timetable is aspirational – services have been cut and northbound runs from Taba and Nuweiba may or may not operate on a given day.

When: Several a day each way. East Delta's nominal Sharm–Dahab pattern has been 06:00 to 20:30; Bookaway shows departures between 04:10 and 22:49.
Takes: Just under 2 hours on the timetable; Bookaway records anything from 2 to 6 hours
Fare 2026: US$6–11 by bus; the 62 km run is the cheapest way between the two towns

SeasonYear-round. BookingAt the station, the East Delta town office, or online via Go Bus and Bookaway. No reservation is possible for some East Delta departures. Run byEast Delta Travel Co and Go Bus.

share taxi

Sharm el-Sheikh airport transfer, shared or private

Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport to Dahab, about 90 km

There is no bus from the terminal. Sharm's bus station is 17 km away and the airport taxi cartel will not let buses pick up nearby, so the practical choice is a pre-arranged car. Dive centres and camps sell per-head transfers that get cheaper the more of you there are – Desert Divers quotes a return, sharing basis. Arrange it before you land, through your accommodation: they negotiate roughly half what you would get haggling at the kerb. If you land in the evening, a pre-booked car is the only sensible plan.

When: On demand, timed to your flight
Takes: About 1 to 1h 40m depending on checkpoints
Fare 2026: Desert Divers 2026 per person return: 1 person €90, 2 sharing €50, 3–5 sharing €35, 6–10 sharing €25. Whole-cab one way is fairly priced around LE600 (about €40) and the airport cartel asks LE1,000. Bookaway private transfers from US$43.

SeasonYear-round; busiest in the European winter charter season. BookingThrough your Dahab accommodation or dive centre before arrival; info@desert-divers.com, +20 100 404 0181. Run byDesert Divers and other Dahab dive centres; Relax Tours Egypt, YallaGo, Egypt Holiday Makers via Bookaway.

minibus

Overnight minibus to St Catherine and Mount Sinai

Dahab to the foot of Mount Sinai and St Catherine's Monastery, 133 km

One minibus a day does the night run, mostly filled by tour operators, but you can phone the driver directly and pay less – Alaa, +20 100 622 652, speaks good English. It leaves Dahab around 22:00 and is back in town between 08:00 and 10:00, timed so you climb in the dark and reach the summit for sunrise. There is no longer a regular minibus between Nuweiba and St Catherine, so Dahab is the practical jumping-off point. Any guesthouse in Sinai can also put you on a tour.

When: Daily, one departure about 22:00
Takes: About 2 hours each way plus checkpoint time; a 10–12 hour round trip
Fare 2025: About US$5 one way when booked direct with the driver (June 2025). A taxi from Dahab was quoted at LE200 back in 2011, which is long out of date.

SeasonYear-round. Nights on the mountain are cold even when Dahab is warm. BookingPhone the driver, or through any Dahab camp or dive centre. Run byIndependent minibus driver; tour operators resell the same seats.

2 ways

Hired, booked and on demand

offroad 4x4

Blue Hole, and on to Ras Abu Galum by boat or camel

Dahab centre north to the Blue Hole (about 11 km), then a further stretch up the coast to Ras Abu Galum

Bedouin drivers with pickups and taxis work the Blue Hole run from the north end of the corniche and outside the dive centres; the last stretch of track is rough, which is why an off-road bike or a pickup beats a saloon car. Ras Abu Galum has no road at all: from the Blue Hole you take a local boat, ride a camel, or walk along the shore. Dive centres sell the camel route as a packaged safari including meals, water and Bedouin beach-hut accommodation, and non-divers can join. There are no facilities at the Blue Hole beyond cafes and toilets – no dive shack, bring your own kit.

When: Pickups and taxis run all day from early morning; camel safaris are arranged the day before
Takes: 20–30 minutes by road to the Blue Hole; Ras Abu Galum is another hour or so by boat or camel
Fare 2026: Camel diving safari to Ras Abu Galum or Gabr El Bint, 1 day and 2 dives, €145 with full equipment or €135 with your own; non-divers €75 for the day trip and €135 overnight (Desert Divers, 2026). A taxi to the Blue Hole has been reported at around LE70 and the local boat onward at LE50, but those figures predate the pound's fall and should be treated as a shape, not a price.

SeasonYear-round. The Blue Hole is sheltered and dives there on windy days when other sites are too rough; Dahab has about 270 windy days a year. BookingNone for the road hop – agree the fare before you get in. Camel and boat safaris through a dive centre. Run byBedouin owner-drivers and boatmen; Desert Divers, Big Blue Dahab and other PADI centres for the packaged trips.

private hire

Getting around town: taxis and hired bicycles

Masbat and Mashraba along the corniche, out to the Laguna, the bus station and Assalah

Dahab is three pieces: Masbat Bay in the middle with the corniche and everything you need, the Laguna to the south with the resort hotels and all the municipal services including the bus station and hospital, and Assalah, the residential Bedouin quarter. On foot the promenade covers most of it. Taxis wait along Peace Road and outside hotels; agree the price first, because the opening ask is usually double. Bicycles are genuinely useful here – traffic is light and drivers are used to bikes – and reach the Blue Hole and Three Pools. There is a rental shop next to Peace Bridge at about 28.4967, 34.5165, and most camps and hotels keep a few. Mountain bikes are the default and the better choice for the rough last section to the Blue Hole.

When: Taxis all day and into the night; bike shops open shop hours
Takes: Minutes within the centre; 30–45 minutes by bike to the Blue Hole
Fare 2021: Taxi within the centre should not exceed LE30, and LE40–60 further out including the bus station (August 2021); LE35 was a fair whole-cab fare from the bus station into town. Bicycle hire quoted at LE100 a day.Seen in 2021: a floor, not a price.

SeasonYear-round. Dahab gets wind on roughly 270 days a year, which is why it is a windsurfing town and why an exposed cycle can be hard work; July and August regularly pass 40°C. BookingNone; hail a taxi or walk into a bike shop. Run byIndependent drivers and bicycle rental shops.

One way

By water

boat

Nuweiba to Aqaba ferry, the link to Jordan

Dahab north to Nuweiba Port by bus or taxi, then the ferry across the Gulf of Aqaba

Nuweiba Port is at about 28.972, 34.666, at the south end of town; the street running to the pier has the bus station and banks. Getting there from Dahab is one Go Bus or East Delta service a day, or a taxi. The northbound bus has run from Sharm at 08:30, calling at Dahab around 10:30 – phone about 09:00 to find out whether it is going today, then either head to the station or negotiate a car. The Go Bus stop in Nuweiba is in front of the Mariama cafe, in the street facing the ferry harbour entrance. AB Maritime requires you at the port three hours before departure.

When: Daily. Nuweiba departure has been 13:00, arriving Aqaba 16:00; Aqaba to Nuweiba 23:00, often arriving between 02:00 and 04:00. Bookaway shows departures 09:00 to 12:00 across two operators.
Takes: 2h 30m to 3 hours on the water, plus an extra hour for document checks and vehicle unloading
Fare 2024: US$80 one way and US$100 return as a foot passenger (June 2024). Bookaway lists US$110–221, averaging US$124–221 with AB Maritime. A Jordanian visa on arrival at Aqaba is US$100 for most nationalities.

SeasonYear-round; heavily congested during Hajj, quieter for Umrah. Bookingabmaritime.com.jo, its sales centres and agents, or Bookaway; booking on the day of departure attracts extra fees. Run byAB Maritime (Arab Bridge Maritime), also sailing Taba Heights to Aqaba for foot passengers 3 or 4 days a week.

One way

Rules, permits and closures

border crossing

Sinai visit pass, the Taba border, and the road checkpoints

Applies to every road out of Dahab, and to the Taba crossing into Israel

Most nationalities get a free Sinai visit pass on arrival, good for up to 14 or 15 days, but it only covers the coastal strip from Sharm el-Sheikh through Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba Heights to Taba. Going inland – St Catherine and Mount Sinai included – or on to Cairo needs a proper Egyptian visa. Get it online at least seven days ahead, or on arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh airport or Nuweiba sea port. There are no visa facilities at the Taba land border, so entering there without one leaves you stuck in the coastal strip; the checkpoints will turn you back. Carry your passport on every bus: checkpoints on both the Sharm and Cairo roads check documents and, at the Suez tunnel, bags. An identity card instead of a passport buys you a short police interview.

When: Checkpoints on every journey; expect two or more between Cairo and the Sinai coast
Takes: Minutes to the better part of an hour per checkpoint, which is why bus times run long
Fare 2026: Sinai visit pass free. Egyptian visa on arrival about US$25, €25 or £25. Leaving Egypt at Taba into Israel costs LE400 to exit Egypt plus ₪102 to exit Israel on the return.

SeasonYear-round. BookingApply for an e-visa at least seven days ahead if you plan to leave the coastal strip. Run byEgyptian immigration and the Egyptian armed forces.

Not confirmed

What we could not find out

7 things the researcher looked for and did not find, in their own words, with where to ask instead. None of this goes into the planner; it stays here until someone confirms it.

01
Tuk-tuks: the brief expected in-town tuk-tuks with a flat fare in Dahab. No source was found describing tuk-tuks in Dahab at all. Wikivoyage documents blue-and-white tuk-tuks in Sharm el-Sheikh as fixed-route minibuses at no more than LE3, which may be what the brief was recalling. Worth checking on the ground or asking in a Dahab camp before publishing a Dahab tuk-tuk fare.
02
Egyptian pound figures below are the biggest weakness in this file. LE30–60 taxi fares are dated August 2021, the Blue Hole LE70 taxi and LE50 boat come from an itinerary article updated August 2026 but describing an older trip, and the pound has devalued heavily since. Fares quoted in euros and dollars by operators are far more reliable.
03
East Delta Travel Co has no working public website that could be reached; its timetable is only documented second-hand. Its Dahab town office number, +20 69 3641 808, is the practical source of truth for whether a given northbound service is running.
04
Bedouin pickup trucks to the Blue Hole are widely described but no operator or source publishes a per-seat or per-vehicle fare. Agree it with the driver.
05
The Sharm el-Sheikh to Hurghada ferry, which would shorten Dahab to Luxor considerably, was suspended in 2018 and no source confirms it running again. AB Maritime lists Aqaba–Nuweiba and Aqaba–Taba only.
06
AB Maritime publishes its fares and sailing times behind a booking widget that did not render, so the 13:00 Nuweiba departure and the US$80 fare come from Wikivoyage (June 2024) rather than the operator. Check abmaritime.com.jo or its app before travelling.
07
The Taba exit and entry charges (LE400 and ₪102) come from Wikivoyage and carry no date; border fees change often.

In the planner

What the planner can route today

The options above live on the place page, not in the departure board: a boat that comes when you phone has no time to show. What the board can do for Dahab is this.

Y: Scheduled flightsSharm El Sheikh (SSH), 59 km
Y: Trains and coachesTransitous carries 2 timetable feeds for this country, 0 with real-time
N: Ferriesno crossing within 25 km
Y: Driving and taxiOpenStreetMap roads; cab fare from the country band
N: Bike and scooter shareno share feed known
N: Cruisesno open itinerary source anywhere

Y routable now · F found, not yet implemented · N no source known.